332 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 948 



Miss Emily Southmayd, of ISTew York 

 City, has presented Tale University with 

 $125,000 to found a chair of equity juris- 

 prudence in the Yale Law School in memory 

 of her brother, the late Charles F. South- 

 mayd. 



The American Telegraph and Telephone 

 Company has given the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology $5,000 a year for five 

 years to catalogue and maintain the electrical 

 library recently given to the institution. It is 

 also reported that the American Telegraph 

 and Telephone Company will support research 

 work in electricity at the institute. 



Mr. G. a. Wills and Mr. H. H. Wills have 

 given £150,000 for the extension of the build- 

 ings of Bristol University, in memory of their 

 father, who was the first chancellor. Their 

 brother, Mr. W. M. Wills, has offered £20,000 

 for the general endowment fund of the univer- 

 sity. 



In the President's Report, issued this month 

 by the University of Chicago Press, President 

 Harry Pratt Judson says: "It is of course 

 well understood as a distinct policy of some 

 educational institutions to spend what is 

 necessary regardless of resources, depending 

 upon alumni and friends of the institution to 

 provide the resulting deficit. It is not the 

 belief of the University of Chicago that deficit 

 financing is safe from any point of view." 

 The report shows that there was a surplus for 

 last year of $17,270.29. It also shows that 

 about forty-three per cent, of the total in- 

 come of the university for the year was de- 

 rived from students, that the sum of $107,- 

 441.14 was returned to them in the form of 

 fellowships and scholarships, and that fifty- 

 six per cent, of the total expenditures was 

 iiaid for instruction. During the year the sum 

 of $1,087,178.92 was paid in in the form of 

 gifts.' The total gifts paid in from the found- 

 ing of the university to June 30, 1912, 

 amounts to $33,784,523.81. 



At Yale University Dr. William Ernest 

 Hocking has been promoted to be professor of 

 philosophy, and Dr. Frederick Rogers Fair- 

 child to be professor of political economy. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESFONDENCE 



THE MEMORIAL TO ANTON DOHRN 



In the issue of Science for November 10, 

 1911, was printed a statement concerning the 

 memorial to Anton Dohrn, with an appeal 

 from the executive committee of the Ameri- 

 can subcommittee for subscriptions to a fund 

 to be established for this purpose. The sub- 

 scription is to be closed May 1, 1913, and it is 

 hoped that additional contributions may be 

 received before that date. The American sub- 

 scription is still far short of what the com- 

 mittee had hoped for, and should be increased 

 if this country is to be creditably represented 

 in the general fund. Checks should be drawn 

 to the order of the Anton Dohrn Memorial and 

 sent to Mr. Isaac N. Seligman. care of J. and 

 W. Seligman and Co., No. 1 William St., 

 New York City. Edmund B. Wilson, 



Chairman of the Amer- 

 ican Siibcommittee 



Columbia University, 

 New York, N. Y. 



a suggested formula for biologists 

 It is a well known fact of observation that 

 the smaller creatures are ever the more vig- 

 orous. A flea is proportionately vastly more 

 powerful than a cat; and the cat than an ele- 

 phant. While in paleontology giantism is, T 

 think, recognized as a stigma of degeneracy, 

 preceding racial extinction. 



Now, may not these observations be em- 

 bodied in the following single mathematical 

 form. 



The weight of any two similar animals is 

 plainly proportionate to the cube of their 

 heights. While their muscular power may 

 surely be taken as proportionate to the area of 

 the similar cross sections of corresponding 

 muscles; and thus proportionate to the square 

 of their heights. So that, of 2 cats say, if B 

 be n times higher than A, then it is re' times 

 heavier ; but has only re" times more muscular 

 strength. And is thus really 1/re proportion- 

 ally weaker. For, plainly, during any corre- 

 sponding exertion, it must move n' more 

 weight, with but n" more strength. 



Alan S. Hawkesworth 



