572 
disabled, which each country can adapt to its 
own laws and customs; to group and centralize 
the data and the lessons learned from ex- 
perience, and to apply them and aid in every 
way the mutilated and to extend this aid into 
the future after the war. By this coordination 
of efforts each one of the allied peoples will be 
able to profit by the improvements and achieve- 
ments realized in any one of them. 
THE announcement was recently made in 
the British Parliament by the president of 
the Board of Agriculture that active steps have 
been taken with a view to the establishment at 
Cambridge of an Institute of Agricultural Bot- 
any, the primary function of which will be the 
breeding and distributing of improved vari- 
eties of agricultural crops. The plan in ques- 
tion was very fully described by Mr. Law- 
rence Weaver, of the Board of Agriculture, at 
a meeting of the Agricultural Seed Associa- 
tion held on July 15. It appears that the new 
institute will be modelled on the famous Swed- 
ish plant-breeding station at Svalof, and that 
its activities will be to follow two distinct 
lines, one of which will be purely scientific, 
while the other will have a commercial outlook. 
More precisely, the scientific wing will be con- 
cerned with the producing of pure cultures of 
new varieties on the field-plot scale; the eco- 
nomic wing will deal with the growing and 
distribution on a large scale of these varieties. 
Presumably, on the Svalof model, the scien- 
tifie side will oversee the operations of the 
commercial to the extent of guaranteeing the 
purity of the stocks distributed by the latter. 
It is announced that subscriptions towards 
the establishment of the new institute amount- 
ing in the aggregate to upwards of £30,000 
have already been received including a sum of 
£10,000 down and £2,000 a year for five years 
from a commercial firm and that the Board 
of Agriculture will provide the necessary 
buildings and equipment. 
Tue Association of British Chemical Manu- 
facturers has in preparation a directory of 
British chemical products, and the manufac- 
turers from whom they can be procured. The 
directory, which will be printed in English, 
French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Rus- 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIII. No. 1249 
sian and Spanish, is expected to be published 
before the end of the year. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
NEWS 
By the will of the late Andrew Dixon White, 
Cornell University will receive $160,000 on 
the death of Mrs. White. It receives many 
paintings and other objects. Dr. White had 
already given the university his general and 
architectural libraries, scientific apparatus, 
funds for extinguishment of debt, illustrative 
material and other items, and also his house 
which cost about $75,000. Yale University, 
Dr. White’s alma mater, receives $5,000 for 
the endowment of the Andrew Dickson White 
prizes in history and composition, which were 
established and have since been maintained by 
Professor Guy Stanton Ford. 
Dr. A. Hoyt Taytor, for nine years pro- 
fessor of physics and head of the department, 
University of North Dakota, having resigned 
after a year’s leave of absence, to continue his 
war service as lieutenant commander of Naval 
Radio Communication, in charge of Atlantic 
Coast Service, Dr. B. J. Spence, associate pro- 
fessor of physics, has been promoted to a full 
professorship to be head of the department. 
Dr. Spence has been at North Dakota for the 
past eight years. Dr. John W. Cox, professor 
of pathology and director of the State Public 
Health Laboratory, University of North Da- 
kota, having resigned to enter the United 
States Public Health Service, he is sueceeded 
by Dr. Alfred G. Long, of Mankato, Minn., 
as acting director. 
Prorressor C. L. Daz, of the Missouri 
School of Mines, has returned to his regular 
duties, after spending his year’s leave of ab- 
sence as a petroleum geologist. 
_ Aurrep E. Day, formerly of the Syrian Prot- 
estant College, has been appointed professor of 
biology in the University of Buffalo. 
Dr. Cuartes Packarp, recently instructor in 
zoology in Columbia University, has arrived in 
Peking, China, where he will have charge of 
the work in biology in the Union Medical Col- 
