August 6, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



127 



of Europe and Asia. In 1906 Amundsen fol- 

 lowed the northwest passage from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific around Worth America. 



The committee which plans to erect an Osier 

 Institute of General Pathology and Preventive 

 Medicine in Oxford to commemorate the dis- 

 tinguished services of Sir William Osier in 

 Canada, in the United States and in England, 

 is ahout to issue an appeal for funds. The 

 general committee contains representatives of 

 the universities of Aherdeen, Birmingham, 

 Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, 

 Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oxford, 

 Sheffield and Wales, and also of the Royal Col- 

 leges of Surgeons and Physicians, of the Fara- 

 day Society, of the British Association, and 

 of the British Academy. 



The death is announced of Professor Alex- 

 ander Supan, chief of the Geographical Insti- 

 tute of Breslau, in his seventy-third year. 



The death is announced of William Schall- 

 mayer, one of the best-known German students 

 of eugenics. 



Arthur J. Ellis, geologist on the TJ. S. 

 Geological Survey, died July 22, following an 

 operation for appendicitis. A correspondent 

 writes : " Born in Kansas January 6, 1885, he 

 spent his boyhood in Illinois and in 1908 

 married Orrel Everett, who, with their 

 daughter, survives him. He received the de- 

 grees of B.A. in 1908 and M.A. in 1911 from 

 the University of Illinois. After an experi- 

 ence of several seasons on the Illinois Geo- 

 logical Survey, he was appointed to the U. S. 

 Geological Survey in 1911 and was assigned 

 to work on the Ground Water Division, in 

 which he rose to the position of assistant 

 chief. He is the author of reports on the 

 ground waters of Connecticut, the geology 

 and ground waters of San Diego county, 

 California, and several unpublished manu- 

 scripts, a number of which are reports on 

 water supplies for military purposes made 

 during the war. His most widely read publi- 

 cation is a 'History of the Divining Rod.' 

 The survey has lost a valuable member and 

 the profession a young man whose pains- 

 taking work pointed to a useful future. His 



friends appreciate that they have known a 

 rare spirit, which rose above the difficulties 

 and sacrifices of a life devoted to science." 



At a recent Cambridge meeting of the 

 British Medical Association it was decided to 

 increase the annual subscription from two to 

 three guineas. The reason for the increase was 

 not only the great increase in the cost of pro- 

 ducing the Journal in all directions, but also 

 the need for adequate fimds to carry on the 

 forward policy of the association. 



The hospital installed by Brazilians in 

 Vaugirard, France, at a cost of $2,000,000 has 

 been offered by the government of Brazil to 

 France and has been accepted by the Paris 

 Faculty of Medicine. 



It is announced that the Swedish parlia- 

 ment has appropriated 50,000 crowns for the 

 yearly maintenance of the Institute for the 

 Study of Heredity at Upsala, of which Pro- 

 fessor H. Lindborg is in charge. 



A research association for the cutlery in- 

 dustry has been approved by the British De- 

 partment of Scientific and Industrial Re- 

 search. The secretary of the committee en- 

 gaged in the establishment of the association 

 is Mr. W. H. Bolton, Sheffield. 



The Bureau of Mines has completed ar- 

 rangements for a cooperative research on the 

 carbonization of lignite. $200,000 is to be 

 supplied by private parties for the erection of 

 a plant at New Salem, North Dakota. The 

 bureau will be in charge of the technical and 

 experimental side of the investigation. 



We learn from Nature that the Marshall 

 herbarimn, comprising 23,000 sheets of Brit- 

 ish plants contained in dustproof oak cases, 

 has been bequeathed to the university by the 

 late Rev. E. S. Marshall. 



By the will of the late Dr. Rudolph Messel, 

 the Royal Institution of London receives 

 £5,000. 



The new library building of the Nantucket 

 Maria Mitchell Association, opposite the Me- 

 morial House and Observatory, Nantucket, 

 Mass., was dedicated on July 15. This is a 

 scientific library free to all interested in as- 

 tronomy or any of the natural sciences. It is 



