NovemMsBeER 8, 1918] 
MEDICAL COMMISSION TO ECUADOR 
To prepare for after-the-war commerce and 
make possible, by prevention of diseases such as 
yellow fever, a great expansion of trade be- 
tween the United States and the west coast of 
South America, the Rockefeller Foundation 
sent, last summer, a commission to Ecuador. 
The three American members of this commis- 
sion, which returned to Chicago early in Oc- 
tober, are members of the medical school fac- 
ulty of Northwestern University, Chicago, Illi- 
nois, Dean Arthur I. Kendall, who is a director 
of the Rockefeller Foundation for experimental 
work; Professor Charles A. Elliott, and Pro- 
fessor H. E. Redenbaugh. Dean Kendall for 
two years served under General Wm. C. Gor- 
gas during the construction of the Panama 
Canal. 
The commission left the United States in 
July and spent most of the time investigating 
conditions in the hospitals, pest houses and 
laboratories of the city of Guayaquil, which is 
the capital and principal city of Ecuador. 
Latin American papers received here from 
Guayaquil and other places show that a warm 
welcome was accorded the investigators who, in 
their words, were “ putting into practise scien- 
tific methods for the purpose of invevstigating 
the parasite responsible for the yellow fever.” 
The South Americans were also pleased with 
the prospect that the work of the commission 
in allaying this disease would prepare the way 
for the opening of commerce on a larger scale 
with the United States. At present, there is 
in preparation a complete report with recom- 
mendations of the commission. This will soon 
be issued by the Rockefeller Foundation and 
should prove of special interest, not only to 
scientific men, but to business men and others 
who are looking to after-the-war commercial 
expansion. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 
Tue autumn meeting of the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences will be held in Baltimore on 
Monday and Tuesday, November 18 and 19, 
1918, at the Johns Hopkins University, Home- 
wood. Scientific sessions will be held on both 
days. Luncheons will be served at the Johns 
SCIENCE 
465 
Hopkins Club, where the meetings will also be 
held. The academy dinner will take place at 
the Maryland Club on Monday evening. 
On account of the epidemic of influenza the 
public meetings of the American Ornitholo- 
gists’ Union which were to have been held in 
New York, November 12 to 14, will be omitted. 
The regular meeting of the fellows and mem- 
bers for the election of officers and the tran- 
saction of other business will be held on Mon- 
day evening, November 11, at 8 P.M. at the 
American Museum of Natural History. 
LreuTENANT CotoneL W. OC. Spruance has 
been placed in charge of chemicals in the Ord- 
nance Department. 
Proressor H. A. Kenyon, of the college of 
engineering of the University of Michigan, was 
commissioned as captain during the month of 
August, and assigned to the executive division 
of the general staff. 
Dr. Frank T. F. STEPHENSON, past president 
of the Detroit Section of the American Chem- 
ical Society, has been commissioned captain 
in the Medical Corps. 
Proressor I. W. Battey, of the Bussey In- 
stitute for Research in Applied Biology, has 
been given leave of absence by Harvard Uni- 
versity and has accepted a position in the ma- 
terials engineering department, Bureau of Air- 
eraft Production, Dayton, Ohio. 
Proressor W. R. Dopson, dean of the col- 
lege of agriculture and director of experiment 
stations of the Louisiana State University, is 
working with the Food Administration in the 
division of agricultural relations. 
Franois D. Farrett, dean in the Kansas 
State Agricultural College, has been appointed 
by Governor Arthur Capper to membership in 
the Kansas council of defense. Dean Farrell 
has also been made a member of the committee 
on agricultural production of this body. 
Mr. Pour G. Wricutsman, formerly in- 
structor in chemistry at Iowa State College, 
is now in the Chemical Warfare Service work- 
ing on toxic gases in the Research Division, 
American University, Washington, D. C. 
