September 2, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



191 



has been done on the cyanamide process that is 

 used in the Muscle Shoals plant, but the Haber 

 and arc processes have also been studied. The 

 laboratory will still consider nitrogen produc- 

 tion from a military viewpoint, but it will do 

 intensive work on problems of nitrogen sup- 

 ply for agricultural purposes. The laboratory 

 and the Bureau of Plant Industry of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture have in the past year 

 made extensive field tests on various fertilizers 

 produced at the Alabama plants, and it is 

 planned to continue and enlarge these tests. 

 Dr. R. O. E. Davis, in charge of the soil phys- 

 ical investigation of the Bureau of Soils, has 

 been cooperating in these tests. 



The American Astronomical Society held 

 its annual meeting at the Van Yleek Observa- 

 tory, Middletown, Conn., from August 30 to 

 September 1. The following observatories, 

 colleges and institutions were represented: 

 United States Naval Observatory, Lick Ob- 

 servatory, Mt. Wilson Observatory, Allegheny 

 Observatory, Dominion Observatory (Canada), 

 Dudley Observatory, Harvard, Yale, University 

 of Illinois, Ohio State, Princeton, Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology, Swarthmore, 

 Syracuse, Dartmouth, New York University, 

 Brown, Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, 

 Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Eastman Kodak 

 Company, Elgin Watch Company, Warner and 

 Swasey Co., Alvan Clark Company and Ameri- 

 can Optical Company. The program for the 

 meeting contained thirty-eight papers based 

 upon observations with the spectroscope, seven 

 papers dealt with stellar parallaxes or the dis- 

 stances of the stars and their distribution in 

 space, and four papers were on the nebulse. 



The British expedition which is aiming at 

 the conquest of Mount Everest in the Hima- 

 layas, the world's highest peak, has completed 

 its explorations to the north and west of the 

 mountain without discovering a practical route 

 to the summit, it is announced in a Renter 

 dispatch from Simla. Some hope is still en- 

 tertained, however, that a route may be gained 

 on the northeast flank of the great mountain, 

 and when the monsoon abates another effort 

 will be made. Meanwhile the headquarters of 



the expedition have been moved toward Kharta, 

 upon which point the further effort will be 

 based. The present expedition has surveyed 

 about 10,000 square miles of territory on and 

 adjacent to Mount Everest. 



According to the Journal of Industrial and 

 Engineering Chemistry, the first conference 

 of the complete Pharmacopeial Committee of 

 Revision was held July 1 and 2, 1921, at Phila- 

 delphia, Pa. The first day was devoted to sub- 

 committee conferences, and at the close of the 

 day all subcommittees reported their current 

 problems settled or decided as far as possible. 

 The following day was devoted to a meeting of 

 the General Committee. A committee was 

 appointed to take up the recommendation of 

 the Pharmacopeial Convention that a confer- 

 ence on international standards be called be- 

 fore the completion of the Tenth Revision of 

 the U. S. P. An announcement was made of 

 the authorization by the Board of Trustees of 

 the use of the U. S. P. IX. text for translation 

 into Chinese. It is expected that this will be 

 accepted by Chinese government officials and 

 become the Pharmacopeia of China, First Edi- 

 tion. It was also announced that individual 

 work on pharmacopeial problems could by 

 special permission be released for publication. 

 A conference was held with the Prohibition 

 Commissioner in regard to the proposed co- 

 operation between the department and the 

 Committee of Revision on all questions in 

 which pharmacopeial alcoholic preparations 

 are involved. 



A NEW forest experiment station, the first 

 in eastern states, has been established at Ashe- 

 ville, N. C, by the forest service of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. Steady 

 depletion of the southern Appalachian timber 

 supply has been responsible for the location 

 of this station in the east; and the object of 

 the work to be conducted will be to secure the 

 information needed by foresters to determine 

 the best methods of handling forest lands 

 in the southern mountains. 



The provisional figures of births registered 

 in England and Wales during the first quarter 

 of 1921 show a decline of over 61,000 from 



