12 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIT. No. 1331 



ruary 13: President: Professor A. Fowler. 

 Vice-presidents : Sir F. "W. Dyson, Professor A. 

 S. Eddington, Major P. A. MacMahon and 

 Professor H. F. ISTewall. Treasurer: Mr. E. B. 

 Knobel. Secretaries: Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin 

 and the Reverend T. E. R. Phillips. Foreign 

 Secretary: Professor H. H. Turner. Council: 

 Professor A. E. Oonrady, Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer, 

 Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, Mr. J. Jackson, Dr. 

 Harold Jeffreys, Mr. H. S. Jones, Professor 

 r. A. Lindemann, Mr. E. W. Maunder, Dr. W. 

 H. Maw, Professor J. W. Nicholson, Mr. J. H. 

 Reynolds and Lieutenant-Colonel F. J. M. 

 Stratton. 



The members of the Sigma Xi at North- 

 western University celebrated on April 20 the 

 one htmdredth anniversary of the discovery 

 of the first connection between electric cur- 

 rents and magnetism, made by H. C. Oersted 

 at Copenhagen, a discovery which forms one 

 of the two foundation stones upon which rest 

 our modem electrical industries and wire- 

 less communication. President Lynn Harold 

 Hough made some introductory remarks, and 

 Mr. Walter Clyde Jones gave an address on 

 " The Significance of Oersted's Work," which 

 was followed by a conversazione in the lab- 

 oratory. 



A MOTION picture illustrating the College 

 Experimental Station Bulletin entitled "Life 

 History and Control of the Pocket Gopher of 

 the Willamette Valley," by H. M. Wight, was 

 a feature of the annual open meeting of the 

 Biological Club at the Oregon Agricultural 

 College on April 22. One reel was shovm 

 depicting the destructive habits of the gopher 

 on farm land and methods for control. This 

 picture was prepared by H. M. Wight, author 

 of the bulletin, assisted by D. K. Mereen, who 

 conducted all the photographic work, and Mr. 

 J. M. Clifford, of the Experimental Station, 

 who supplied the titles. The program of the 

 evening included an illustrated lecture on 

 " Natural Vegetation as an Indicator of Land 

 Capabilities " by Professor W. E. Lawrence. 

 The regular meetings of the Biological Club 

 are held on the third Tuesday of the month. 



Announcement is made by the American 

 Museum of Natural History of a gift by 

 Frederick F. Brewster, of New Haven, Con- 

 necticut, of 3,200 specimens of land-birds 

 collected in the West Indies and South Amer- 

 ica by Rollo H. Beck, under the direction of 

 Dr. Leonard C. Sanford. A large part of 

 this material, according to Dr. Frank M. 

 Chapman, curator of the department of birds, 

 is new to the museum's collections, and much 

 of it is contained in no other museum. The 

 collection includes 1,500 birds from the West 

 Indies chiefly the high mountains of Santo 

 Domingo, from which little-known area there 

 is included a series of the recently discovered 

 Crossbill and Patagonia Sparrow, knovm 

 heretofore only from a few specimens in the 

 National Museum in Washington; a large 

 series of two distinct new species, known 

 only in the Brewster collection; and the 

 unique type of a new genus of Goatsuckers. 

 There are also 500 birds from Bahia, and 

 somewhat over a thousand specimens from 

 the extreme southern part of South America, 

 including a representative series from Tierra 

 del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, from 

 which localities the museum was wholly with- 

 out material. 



It is noted in Nature that a meeting has 

 been held in Brussels of the scientific com- 

 mittee of the Solvay International Institute of 

 Physics, and it was resolved, upon the recom- 

 mendation of the executive committee, to re- 

 sume the work of the institute, which had been 

 interrupted by the war. New physical councils 

 will be summoned from time to time, similar 

 to those formed in 1911 and 1913. The presi- 

 dent referred to the debt which the scientific 

 committee owed to Dr. R. B. Goldschmidt, of 

 Brussels, for the services rendered by him to 

 the institute during the early years of its 

 foundation. The members of the committee 

 were Professor H. A. Lorentz (president), 

 Haarlem; Mme. Curie, Paris; Sir W. H. 

 Bragg, London; M. Brillouin, Paris; Pro- 

 fessor H. KamerlLngh Onnes, Leyden; Pro- 

 fesor Knudsen, Copenhagen; Professor A. 



