July 6, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



13 



The council discussed at length ways and 

 means by which the founder societies through 

 the council may be of use to the nation. The 

 unanimous desire to help the government in 

 the prosecution of this war resulted in a resolu- 

 tion instructing the executive committee to 

 cooperate with the government in procuring 

 the services of engineers, also the appointment 

 of a committee of three consisting of Messrs. 

 H. W. Buck, A. M. Greene, Jr., and Edmund 

 B. Kirby, to consider the best means of utiliz- 

 ing the inventive ability of members of the 

 founders societies. 



The secretary was instructed to inform all 

 government bureaus that might be interested 

 in the organization of the Engineering Coun- 

 cil and its desire to be of assistance. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Index to Volume XLV. of Science is 

 published with the present issue. It is sent 

 to libraries and to those who have requested 

 that copies of the index be sent regularly. It 

 will be sent to any subscriber on application. 



The d^ree of D.Sc. has been conferred by 

 Williams College on Eobert Grant Aiken, '87, 

 since 1895 astronomer at the Lick Observa- 

 tory. 



At its ninety-sixth annual commencement 

 the George Washington University conferred 

 its doctorate of science on George Perkins 

 Merrill, of the U. S. National Museum; on 

 Ekner Ernest Southard, of the Harvard Med- 

 ical School; on Arthur Powell Davis, of the 

 Reclamation Service, and on Frederick Fuller 

 Eussel, major, Medical Corps, U. S. Army. 



The University of Arkansas has conferred 

 its doctorate of laws on the governor of the 

 state, Charles H. Brough, who before his elec- 

 tion was professor of economics and sociology 

 in the imiversity. 



Sm David Peain, director of the Kew 

 Botanical Gardens, has been elected president 

 of the Linnean Society. 



Alfred H. Brooks, formerly in charge of 

 the Division of Alaskan Mineral Eesources of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey, has been ap- 

 ixiinted a captain in the Engineer Officers 



Reserve Corps and ordered to report for train- 

 ing. During Mr. Brooks's absence on mili- 

 tary duty, Mr. George C. Martin wiU be 

 geologist, acting in charge of Alaskan work. 



We learn from Nature that Mr. J. Rams- 

 bottom, of the department of botany, British 

 Museiun, has been appointed protozoologist to 

 the medical staff at Salonika. The trustees 

 of the museum have accepted Miss Lorrain 

 Smith's offer to act as temporary assistant in 

 charge of the fungi during Mr. Ranisbottom.'s 

 absence. 



Miss Amy Walker, M.A., Smith College, 

 has been appointed research assistant in the 

 chemistry of foods, Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, under the Ellen H. Richards 

 Fund, for the year 1917-1918. The work 

 will be carried on under the direction of Pro- 

 fessor A. G. Woodman, and it is proposed to 

 study chemical changes, with special refer- 

 ence to the nitrogen compounds, which take 

 place when fish decomposes before and after 

 heating at relatively high temperatures. This 

 question is of particular interest in the sar- 

 dine industry. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton has now returned 

 to England, after lecturing in Australia and 

 America. He has received a commission in 

 the army. 



Professor Joseph S. Ames, of the Johns 

 Hopkins University, who was sent to France 

 early in April under the auspices of the Coun- 

 cil of ITational Defense, has returned to Balti- 

 more. Professor Ames will report on the de- 

 velopment of aeronautics. 



Dr. H. D. Dakin, who was appointed last 

 March, with Dr. Alexis Carrel, to have charge 

 of the military hospital which is being con- 

 structed and equipped by the Rockefeller 

 Foundation on the grounds of the Rockefeller 

 Institute of Medical Research, has returned 

 to ISTew York. Dr. Dakin went over to France 

 in April to consult with Dr. Carrel, with whom 

 he worked during 1915 and 1916 as a bacter- 

 iologist. 



The Linnean Society, London, has pre- 

 sented the Linnean gold medal to Mr. H. P. 

 Guppy for his services to biology, and the 



