Mat 20, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



479 



lined the scientific career of Dr. Waloott and 

 announced that the committee had selected 

 him as the first recipient of the Mary Clark 

 Thompson Gold Medal fior " eminence in ge- 

 oilogy and paleontology." Dr. Walcott in re- 

 sponding told how his attention had been at- 

 tracted as a boy to the trilobites in the rocks 

 near the old swimming hole and how he had 

 pursued the study of these fossils with pe- 

 culiar interest to the present day, for his 

 paper read before the academy in its session 

 that afternoon dealt with the structure of these 

 trilobites. 



I In awarding the Agassiz medal President 

 .Waloott told of the desire expressed by Sir 

 John Murray, on his visit to this country, t 

 leave a fund to commemorate Alexander 

 Agassiz, which took the form of the Agassiz 

 Gold Medal for " original contributions to 

 the science of oceanography." The medal for 

 1918 was awarded to His Serene Highness, 

 Albert L, Prince of Monaco, the guest of the 

 evening. 



! Dr. W. H. Dall of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, described the scientific researches of the 

 Prince of Monaco in the investigation of 

 ocean currents and ocean life, including voy- 

 ages in his especially equipped yachts from 

 the Azores to the Areti-c. The Prince founded 

 at Monaco the Museum of Oceanography; 

 later at Paris the Institute of Oceanography, 

 and last December opened at Paris the Insti- 

 tute for Human Paleontology. 

 : The Prince in reply said he had never ex- 

 pected that the work he had done with such 

 pleasure would lead to the great honor he had 

 now received. This honor, he said, should be 

 shared with the companions who have worked 

 ior thirty-five years with him on board ship 

 and in the laboratories. The Prince expressed 

 the high regard which he has always held for 

 the American people and for the political con- 

 ditions which gave an opportunity for the re- 

 ward of honest labor not to be matched else- 

 where in the world. 



. President Walcott next announced the 

 award of the Henry Draper medal to Dr. P. 

 Zeeman of Amsterdam, Holland. Dr. C. G. 

 Abbot read a letter from Dr. William W. 



OampbeU, of the Lick Observatory, explaining 

 the importance of the work of Zeemian in 

 demonstrating the doubling and tripling of 

 the lines of the spectrum in a magnetic field 

 twenty-five years ago. Dr. Abbot pointed out 

 that by the study of the Zeeman effect Dr. 

 George E. Hale, of the Mount Wilson Observa- 

 tory, had been enabled to map the magnetic 

 field of the sun spots and to show that the 

 sun itself is a magnet. This led to the dis- 

 coveries in spectroscopy announced by Dr. 

 Hale at the present session of the Academy. 

 1 In the absence of Professor Zeeman the 

 medal was received in his behalf by the Sec- 

 retary of the Legation of the IsTetherlands. 



Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York, gave 

 a sketch of the life and work of Dr. Eobert 

 Eidgway to whom was awarded the Daniel 

 Giraud Elliot Gold Medail for his studies in 

 American Ornithology. Dr. Ridgway was 

 born in Cromwell, Illinois, and at the age of 

 fourteen discovered his first new bird. This 

 brought him to the attention of Professor 

 Baird. At seventeen he became a member of 

 the Clarence Eang Survey of the west. Eidg- 

 way's " Birds of Northern, and Middle Amer- 

 ica" is the most exhaustive and complete 

 treatise on birds of any region in the world. 

 A letter was read from Dr. Eidgway in which 

 he paid high tribute to Daniel Giraud Elliot 

 as his inspiration and example. 

 [ The AJexander Agassiz gold medal for 1920 

 was awarded to Eear Admiral C. G. Sigsbee, 

 U.S.N., retired, who was assigned to hydro- 

 graphic work in 1874 and carried out on the 

 Blake a remarkable series of explorations in 

 the GuH of Mexico on new methods of deep 

 sea sounding and temperature reading. Ad- 

 miral Sigsbee not being present, the medal 

 was received in his behalf by Eear Admiral 

 Taylor, who read a letter from Admiral Sigs- 

 bee telling of the time when Professor Agassiz 

 was on board the Blake. 



, The gold medal for eminence in the applica- 

 tion of science to the public welfare was 

 awarded to Dr. C. W. Stiles. Dr. Welch 

 sketched the life of Dr. Stiles and described 

 his achievements in the field of medical zool- 



