Bbptembbb 28, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



311 



tire fertilizer industry. It is requested that 

 this information be placed in the hands of the 

 War Industries Board at the earliest possible 

 moment. 



By decree of September 12, the president of 

 Cuba has modified the Commission of Plant 

 Sanitation to an Office of Plant Sanitation 

 with Mr. John R. Johnston, former president 

 of the commission, remaining as chief of the 

 office. The duties of this new office are the 

 same as of the former commission, it being the 

 sole office to issue certificates for the exporta- 

 tion of plants, in charge of all plant-quarantine 

 problems, and entrusted with the eradication 

 of the " black fly," Aleurocanthus woglumi, the 

 control of the coconut budrot, the banana 

 blight and other insect pests and plant 



The report of the Education Branch of the 

 British Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for 

 the year 1915-16 is summarized in Nature. 

 The report is said to afford evidence that, de- 

 spite the severe restrictions imposed by the 

 war upon the development of agricultural edu- 

 cation and research, much useful work was 

 accomplished during the year under review. 

 There was a great decrease in the numbers of 

 students taking long courses of instruction, 

 whereas the numbers taking short courses were 

 more than maintained. The Eoyal Agricul- 

 tural College, Cirencester, and the Agricul- 

 tural College, Uckfield, Sussex, were closed 

 and the grants were withdrawn from two other 

 institutions as a measure of war economy. 

 Research work suffered severely owing to the 

 heavy drain upon the staffs for army or muni- 

 tion purposes, but much useful work on prob- 

 lems of immediate technical importance was 

 accomplished, of which the investigations at 

 Cambridge on wheat-breeding and at Rotham- 

 sted on soil and manurial problems may be 

 singled out for special mention. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



GovERXOR James E. Ferguson, of Texas, has 

 been impeached by the legislature. The 

 charges against him were financial irregulari- 

 ties and improper interference with the board 

 of regents of the state university. The bill 



providing for the financial support of the uni- 

 versity for the next biennium, which was ve- 

 toed by Governor Ferguson, has been re-passed 

 by the legislature and signed by the acting gov- 

 ernor. The professors who were dismissed at 

 the instigation of Governor Ferguson have 

 been reinstated. 



Yale University has received since com- 

 mencement gifts amounting to $362,393.05. 

 The largest was $100,000 from Mrs. Edward 

 H. Harriman for the Harriman Fund for Ob- 

 stetrics in the Medical School. Another gift 

 was that of $50,000 from Charles F. Brooker, 

 of Ansonia, also for the Medical School. 



It is now announced that the offer of the 

 opening of the Harvard Medical School will be 

 withdrawn, only one woman having replied, 

 who was regarded as a desirable student. 



Professor "Walter E. Clark, head of the 

 department of political science in the New 

 York City College, has been elected president 

 of the University of Nevada. 



George F. Xay, B.A., M.A. (Toronto), Ph.D. 

 (Chicago), has been elected dean of the college 

 of liberal arts of the University of Iowa. Dr. 

 Kay will continue to be head of the department 

 of geology in the university, and state geologist 

 of Iowa. 



Mr. Simon Marcovitch, assistant entomolo- 

 gist for the past three years at the University 

 of Minnesota, has resigned his position to ac- 

 cept the position of head of the department of 

 biology at the National Farm School, Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania. 



Eugene Deatrick, Ph.D. (Cornell), has been 

 appointed professor of soils at the Pennsyl- 

 vania State School of Forestry, Mont Alto, Pa. 



Mr. Harry B. Yocoji, who recently received 

 his Ph.D. from the University of California, 

 has been appointed to the professorship of zool- 

 ogy in Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, to 

 succeed the late Johnathan Risser. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE COLORS OF LETTERS 



Some twenty-five years ago or more I pub- 

 lished in The Popular Science Monthly, a little 

 paper on " The Color of Letters." In it I re- 

 ferred to a curious form of association of 



