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SCIENCE 



[N. S. YoL. LII. No. 1342 



the secretary of state for temporary duty for 

 the purpose of assisting in preparing a report 

 on the proposed western boundary of Armenia. 

 The report is intended to aid President Wil- 

 son in considering questions relating to the 

 boundaries of Armenia. Major Martin was 

 formerly associate professor of physiography 

 and geography in the University of "Wiscon- 

 sin. He was chief of the Geographical Branch 

 of Military Intelligence, attached to the Amer- 

 ican Commission to Negotiate Peace, from 

 November, 1918, to December, 1919. One of 

 his details while at the Peace Conference was 

 that of geographer to General Harbard's Mili- 

 tary Mission to Armenia 



"W. T. Thom, Jr., of the F. S. Geological 

 Survey, who has been doing relief work in 

 Vienna, Austria, for the past six months, has 

 returned to Washington. 

 ' Dr. M. X. Sullivan, biochemist of the U. S. 

 Public Health Service, gave a course of six- 

 teen lectures on " Public Health " at the Con- 

 verse College Summer School and Red Cross 

 Institute for social workers, Spartanburg, 

 South Carolina. 



A LECTURE entitled "News from the stars," 

 under the auspices of the University of Cali- 

 fornia Extension Division by Dr. R. H. 

 Aitken, astronomer at the Lick Observatory, 

 will be delivered before the Fresno County 

 Medical Society at the University Club, open 

 to the public, to begin the program of lectures 

 for the fall by the university extension divis- 

 ion of the University of California. 



Joseph Paxon Iddings, formerly geologist 

 of the United States Geological Survey and 

 professor of petrology in the University of 

 Chicago, distinguished for his work on igneous 

 rocks, died on September 8, at the age of 

 sixty-three years. 



Samuel Mills Tracy, agronomist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 died at Laurel, Miss., on September 5, aged 

 seventy-three years. Dr. Tracy was born at 

 Hartford, Vermont, and graduated from 

 Michigan State Agricultural College in 1868. 

 From 1877 to 1887 he was professor of botany 

 and agriculture at the University of Mis- 



souri, and from 1887 to 1897 was director of 

 the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion. Since that time he has been attached to 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 He was a fellow of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, in the work 

 of which he took an active part, and a mem- 

 ber of the New Orleans Academy of Science, 

 and the Botanical Society of America. 

 Among his works are the " Flora of Mis- 

 souri," the '' Flora of Southern United 

 States " and numerous bulletins issued by the 

 Mississippi Experiment Station and the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



Ellis L. Michael, zoologist of the Seripps 

 Institution for Biological Research of the 

 University of California from the foundation 

 of the institution fifteen years ago, died at La 

 Jolla, California on August 30. A corre- 

 spondent writes : " Mr. Michael did notable 

 work on the Chsetognatha, and in the broader 

 field of quantitative and statistical treatment 

 of problems in marine planktology. So few 

 are the workers in this domain of biology that 

 his loss is specially heavy." Mr. Michael had 

 just passed his thirty-ninth birthday. 



Edward Kinch died on August 6 at the age 

 of seventy-one years. Professor Kinch was 

 from 1881 to 1915 professor of chemistry at 

 the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 



The death is annouinced at Cassel, Ger- 

 many, of Dr. M. Alsberg, the anthropologist, 

 at the age of eighty years. 



About forty members of the British Society 

 of Glass Technology are visiting American 

 glass plants. A joint meeting of the glass di- 

 vision of the American Ceramic Society and 

 the British Society of Glass Technology was 

 held in Pittsburgh on September 1, 2 and 3. 



A federation of the biological clubs affili- 

 ated with the Paris Biological Society was 

 recently formed in the laboratory of Professor 

 Brachet in the anatomical laboratory of the 

 University of Paris. The clubs of Brussels, 

 Lille, Lyons, Nancy, Strasbourg, Bucharest 

 and Copenhagen were represented. Professor 

 Bard, of Strasbourg, was elected president 

 and the next meeting is scheduled at Stras- 

 bourg in the autumn of 1921. 



