October 15, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



361 



ary offered is $2,000 a year, which will be in- 

 creased to $2,240 a year after one month of 

 satisfactory service. 



The twenty-fourth Congress of Alienists 

 and Neurologists of French-speaking Countries 

 was held recently at Strasbourg under the 

 presidency of Dr. Dupre, clinical professor of 

 menital diseases at the Paris medical faculty. 



We learn from Nature that Mr. J. J. Joicey 

 has acquired for the Hill Museum, Witley, the 

 collection of Lefpidoptera formed by Mr. H. J. 

 Elwes, as well as the large collection of Heli- 

 conius formed by the late H. Eiffarth. The 

 museum has lately also received large collec- 

 tions of Lepidoptera from Central Africa, ob- 

 tained by Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Bams, who have 

 recently returned from a twelve months' trip 

 undertaken on behalf of Mr. Joicey. 



The U. S. Public Health Service has estab- 

 lished at Pensacola a research station for the 

 study of bubonic plague. A number of 

 trained experts in addition to those already on 

 duty in Pensacola will be detailed to that city. 

 Additional research equipment will be provided 

 to facilitate their investigations. 



Eeseaech work on the manufacture of oxy- 

 gen from the engineer's point of view b^an 

 at the Harvard Engineering School early in 

 the summer under the direction of Dr. Harvey 

 N. Davis, professor of mechanical engineering. 

 The National Research Corporation, founded 

 in 1912 through the efforts of Dr. Frederick G. 

 Cottrell, now director of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Mines, has given Harvard $5,000 for the work. 

 Professor Davis and his associates have under- 

 taken to determine the fundamental data con- 

 cerning air and its properties, believing that 

 present methods of making oxygen are waste- 

 ful, and that the industrial use of oxygen in 

 blast furnaces may result from the elimination 

 of this waste. In return for its backing. Pro- 

 fessor Davis has agreed to turn over to the 

 Research Corporation any patents that may 

 develop from his work. 



Seceetaey Meredith has announced a reor- 

 ganization of the publication and information 

 work of the Department of Agriculture, and 



the appointment of a director of information 

 to have general supervision of all these activi- 

 ties, both in Washington and in the field. He 

 has named E. B. Eeid, formerly chief of the 

 Division of Publications, to the new position. 

 Mr. Eeid's relation to the work will be similar 

 to that formerly held by Assistant Secretary 

 Ousley, who had charge of such activities dur- 

 ing the war period. Harlan Smith, formerly 

 in charge of the Office of Information, has been 

 appointed chief of the Division of Publica- 

 tions. The work now being performed by the 

 Office of Information hereafter will be known 

 as the Press Service, which will be in charge 

 of Dixon Merritt, and will continue under the 

 immediate direction of the chief of the Di- 

 vision of Publications. The director of in- 

 formation will bring about closer coordination 

 of the information and publication work of the 

 various bureaus with that of the Division of 

 Publications and will be charged with formu- 

 lating and executing plans for developing and 

 improving the information service of the de- 

 partment as a whole to the public. 



Nature reports the forthcoming establish- 

 ment in the University of Paris of an Insti- 

 tute of Psychology. The institute will be ad- 

 ministered by a council composed of Pro- 

 fessors Delacroix, Dumas, Janet, Pieron, and 

 Rabaud, and the deans of the faculty of let- 

 ters and sciences. It will afford instruction, 

 both theoretical and practical, in general, 

 physiological, experimental, pathological and 

 comparative psychology. To it wiU be at- 

 tached the recently established Institute of 

 Pedagogy, forming its pedagogical section. 

 Other sections of the institute, dealing with 

 the general applications of psychology and 

 with vocational selection, will be formed 

 shortly. The institute will grant diplomas to 

 successful students in each of these sections 

 and to those who, after attending other courses 

 of instruction, have passed the examinations 

 therein. It will also be open for research 

 work in connection with the tiniversity 

 doctorate or higher diplomas. Previously 

 Professor Janet with his colleague. Professor 

 Dumas, worked in psychopathology quite in- 



