June 18, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



613 



the present plan, Dean A. R. Mann has the 

 aid of three vice-officers as executives in the 

 three main branches of the work of the col- 

 lege; resident instruction, extension, and 

 research. 



The geological department of .the New Tork 

 State Museum, will send into the field this year 

 a considerable corps of workers for the purpose 

 of collecting the fossil terrestrial plants of the 

 Devonian Period. The collections of the mu- 

 seum are already very rich in such plant ma- 

 terial, but it has all been acquired incidentally 

 to the study of the fossil faunas of the state, 

 and the reports of the museum have given 

 inadequate attention to this important field. 

 The physical conditions under which the Late 

 Devonian deposits were laid down in New 

 Tork were distinctly favorable to the accumu- 

 lation of terrestrial plants in the shallow water 

 offshore isands and shales, and it was said by 

 Sir William Dawson that the state museum 

 possessed a more extensive representation of 

 this early land flora than was to be found 

 elsewhere. The standing tree ferns found 

 many years ago in the sands of Schoharie 

 county and which are exhibited in the mu- 

 seum, are the oldest representatives of a ter- 

 restrial forest growing in, place; the unique 

 Ardheosigiliaria, 18 feet in length, is Another 

 extraordinary plant from this flora and these 

 striking objects, supplemented by much un- 

 studied material, give promise that the field 

 may be opened to a more adequate knowledge 

 of the first great land flora of the earth. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Dr. Frederick Charles Hicks, Sinton pro- 

 fessor of economics, has been elected presi- 

 dent of the University of Cincinnati, succeed- 

 ing Dr. Charles W. Dabney, who retires on 

 reaching the age of sixty-five. Dr. Hicks 

 went to the University of Cincinnati in 1900 

 as head of the department of economics, 

 having previously taught in the University of 

 Michigan and the University of Missouri. 



Me. Homer P. Latimer, professor of anat- 

 omy at the University of Nebraska, has been 



granted leave of absence for the year 1920-21. 

 He will spend this summer and next year in 

 study at the Institute of Anatomy of the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota. Mr. D. S. Brazda has 

 been appointed instructor in anatomy to take 

 charge of some of the classes during Professor 

 Latimer's absence. 



Professor S. Elizabeth Von Duyne, M.D., 

 resident physician and professor of physiology 

 and hygiene at Converse College, has resigned 

 to accept a similar position at Goucher Col- 

 lege, her alma mater. 



Dr. Linus W. Kline, formerly professor of 

 psychology and education in the Duluth 

 Normal School, who has been engaged in 

 research at the Johns Hopkins University 

 during the past year, has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of psychology and education in Skid- 

 more College. 



Dr. p. W. Whiting, in charge of biology at 

 Pranklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, 

 Pa., has resigned to accept a position at St. 

 Stephens' College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New 

 York. 



Dr. Eichard J. Harding, McGill University, 

 has been appointed professor of chemical 

 pathology in the University of Toronto by the 

 board of governors of the imiversity. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE HAWAIIAN 

 ISLANDS 



Having recently returned from a tour of 

 the Hawaiian Islands, and having familiar- 

 ized myself with the scientific work that is 

 being done there and which remains to be 

 done in the Islands to the south, I am par- 

 ticularly interested in the success of the Con- 

 gress so ably planned by Professor Herbert 

 E. Gregory, of Tale University, who is now 

 resident in Honolulu as director of the 

 Bemice Pauahi Bishop Museimi. 



While the problems presented by the 

 Islands are chiefly in geology, volcanology, 

 and anthropology, there is also a great deal 

 of interest in various fields of zoology and 

 oceanography. 



The cooperation planned by Professor 



