Deoembek 17, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



579 



" Spitzbergen as the key to the relation be- 

 tween northern Europe and North America." 



The department of physics of the Carnegie 

 Institute of Technology recently held an 

 evening session of its physics colloquium, at 

 which more than a himdred guests, largely 

 engineers and scientific men of the district, 

 were present. The speakers of the occasion 

 were Dr. Heber D. Curtis, the newly ap- 

 pointed director of the Allegheny Observatory, 

 and Dr. Keivin Burns, astronomer. Dr. Cur- 

 tis spoke on " Future work on the Einstein 

 theory." Dr. Bum's subject was " The stars 

 and physics." 



Dr. H. Deslandees, president of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, gave, at the meeting on 

 October 4, an eloge on Sir Norman Lockyer, 

 who was a correspondent of the academy in 

 the section of astronomy. 



The death is announced at the age of 

 seventy-six years of Dr. Theodore Flournoy, 

 formerly professor of physiology and psy- 

 chology at the University of Geneva. 



The second annual meeting of the Min- 

 eralogical Society of America will take place 

 in Chicago, on December 29, 1920. By a recent 

 vote of the Geological Society of America, the 

 Mineralogical Society of America was closely 

 affiliated with it. 



At the Chicago meetings papers on genetical 

 subjects will be presented at the Wednesday 

 morning session of the Botanical Society of 

 America, and at the Wednesday afternoon 

 session of the American Society of Zoologists. 

 These two sessions, together with the meet- 

 ings of the American Society of Naturalists 

 on Thursday and Friday, provide a nearly 

 continuous program for those interested pri- 

 marily in genetics and evolution. The annual 

 dinner of the naturalists will be held Thurs- 

 day evening, at the Hotel Sherman. At the 

 close of the dinner Dr. Jacques Loeb will de- 

 liver the presidential address, " On Osmosis." 

 A smoker for all biologists will be held Tues- 

 day evening in the social rooms of Ida Noyes 

 Hall, following the address of Professor W. 

 If. Wheeler, retiring vice-president of the 



American Association and chairman of Sec- 

 tion F. 



A SPECIAL attraction to members of the asso- 

 ciation, and to others in attendance at Chicago 

 will be an exceptionally interesting exhibit 

 and working demonstration showing the appa- 

 ratus and scientific principles upon which the 

 wireless telephone is based. This collection of 

 working models has been designed to repro- 

 duce the more fundamental discoveries in un- 

 applied science which have paved the way for 

 the wireless telephone and without which this 

 great practical achievement could not have 

 been realized. The exhibit comprises many 

 exceedingly ingenious and spectacular auto- 

 matically demonstrating models. It is espe- 

 cially valuable as a concrete illustration of the 

 manner in which abstract scientific study has 

 always had to precede practical achievements. 

 The history of the wireless telephone as here 

 set forth emphasizes a great principle of human 

 progress, that the abstract scientist and reclu- 

 sive philosopher of one generation prepares the 

 way for the technician of the next; the scien- 

 tific laboratory of one generation becomes the 

 workshop of the next ; the " useless theory " of 

 one is the practise of the next. The exhibit 

 has been prepared by the American Telephone 

 and Telegraph Company and by the Western 

 Electric Company, under the auspices of the 

 National Research Council, and it has been 

 made possible to have it at Chicago for the 

 association meeting through the efforts of Dr. 

 Vernon Kellogg, permanent secretary of the 

 National Research Council, and of Dr. H. E. 

 Howe, chairman of research extension of the 

 council. The exhibit may be inspected at the 

 Chicago Art Institute (Michigan Avenue near 

 the Van Buren Street Station of the Illinois 

 Central Railway). 



The Austin Section of the Southwestern 

 Geological Society meets at the University of 

 Texas, Austin, on the first Friday night of 

 each month. The program for the present ses- 

 sion is as follows: 



October 1, 1920: F. B. Plummer, "Oil structures 

 in the great basil of Utah." 



