April 22, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



387 



The trustees of the estate of tlie late Jolm 

 W. Sterling, to whom the residue of the 

 estate was left in the interest of Tale Uni- 

 versity, have established two additional Ster- 

 ling professorships at Yale; one of these is to 

 be assigned for the present to mathematics, 

 one to physiological chemistry. Professor 

 Ernest W. Brown, of the department of 

 mathematics, has been assigned to one of 

 these professorships, and Professor Lafayette 

 B. Mendel, professor of physiological chem- 

 istry has been assigned to the other. Four 

 Sterling professorships have now been estab- 

 lished, the other two being the new professor- 

 ship of education recently filled by the ap- 

 pointment of Frank E. Spaulding, formerly 

 superintendent of public schools in Cleveland, 

 Ohio, and the new professorship of chemistry 

 recently filled by the appointment of Pro- 

 fessor John Johnston, formerly secretary of 

 the National Research Council. Each of these 

 professorships has an endowment of about 

 $225,000. After meeting the salary of the 

 professor, " the university shall have the 

 right to use any surplus income of these 

 funds in advancing the work of the said 

 professorship through the appointment of 

 assistants, aid in publication, opportunity for 

 study or investigation in iN'ew Haven or else- 

 where, or in other ways." 



Professor Paul H. M.-P. Brinton, head of 

 the department of chemistry at the Univer- 

 sity of Arizona, has accepted appointment as 

 professor of analytical chemistry in the school 

 of chemistry at the University of Minnesota. 



Professor Hale Houston, head of the de- 

 partment of civil engineering at Clemson Col- 

 lege, S. C, has been elected associate professor 

 of engineering at Washington and Lee Uni- 

 versity, the appointment being efEective on 

 September 1. 



At Stanford University associate professors 

 have been promoted to be professors as fol- 

 lows: William A. Manning in applied mathe- 

 matics; Leroy Abrams in botany; Jesse B. 

 Sears in education; Thomas Addis in medi- 

 cine. Assistant professors to be associate 



professors: Edwin W. Schultz and William L. 

 Holman in bacteriology; William M. Proctor 

 in education; Charles 'N. Cross in. mechanical 

 engineering; Frank W. Weymouth in phys- 

 iology; Jolm. E. Coover in psychology. As- 

 sistant clinical professor to be assistant pro- 

 fessor: Henry G. Mehrtens, in medicine. In- 

 structors to be assistant professors: Elizabeth 

 L. Buckingham, and Edith E. Mirrielees in 

 English; Edward B. Towne in surgery; James 

 P. Baumberger in physiology; Gordon P. 

 Ferris in entomology (zoology). 



Professor Braus, of Heidelberg, has been 

 proposed as the successor to Professor O. 

 Hertwig, of Berlin, who has sent in his 

 resignation. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



GENETICS OF THE " CHINCHILLA " RABBIT 



A considerable interest exists in the raising 

 of rabbits for fur, stimulated no doubt by the 

 extensive use and high price of fur garments 

 in recent years, and by the fact that wild fur- 

 bearing animals are on the decrease. Rabbit 

 fur has long been used as a substitute for 

 other furs and sold misbranded but is coming 

 to be used under its own name and on its own 

 merits. One impetus to such use comes from 

 the development chiefly in France of breeds 

 whose fur is attractive in its natural colors. 

 Among such breeds are the chocolate or " Ha- 

 vana," the French silver of " champagne 

 d'argent," and the " Chinchilla." This last is 

 an especially pleasing color variety of a pearl 

 gray color. The coat is similar to that of a 

 wild gray rabbit except that (1) it contains no 

 yellow whatever, the yellow ticking of gray 

 rabbit fur being replaced with white, and (2) 

 the lilack portions of the gray fur are toned 

 down to a slaty blue. Both these diiferences 

 appear to follow from a single genetic change, 

 a mutation in the color factor less extreme 

 than that which has occurred in the white or 

 albino variety, yet affecting the same genetic 

 factor or " gene." 



If a ehinchilla raJbbit is crossed with any of 

 the common color varieties other than white, 

 the chinchilla character behaves as a reces- 



