490 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1403 



Miss Eunice Eockwood Obeely, librarian 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture since 1908, whose 

 knowledge of the organization and relations 

 of phytopathological literature was probably 

 unique, died suddenly at her home in Wash- 

 ington on the morning of N'ovember 5. 



John Augustine Zahm died in Munich, Ba- 

 varia, of pneumonia, on November 11. Dr. 

 Zahm was born in Ohio and graduated in 

 1871 from Notre Dame, with which university 

 he was connected for many years as head of 

 its scientific department, as curator of its mu- 

 seum, and then as president of the board of 

 trustees. He was the author of numerous 

 books concerned largely with the relations of 

 science to religion. 



Dr. Emil a. Budde, the German electrical 

 engineer, died recently at the age of eighty. 

 He was president of the International Electro- 

 chemical Commission, succeeding Dr. Elihu 

 Thomson. 



The president and council of the Eoyal 

 Society, London, announce that, in view of 

 the economic condition of the coimtry, the 

 anniversary dinner of the society will not 

 be held this year. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 



NEWS 



Sm Edward Allen Brotherton, Bt., M.P., 

 has given £20,000 to the University of Leeds 

 for the development of bacterial study and 

 research, more particularly in the interests 

 of public health. 



A verdict of $25,000 damages has been ren- 

 dered against Cornell University in the action 

 brought by Louise Hamburger '20. In making 

 his charge to the jury. Justice Kellogg said 

 that the verdict to be given rested upon one 

 point only, as to whether the university was 

 negligent in employing a small boy in the 

 chemistry stock-room. A motion for retrial 

 has been made. 



E. S. Lowe, of the Nitrate Division of the 

 Ordnance Department of the Army, has been 

 appointed dean of the department of chemical 

 engineering of the University of Cincinnati. 



C. E. Alden, formerly dean of the school 

 of engineering. Institute of Technology, 



Detroit, has accepted an appointment as dean 

 of the college of engineering, Ohio Northern 

 University, Ada, Ohio. 



Among changes in the medical faculty at 

 Yale are: Dr. Francis Q. Blake appointed 

 John Slate Ely professor of medicine; Dr. 

 Edwards Albert Park, professor of pedi- 

 atrics; Dr. Arthur M. Morse, professor and 

 head of the department of obstetrics and 

 gynecology; Dr. John T. Peters, Jr., associ- 

 ate professor of medicine and Dr. Albert T. 

 Shoal, associate professor of pediatrics. Dr. 

 Samuel C. Hardey, associate professor of 

 surgery, has been placed in charge of the 

 surgical department of the school. 



Dr. Lansing S. Wells, until recently a 

 research chemist with the Barrett Company, 

 Frankford, Philadelphia, Pa., has accepted an 

 appointment as assistant professor of organic 

 and physical chemistry, Montana State Col- 

 lege, Bozeman. 



Professor H. C. Plummer, F.E.S., has been 

 appointed professor of mathematics of the 

 Ordnance College, Woolwich, England. 



At the opening of the winter session of 

 St. Andrews University, Scotland, the newly 

 appointed professor of chemistry. Dr. Eobert 

 Eobinson, F.E.S., and the newly appointed 

 professor of bacteriology. Dr. William J. 

 Tullock, were inducted into their respective 

 offices. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



LATITUDE AND VERTEBR.S; 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science for 

 December 26, 1919, is a suggestive note by 

 Mr. A. G. Huntsman on the problem of 

 " Latitude and Vertebrae " among fishes, a 

 problem of reality and importance which I 

 have thus had mostly to myself, and to which 

 I have failed to find a solution. As Mr. 

 Huntsman observes, not only have the north- 

 ern species a progressively increased number 

 of vertebrae, but a similar variation may occur 

 within the limits of the species itself. In 

 the flounder, Hippoglossoides platessoides, the 

 northern examples have most vertebrae, while 

 in the herring — Clupea harengus, the num- 

 bers of vertebrae decrease in passing from the 



