AUGUST 11, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



197 



private laboratory in connection with an ex- 

 perimental garden. Professor de Vries must 

 by law retire from his professorship at Amster- 

 dam within two years and plans to continue 

 his experimental researches at Lunteren. 



A. A. Stevenson, Philadelphia, has been 

 elected president, and S. S. Voorhees, "Wash- 

 ington, D. C, vice-president, of the American 

 Society for Testing Materials. 



Dr. Alfred E. Cameron, formerly of the 

 department of agricultural entomology, Uni- 

 versity of Manchester, has taken up duties in 

 the entomological branch, Department of 

 Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada. 



Professor E. P. Strong, of the Harvard 

 Medical School, has been visiting the American 

 camps in Mexico to study their sanitary condi- 

 tion. 



Dr. Chas. H. Herty, professor of chemistry 

 and dean of the School of Applied Science of 

 the University of North Carolina; Dr. W. E. 

 "Whitney, director of the research laboratory of 

 the General Electric Company, Schenectady, 

 1ST. Y.; Dr. Leo H. Baekeland, of Tonkers, 

 N. Y., and Warren K. Lewis, of Newton, 

 Mass., have been appointed by the American 

 Chemical Society to cooperate with the com- 

 mittee of the National Academy of Sciences 

 on the nitrate supply for the United States 

 government. 



The president of Cuba issued a decree on 

 July 3, creating a plant quarantine and in- 

 spection service under the name Comision de 

 Sanidad Vegetal. The commission is com- 

 posed of John E. Johnston, pathologist of the 

 Estacion Experimental Agronomica as presi- 

 dent; Mario Sanchez Eoig, professor of nat- 

 ural history in the Agricultural School of 

 Havana, as secretary, and Patricio Cardin, 

 entomologist of the Estacion Experimental 

 Agronomica. Three field inspectors have 

 been appointed, one to attempt control of the 

 spiny white fly of citrus, one to begin the 

 "sanitation" of the coconut groves on ac- 

 count of the budrot, and the third to clean up 

 the banana plantations affected by the Panama 

 disease. In addition to the attempt at con- 

 trol of these most serious plagues, the commis- 

 sion will also have in charge the arrange- 



ments for quarantine regulations affecting the 

 importations and exportations of plants. 



At the conference on infantile paralysis held 

 last week in New York, Dr. Simon Elexner, 

 director of the laboratories of the Eockefeller 

 Institute, was elected to preside, and two com- 

 mittees were appointed. One, which is to 

 study laboratory methods, is made up of Dr. 

 Ludwig Hektoen of the University of Chi- 

 cago, Dr. Hans Zinsser, professor of bacteriol- 

 ogy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons ; 

 Dr. Eichard M. Pearce, Jr., professor of re- 

 search medicine in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania; Dr. J. W. Jobling of Vanderbilt Uni- 

 versity, Dr. G. W. McCoy of the Government 

 Hygienic Laboratories in Washington, and 

 Dr. Theobald Smith of the Eockefeller Insti- 

 tute. The members of the second committee, 

 which is to study methods of prevention, are 

 Dr. Victor C. Vaughan of the University of 

 Michigan, Dr. M. J. Eosenau of Harvard, Dr. 

 William H. Park of the New York Health 

 Department Laboratories, Dr. Francis W. Pea- 

 body of the Peter Brent Brigham Hospital in 

 Boston, Dr. John Howland of Johns Hopkins 

 University, Dr. Augustus "Wadsworth of the 

 State Health Department, and Dr. Charles C. 

 Bass of Tulane University, New Orleans. 



The British prime minister has appointed, 

 as we learn from Nature, a committee to con- 

 sider the commercial and industrial policy to 

 be adopted after the war, with special reference 

 to the conclusions reached at the economic 

 conference of the allies, and to the following 

 questions : (a) What industries are essential 

 to the future safety of the nation; and what 

 steps should be taken to maintain or establish 

 them. (6) What steps should be taken to re- 

 cover home and foreign trade lost during the 

 war, and to secure new markets, (c) To what 

 extent and by what means the resources of the 

 Empire should and can be developed, (d) To 

 what extent and by what means the sources of 

 supply within the Empire can be prevented 

 from falling under foreign control. The com- 

 mittee is composed as follows : Lord Balfour 

 of Burleigh (chairman), Mr. Arthur Balfour, 

 Mr. H. Gosling, Mr. W. A. S. Hewins, M.P., 

 Mr. A. H. Illingworth, M.P., Sir J. P. Maclay, 



