October 7, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



329 



of exceptional creative ability in any field of 

 human interest and activity. Nominations for 

 the scholarship may be made to the registrar 

 of the university by superintendents or prin- 

 cipals of schools, by teachers, or by any one 

 else. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Tale University has received gifts and 

 pledges for the $2,000,000 additional endow- 

 ment required to meet the terms of the con- 

 ditional offer of $3,000,000 made at com- 

 mencement in 1920 by " an anonymous friend 

 of the university." ISTo definite statement has 

 been made of the manner in which the en- 

 dowment will be used, but it is said that the 

 Sterling bequest of $18,000,000 and the Hark- 

 ness gift of about $6,000,000 had bestowed 

 upon the university building facilities without 

 provision for professorships, for which addi- 

 tional endowment is urgently needed. 



Appraisal of the estate of the late William 

 F. Armstrong, of 'New York, shows that he 

 left property valued at $1,822,192. Public 

 bequests exceeding $1,000,000, include a be- 

 quest of $100,000 and the residuary estate, 

 amounting to $726,786, to Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity. 



Dr. George W. Pierce has been appointed as 

 Rumf ord professor of physics at Harvard Uni- 

 versity, to succeed Dr. Edwin H. Hall, who 

 has retired from active teaching, and Dr. 

 Theodore Lyman has been appointed Hollis 

 professor of mathematics and natural phi- 

 losophy, the chair successively held by the 

 late Benjamin Peirce and Wallace C. Sabine. 



Additions have been made to the senior 

 staff in chemistry at the University of Illinois 

 as follows: Drs. H. A. ISTeville, and C. D. 

 Hurd, of Princeton; Dr. Edith H. ISTason, of 

 Tale; and Dr. T. E. Phipps, of California, in 

 the division of inorganic chemistry ; Dr. B. 

 L. Souther, of Harvard, in the division of 

 organic chemistry; Dr. G. F. Smith, of the 

 University of Michigan, in the division of 

 analytical chemistry; Dr. E. K. Carver, of 

 Harvard, in the division of physical chem- 



istry; Dr. M. J. Bradley, of Illinois, in the 

 division of industrial chemistry, and Dr. R. 

 E. Greenfield, of Illinois, in the division of 

 sanitary chemistry and water analysis. 



Julian D. Corrington has resigned the po- 

 sition of curator in the department of zo- 

 ology of Cornell University, to accept the 

 appointment of associate professor of biology 

 in the University of South Carolina, Colum- 

 bia, S. C. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



GRAND AURORA OF SEPTEMBER 12, 1921 (AT 

 SILVER, LAKE, N. H., LAT. 43.9° N.) 



An unusual aurora was seen at Silver 

 Lake, IST. H. (lat. 43.9° IST.), on the night of 

 September 1-2, 1921. Auroral glow was first 

 noted at about 8 p.m. (75th mer. time). At 

 9 it was a bright arch with some streamers, 

 and at 9:30 stretched from about ISTW. to 

 NE., was double and locally knotty, and from 

 time to time showed some motion when faint 

 streamers reached up to a height of 30° above 

 or down to the horizon under the general 

 arch. Towards 10 the lights seemed to be 

 getting fainter. At 2 a.m. I was awakened to 

 see the sky filled with enormous flashing cur- 

 tains. The whole family turned out onto the 

 lake. No lights were needed and the pulsa- 

 tions were sufficient to be readily apparent in 

 the house without looking at the sky. Viewed 

 from the calm, " streaming " lake the sky was 

 magnificent. Great folds of perhaps a dozen 

 whitish curtains covered the sky except for 

 a segment about 15° high in the south. Here 

 and there a reddish tinge showed at the base 

 of brighter folds. Waves of light rapidly 

 traversed the sky upwards to the magnetic 

 zenith, where some of the filmy curtains met 

 in solid light traversed with beautiful curved 

 lines. The stars, which were brilliant, at- 

 tracted the attention of the small children 

 nearly as much as did the sheets of light that 

 " winkled." The youngest, 15 months old, 

 gazed steadily for several minutes at the bright 

 flickerings in the NW. at 2:30. The display 

 slowly faded, but at 2:45 there were still 

 some lights in the zenith and to about 30° 

 south of it. The aurora, flashing all the time 



