December 8, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



815 



Illinois on December 6 and 7. Partly in con- 

 nection with the exercises of the dedication of 

 the new ceramics building, there will be held 

 the annual session of the Illinois Municipal 

 League, the 7th and 8th of December. Uni- 

 versity men giving addresses at this meeting 

 will be Professor F. H. Newell, who speaks on 

 " City Pavements " ; Professor Edward Bar- 

 ton, on " The Latest Methods of Sewage Treat- 

 ment " ; Professor J. E. Smith on " Delays in 

 the Execution of Public Works " ; H. E. Bab- 

 bitt on " Organization of Water Depart- 

 ments," and Professor J. M. Mathews on " Law 

 Enforcement and Home Pule." 



Mrs. W. L. Mardsen, of Seneca, Oregon, 

 has given to the University of California ex- 

 tensive texts, grammatical notes and a vocab- 

 ulary of the northern Piute language, recorded 

 by her husband, the late Dr. W. L. Marsden. 

 It is intended that these materials shall be 

 edited by Professor A. L. Kroeber, for publi- 

 cation in the University of California publica- 

 tions in American archeology and ethnology. 



We learn from the Journal of the American 

 Medical Association that Nielsine Nelson, the 

 first woman physician in Denmark, bequeathed 

 to the medical faculty of the University of 

 Copenhagen three funds of 20,000 crowns each 

 for scholarships for needy women medical stu- 

 dents, and a further 50,000 crowns for the 

 same purpose in the name of Ludvig Trier, a 

 friend who had aided her and other students. 



Dr. George E. Vincent, president of the 

 University of Minnesota, has been appointed 

 president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and 

 will take up this work on May 15, 1917. He 

 succeeds Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who 

 will become chairman of the board of trustees, 

 a newly created office. It will be remembered 

 that Mr. Jerome D. Greene recently resigned 

 the secretaryship of the board. 



Professor Ernest Linwood Walker, of the 

 University of the Philippines, has been ap- 

 pointed a lecturer on tropical medicine at the 

 Harvard Medical School. 



Mr. W. L. Doran, for the last two years 

 graduate assistant in botany at the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College, has been appointed 



instructor in botany and assistant botanist at 

 the New Hampshire Agricultural College and 

 Experiment Station. 



Dr. Roy G. Hoskins has been appointed 

 associate professor of physiology in the North- 

 western University Medical School. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE AURORA OF AUGUST 

 26 FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALASKA 



Since the auroral display of August 26 has 

 been reported from so many places I will take 

 occasion to slightly extend the area over which 

 it was observed by advising that it was a very 

 conspicuous feature of the northern sky at 

 Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

 It was therefore observed from Atlantic to 

 Pacific. ELa.y Alexander 



November 15, 1916 



I had an unusual opportunity for observing 

 the auroral display of August 26, being at 

 that time camped on the recently discovered 

 Mount Alexander Mackenzie, on the crest of 

 the Rockies of British Columbia in latitude 

 53° 57', longitude 120° 27'. 



Auroral displays are not unusual in this 

 region even in summer, but the phenomenon 

 of August 26 was by far the most brilliant and 

 remarkable I have observed. It occurred at 

 a very opportune time for me, as I was then 

 returning after an exploration of the great 

 west glacier. I got off the ice at 7 :45 p.m., as 

 the last rays of twilight faded; as I had still 

 three miles to travel to camp, including the 

 crossing of a steep 2,000 foot canyon, I was 

 facing a chilly night under the stars, when 

 quite suddenly the whole heavens became 

 brilliantly illuminated and I was thus en- 

 abled to make the difficult climb back to 

 camp. 



The display began about 8:30 p.m. Pacific 

 (120th meridian) time, with the formation of 

 a bow of light in the north, surmounting a 

 dark area which suggested the Crookes dark 

 space in a vacuum tube. This increased in 

 brilliancy and was supplemented by other irreg- 

 ular bows or bands of light, crossing the sky 

 from east to west. These were the principal 



