538 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1196 



Before the Chemical Society, London, the 

 following' lectures will be given : December 6, 

 " The Eolation between Chemical Constitu- 

 tion and Physiological Action," Dr. F. I. 

 Pyman ; February 21, 1918, " Eecent Studies 

 on Active Nitrogen," Professor the Hon. E. 

 J. Strutt; April 18, the Hugo MiiUer lectxire, 

 entitled " The Old and the New Mineralogy," 

 Sir Henry A. Miers. 



Dr. Eichard Weil, professor of Experi- 

 mental Medicine in Cornell Medical College, 

 a major in the Medical Eeserve Corps and 

 chief of the medical staff of the Base Hos- 

 pital at Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga., died of 

 pneumonia on November 19. 



Nature states that in a private letter Dr. 

 Paul Bertrand announces the death of his 

 father. Professor C. E. Bertrand, the dis- 

 tinguished plant-anatomist and paleobotanist. 

 Dr. Bertrand was professor of botany at Lille, 

 and lived there for the last three years of his 

 life under German rule. Under these difficult 

 conditions, he was still able to carry on both his 

 university courses and his private research, 

 as long as his health permitted. 



The death is announced, on October 27, of 

 Mr. Worthington G. Smith, of Dunstable, 

 fellow of the Linnean Society, at eighty-two 

 years of age and on October 24, at fifty-four 

 years of age, of Mr. George T. Holloway, vice- 

 president of the Institution of Mining and 

 Metallurgy, known as a consultant metal- 

 lurgist and assayer. 



Mr. George Charles Crick, assistant in the 

 geological department of the British Museum, 

 died on October 8, aged sixty-one years. 



EDUCATIONAL NOTES AND NEWS 



The Probate Court has allowed the will 

 of Mrs. Augusta E. Corbin, by the terms of 

 which Boston University receives $555,000. 



Extensive additions are to be made to the 

 laboratories of the department of chemistry 

 of the Eensselear Polytechnic Institute. En- 

 tirely new and complete laboratories will be 

 constructed for quantitative analysis, for or- 



ganic chemistry and for physical chemistry. 

 Material enlargement will be provided for the 

 food analysis and gas analysis laboratories, 

 and new space assigned for lecture room and 

 recitation room needs. The great increase 

 in number of students entering for the course 

 in chemical engineering has demanded these 

 extensions. Work on the new construction 

 will be started in March, 1918, at which time 

 also ground will be broken for four new 

 dormitories. 



Dr. F. L. Pickett, formerly associate pro- 

 fessor of taxonomy and ecology at the State 

 College of Washington, has been made head 

 of the department of botany at that institu- 

 tion to fill the vacancy in the department of 

 botany made by the resignation of Dr. I. D. 

 Cardiff. 



Professor Walter Burton Ford has been 

 promoted to a professorship of mathematics 

 in the University of Michigan, and James 

 Garret Van Zwaluwenburg to a professorship 

 of roentgenology. 



Mr. Geo. E. Crofoot has been promoted 

 from instructor in mechanical engineering to 

 assistant professor of mechanical engineer- 

 ing in the Towne Scientific School of the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



Mr. E. G. Gaul, M.Sc, lecturer in bacterio- 

 logical chemistry at the University of Man- 

 chester, has been appointed part-time demon- 

 strator in chemistry in the university depart- 

 ment. Mr. G. Hickling, D.Sc, has been 

 appointed reader in paleontology and in the 

 absence of Professor Holland, acting director 

 of the geological laboratories. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE MANUFACTURE OF OPTICAL GLASS IN 

 AMERICA 



To THE Editor of Science: There is an ob- 

 vious lesson of general interest and of impor- 

 tance in national welfare in the present situa- 

 tion concerning the manufacture of optical 

 glass in this country. That lesson relates in 

 principle to the injury to important manufac- 

 turing interests resulting from a large con- 



