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SCIENCE 



[N. S. A"0L. XLVII. No. 1224 



some months in cooperative state and federal 

 work on war minerals and materials in Vir- 

 ginia. He is a member of the subcommittee 

 of the National Research Council on materials 

 for rapid highway and railroad construction 

 behind the front, and an associate member of 

 the war minerals committee. 



Mr. W. S. Fields has resigned as assistant 

 plant pathologist in the Arkansas Experiment 

 Station to take up work as extension plant 

 pathologist under the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, with headquarters in Mississippi. 



The Bureau of Fisheries has engaged Pro- 

 fessor J. Percy Moore, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, for investigation of fishes and 

 other aquatic animals in relation to mosquito 

 control in northern regions. Por the present, 

 at least, his investigation will be conducted in 

 the general vicinity of Philadelphia. 



The following men have been called for 

 military service from the botanical department 

 of the Michigan Agricultural College: Mr. C. 

 P. Murphy and Mr. C. W. Bennett, graduate 

 assistants in botany, and Mr. Ray Nelson, re- 

 search assistant in plant pathology. 



The geologists of the Ohio Academy of Sci- 

 ence for their spring meeting made an excur- 

 sion to the southern part of the state. The 

 party, twelve in nunlber, left Columbus at 

 noon on May 31 and returned late on June 2. 

 The Silurian formations of Highland county 

 were visited under the lead of A. P. Poerste, 

 and the Mississippian and Pennsylvania of 

 Pike and Jackson counties under the lead of 

 J. E. Hyde and Wilber Stout. Stops were 

 made at the Serpent Mound in Adams county 

 and at Camp Sherman. 



Pour curators of the Museum of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania are now in the army, 

 while two others are in Egypt excavating for 

 the Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., Expedition and can 

 not return until after the war. Dr. Stephen 

 Langdon, curator of the Babylonian section, is 

 in the British army and will remain there dur- 

 ing the war. He is professor of Assyriology 

 at Oxford University, but was given permis- 

 sion last year to come to this country and ac- 

 cept the post of curator on condition that he 



give one course of lectures a year in Oxford. 

 Owing to raising the age limit he was not per- 

 mitted to leave England this spring and is 

 serving with the colors. Dr. William C. Para- 

 bee, who led the museum's Amazon Expedition 

 for three years, has just been appointed a cap- 

 tain in the intelligence corps and will soon 

 leave for service. Stephen B. Luce, of the 

 Mediterranean Section, has been appointed a 

 lieutenant in the Navy and is now in service. 

 H. U. Hall, assistant curator of the American 

 Section, is serving in Prance with the Key- 

 stone Division. 



The Royal medals of the Royal Geograph- 

 ical Society, London, have been awarded by 

 the coimcil as follows : The founder's medal to 

 Miss Gertrude BeU, for her important explora- 

 tions and travels in Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, 

 and on the Euphrates; the patron's medal to 

 Commandant Tilho, French Colonial Infantry, 

 for his long-continued surveys and explora- 

 tions in northern Africa. Owing to the short- 

 age of gold the medals will, with the King's 

 approval, be struck in bronze instead of gold, 

 and the balance of their value be given in war 

 bonds. The other awards are as follows: The 

 Murchison grant to Mr. C. A. Reid, for his 

 maps of the Belgian Congo, which he has 

 placed at the disposal of the society ; the Cuth- 

 bert Peek grant to Mr. G. P. Archer, for his 

 surveys in East Africa connecting Major 

 Gwynn's Abyssinian triangulation with the 

 triangulation of East Africa; the Back grant 

 to Captain Bartlett, for his distinguished 

 leadership after the loss of the Karluh; the 

 Gill memorial to Major Cuthbert Christy, 

 R.A.M.O., for his surveys and explorations in 

 central Africa. 



Dr. William Tovvnsend Porter, professor 

 of physiology in the Harvard Medical School, 

 vsdll be the commencement speaker at Milton 

 Academy on June 16. 



Professor William S. Franklin, of the de- 

 partment of physics of the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, lectured before the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, on June 7, 

 on " Some needed lines of research in meteor- 



