jANTJAaT 11, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



39 



Soon after the declaration of hostilities with 

 Germany, the Chief Signal Officer called to 

 the attention of the committee the large 

 amount of material which was coming before 

 the War Department comprising inventions 

 and suggestions relating to aeronautics in war- 

 fare, and asked assistance in examining and 

 disposing of such material. Accordingly, this 

 committee, through an appropriate subcom- 

 mittee appointed for the purpose, has acted as 

 a board of inventions for the government in 

 matters relating to aeronautics, and since the 

 outbreak of hostilities between the United 

 States and Germany it has weekly examined 

 hundreds of suggestions and inventions per- 

 taining to this subject. Several suggestions 

 of value have been received and brought 

 promptly to the attention of the particular gov- 

 ernment office most directly interested. 



In December, 1916, the subject of coopera- 

 tion with the Post Office Department in the 

 establishment of aerial mail routes was con- 

 sidered, and the same matter in one form or 

 another has been considered from time to time 

 since that date. 



In the latter part of 1917 the general sub- 

 ject of civil aerial transport was brought to 

 the attention of the committee and a special 

 subcommittee was appointed to take under 

 consideration the various phases of civil and 

 commercial uses of aeronautics with special 

 reference to the conditions which may be ex- 

 pected to develop at the close of the war. 



The committee has made progress during the 

 year in the study and investigation of the fol- 

 lowing problems: Stability as determined by 

 mathematical investigation, air-speed meters, 

 wing sections, aeronautical engine design, 

 radiator design, air-propeller design and effi- 

 ciency, forms of airplane, radio telegraphy, 

 noncorrosive materials, flat and cambered sur- 

 faces, terminal connections, characteristics of 

 constructive materials, and standardization of 

 specifications for materials. 



tober 13, imder the leadership of Professor J. 

 B. Woodworth, of Harvard University, and 

 Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, of the Boston So- 

 ciety of Natural History. Owing to the un- 

 usual conditions universally prevailing this 

 year, the only colleges represented, aside from 

 Harvard, were Mount Holyoke and Williams. 



The excursion consisted of a trip to the 

 island of Marthas Vineyard, including on the 

 way a hurried visit to the white cedar " sub- 

 merged " bog north of Woods Hole, where the 

 question of coastal movements was discussed. 

 On Friday afternoon, automobiles conveyed 

 the party over the outwash glacial plain to the 

 Weyquobsque cliils, where the succession of 

 the Cretaceous clays and the Miocene and 

 Pleistocene sands and gravels was studied, as 

 well as the rapid work of the waves in cutting 

 back the cliffs. Spits and bars, built by the 

 alongshore currents, were well seen from the 

 uplands. 



Saturday morning was spent at the Gay 

 Head cliffs, studying the section of clays, 

 sands, and boulder beds ranging from the Cre- 

 taceous to the Pleistocene, complicated by 

 faulting and the crumpling and overthrust 

 folding of the clays and gravels under the 

 overriding ice of the Glacial Period. The 

 afternoon was spent studying the so-called 

 " morainal topography " to the northeast of 

 Gay Head, a topography most of whose fea- 

 tures seem to be due, primarily, to erosion dur- 

 ing Vineyard interglacial time, deposits of 

 Wisconsin age forming only a thin veneer on 

 the surface of the preexisting land-forms, and 

 carrying with them, in places, many large 

 boulders. 



In recording the appreciation of the mem- 

 bers of the party of the care taken by the lead- 

 ers to make every feature of the trip, even in- 

 cluding the weather, a great success, the open- 

 ing words of the announcement sent out before 

 the excursion may well be repeated, " Motto : 

 ' Go (with them) and see! ' " 



NEW ENGLAND INTERCOLLEGIATE 

 GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION 



The fifteenth annual geological excursion of 

 the New England colleges and universities was 

 held on Friday, October 12, and Saturday, Oc- 



MEDICAL WORK OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 CINCINNATI 



On the first of January a new charter went 

 into effect in Cincinnati, which places all of 

 the medical, scientific and nursing work in 



