OCTOBEE 5, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



335 



usual vigor. Mechanical engineering has lost 

 about 21 per cent. This is a study that should 

 be stimulated by the war. In this work Pro- 

 fessor Miller, head of the department, has 

 undertaken for the TJ. S. Shipping Board the 

 management of the schools for marine engine- 

 room officers in the principal ports in the coun- 

 try. 



WORK OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 



Upon recommendation of the National Re- 

 search Council Dr. Augustus Trowbridge, of 

 Princeton University, and Professor Theodore 

 Lyman, of Harvard University, have received 

 commissions in the Signal Corps, U. S. A., for 

 work in sound ranging. They have sailed for 

 France to investigate conditions at the front 

 in this subject. The sound ranging service 

 which will be developed under their direction 

 will utilize in the near future more than fifty 

 men. Captain Horatio B. Williams is in 

 charge of the development work in this country 

 during Major Trowbridge's absence. 



A meteorological service has been organized 

 under the Signal Corps, U. S. A., in which 

 about one hundred physicists and engineers 

 will be engaged in aerological observational 

 work under the direction of Dr. William H. 

 Blair, of the U. S. Weather Bureau, who has 

 received a commission of major and has sailed 

 for France to investigate conditions abroad. 

 Forecasting work for the American Expedi- 

 tionary Force in France will be in charge of 

 Mr. E. H. Bowie, of the U. S. Weather Bu- 

 reau, who has likewise received a commission 

 of major in the Signal Corps and is already 

 on his way to France. Major Bowie will be 

 assisted by Mr. R. Hanson Weightman, of the 

 U. S. Weather Bureau, who has received a 

 conunission as lieutenant in the Signal Corps. 



Professor Charles E. Mendenhall, of the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, has received a commis- 

 sion of major in the Signal Corps, U. S. A., 

 and has been placed in charge of the develop- 

 ment of aeronautical instruments. 



All of the work of these services, sound- 

 ranging, meteorology and aeronautical instru- 

 ments, is included within the scope of the Sci- 

 ence and Research Division of the Signal 

 Corps, which in accordance with a recent order 



of the chief signal officer has been established 

 and placed under the direction of the National 

 Research Council, of which Major R. A. Milli- 

 kan is the executive officer. The functions of 

 this division of the Signal Corps are two-fold, 

 namely: (1) to furnish personnel of the re- 

 search sort to the other divisions when the 

 situation warrants the assignment of men of 

 this type to these divisions, and (2) to have a 

 personnel of its own which maintains intimate 

 contact with all research and development 

 work in other divisions, and distributes re- 

 search problems to university, industrial and 

 governmental research laboratories with which 

 it is associated. Similar, though in some cases 

 less formal, relations have been established 

 with other technical bureaus of the War and 

 Navy Departments. 



Upon request of the French High Commis- 

 sion a number of American physicists and 

 chemists are being sent to France to assist in 

 various war problems in which technically 

 trained men are needed. Except in certain 

 cases, the Interministerial Commission in 

 Paris will assign them to work in university 

 laboratories and in technical services of the 

 government. Upon recommendation of the 

 National Research Council the following men 

 are receiving commissions in this connection 

 and a number of them have already sailed for 

 France : 



Professor R. W. Wood, of Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity, major in the U. S. Signal Corps. 



Messrs. Eoy W. Chestnut, Leonard Loeb and 

 Samuel Sewall, lieutenants in the U. S. Signal 

 Corps. 



Professor Edward Bartow, of the University of 

 Illinois, major, and Professor Eeston Stevenson, of 

 the College of the City of New York, captain in the 

 U. S. Sanitary Corps. 



Messrs. Ralph L. Brown, of the University of 

 Chicago, George Scatchard, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, and Kirke W. Cushing, of Western Reserve 

 University, lieutenants in the U. S. Sanitary Corps. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The trustees of Colmnbia University have 



dismissed Professor J. McKeen Cattell from 



the chair of psychology which he has held 



since 1891, on account of a letter which he 



