October 14, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



355 



United States from Mr. and Mrs. William 

 Kent, of California, and from the Muir Woods 

 and Mt. Tamalpais Railroad. The Muir Woods, 

 a notable grove of redwood trees, became the 

 property of the United States on June 9, 1908, 

 when Theodore Roosevelt accepted 295 acres 

 from Mr. and Mrs. Kent and proclaimed the 

 area a national monument. Situated on the 

 south slope of Mt. Tamalpais about seven miles 

 in a direct line across the bay from San 

 Francisco, it contains numerous redwood trees, 

 reaching to a height of 300 feet and having a 

 diameter at their base of 18 or more feet. 



Nature states that a joint research connnit- 

 tee has been formed by the National Benzole 

 Association and the University of Leeds which 

 will take over the direction of research in the 

 extraction and utilization of benzole and sim- 

 ilar products in England. The National 

 Benzole Association is concerned with the pro- 

 duction of crude and refined benzole, and, 

 according to its constitution, one of its objects 

 is to carry on, assist, and promote investiga- 

 tion and research. The term " benzole " is used 

 in its widest sense, so the field of activity of 

 the association embraces carbonization and 

 gasification processes, by-product coke-oven 

 plants, gasworks, etc., but at the present time 

 it is concerned mostly with the promotion of 

 home production of light oil and motor spirit. 

 Success in this direction is thought to rest 

 largely with chemical investigations into the 

 possibilities of the various processes concerned, 

 and it is with this object that cooperation with 

 the university is sought. The joint committee 

 which has been formed consists of equal num- 

 bers of representatives from the university and 

 the association, and the initial membership is 

 as follows : Professor J. W. Cobb, Professor J. 

 B. Cohen, Professor A. G. Perkin, Professor 

 Granville Poole, Professor A. Smithells, Mr. 

 W. G. Adams, Dr. T. Howard Butler, Mr. S. 

 Henshaw, Mr. S. A. Sadler, and Dr. E. W. 

 Smith. Research work undertaken will be car- 

 ried out under the supervision of Professor 

 Cobb, and reports embodying the results will 

 be published at intervals. 



The British Medical Journal writes: "At 



the request of the Surgeon-General of Trini- 

 dad, made through the American consul in 

 that island, the surgeon-general of the United 

 States Public Health Service has, with the con- 

 sent of the Treasury Department, undertaken 

 to send to Trinidad a quantity of the chaul- 

 moogra oil preparation used by that service for 

 the treatment of leprosy. The amount to be 

 supplied will be sufficient for 500 treatments. 

 The courtesy of the United States government 

 departments concerned must be freely acknowl- 

 edged ; but the fact that the government of the 

 United States was applied to by the medical 

 authorities of an important British colony for 

 this assistance appears to show that there is 

 something lacking in the relations between the 

 colonial medical authorities abroad and at 

 home, and in the cooperation between the dif- 

 ferent British government departments, more 

 particularly as the researches on the therapeu- 

 tics of chaulmoogra oil in leprosy have been 

 largely carried out by distinguished officers of 

 the Indian Medical Service." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



The General Education Board has given 

 Vassar $500,000 to increase the salaries of the 

 faculty. Toward this sum $100,000 has been 

 promised by Mrs. Edward S. Harkness on 

 condition that $1,500,000 more be raised within 

 two years. 



The new medical building of the University 

 of Alberta has now been completed. The sup- 

 port of the people of the province has made pos- 

 sible the establishment of a well-manned and 

 well-equipped medical school, which together 

 with several closely allied hospitals can under- 

 take the thorough education of medical and 

 dental practitioners. 



Dr. John Lee Coulter has been elected 

 president of the North Dakota Agricultural 

 College. He takes the place occupied by Dr. 

 E. F. Ladd, who was elected to the United 

 States Senate last March. 



Dr. p. W. Whiting, of St. Stephens Col- 

 lege, Annandale-on-Hudson, N. Y., has re- 

 signed to take up work as associate research 



