AveustT 9, 1918] 
fense appliances, including gas-filling plants and 
proving grounds utilized in connection therewith. 
5. All unexpended funds of appropriations here- 
tofore made for the Medical Department or Ord- 
nance Department and already allotted for use in 
connection with the operation and maintenance of 
‘plants now engaged in, or under construction for 
the purpose of engaging in, the investigation, 
manufacture or production of toxie gases or gas 
defense appliances, including gas-shell filling 
plants, are hereby transferred to, and placed under 
the jurisdiction of the director of the Chemical 
Warfare Service for the purpose of meeting the 
obligations and expenditures authorized; and, in 
so far as such funds have not been already specifi- 
eally allotted by the Medical Department and the 
Ordnance Department for the purposes specified 
herein, they shall now be allotted by the Secretary 
of War, in such proportions as shall to him seem 
best intended to meet the requirements of the situ- 
ation and the intentions of Congress when making 
said appropriations, and the funds so allotted by 
the Secretary of War to meet the activities of the 
Chemical Warfare Service, as heretofore defined 
herein, are hereby transferred to, and placed under 
the jurisdiction of, the director of the Chemical 
Warfare Service for the purpose of meeting the 
authorized obligations and expenditures of the 
Chemical Warfare Service. 
6. This order shall be and remain in full force 
and effect during the continuation of the present 
war and for six months after the determination 
thereof by proclamation of the treaty of peace, or 
until theretofore amended, modified or rescinded. 
II. By direction of the President, Major Gen- 
eral William L. Sibert, United States Army, is re- 
lieved from duty as director of the Gas Service, 
and is detailed as director of the Chemical War- 
fare Service, National Army. 
TRAINING OF COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR 
MEDICAL CORPS OFFICERS 
Tue Medical Department of the Army, 
through the National Research Council, will 
shortly issue an appeal to American colleges 
and universities urging them to alter their 
curriculum so that third and fourth year stu- 
dents may receive special training which will 
enable them to qualify as officers and for other 
work in the Medical Department. 
The appeal will be sent to all the principal 
colleges and universities in the country, but as 
1 Publication authorized by the War Department 
from the office of the Surgeon General. 
SCIENCE 
135 
it is realized that important institutions may 
not for various reasons receive the appeal, the 
request is made that all directing heads of 
such institutions write to either Dr. Richard 
M. Pearce, of the National Research Council, 
Washington, or to the Division of Labora- 
tories, Office of the Surgeon-General, Wash- 
ington, for details of the proposed plan. 
These colleges will render valuable assist- 
ance to the government by offering these 
special course to their students who will 
enter the Army when they become of age or 
in the event that they volunteer before that 
time. The students desired are those who 
are taking the various scientific courses. The 
course proposed by the Medical Department: 
should appeal to men who are specializing in 
biology, zoology, plant pathology, and in in- 
dustrial and agricultural bacteriology. 
In a number of institutions the necessary 
courses can be arranged by a simple modifi- 
cation of the already existing course in bac- 
teriology with added emphasis on special sub- 
jects of value to the Army. 
After completing such courses arrangements 
for enlistment can be made through the Sur- 
geon-General’s Office if the applicant is under 
draft age, and if of draft age he can be in- 
ducted into the service and assigned where 
his special training will be of value. 
This plan has already been tested in two col- 
leges and the success attained has led the Med- 
ical Department to apply it to as many colleges 
as possible. From one such institution every 
man taking the modified course was admitted 
directly into the Army and went to one of the 
training schools, where a portion of them will 
later qualify for commissions in the Sanitary 
Corps. Others have qualified for positions at 
field or mobile laboratory units and as as- 
sistants in base and evacuation hospitals. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
Dr. James F. Norris, who has been with the 
Bureau of Mines Experiment Station, has 
been commissioned a lieutenant-colonel in the 
Chemical Service Section of the National 
Army and is to be stationed in London as the 
