June 10, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



533 



livered by Dr. Treat B. Johnson, professor of 

 organic chemistry at Tale University, before 

 the Philadelphia section of the American 

 Chemical Society on the evening of May 14. 



Dr. John C. Merriam, president of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington, delivered a 

 lecture at the State University of Iowa in 

 April, entitled " Recent researches on the an- 

 tiquity of man in California." He also ad- 

 dressed the Geology Club on " The Fauna of 

 Eancho La Brea." 



The committee organized in 1911 by thr 

 late Professor MacGregor to promote a me- 

 morial to Professor Tait in the form of a sec- 

 ond chair of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, 

 reports that the Tait chair will shortly be es- 

 tablished. 



Charles Pickering Bowditch, known for 

 his research in the field of archeology, died 

 on June 1, in his seventy-ninth year. 



The death is announced of Abbott Thayer, 

 the distinguished artist, known also for his 

 studies of protective coloration. 



Dr. E. J. Mills, P.E.S., emeritus profes- 

 sor of technical chemistry in the Royal Tech- 

 nical College, Glasgow, died on April 21, at 

 seventy-nine years of age. 



The American Society of Mechanical En- 

 gineers extended an invitation to members 

 of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, to attend the May meeting of 

 the Society at Chicago. The program of this 

 meeting gave special emphasis to the problems 

 of Chicago as a mid-western rail-water gate- 

 way. Two excursions were planned: one to 

 McCook Field, for those interested in aero- 

 nautics, and the other to the Rock Island 

 Arsenal. 



The Engineering Foimdation assumes re- 

 sponsibility for sending the following note to 

 the daily press: "Dr. Charles Benson Davis, 

 of New York City, claims in a pai>er which he 

 has prepared and submitted to Engineering 

 Foundation,^ that he can make and has made 

 some of the chemical elements, such as gold, 

 silver, platinum and copper, by transmutation 

 of a common element. He has shown samples 

 of the metals he claims to have made to mem- 



bers of the Engineering Foundation in New 

 York City, and has requested that body to in- 

 vestigate his claims and his methods. Dr. 

 Davis is a reputable chemist, a member of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry, a Fellow of the 

 British Chemical Society, and an Honorary 

 Member of the Societe Academique d' Histoire 

 Internationale. He is the author of several 

 pajjers which have been published in chemical 

 journals." 



Dr. Edward A. Spitzka, formerly professor 

 of anatomy at Jefferson Medical Collie, Phil- 

 adelphia, has donated to the U. S. National 

 Museum his collection of brains of distin- 



persons. 



We learn from the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association that at the annual meet- 

 ing of the New York Association for Medical 

 Education held at the Academy of Medicine 

 on March 1, the by-laws were amended and 

 the board of directors was reconstituted to 

 apportion the control of the association's 

 affairs to the five medical schools of greater 

 New York; namely, Columbia University, 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons; Cornell 

 University Medical College; the Long Island 

 College Hospital; the New York Post-Grad- 

 uate Medical School and Hospital, and the 

 University and Bellevue Hospital Medical 

 College. This means that for the first time 

 in the history of New York City the five med- 

 ical schools will cooperate to develop New 

 York City as a medical teaching center. The 

 mayor, the commissioner of health, and the 

 conmiissioner of public welfare are ex-officio 

 members of the board of directors. Unnec- 

 essary duplication of courses of instruction by 

 the several medical schools will be done away 

 with. New courses and a higher type of grad- 

 uate work will be instituted. The new officers 

 of the association are: president. Dr. Haven 

 Emerson, formerly health commissioner of 

 New York City, and at present in charge of 

 the War Risk Bureau; secretary. Dr. Otto V. 

 Huffman, at present associate professor of 

 medicine at the New York Post-Graduate 

 Medical School and Hospital, formerly secre- 

 tary of the state board of medical examiners, 

 and secretary-treasurer of the Federation of 



