Apeil 25, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



625 



Houston to take charge of the proposed 

 " Rural Organization Service," a new branch 

 of the Department of Agriculture, designed 

 to aid the farmer in economic, social and 

 cooperative buying and selling. 



Professor Ficker, for many years assistant 

 at the Berlin Institute of Hygiene, has been 

 given leave of absence, so that he may take 

 charge for one year of the bacteriologic insti- 

 tute at Sao Paulo, at the request of the Bra- 

 zilian government. 



Professor Hedinger, of Basel, has been ap- 

 pointed director of the Konigsberg Institute 

 of Pathologic Anatomy, succeeding Professor 

 Henke, who has been called to Breslau. 



Dr. a. J. Chalmers, of Ceylon, known for 

 his work on the etiology of pellagra, has been 

 appointed director of the Wellcome Research 

 Laboratories at Khartoum in succession to 

 Dr. Andrew Balfour, who has been appointed 

 director in chief of the Wellcome Bureau of 

 Scientific Research in London. 



Professor Thomas C. Chamberlin, head of 

 the department of geology in the University 

 of Chicago, and Professor Forest R. Moulton, 

 of the department of astronomy and astro- 

 physics, are members of a special committee 

 of the Illinois Academy of Science appointed 

 to recommend a revision of the present Julian 

 calendar. 



Professor Charles E. Van Barneveld, of 

 the school of mines of the University of Min- 

 nesota, has been offered an appointment as 

 chief of the department of mines and metal- 

 lurgy for the Panama-Pacific Exposition to 

 be held in 1915. 



Dr. G. M. Whipple, assistant professor of 

 educational psychology, has been appointed as 

 the delegate of Cornell University to the 

 Fourth International Congress on School 

 Hygiene, to be held at Buiialo on August 25- 

 30 next. 



Dr. Jose M. Rua, professor of biology in 

 the University of Buenos Ayres, is visiting 

 the universities of the United States. 



The three selected candidates for the va- 

 cant professorship of astronomy in Gresham 



College, London, are Mr. F. W. Henkel, Mr. 

 A. R. Hinks, secretary of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society, and Mr. E. W. Maunder, 

 superintendent of the Solar Department at 

 the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. They 

 will each give a probationary lecture before 

 the Gresham Committee. 



Dr. H. M. W. Edmonds, of the Department 

 of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution, will head an expedition to Hudson 

 Bay designed to secure magnetic data in the 

 region between the Albany and Severn rivers. 

 A special attempt will be made to locate, as 

 accurately as possible, the focus of maximum 

 total intensity in North America, supposed to 

 be in the vicinity of Cat Lake, near latitude 

 52°.2 N. and longitude 92° W. The expedi- 

 tion will leave Washington in May and is 

 expected to return in October of this year. 



George B. Rigg, instructor in botany in the 

 University of Washington, and special agent 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 

 kelp investigation in 1911 and 1912, is in 

 charge of an expedition to western Alaska for 

 the purpose of investigating the kelps of that 

 region as a source of potash fertilizer. It is 

 expected that a good deal of the work will be 

 in the vicinity of Kodiak Island and the 

 Shumagin Islands. The power halibut 

 schooner Gjoa has been chartered for the trip. 

 This expedition is sent out by the Bureau of 

 Soils and is a continuation of the work that 

 Dr. Frank Cameron has been directing during 

 the past two years. The other members of the 

 party are: Professor Robert F. Griggs, of the 

 Ohio State University, and Mr. Sanford M. 

 Zeller, graduate assistant in botany in the 

 University of Washington. Dr. T. C. Frye, 

 professor of botany in the University of 

 Washington, is in charge of a similar expedi- 

 tion to southern Alaska. With him are Dr. 

 Robert B. Wylie, professor of botany in the 

 University of Iowa, and Mr. Dean Wayniok, 

 a student at the University of Washington. 

 The gas boat Zaremho has been chartered in 

 Seattle for the trip. Both of these expedi- 

 tions will leave Seattle on May 1. 



