Januaet 4, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



19 



of pneumonia. Since the United States en- 

 tered the war Dr. Janeway had been engaged 

 in special research work for the government, 

 being major in the Medical Officers' Reserve, 

 on duty in Washington. 



Dr. Hugo Schweitzer, the industrial chem- 

 ist, head of the Synthetic Patents Co., died on 

 December 23 at his home in New York after a 

 short illness from pneumonia. He was bom 

 in Germany in 1861 and came to this country 

 in 1889. 



Professor Clement Henry McLeod, pro- 

 fessor of astronomy, surveying and geodesy, 

 McGill University, in charge of the observa- 

 tory, died on December 26, aged sixty-six 

 years. 



Ch.ujles Hawksley, past president of the 

 British Institution of Civil Engineers, died on 

 November 27, aged eighty-seven years. 



Dr. a. M. W. Downing, formerly sui)erin- 

 tendent of the Nautical Almanac, died sud- 

 denly on December 8, at sixty-seven years of 

 age. 



Dr. Fritz Daniel Frech, professor of geol- 

 ogy and paleontology in the University of 

 Breslau, has died at the age of fifty-six years. 



M. JoYEDX Laffnie, professor of zoology in 

 the University of Caen, has died at the age of 

 sixty-five years. 



Surgeon General Rupert Blue, of the 

 United States Public Health Service, has 

 asked Congress to appropriate $300,000 for the 

 purpose of establishing a Sanitary Reserve 

 Corps, to combat outbreaks of disease in both 

 times of war and times of peace. He also 

 asked for appropriations to purchase quaran- 

 tine stations at New York and Baltimore. 



Mr. Harry Piers, curator of the Provincial 

 Museum at Halifax, has replied to an inquiry 

 from Mr. Harlan I. Smith, regarding the rela- 

 tion of the explosion to the museum. The 

 specimens and labels apparently came through 

 fairly well, better than was expected, consid- 

 ering the unbelievably terrific and astonish- 

 ingly loud explosion which demolished the 

 Richmond section of Halifax, although win- 

 dows were blown in, glass of eases smashed, a 

 water pipe burst and snow stormed into one 



end of the building. Mr. Piers calls attention 

 to the good results of always using water-proof 

 ink for labels. The cases were boarded over 

 soon after the explosion in order to use them 

 as tables for Red Cross and other relief sup- 

 plies, so that a careful examination of the 

 damage has not been made. The publications 

 Ijrobably have not suffered greatly. At the 

 time of writing Mr. Piers had been too busy 

 on relief work to examine into details of the 

 museum. 



Mr. T. F. Claxtox, director of the Royal 

 Observatory, Hong-Kong, informs Nature 

 that, in view of the world situation, it has 

 been decided to discontinue sending the pub- 

 lications of the observatory to the United 

 Kingdom, Europe and India during the war. 



We learn from Nature that a Linnean So- 

 ciety has been established rccoitly in Sweden 

 as " Svenska Linne-Sallskapet," intended as a 

 means for spreading information about 

 Sweden's greatest naturalist, Carl von Linne 

 (1707-78). The society purposes to do this by 

 publication of works by Linne and his pupils; 

 to throw new light from modern viewpoints 

 on Linne's personality ; to draw up a catalogue 

 of all known memorials, and to found a com- 

 plete Linnean library. The president is Dr. 

 Tycho TuUberg, a lineal descendant of 

 Linne. 



According to the annual report of the chief 

 of the Weather Bureau to the United States 

 Secretary of Agriculture, a manual or hand- 

 book entitled " Meteorology and Aeronautics " 

 will appear as Report No. 13 of the National 

 Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The 

 handbook discusses the properties and general 

 phenomena of the atmosphere which aeronauts 

 and aviators should understand. It is divided 

 into three parts: Part one, which deals with 

 physical properties and dynamics of the at- 

 mosphere; part two, with topographic and cli- 

 matic factors in relation to aeronautics, and 

 part three, with current meteorology and its 

 use. Part three also contains a summary of 

 the free air conditions most likely to be ex- 

 perienced under different types of pressure 

 distribution at the earth's surface. Frequent 

 conferences have been held with officials of the 



