152 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1181 



greater extension of the society. We have 

 but thirty chapters, an increase of but ten 

 in the past ten years or more. There are at 

 least a hundred institutions in America 

 that need such encouragement as we can 

 give. We have hesitated to extend our so- 

 ciety, not because we are aristocratic, but 

 because we earnestly desire to keep its 

 ideals high, and know no way by which to 

 ensure their preservation. 



A step has been taken, one that I have 

 hoped for for years, to define more pre- 

 cisely our ideals that we may entrust them 

 fearlessly and safely to every institution 

 where a few of us are gathered together. 

 And I am still further encouraged to be- 

 lieve that in the end, even though it be 

 slowly, it will lead to the results I have 

 long hoped for, the extension of our society 

 throughout our nation. Other organizations 

 are doing much for the promotion of scien- 

 tific research; ours is the nobler duty to 

 train men and women for research in sci- 

 ence, both pure and applied, to sustain, to 

 encourage the university in the develop- 

 ment of the science of the nation. Yale has 

 done very much in the past, I am sure it 

 will take its full part in the advancement 

 of the future. Its ideals have always been 

 high and they have been reflected in the 

 chapter of the Sigma Xi. I can say with 

 assurance that in no chapter of the society 

 is the honor of election to membership 

 greater. 



In conclusion, I would say a few words 

 to the initiates of this evening. You have 

 pledged yourselves to uphold and sustain 

 the ideals of the Sigma Xi. An honorable, 

 a useful future lies before you. The world 

 needs you as it has never needed such men 

 as you before. Your vocation in life is 

 more honorable than it ever has been be- 

 fore in the estimation of the world. I am 

 sure that when you shall have reached my 

 age, science will have won far greater hon- 

 ors yet for its earnest and sincere devotees. 



even as it has changed marvelously since 

 the time when I was as young as you are. 



New facts and new laws awaiting your 

 discovery are as numerous as ever. Your 

 work may be greater, but you are equipped 

 to do that work more easily than we were a 

 score or two years ago ; your footsteps wiU 

 be more direct, and the harvest that awaits 

 your reaping is very, very great. And I 

 would encourage you with the assurance 

 that, no matter how humble that work may 

 seem to you, if you have learned rightly to 

 observe, to discriminate, and above all, to 

 judge, there are no limits but your energy 

 and your ambition to the heights you may 

 climb. Samuel W. Williston 



IjNrvEssiTT OP Chicago 



THE WORK OF DEAN H. L. RUSSELL 



During commencement week his colleagues, 

 friends and former students celebrated the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the doctorate of 

 H. L. Eussell, dean of the College of Agri- 

 culture of the University of Wisconsin. In 

 1892 Johns Hopkins University honored Pro- 

 fessor Eussell by conferring this degree upon 

 him. This year (1917) also marks the com- 

 pletion of twenty-four years of service to the 

 University of Wisconsin. The last ten years 

 of this period have been occupied in directing 

 the activities of the College of Agriculture 

 and the Experiment Station. 



At the anniversary last week bound records 

 of the results of the work accomplished by 

 Dean Eussell were presented to him. Three 

 sturdy volumes there were — nearly two thou- 

 sand pages. 



" What Dean Eussell has meant to Wis- 

 consin and her farmers purely as an invest- 

 ment cannot be estimated, so extensive have 

 been his activities and so far-reaching their 

 results," said E. G. Hastings, professor of bac- 

 teriology, in speaking of the relation of Dean 

 Eussell's work to Wisconsin and her farming 

 industry. Professor Hastings has been closely 

 associated with Dr. Eussell in his work as a 

 bacteriologist, having worked with him when 

 he was head of the department of bacteriology 



