284 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1186 



quired by the museum is a sketch made for 

 John Hunter representing a duck which had 

 partially assumed the plumage of a drake, a 

 subject in which he was greatly interested. 

 Lastly, we may add that the executors of Dr. 

 Robert Roxburgh have presented the original 

 mechanical spray apparatus which Lord Lister 

 employed in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 

 and exhibited at the Plymouth meeting of the 

 British Medical Association in 1871 during the 

 course of his address in surgery. It had two 

 nozzles attached to independent caoutchouc 

 tubes, furnishing large clouds of spray, that 

 could be directed, if necessary, to opposite 

 sides of the part operated on. Dr Roxburgh 

 was Lister's last house-surgeon at the Royal 

 Infirmary. Lister went to King's College, 

 London, to fill the chair of clinical surgery in 

 succession to Sir William Fergusson in 1877. 



THE MAYO FOUNDATION AND THE UNIVER- 

 SITY OF MINNESOTA 



The board of regents of the University of 

 Minnesota have ratified by unanimous vote the 

 permanent agreement making the Mayo Foun- 

 dation at Rochester the absolute property of 

 the university, to be used perpetually for 

 higher medical education and research. Se- 

 curities totaling $1,650,345, representing the 

 fortunes of Drs. William J. and Charles Mayo, 

 were turned over to the university. 



" We turn over to the regents the bulk of our 

 savings of a generation as an outright gift," 

 said Dr. William J. Mayo, who is a member of 

 the board of regents, but who did not vote on 

 the proposal. " The money came from the 

 people, and we feel it should return to the 

 people — a continuing fund that shall serve this 

 state for generations to come." 



Expenses of the foundation will be paid by 

 the Drs. Mayo until a fund of $2,000,000 has 

 accumulated. Thereafter the income from the 

 fund will maintain it. 



The foundation has been affiliated with the 

 university for two years, which was agreed 

 upon as a trial period. Under the final agree- 

 ment the headquarters of the foundation can 

 be moved from Rochester to another point in 

 the state after twenty-eight years. Ten per 

 cent, of the yearly income may be expended 



outside the state and another ten per cent, may 

 be used to investigate epidemics inside and 

 outside the state. 



It was announced that one of the Mayos 

 would go to France with recruits next year and 

 that they would take turns there until the end 

 of the war. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



M. Paul Painleve has been chosen to be 

 premier of the French Republic. M. Painleve 

 has been professor of mathematics in the Uni- 

 versity of Paris and of mechanics at the Paris 

 Polytechnic School. 



M. G. Fayet, assistant director of the Nice 

 Observatory, has been appointed director in 

 succession to the late General Bassot. 



Dk. R. W. Wood, professor of physics in 

 the JohnS' Hopkins University, is now in 

 France engaged in scientific research in co- 

 operation with members of the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. Dr. Wood left about three 

 weeks ago, following the receipt of a cable- 

 gram from Premier Ribot offering him the 

 tentative ranking of major in the French army. 

 Dr. Raymond Pearl, biologist and head of 

 the department of biology of the Maine Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, has been granted 

 leave of absence from that institution for the 

 duration of the war, to take charge of the sta- 

 tistical department of the United States Food 

 Administration. He left the experiment sta- 

 tion for Washington early in June, accom- 

 panied by Dr. Frank M. Surface, biologist of 

 the Maine Station, who was also granted leave 

 of absence for the same work. The following 

 are associated, for the duration of the war, 

 with Dr. Pearl in the statistical work of the 

 Food Administration: 



Dr. H. S. Jennings, The Johns Hopkins University. 

 Dr. W. E. Kellicott, Goucher College. 

 Dr. H. E. Willard, University of Maine. 

 Mr. John Eice Miner, Maine Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station. 



Dr. a. W. Dox, for the past seven years 

 chief of the section of chemistry of the Iowa 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, has been 

 granted leave of absence to accept a commis- 



