April 12, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



361 



under this instruction a student must be en- 

 rolled in an O.T.C. and fulfil after enrolment 

 the conditions of efficiency laid down for med- 

 ical cadets. (7) Protected students delaying 

 qualification unnecessarily, or otherwise not 

 satisfactorily pursuing their studies, are to be 

 referred to the director of National Service. 

 (8) Protection will be withdrawn from a stu- 

 dent who has been requested in writing by the 

 Ministry of National Service to offer himself 

 as a surgeon probationer, R.N., and has not 

 within twenty-one days applied for enrolment 

 as such. The remaining paragraphs of the 

 instruction — which supersedes all previous in- 

 structions relating to the protection of medical 

 students now in civil life — deal with formali- 

 ties to be observed in the matter of certificates 

 and of applications to tribunals in respect of 

 medical students not hitherto called up but 

 now no longer protected. 



WAR WORK OF THE U. S. COAST AND 

 GEODETIC SURVEY 



Under the provisions of section 16 of an act 

 approved May 22, 1917, and regulations estab- 

 lished in accordance therewith, any of the 

 vessels, equipment, stations or personnel of the 

 survey may be transferred by the President in 

 time of national emergency to the service and 

 jurisdiction of the War Department or the 

 Navy Department, and the same may be re- 

 transferred to the service and jurisdiction of 

 the Department of Commerce by the President 

 when the necessity for such service no longer 

 exisrts. 



By executive order dated September 24, 

 1917, the steamers Surveyor, Isis and Bache, 

 their crews and 38 commissioned officers of the 

 survey were transferred to the Navy Depart- 

 ment, and 29 commissioned officers and 10 

 members of the office force were transferred to 

 the War Department with military rank corre- 

 sponding to their grade in the survey. 



Some changes were made in the assignments 

 of these officers; some were rejected for phys- 

 ical or other reasons and were returned to the 

 survey by executive order and others were 

 afterwards assigned in a similar manner. 

 Some members of the crews of the vessels de- 

 clined to enroll in the Naval Reserves and their 



places were filled by the Navy Department. 

 Some employees of the office force and hands 

 in field parties were drafted and others enlisted 

 voluntarily in the Army or Navy. On March 

 1, 1918, 65 commissioned officers of the survey, 

 17 members of the office force, 5 ships' officers, 

 67 seamen and other employees of vessels and 

 21 hands from field parties, a total of 175 per- 

 sons, were serving in the Navy or Army. 



In conformity with the wishes of the Navy 

 Department, after the beginning of the war 

 all of the topographic, hydrographic and wire- 

 drag work of the survey was directed so as to 

 meet the most urgent military needs of the 

 Navy Department. The work done comprises 

 wire-drag surveys on the New England coast 

 and coast of Florida ; hydrographic surveys on 

 the South Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico; 

 the beginning of a survey of the Virgin Is- 

 lands; the investigation of various special 

 problems for the Navy Department; wire-drag 

 surveys, current observations, and special work 

 on the Pacific coast; and surveys in the Philip- 

 pine Islands. 



The work undertaken for the War Depart- 

 ment by the field parties of the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey was intended to furnish points 

 and elevations for the control of topographic 

 surveys for military purposes. To expedite 

 this work an allotment was made from the ap- 

 propriation for the War Department to cover 

 the expenses of the field parties employed. 

 The chief of the division of geodesy was au- 

 thorized to confer with officers of the Corps of 

 Engineers, United States Army, and officials 

 of the Department of the Interior in regard to 

 the proper coordination of the various opera- 

 tions. 



Extensive surveys were undertaken, includ- 

 ing primary triangulation, primary traverse, 

 precise leveling and determination of differ- 

 ences of longitude, and good progress has been 

 made, and the results of previous surveys have 

 been made available by copies or in published 

 form as promptly as possible. From April, 

 1917, to January, 1918, 80 per cent, of the 

 time of the office force of the geodetic division 

 was devoted to war work. At the request of 

 the War Department tables were computed for 



