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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1199 



2. Cominittee on Libraries. Discussion opened 

 by Professor H. E. Slaught, University of Chicago. 



3. Committee on Mathematical Dictionary. Pre- 

 liminary report by the chairman, Professor E. E. 

 Hedriek, University of Missouri. 



At a meeting of the teachers of physics in 

 Indiana colleges held at Bloomington, Indi- 

 ana, on December 10, steps were taken toward 

 an organization of the physics research work 

 throughout the state. Dr. A. L. Foley, head 

 of the physics department of the University 

 of Indiana and chairman of the Scientific Re- 

 search Committee of the State Council of De- 

 fense, was chosen as director of this move- 

 ment. It is hoped that this organization will 

 survive the war period and prove a valuable 

 aid in developing research work in physical 

 science in Indiana. 



Professor George Sarton, lecturer on phi- 

 losophy at Harvard University and editor of 

 Isis, gave at the University of Chicago a 

 public lecture, with illustrations, on Decem- 

 ber 7, his subject being " Science and civiliza- 

 tion at the time of Leonardo da Vinci." 



Dr. William Curtis Farabee, curator of 

 the American section of the University of 

 Pennsylvania Museum, lectured on " Explora- 

 tion in the valley of the Amazon," before the 

 Geographic Society of Chicago on December 

 14. 



Richard Swan Lull, professor of vertebrate 

 paleontology at Tale University, gave an il- 

 lustrated lecture on the Luther Lafflin Kellogg 

 Foundation, under the auspices of the Phi 

 Beta Kappa Society at Rutgers College, on 

 December 7. His subject was " The pulse of 

 Ufe." 



The governors of the West Ham Municipal 

 Central Secondary School, London, plan to 

 call the institution " The Lister School," to 

 perpetuate the association of Lord Lister with 

 the borough. 



The death is announced at the age of fifty- 

 seven years of Dr. Ramon Guitaras for many 

 years professor of surgery in the New York 

 Post Graduate Hospital. 



William McKnight Ritter, the astronomer, 

 formerly connected with the Nautical Almanac 



Ofiice and there closely associated with the 

 work of George W. Hill, died on November 6, 

 at his home in Pottsgrove, Pa., at the age of 

 seventy-one. In his earlier astronomical 

 career he became, through Professor Watson, 

 of Ann Arbor, greatly interested in the com- 

 putation of orbits for minor planets, and dur- 

 ing the later years he devoted special study to 

 the problem of the general perturbations of 

 these planets. 



Dr. Ami Jacques Magnin, chief surgeon of 

 the American hospital at Neuilly, died sud- 

 denly on November 25. 



Dr. J. Peyrot, professor of surgery at the 

 University of Paris and senator, has died at 

 the age of seventy-four years. 



F. C. Barraza, professor of organic chem- 

 istry at the University of Buenos Aires, has 

 died, aged fifty-five years. 



We learn from Nature that the death is an- 

 nounced, while leading his platoon during one 

 of the recent advances in France, of Second 

 Lieutenant F. Entwistle, second assistant at 

 the Observatory, Cambridge, aged twenty-one 

 years. Mr. Hartley, first assistant at the 

 Cambridge Observatory, was killed on the 

 Vanguard on July 9. The double tragedy ex- 

 hausts the staff of the observatory, as distinct 

 from the Solar Physics Observatory, except for 

 the director. 



In view of the many unusual conditions due 

 to the war, it has been deemed inadvisable to 

 hold a meeting of the Association of American 

 Geographers this year, and the meeting 

 planned for Chicago has been abandoned. 

 Professor Robert DeC. Ward's presidential 

 address, entitled " Meteorology and aviation : 

 some practical suggestions," will be published 

 in the near future. This, and other papers 

 prepared for the meeting, will appear in the 

 Ann<ils for 1918. 



After serious consideration and correspond- 

 ence with all exhibitors, the managers of the 

 Chemical Exposition have decided to abandon 

 plans to hold a Chemical Exposition in Chi- 

 cago in the Spring. This action was taken 

 because of insufficient support secured to make 



