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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1144 



ing will not be occupied by students and can 

 be engaged by members. 



The announcements here made are only 

 those that have been reported well in advance 

 and represent a small part of the programs. 

 More than one thousand papers and addresses 

 will be presented at the meeting, which will 

 represent fully the advances of the natural, 

 exact and applied sciences during the past 

 year. There will, indeed, be so many simulta- 

 neous programs of interest that the difficulty 

 will be to choose among them. A meeting of 

 this size, however, will be held only once in 

 four years, and the conflict is after all not so 

 serious as if the meetings were held in differ- 

 ent cities. A- joint meeting of scientific men 

 working in all fields gives opportunity for them 

 to meet personally and to consult through com- 

 mittees and boards on means of promoting the 

 advance of science by joint action. A meet- 

 ing of such magnitude also serves to impress 

 on the general public the strength which sci- 

 ence has attained in this country, and the need 

 of supporting scientific research for the wel- 

 fare of the nation. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The John Fritz medal was awarded in Jan- 

 uary, 1916, to Dr. Elihu Thomson, for 

 " Achievements in Electrical Inventions, in 

 Electrical Engineering, in Industrial Develop- 

 ment and in Scientific Research." "We learn 

 from the Electrical World that the medal will 

 be presented to Dr. Thomson at a meeting to 

 be held in Boston on Friday evening, Decem- 

 ber 8. The presentation will take place in the 

 Central Lecture Hall of the new buildings of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 The program of the evening will include ad- 

 dresses by John J. Carty, chairman of the 

 presentation committee of the board of award ; 

 E. W. Rice, Jr., president of the General Elec- 

 tric Company, and Dr. Richard C. Maclaurin, 

 president of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. The presentation will be made 

 by Dr. Charles Warren Hunt, and the cere- 

 monies will conclude with the response of Dr. 

 Thomson. The John Fritz medal is awarded 



from time to time for notable scientific or in- 

 dustrial achievement, and was provided for in 

 a fund subscribed in memory of the great engi- 

 neering pioneer, John Fritz. The award of 

 the medal is made by a permanent board com- 

 posed of four members from each of four 

 American national engineering societies, 

 namely, the American Society of Civil Engi- 

 neers, the American Society of Mechanical 

 Engineers, the American Institute of Mining 

 Engineers and the American Institute of Elec- 

 trical Engineers. The members of the 1916 

 board are : Representing the civil engineers — 

 Charles Warren Hunt, John A. Oekerson, 

 George F. Swain, Charles D. Marx; represent- 

 ing the mechanical engineers — John R. Free- 

 man, Ambrose Swasey, John A. Brashear, 

 Frederick R. Hutton ; representing the mining 

 engineers — Albert Sauveur, E. Gybbon Spils- 

 bury, Charles F. Rand, Christopher R. Corn- 

 ing; representing the electrical engineers — 

 Ralph D. Mershon, C. O. Mailloux, Paul M. 

 Lincoln, John J. Carty. 



The trustees of Cornell University have ac- 

 cepted the resignation of George Sylvanus 

 Moler, professor of physics, to take effect in 

 June, 1917. Professor Moler will retire from 

 teaching, having reached the age limit. The 

 board placed upon its minutes the following 

 resolution : 



Resolved, that the trustees in aeeepting the res- 

 ignation of Professor Moler desire to express their 

 high appreciation of his faithful and devoted serv- 

 ice to the university in the department of physics 

 for over forty years. As a teacher he is held in 

 affectionate and grateful remembrance by many 

 generations of university students. For twelve 

 years he shared with Professor Anthony the en- 

 tire work of the department and during that period 

 in collaboration with him designed, constructed 

 and installed the first dynamo in America, the first 

 arc-lighting system (that on the campus of Cornell 

 University), and the first apparatus for the elec- 

 trolytic production on a considerable scale of 

 oxygen and hydrogen. He has also devised count- 

 less original and ingenious pieces of apparatus of 

 incalculable value to the department of physics. 

 And the photographic laboratory in Eockefeller 

 Hall, with its original and unique equipment, is 

 largely of his planning. 



