December 7, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



559 



was shipped some days ago. It should be 

 arriving at the camp now, but congestion of 

 railroad traffic has caused some delay in its 

 delivery. 



There are over 22,600 men at Camp Wheeler. 



THE USE OF THE McKAY BEQUEST TO 

 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



Harvard University can not share the Gor- 

 don McKay bequest with the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, according to the de- 

 cision by the full bench of the Supreme Court 

 which declares invalid the agreement between 

 the two institutions under which Harvard sus- 

 pends its instruction in applied science and 

 devotes three fifths of the income of the 

 McKay endowment to the maintenance of the 

 engineering departments at the Institute. 

 The decision is on the petition of Harvard to 

 have the court ratify the agreement. It 

 means that Harvard, which abolished the Law- 

 rence Scientific School to merge its scientific 

 courses with those at Technology, will have to 

 reestablish a school of applied science under 

 its administration. The court, in its decision, 

 written by Judge DeCourcy, says: 



We are constrained to instruct the plaintiff cor- 

 poration that it can not lawfully carry out this 

 agreement between it and the institute, as far as 

 respects the property received by the university 

 under the deeds of trust and the will of Gordon 

 McKay. 



In substance the plan agreed upon between 

 Harvard and the Institute of Technology devotes 

 three fifths of the endowment to an engineering 

 school, which is not only located at the institute 

 but is conducted and controlled by the institute 

 instead of by the university. We can not assent to 

 the assertion of counsel that "the school of ap- 

 plied science on the Charles River embankment is 

 a Harvard school, a department of Harvard Uni- 

 versity. ' ' 



Education and research in the five branches cov- 

 ered by the agreements are to be transferred from 

 the university to the institute, and there conducted 

 under the provisions of the agreement as part of 

 the latter 's curriculum. The Harvard professors 

 associated with those courses shall become mem- 

 bers of the faculty of the institute, and the prop- 

 erty and equipment which the university may hold 

 for the promotion of instruction in industrial sci- 

 ence shall be devoted to the courses so conducted. 



The faculty which determines the conditions of 

 entrance, prescribes the courses that lead to de- 

 grees, largely shapes and carries to practical appli- 

 cation the instruction and discipline of the school, 

 and mainly influences the appointment of pro- 

 fessors, is the faculty of the institute, notwith- 

 standing that 14 of its 120 members come from the 

 university. 



The effective instrument is the deed of trust 

 executed October 30, 1891, and confirmed by a 

 codicil November 5, 1891. McKay was then sev- 

 enty years of age. He had been a successful manu- 

 facturer and inventor of machinery. He was a 

 man of artistic tastes, a lover of music and had 

 traveled extensively in Europe. From 1864 or 

 186.5, for more than twenty years, his home was in 

 Cambridge, near the college yard; he took a lead- 

 ing part in supporting the Symphony concerts in 

 Sanders theater and was brought into friendly re- 

 lations with many of the college teachers and stu- 

 dents. He appreciated the advantages of com- 

 bining training in the exact sciences with liberal 

 culture in the atmosphere of the university. Dur- 

 ing all those years there was a close personal inti- 

 macy between him and the late Professor Shaler, 

 long connected with the university and appointed 

 dean of the Lawrence Scientific School in 1891; 

 and with the latter McKay discussed his scheme 

 for the disposition of his fortune. 



The income of the McKay endowment must be 

 administered according to the intention of the 

 founder, Gordon McKay, even though it be at 

 variance with our views of policy and expediency. 



Reading this instrument in the light of the cir- 

 cimistances already referred to it seems reasonably 

 clear from its expressed provisions and implied 

 limitations that Mr. McKay intended that not only 

 the investment of the endowment fund, but the 

 education which his endowment was to make pos- 

 sible should be under the control and direction of 

 the university, its government and administration. 



He selected as a trustee to carry out his pur- 

 pose a great educational institution, one whose 

 ability adequately to carry out his plans he was 

 familiar with, and with whose historic name he de- 

 sired to associate his own in perpetual memory. 



In our opinion this intention of Gordon McKay 

 is not in fact carried out in the agreement in con- 

 troversy, as we have construed its provisions in 

 their practical operation. 



ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 

 ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



The thirty-fifth annual meeting of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union was held in 



