Pebeuart 22, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



191 



Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners, Chi- 

 cago. 



Tuesday, February 5, separate meeting were 

 held by the Federation of State Medical 

 Boards of the United States and the Associa- 

 tion of American Medical Colleges. 



Nature states that on January 2 the Institu- 

 ^on of Civil Engineers of Great Britain com- 

 pleted tlie hundredth year of its existence, hav- 

 ing been established in 1818 at a meeting of 

 eight engineers at the Kendal Coffee House in 

 Fleet Street. At the meeting of the institu- 

 tion on January 8, before the discussion of 

 papers, a statement commemorative of the 

 founding of the institution was made, present 

 conditions precluding a more formal celebra- 

 tion of the centenary. 



The IJnited States Bureau of Mines has 

 broadened the scope of its station at Urbana, 

 111., to include work in coal and metal mining 

 and the metallurgical industries of the Middle 

 West. The present safety work will be con- 

 tinued and all work will be conducted under a 

 cooperative agreement with the mining de- 

 partment of the University of Illinois. The 

 bureau staff is under the superintendence of 

 E. A. Holbrook, supervising mining engineer 

 and metallurgist. Other members are W. B. 

 Plank, in charge of mine safety, and F. K. 

 Ovitz, chemist. 



It is expected that the new Field Museum, 

 Chicago, for which ground was broken in the 

 summer of 1915, will be ready for the transfer 

 of the contents of the old museum in Jackson 

 Park by August, 1919. The new building is 

 situated south of Twelfth Street and east of 

 the Illinois Central Station. It is of Georgia 

 marble, and, exclusive of the porticoes, will 

 measure 756 feet long and 350 feet wide. It 

 will cost $5,000,000. 



The annual report of the Bristol Museum 

 and Art Gallery, lately published, shows great 

 activity, in spite of the war. During the year 

 261,594 persons visited the museum. An im- 

 portant new development was in connection 

 with wounded soldiers. Some of the collec- 

 tions were temporarily placed in storage and 

 space was made for a recreation center, in- 

 cluding frequent lectures and demonstrations. 



concerts, library facilities and light refresh- 

 ments. 



The Minnesota state entomologist has issued 

 an illustrated report of thirty-six pages on 

 work upon the pine blister rust in Minnesota 

 during 1917, in cooperation with the United 

 States Bureau of Plant Industry. Details of 

 inspection, scouting, infections and eradica- 

 tion are given. A limited nxmiber of copies 

 are available for distribution. Applications 

 should be mailed to State Entomologist, Uni- 

 versity Farm, St. Paul, Minnesota. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Bonds and cash amounting to $1,093,000 

 representing the trust fund established by Drs. 

 Charles H. and William J. Mayo, Eochester, 

 for carrying on medical research work at the 

 University of Minnesota, have been turned 

 over to the state treasurer. 



By the will of the late Mrs. Charles H. Col- 

 burn, of Milford, Mass., a fund of $100,000 is 

 bequeathed to the Harvard Medical School for 

 research in tuberculosis. 



Columbia Uotversity has received $3,000 for 

 research work in war problems from an anony- 

 mous donor and $5,000 from Clarence Mackay 

 for surgical research work. 



W. H. Bender, associate professor of agri- 

 culttiral education at the University of Minne- 

 sota, has resigned to go to the State Agricul- 

 tural College, Ames, Iowa, as director of voca- 

 tional education and special supervisor of vo- 

 cational agriculture. 



At the University of Iowa, Associate Pro- 

 fessor R. P. Baker has been made acting head 

 of the department of mathematics. Mr. R. E. 

 Gleason and Mr. F. M. Weida have been ap- 

 pointed instructors in mathematics. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE ELECTION OF OFFICERS BY SCIENTIFIC 

 SOCIETIES 



To THE Editor of Science : In these days of 

 strife for democratic ideals I would like to 

 raise the question whether the method of 

 election followed by many of our scientific 

 societies is not in need of democratization. 

 To begin at home I may say that I have been 



