January 30, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



111 



the Society for Experimental Pathology, Dr. 

 William H. Park, of N"ew York City; the 

 American Pharmacologists' Society, Professor 

 Arthur S. Loevenhart, of the University of 

 Wisconsin. 



The presentation of the Parkin Medal to 

 Professor-emeritus Charles F. Chandler, of 

 Columbia "University, by Professor Marston 

 T. Bogert, of Columbia University, took place 

 at the meeting of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry, at the Chemists' Club, ISTew York 

 City, on January 16. 



At a meeting held on December 1, Pro- 

 fessor Thomas B. Osborne, of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, was elected 

 an associate member of the Societe Eoyale 

 des Sciences Medicales et I^aturelles de 

 Bruxelles. 



The prize of $100 offered in 1914 for the 

 best paper on the availability of Pearson's 

 formulse for psychophysics, to be judged by 

 an international committee consisting of Pro- 

 fessors W. Brown, E. B. Titehener and E. M. 

 Urban, has been awarded to Dr. Godfrey H. 

 Thomson, of Armstrong College, Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, for an essay entitled " On the 

 Application of Pearson's Methods of Curve- 

 Fitting to the Problems of Psychophysics.'' 



At its last meeting the Eumford Committee 

 of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences made the following appropriations: to 

 Professor Frederick A. Saunders, of the 

 Jefferson Physical Laboratory, one hundred 

 and fifty dollars in addition to a former ap- 

 propriation in aid of his research on Spectral 

 Lines; to Professor David L. Webster, of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three 

 hundred and fifty dollars in addition to a 

 previous appropriation in aid of his research 

 on X-ray spectra. 



Me. Elmer D. Merrill, who has been in 

 charge of 'botanical work for the Philippine 

 government since 1902, has been appointed 

 director of the Bureau of Science. In addi- 

 tion to his duties as botanist. Bureau of Sci- 

 ence, Mr. Merrill was chief of the department 

 of botany. University of the Philippines, from 

 1912 to 1919, first as associate professor, later 



as professor of botany. In March, 1919, he re- 

 signed from the university in order to devote 

 his whole time to the botanical interests of the 

 Bureau of Science, was made acting director 

 of the bureau in June, and director in Decem- 

 ber, 1919. 



Dean Charles Fuller Baker, of the college 

 of agriculture, University of the Philippines, 

 takes a year's leave during 1920, because of 

 failing health. He plans to spend a large 

 part of this leave in the higher regions of the 

 Philippines. His address will continue to be 

 Los Baiios, Philippine Islands. 



Mr. R. S. McBride, engineer-chemist of the 

 National Bureau of Standards, resigned on 

 January 15, to become the engineering repre- 

 sentative in Washington, D. C, of McGraw- 

 Hill Company of New York City. His first 

 work will be in connection with certain coal 

 and fuel utilization problems of particular in- 

 terest to Coal Age. His address is Colorado 

 Building, Washington, D. C. 



Dr. E. Mead Wilcox has resigned as pro- 

 fessor of plant pathology in the University of 

 Nebraska and plant pathologist of the Ex- 

 periment Station, effective April 1, 1920, to 

 accept the directorship of the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station being established at 

 Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. 



Dr. W. S. Gorton has resigned from the 

 Bureau of Standards, where he has been en- 

 gaged in work on potential-transformer test- 

 ing and automotive engine ignition, to accept 

 a research position with the Western Electric 

 Company in New York City. 



W. Armstrong Price, paleontologist of the 

 West Virginia Geological Survey, is spending 

 the winter months at Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, where he is carrying on his work on West 

 Virginia fossils through the courtesy of the 

 geological department of the university. 



The list of British new year honors, as re- 

 ported in Nature, includes Sir Bertrand Daw- 

 son, physician in ordinary to the king, and 

 dean of the medical faculty of the University 

 of London, to a peerage. Among the new 

 knights are Professor Arthur Schuslter; Dr. 

 E. A. Wallis Budge, keeper of Egyptian and 



