634 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1200 



pointments from the secretary ntunbered 934, 

 an increase of 62. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science begins its annual meet- 

 ing at Pittsburgh on the day of issue of the 

 present number of Science. The address of 

 the retiring president, Dr. Charles E. Van 

 Hise is given this evening, his subject being 

 "Economic Effects of the World War in the 

 United States." It is expected that the meet- 

 ing of the association and of the national 

 societies meeting at the same time will be 

 smaller than usual, and that scientific prob- 

 lems of national concern at the present time 

 will occupy most of the programs. Careful 

 consideration was given to the desirability of 

 holding the meeting. It was decided that the 

 service it could render to science and the 

 nation was far greater than any drawbacks. 

 This was the opinion both of scientific men 

 and of the ofiicers of the government who 

 were consulted. 



Sir Archibald Geikie, who has long been a 

 correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sci- 

 ences, has now been elected an associate mem- 

 ber of the academy. 



Dr. William W. Keen, of Philadelphia, has 

 declined the renomination of president of the 

 American Philosophical Society, after serv- 

 ing ten years in that capacity. 



Dr. Alexis Carrel, having been detained in 

 America by official duties, the Harben lec- 

 tures he was to have delivered in England at 

 the end of this month have been postponed. 



Gilbert N. Lewis, professor of physical 

 chemistry and dean of the college of chem- 

 istry in the University of California, has been 

 granted leave of absence for the half year 

 beginning January 1, 1918, to serve as major 

 in the Ordnance Department of the U. S. 

 Army. He is to go at once to France. 



Mr. Charles S. Wilson, state commis- 

 sioner of agTiculture of New York, has been 

 reappointed to that office by the newly organ- 

 ized Council of Farms and Markets at Al- 

 bany. His original appointment was made 



almost three years ago by the governor. Mr. 

 Wilson was then professor of pomology in 

 the State College of Agriculture at Cornell. 



Dr. Frank C. Hammond has been appointed 

 a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health 

 to serve during the absence in France of Dr. 

 Alexander C. Abbott 



A NUMBER of additional members of the 

 University of California faculty have entered 

 Army service, including Joel H. Hildebrand, 

 associate professor of chemistry, now a cap- 

 tain in the Ordnance Department; Dr. A. L. 

 Fisher, assistant in orthopedic surgery, now 

 a captain in the U. S. Medical Eeserve, at- 

 tached to Base Hospital No. 30; and W. F. 

 Hamilton, A. R. Kellogg, and J. B. Rogers, 

 of the department of zoology, now in the 

 Forestry Reserves. 



F. G. Tucker, assistant professor of physics 

 at the State College of Washington, has been 

 granted leave of absence to take up his duties 

 as second lieutenant in the U. S. Coast artil- 

 lery. 



The council of the Royal Meteorological So- 

 ciety has awarded Dr. H. R. Mill the Symons 

 gold medal for 1918 " for distinguished work 

 in connection with meteorological science." 



The following letter has been received by the 

 Duke of Connaught, President of the Royal 

 Society of Arts from Mr. Orville Wright, of 

 Dayton, Ohio. 



I have the pleasure of acknowledging the re- 

 ceipt of your Royal Highness 's letter and the Al- 

 bert Medal of the Eoyal Society of Arts, which 

 were forwarded to me through the British Am- 

 bassador at Washington. I wish to express my 

 appreciation of the honor conferred upon me by 

 the Eoyal Society of Arts as a recognition of the 

 work of my brother Wilbur and myself towards the 

 solution of the problem of flight. I appreciate with 

 the utmost gratification the honor of being placed 

 by your society among such men as those to whom 

 this coveted medal has been awarded in years past. 



Professor Frederick Starr, of the depart- 

 ment of sociology and anthropology at the 

 University of Chicago, who has been in the 

 Orient for the past year on leave of absence, 

 will renew his work at the university with the 

 winter quarter, giving courses in prehistoric 



