August 27, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



195 



the Conference that there should be created an 

 organization "to further the public welfare wher- 

 ever technical knowledge and engineering experi- 

 ence are involved and to consider and act upon 

 matters of common concern in the engineering and 

 allied technical professions" and that this or- 

 ganization should consist of societies or affiliations, 

 and not of individual members. 



On the basis of these fundamentals, the at- 

 tached constitution and by-laws were unanimously 

 adopted by the conference. These contain full in- 

 formation concerning The Federated American 

 Engineering Societies, the American Engineering 

 Council, its executive board, and of the various 

 officers and committees. The basis of representa- 

 tion therein stated for the American Engineering 

 Council is one representative for from 100 to 1,000 

 members and an additional representative for each 

 1,000 members or major fraction thereof. 



At the gathering in Washington, which was the 

 greatest event in the history of the engineering and 

 allied technical organizations in this country, steps 

 were taken which created "The Federated Ameri- 

 can Engineering Societies," which will have a far 

 reaching influence on the future of these profes- 

 sions. The fact that this action was taken with- 

 out a dissenting vote indicates that the psycholog- 

 ical moment had arrived and that there was a 

 unanimous desire on the part of the representatives 

 of these professions for the organization formed. 



The joint conference committee, the ad interim 

 committee would ask each organization invited to 

 take favorable action in the matter of membership 

 in the organization at the earliest possible moment 

 and to advise the Committee promptly of the names 

 of the delegates who will attend the first meeting 

 of ;the American Engineering Council in November 

 of this year. 



The jodnt conference committee is confident that 

 vrith the universally acknowledged need for such 

 an organization, there will be a prompt affirmative 

 response to this invitation. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Sir Norman Lockyer, director of Solar 

 Physics Observatory, London, and editor of 

 Nature from its establiskment over fifty years 

 ago, died on August 16 at the age of eighty- 

 four years. 



On the occasion of the meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association at Cardiff this week the Uni- 

 versity of Wales proposed to confer the honor- 



ary degree of D.Sc. on Dr. H. F. Osborn, 

 president of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, or, if he is unable to attend, Professor 

 C. A. Kofoid, University of California; Pro- 

 fessor G. Gilson, University of Louvain, or, if 

 he can not attend. Dr. C. H. Ostenfeld, Univer- 

 sity of Copenhagen; Don Gullermo Joaquin de 

 Osma, Madrid; and Professor Yves-Guyot, 

 Paris. 



Dr. Irving Fisher, professor of political 

 economy at Tale University, has been elected 

 president of the Eugenics Research Associa- 

 tion. 



Professor Frederic S. Lee, of Columbia 

 University, and Professor Graham Lusk, of 

 Cornell Medical College, were recently elected' 

 members of the board of the Institut Marey 

 of Paris. 



Dr. G. C. Simpson, F.R.S., meteorologist to 

 the government of India, has been api)ointed 

 director of the British Meteorological Office as 

 successor to Sir ISTapier Shaw, who retires on 

 reaching the age-limit. 



Dr. Hendrik J. van der Bijl, who has for 

 the past seven years been in charge of re- 

 searches in thermionics and in vacuum tube 

 operation at the Research Laboratory of the 

 Western Electric Company, Inc., sailed on Au- 

 gust 4 for Pretoria, South Africa, where he has 

 been appointed scientific and technical adviser 

 to the Department of Mines and Industries of 

 the Union of South Africa. 



N. H. BowEN has resigned his professorship 

 in Queens University, Kingston, Canada, and 

 has rejoined the staff of the Geophysical Lab- 

 oratory of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 

 ington. 



The board of scientific directors of the 

 Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research an- 

 nounces the appointment of Edric Brooks 

 Smith, B.S., as business manager, and Fred- 

 erick Stanley Howe, A.B., as assistant business 

 manager. 



H. W. Vaughan, professor of animal hus- 

 bandry in the University of Minnesota, has re- 

 signed to become one of the editors of the 

 Duroc Digest. 



