NOVEMBER 10, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



675 



graduate medicine in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania: Dr. Joseph McFarland, professor of 

 pathology; Dr. John C. Heisler, professor of 

 anatomy; George H. Meeker, Sc.D., LL.D., 

 professor of chemistry; Dr. Horatio C. Wood, 

 Jr., professor of pharmacology and thera- 

 peutics, and Dr. Seneca Egbert, professor of 

 hygiene. 



Dr. D. D. Leib, instructor in mathematics 

 at the Sheffield Scientific School, Tale Uni- 

 versity, has been appointed assistant professor 

 of mathematics and physics at the Connecticut 

 College for "Women. 



Dr. V. H. Young, formerly of the botany 

 department of the University of Wisconsin, 

 has been appointed assistant professor of 

 botany in the State University of Iowa. He 

 takes charge of the work in plant physiology 

 and mycology. 



Dr. Eugene P. Wightman has been ap- 

 pointed professor of chemistry at Richmond 

 College to succeed Professor Eugene C. Bing- 

 ham. Dr. Garnett Ryland, who was acting 

 professor of chemistry at Richmond College 

 last year, has returned to Georgetown College, 

 Georgetown, Ky., after a year's leave of 

 absence. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENTS UNDER THE 

 GOVERNMENT 



To the Editor of Science: Discussion of 

 the President's scientific appointments may 

 tend perceptibly toward politics, which is to be 

 regretted in a scientific journal. Nevertheless 

 I am in entire accord with the views of your 

 correspondent " R " in last week's number, 

 with the exception of two lines, which I take 

 leave to criticize. No doubt the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey is one of the most important 

 of our scientific bureaus, and one of which 

 we can be most proud. The men at the head 

 of it, as described in his most interesting 

 article in your issue of July 14 by Dr. T. C. 

 Mendenhall (not excluding himself, as he 

 modestly does), form a very distinguished 

 company, and we all wish that the quality 

 may be kept up. I at least wish that the 

 President had seen fit to appoint a superin- 

 tendent whose name could be found in " Who's 



Who in America." Nevertheless I am in- 

 formed by those competent to know that the 

 present superintendent is a very efficient head, 

 and we know that many of the scientific bu- 

 reaus have been at times under the direction 

 of non-scientific persons who have succeeded 

 admirably as administrators. Several of them 

 are now under the direction of men who have 

 not received the blue ribbon of election to the 

 National Academy of Sciences, although some 

 of their subordinates have done so. Even the 

 Coast Survey was once under a chief clerk 

 from another department. Personally I should 

 be glad to see a geodesist at the head of the 

 survey, which has, if I mistake not, never been 

 the case. Even Dr. Mendenhall does not men- 

 tion that one of the things that made the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey most famous in 

 Europe was the remarkable work of Dr. Hay- 

 ford in connection with the subject of isostasy, 

 so that it appears that we have geodesists in 

 this country, as well as hydrographers. 



Personally it is no more repugnant to me 

 to have a scientific bureau headed by a non- 

 scientist than to have a university under the 

 presidency of a person who is not a distin- 

 guished scholar, a contingency that is not un- 

 known. Sometimes this works very well, as in 

 the case of the late Seth Low, who converted 

 Columbia from a provincial college into a 

 great university. To be sure it is whispered 

 that the power behind the throne was his pres- 

 ent successor, but the case is a noteworthy 

 one. Believing, as I do, that nothing is of 

 more importance than learning, and in learn- 

 ing, than science, I do not wish to minimize 

 the importance of the selection of suitable 

 heads of learned and scientific institutions. 



I come now to the matter which prompted 

 the writing of this communication, and I take 

 the liberty of being somewhat personal. I wish 

 to protest against the characterization of " the 

 recently organized and mobilized aggregation 

 of assorted geniuses from which the President 

 and the country at large are expecting so 

 much." As a member of the Naval Consulting 

 Board I am getting very tired of such sneers, 

 and do not expect them from my scientific 

 colleagues. I was named for that board by 



