638 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1200 



Edmondson lias initiated experimental work at 

 Florence, Newport and Tillamook for the pur- 

 pose of determining the rapidity of growth, 

 the age, the spawning season and the condi- 

 tions under which certain of the edible clams 

 best thrive. These experiments will be carried 

 on throughout the year or until satisfactory 

 results are obtained. 



A QUESTIONNAIRE was recently circulated 

 among the members of the Chartered Institute 

 of Secretaries of Great Britain for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining opinions in regard to the 

 adoption of a decimal system of coinage in 

 the United Kingdom, and the substitution of 

 the metric system for the existing United 

 Kingdom weights and measures. Of the re- 

 plies received 85 per cent, considered that a 

 change to a decimal system of coinage would 

 be favorable to the business in which they 

 were engaged, and 66 per cent, favored a £1 

 basis of coinage in preference to the " Im- 

 perial Crown " or dollar basis. In regard to 

 weights and measures, 86 per cent, favored a 

 change to the metric system, 53 per cent, of 

 whom already used that system in their busi- 

 ness. One member expressed the opinion that 

 a strong commission of able men should be 

 asked to decide whether the continental sys- 

 tem, which was forced upon countries at a 

 time when violence, rather than reason, pre- 

 vailed, had been really satisfactory. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



In honor to Andrew S. Hallidie, inventor 

 of the use of the cable railway for passenger 

 traffic in cities, who was a regent of the Uni- 

 versity of California from 1878 to 1900, the 

 regents of the university have given the name 

 " Hallidie Building " to a building which they 

 are now erecting in San Francisco as an in- 

 vestment of University endowment funds. 



W. J. Spillman, chief of the office of farm 

 management, U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, has accepted the deanship of the newly 

 created college of agriculture at the State 

 College of Washington. He will take up his 

 new duties April 1, 1918, after he has com- 



pleted a survey of the farm labor situation in 

 the United States, upon which he is engaged 

 as an emergency war measure. 



A DEPARTMENT of plant pathology has been 

 created by the regents of the State College of 

 Washington, Dr. F. D. Heald, formerly pro- 

 fessor of plant pathology, has been made head. 



Professor F. L. Washburn of the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota has been relieved of his 

 present position in the Agricultural College 

 and station and as state entomologist, and has 

 been given the title of professor of economic 

 vertebrate zoology, to take effect on Febru- 

 ary 5. 



Dr. a. L. Tatum, professor of pharmacol- 

 ogy in the University of South Dakota, has 

 been appointed assistant professor of pharma- 

 ology and physiology in the University of 

 Chicago. 



Mr. Eoy Richard Denslow, assistant tutor 

 in the department of chemistry. College of 

 the City of New York, has been appointed in- 

 structor in Smith College. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE PITTSBURGH MEETING OF THE AMERI- 

 CAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE 



[The following letter was delayed in the 

 mails and reached Science just too late for 

 publication in the last number.] 

 To THE Members op the American Assoou- 



TioN FOR the Advancement op Science: 



When the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and all similar so- 

 cieties planned their winter meetings, the 

 present situation could not have been fore- 

 seen. We had not even entered the war, and 

 did not dream of a congestion of transporta- 

 tion such as now exists. When the present 

 situartion had developed, it was (in the opin- 

 ion of a majority of the committee having 

 power) too late to postpone our meeting. 



Transportation is now so greatly overtaxed 

 that necessaries of life can barely be carried; 

 the railways should be spared every extra 

 burden. Great simultaneous pilgrimages on 

 important trunk lines are especially to be 

 avoided, since 'they demand extra trains, need- 



