628 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 956 



The educational bill providing for five 

 scholarships in each assembly district of New 

 York state has been signed by Governor 

 Sulzer. Each holder of a scholarship -will re- 

 ceive from the state $100 a year for four 

 years to be applied toward the payment of the 

 annual tuition fee charged by the college se- 

 lected, which must be within the state. 

 Scholarships will be awarded on the basis of 

 school standing, and when they are all filled 

 there will be 3,000 students at one time re- 

 ceiving state aid. 



The Sheldon traveling fellowships of Har- 

 vard University have been awarded in the 

 sciences as follows: Donald Clinton Barton, 

 Cambridge, for research in geology in Europe 

 and Egypt during the summer; Sidney Pay 

 Blake, for research in botany in Europe; 

 Elmer Keiser Bolton, for research in chemistry 

 at Berlin; Richard Maurice Elliott, for re- 

 search in psychology, particularly in the psy- 

 chophysics of handwriting, at Berlin and in 

 the various psychological laboratories of Ger- 

 many; Harvey Cornelius Hayes, instructor in 

 physics, for travel in the TJnited States, be- 

 tween September and February, for the pur- 

 pose of observing the manufacture of alloys; 

 Sidney Isaac Kornhauser, for research in 

 zoology at Wiirzburg and at the Naples Zo- 

 ological Station; Edward Hale Perry, for 

 travel in the mining districts of the United 

 States during the summer of 1913; Joseph 

 Slepian, for research in mathematics in Eu- 

 rope, and Paul Dudley White, for research in 

 pharmacology at London and Strassburg. 



The governing body of the Eoyal School of 

 Mines, which is an integral part of the Im- 

 perial College of Science and Technology, 

 London, are abovit to appoint a new professor 

 of metallurgy in the room of Professor W. A. 

 Carlyle, who is resigning in order to resume 

 his professional work. 



Professor Edward L. Nichols, of the de- 

 partment of physics of Cornell University, has 

 been appointed dean of the College of Arts 

 and Sciences. 



Martin John Prucha, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, has been appointed assistant professor of 



dairy bacteriology in the College of Agricul- 

 ture of the University of Illinois, and assist- 

 ant chief in dairy bacteriology in the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station. He will be as- 

 sociated with the new head of the dairy de- 

 partment. Dr. A. H. Harding. 



DISCUSSION AND CORBESPONDENCE 



CONVENTIONAL POSITION OF MONOCLINIC CRYSTALS 



A QUESTION IN CKYSTALLOGRAPHIO USAGE 



To THE Editor op Science: So much of in- 

 dividual preference, not to say caprice, has 

 in the past attached itself to crystallographic 

 nomenclature and convention that it seems 

 desirable, before introducing further innova- 

 tion, to get the opinion of as many interested 

 persons as possible as to the ultimate useful- 

 ness of any proposed change. For this reason 

 the writer is asking space in Science, which 

 probably reaches more of our scientific men 

 who come in contact with crystallography than 

 any other single publication, in order to test 

 an idea as to the most desirable setting of 

 crystals belonging to the monoclinic system. 



It is suggested that the ortho-axis, which is 

 customarily placed in horizontal position, he 

 set vertically. 



The objection at once presents itself that a 

 change from the older long-established set- 

 ting would necessitate restatement of the 

 crystallographic data concerning all mono- 

 clinic substances. 



It is, moreover, possible that familiarity 

 with the ordinary types of animals has so ac- 

 customed the mind to thinking of a single 

 plane of symmetry in vertical position that 

 advantage should be taken of this facility of 

 thought in presenting to students the some- 

 what analogous configuration of monoclinic 

 crystals. That this argument should not be 

 given too much weight, however, is evidenced 

 by the fact that beginners of their own accord 

 not rarely place the plane of symmetry of 

 monoclinic crystal models in horizontal posi- 

 tion, even after they have recognized the ab- 

 sence of other synunetry planes. 



In favor of the proposed change may be 

 cited the following arguments : 



1. The conventional usage, already prevail- 



