August 10, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



135 



California Fruit Growers' Exchange, has ac- 

 cepted an invitation from Herbert C. Hoover, 

 to take charge of the distribution of all perish- 

 able goods in the United States. Mr. Powell is 

 now in Washington. For many years he has 

 made his specialty the study of the problems of 

 food storage and transportation. From 1901 

 till 1911 he was in the bureau of plant indus- 

 try of the TJ. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Dr. a. J. Carlson, professor of physiology 

 in the University of Chicago, recently deliv- 

 ered an address on " The recent advances in 

 the physiology and pathology of the alimentary 

 tract," before the faculty and students of the 

 graduate summer quarter in medicine of the 

 University of Illinois. 



Professor Albert Frederick Ganz, of the 

 Stevens Institute of Technology, known for 

 his investigations on electricity, died by sui- 

 cide on July 27, aged forty-five years. 



Dr. L. E. Russell, formerly president of 



the American Medical Association, a physi- 

 cian and surgeon known nationally, died sud- 

 denly at his home in Springfield, Ohio, on 

 August 2, aged sixty-six years. 



WiLLUM Wallace Tooker, an authority on 

 Indian nomenclature and archeology, died on 

 August 1, after a long illness at his home in 

 Sag Harbor, L. I., at the age of sixty-nine 

 years. 



Dr. Robert Bell, F.R.S., formerly chief 

 geologist of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 has died at the age of seventy-six years. 



Edward Stanford, F.R.G.S. (son of the 

 founder of Edward Stanford, Limited, Lon- 

 don, cartographers to the king) a well-known 

 publisher and geographer of London, died on 

 June 6. His life was one of continued ac- 

 tivity in advancing the science of geography 

 and map-making. He had charge of all the 

 ordnance maps of the United Kingdom, and 

 issued numerous atlases, monographs, and 

 maps of all the countries of the world. 



We learn from Nature of the death of Pro- 

 fessor K. R. Birkeland, of Christiania, which 

 occurred in Tokyo on June 18. Professor 

 Eirkeland was largely interested in the extrac- 



tion of nitrogen from the atmosphere and 

 other industrial work, and is known to scien- 

 tific men for his observation and theories on 

 cosmical phenomena. 



The Fourth Annual Conference of the So- 

 ciety for Practical Astronomy will be held 

 August 16, 17 and 18, at the University of 

 Chicago. Professor F. R. Moulton, of the 

 university, and Professor W. D. MacMillan 

 will lecture at the sessions and there will be 

 papers presented by other members of the so- 

 ciety. The sessions are open to the public, and 

 visitors from other cities, whether members of 

 the society or not, are invited to attend. 



Surgeon General Gorgas has issued a state- 

 ment that medical students are not to be ex- 

 empt from draft, but will be given conditional 

 and limited furloughs to continue their med- 

 ical studies. This furlough is intended to fur- 

 nish an opportunity for the student to com- 

 plete his studies and obtain his required year 

 of hospital experience, so as to fit him for serv- 

 ice in the medical department of the army. 

 The Surgeon General, through the medical sec- 

 tion of the Council of National Defense, is en- 

 deavoring to prevent the undue depletion of 

 the civilian hospital staffs for service at the 

 front. 



A BILL has been introduced into the House 

 of Representatives, providing that there shaU 

 be established one additional division each of 

 mental hygiene and rural sanitation in the 

 United States Public Health Service, and said 

 divisions shall be in charge of commissioned 

 medical officers of the United States Public 

 Health Service, detailed by the Surgeon Gen- 

 eral, which officers, while thus serving, shall be 

 assistant surgeons general within the meaning 

 of section three of the act approved July 1, 

 1902, entitled " An act to increase the efficiency 

 and change the name of the United States Ma- 

 rine Hospital Service." Sec. 2. That the duties 

 of the division of mental hygiene shall be to 

 study and investigate mental disorders and 

 their causes, care and prevention. The duty 

 of the division of rural sanitation shall be to 

 investigate improved methods of rural sanita- 

 tion, and the prevention and suppression of 

 communicable diseases. 



