NOVEMBEK 9, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



457 



Yale University has acquired by purchase 

 another entire city block in the center of New 

 Haven. 



The enrollment in the College of Medicine 

 of the Universtiy of Cincinnati shows an in- 

 crease of about 40 per cent, over last year. 

 The enrollment in 1916 was 102 compared 

 with 143 for the year 1917-18. 



In the Oregon Agricultural College Adolph 

 Zeifle has been made dean of the newly created 

 school of pharmacy; Miss Ava B. Milam dean 

 of the school of home economics, and E. K. 

 Soper, head of the department of mines at the 

 University of Idaho, has been appointed dean 

 of the school of mines to fill the vacancy made 

 by the resignation of Dean H. M. Parks to 

 head the Oregon Bureau of Mines and 

 Geology. 



Professor Hotchkiss, of the department of 

 business education of the University of Min- 

 nesota, has been made chief of the department 

 of economics during the absence of Professor 

 Durand. 



Professor C. C. Palmer, of the College of 

 Agriculture of the State University of Min- 

 nesota, has been appointed head of the depart- 

 ment of bacteriology, physiology and hygiene, 

 at the Delaware College, Newark, Del. 



Dr. Albert C. Herre, for several years past 

 professor of geography and agriculture in the 

 Bellingham, Washington, State Normal 

 School, has recently been appointed head of 

 the department of biology in the same institu- 

 tion. 



Eben H. Toole, recently of the Kansas 

 Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas, has 

 been appointed to succeed Professor G. N. 

 Hoffer as assistant professor of plant pathol- 

 ogy and physiology, at Purdue University. 

 Professor Hoffer has been transferred to the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue. 



Dr. C. C. Forsaith, instructor in botany in 

 Dartmouth CoUege, has been appointed in- 

 structor in wood technology in the New York 

 State College of Forestry. 



E. A. Eeid, for the past two years instructor 

 in electrical engineering at Minnesota, has 



resigned to accept a similar position at the 

 University of Illinois. 



Professor Clarence A. Morrow, formerly 

 professor of chemistry in the Nebraska 

 Wesleyan University, has been elected as- 

 sistant professor of agricultural biochemistry 

 in the University of Minnesota. 



Mrs. J. A. Nyswander has been appointed 

 assistant professor of mathematics at the Uni- 

 versity of Nevada, to take the place of her 

 husband, who has been called to government 

 service. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE " AGE AND AREA " HYPOTHESIS OF 

 WILLIS 



The " Age and Area " hypothesis of Willis, 

 recently discussed and endorsed by Professor 

 De Vries in Science,^ states that "the area 

 occupied by any given species (of plants) 

 at any given time in any given country 

 in which there occur no well-marked bar- 

 riers depends upon the age of that species 

 in that country." The older the species is, 

 in other words, the wider is its range. If con- 

 firmed, this hypothesis would be of the great- 

 est scientific importance, for not only would 

 it discredit the efficacy of natural selection — 

 the point chiefly emphasized by its author 

 and Professor De Vries — but, by enabling us 

 to identify with certainty the most widespread 

 types as the most ancient ones, in any given 

 region or in the world as a whole, it would 

 also clear up a host of vexed questions in 

 plant geography and plant phylogeny. Certain 

 objections to the hypothesis appear to be so 

 great, however, as to cast doubt upon its 

 universal applicability; and a careful study 

 of the floras of Ceylon and New Zealand, the 

 regions with which Professor Willis has 

 chiefly worked, serves to emphasize the com- 

 plexity of the whole problem involved. 



Factors other than age evidently share in 

 determining the area occupied by a species. 



1 De Vries, H., ' ' The distribution of endemic 

 species in New Zealand," ScrENCE, N. S., "Vol. 

 XLV., No. 1173, pp. 641-642, June 22, 1917. 



