April 19, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



389 



year adapted to war conditions. Announce- 

 ment and further information can be obtained 

 by addressing C. B. Davenport, Cold Spring 

 Harbor, New York. 



The meeting of the British Association, 

 which it was hoped would be held in Cardiff 

 this year, has been cancelled. The local com- 

 mittee has reluctantly decided that satisfactory 

 arrangements could not be made to ensure suc- 

 cess for the meeting, and has sent a resolution 

 to that effect to the council of the association. 

 The council has accepted this view, so that for 

 two years in succession the annual assembly of 

 workers in all departments of science will not 

 take place. Sir Arthur Evans has consented 

 to occupy the office of president for another 

 year, and there will be a statutory meeting in 

 London on July 5 to receive reports of com- 

 mittees and transact other business, but other- 

 wise the corporate life of the association will 

 continue in a state of suspended animation, 

 though there never has been a more favorable 

 time than now to make the nation realize the 

 debt it owes to science for the successful con- 

 duct of the war and the need for unceasing 

 scientific activity to prepare for the industrial 

 struggle which the future must bring. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Sir WiLLiAJi ScHLicii, F.E.S., professor of 

 forestry in Oxford University, has received 

 £500 from a donor who wishes to remain 

 anonymous, to be added to the fund for the 

 permanent endowment of the professorship of 

 forestry. With the sums already contributed, 

 the capital of the fund now amounts to over 

 £6,300, and the annual income from all sources 

 to about £300 a year, making about half of 

 what is required. 



A COMMITTEE, of which Sir William Osier is 

 chairman, met in Cardiff recently to prepare a 

 scheme for the Mansel-Talbot chair of pre- 

 ventive medicine in the University of Wales 

 endowed by Miss Talbot. When the scheme 

 had been approved the election of a professor 

 will be proceeded with. 



President Ben.iamin Ide Wheeler, of the 

 University of California, has again asked for 

 an increase in salaries for members of the 

 California faculty. A year ago men of the 

 grade of instructor and assistant professor re- 

 ceived an increase of ten per cent. 



Julian L. Coolidoe, assistant professor of 

 mathematics at Harvard University, has been 

 advanced to a full professorship. 



At the Pennsylvania State College, E. H. 

 Dusham has been promoted to be professor 

 of entomology; M. D. Leonard, instructor in 

 entomology at Cornell University, has been 

 appointed instructor in entomology extension 

 and R. C. Walton, of the Ohio Experiment 

 Station, instructor in plant pathology. 



Dr. Kirtley F. Mather, professor of paleon- 

 tology at Queen's University, Kingston, Can- 

 ada, is acting professor of geology and geog- 

 raphy at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, 

 for the spring term. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE EXISTENCE OF LECITHIN 



Some eight years ago and again very re- 

 cently, Barbierii has reported results of experi- 

 ments which he claims proves the non-exist- 

 ence of lecithin. His argmnents are the fol- 

 lowing : 



The fatty matter of egg yolk can be separated 

 in a state of purity by the aid of neutral sol- 

 vents. The nitrogen-containing bodies can be re- 

 moved by simple dialysis or by repeated washing 

 with distilled water in the presence of a little alco- 

 hol. The fat yields on hydrolysis nothing but gly- 

 cerol and fatty acids. Glycerolphosphoric acid can 

 not be obtained by treating the egg yolk with a neu- 

 tral solvent. It appears only after hydrolysis. 

 The phosphorus occurs only in the form of metallic 

 (potassium, sodium, calcium or magnesium) salts 

 of phosphoric acid and is entirely dialyzable. Egg 

 yolk contains no trace of choline, the supposed 

 biological choline being a product of either the 

 deg^radation of the ovochromin or of putrefaction. 



From these results it would appear that the 

 compound ordinarily called lecithin is a mix- 

 ture of fats, phosphates and dialyzable nitro- 



iBarbieri, N. A., Comp. rend., 1910, 151, 405; 

 Gaz., 1917, 47, 1-13; J. Chem. Soc, 112, I., 238. 



