OcroseR 25, 1918] 
government assistance, documents must be 
presented showing the existence of suitable 
lands and other facilities to maintain such 
establishments. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
NEWS 
Ir is planned to build a hospital on the 
campus of the University of Washington, 
Seattle, to cost a million dollars and which is 
to form the nucleus for a medical department 
of the university. 
Wim P. Brooks, Ph.D., director of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, has resigned his position. Dr. Brooks 
has been connected with the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College since 1889, previous to 
which he was professor of agriculture for 
twelve years in the Imperial College of Japan. 
He will continue in the service of the experi- 
ment station as consulting agriculturist. 
Proressor W. C. Sasine, acting director of 
the Jefferson Physical Laboratory of Harvard 
University, has retired and is succeeded by 
Professor Edwin H. Hall. 
Dr. Paut F. Garnr, of the department of 
physics at Wells College, has been appointed 
acting professor at Cornell University, where 
he will assist in the Students’ Army Training 
Corps two days a week. 
E. C. AucuTer, associate professor of hor- 
ticulture at the University of West Virginia, 
has been employed by the Maryland State Col- 
lege to head the department of horticulture. 
Rosert O. CaALpwetL, Ph.D. (Princeton, 
718) formerly professor of physics at Geneva 
College, has accepted a position as assistant 
professor of physics at West Virginia Univer- 
sity. 
Tue following appointments have been made 
at Marquette School of Medicine: Mrs, Paul 
M. Smith, M.A. (Wisconsin), formerly assist- 
ant in botany at University of Wisconsin, as 
instructor in bacteriology. Mr. C. A. Hills, 
M.A., formerly instructor in physiology at the 
University of Kansas, now in charge of labora- 
tory work in physiology and pharmacology, as 
SCIENCE 
417 
instructor. Mr. A. H. Hersch, M.A., formerly 
instructor in biology at the Kansas State Agri- 
cultural College, as instructor in the depart- 
ment of anatomy and biology. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 
MR. ABBOT’S THEORY OF THE PYRHELIO- 
METER 
To THE Epitor or Science: Referring to 
Mr. Abbot’s open letter to me, published in 
Scrence, June 21, 1918, I should like to make 
a few remarks. The important points can be 
taken as two, which require attention. 
1. The first is that my research ranks as an 
“interesting speculation” without “ quanti- 
tative value.” After adapting the Boyle-Gay- 
Lussac Law, P—=pRT, to atmospheric physics, 
the computations proceed by using only the 
standard formulas of thermodynamics, kinetic 
theory of gases, and electron physics; the 
checks are always complete and numerous; the 
results are in full agreement with observa- 
tional data, so that Mr. Abbot’s statement im- 
plies that these laws have no application in 
free atmospheres, which few will admit. The 
results have succeeded in clearing up a long 
series of heretofore unsolved problems, circu- 
lation, thermal data of various types from the 
adiabatic strata to the top of the various 
atmospheres, the origin of atmospheric elec- 
tricity and magnetism, the thermodynamic 
environment of several spectra in the sun, 
and the end is not in sight. The Planck 
theory of radiation, the Bohr origin of spec- 
trum lines, and the electron-atomic data are 
already seen from a new point of view. There 
are few computations whose data interpene- 
trate and are supported by so many distinct 
series of physical laws as are these, and the 
evidence is that they form the basis for future 
developments in atmospheric physics. 
2. The second point is that Mr. Abbot 
reiterates this argument: that his well-known 
method of discussing the pyrheliometrie ob- 
servations must be correct, because it produces 
the same solar constant, 1.94 9?. cal./em,? min., 
when repeated many times at many stations. 
If the method is erroneous it can not be made 
valid by repetition. It will be recalled that 
