June 4, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



895 



The legislature of Pennsylvania a^ its last 

 session appropriated three hundred and 

 twenty-five thousand dollars to the University 

 of Pittsburgh to be expended for new build- 

 ings and maintenance. 



By the late Dr. P. W. Draper, Harvard Uni- 

 versity receives an unrestricted bequest which 

 it is believed will amount to $100,000. 



The Massachusetts legislature has appropri- 

 ated $80,000 for the erection of a fireproof 

 building for the departments of zoology and 

 entomology, at the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College. 



The New York legislature appropriated 

 $5Y,000 for the use of the Agricultural School 

 of St. Lawrence University. 



The Tennessee legislature has passed a bill 

 giving 25 per cent, of the state's revenues for 

 education, 7 per cent, being for the university 

 and experiment station. 



The late Mr. James Duncan has bequeathed 

 a portion of his estate, calculated to amount 

 to about $300,000 for the establishment of a 

 school of industrial art in Dundee, Scotland. 



The new Institute of Physiology at Univer- 

 sity College, London, will be formally opened 

 on Friday, June 18, by the Hon. E. B. Hal- 

 dane, secretary of state for war. The funds 

 for the building of the institute were pro- 

 vided by Mr. Ludwig Mond and Dr. Aders 

 Plimmer and by a bequest of the late Mr. 

 Thomas Webb. 



Dr. Samuel Avery, head of the department 

 of chemistry in the University of Nebraska 

 and acting-president since the resignation of 

 Dr. Andrews, has been elected president of the 

 institution. 



Dr. Ernest Merritt, professor of physics, 

 has been appointed dean of the graduate school 

 of Cornell University. 



At the University of Minnesota, Professor 

 John Zeleny has been appointed head of the 

 department of physics to succeed Dean Fred- 

 erick S. Jones, who has been called to the 

 deanship of Yale College; Assistant Professor 

 Anthony Zeleny has been appointed professor 

 of physics, and Dr. W. F. Holman, of Wor- 

 cester Polytechnic Institute, instructor in 



physics; and a new instructorship not yet 

 filled has been created. Assistant Professor 

 H. A. Erikson returns to the department after 

 a year's absence at Cambridge, England, and 

 Dr. A. F. Kovarik has obtained a leave of 

 absence for study abroad. 



Dr. H. H. Horne, professor of philosophy 

 at Dartmouth College, has been appointed 

 professor of the history of education at the 

 New York University, to succeed, the late 

 Professor Gordy. 



Dr. Charles T. Burnett, of Bowdoin Col- 

 lege, has declined a call to the chair of psy- 

 chology at Amherst College. 



Mr. C. T. Brues, of Milwaukee Public 

 Museum, has been appointed instructor in 

 economic entomology at Harvard University. 



Miss Mabel Bishop, fellow in zoology in 

 Smith College, has been appointed instructor 

 in biological science in the Woman's College 

 of Baltimore. 



Dr. J. B. Leathes, of London, has been 

 appointed professor of chemical pathology in 

 the faculty of medicine of the University of 

 Toronto. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 TO THE PHILOSOPHIC ZOOLOGIST 



Whether definite variations are by chance use 

 ful, or whether they are purposeful are the con- 

 trasting views of modern speculation. The philo- 

 sophic zoologist of to-day has made his choice. 

 He has chosen undirected variations as furnishing 

 the materials for natural selection. It gives him 

 a working hypothesis that calls in no unknown 

 agencies; it accords with what he observes in 

 nature; it promises the largest rewards. 



The above paragraph is a quotation from 

 the address of my friend and colleague. Pro- 

 fessor T. H. Morgan, delivered in the Darwin 

 course at Columbia University, February 26. 

 It is interesting as showing the absolute di- 

 vorce between the zoological and paleontolog- 

 ical observer, a matter to which I have called 

 renewed attention in my Baltimore address 

 recently published in " Fifty Years of Dar- 

 winism." 



If the word " undirected " implies fortuity, 

 as I presume it does, it is an interesting future 

 possibility that the theory of the building up 



