18 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV. No. 1410. 



The Army medical school is to be the first 

 building erected at a cost of $500,000. 



The retui'ns of the British registrar-general 

 for the quarter ending September, 1921, have 

 been issued. They show that in England and 

 Wales there were 214,850 births, which were 

 15,017 fewer than in the third quarter of 1920. 

 The rate was 22.5 a year for each thousand of 

 population. The deaths numbered 99,134, and 

 were 9,937 fewer than in the preceding quarter, 

 but 5,444 more than in the third quarter of 

 1920. The rate was 10.4 per thousand. The 

 infant mortality was 83 per thousand births, 

 being 15 below the average of the ten preceding 

 third quarters. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NOTES 



An endowment of $110,000 for the depart- 

 ment of art as applied to medicine has been 

 given to the Johns Hopkins Medical School. 

 The gift, by an anonjmious donor, was trans- 

 mitted to the trustees through Dr. Thomas S. 

 Cullen. This department has been established 

 since 1911, with Mas Brodel at its head, the 

 same anonymous donor having provided funds 

 for its maintenance. 



Work has begun at Pomona College, Clare- 

 mont, California, on a new chemistry building 

 to cost nearly $250,000. The building will be 

 of reinforced concrete with tile roof and mas- 

 sive tower to conform with the accepted archi- 

 tecture of the college campus. It will provide 

 facilities in undergraduate and research work 

 for 600 students. 



Dartmouth College has received a bequest 

 of $5,000 from the late Judge Ira A. Abbott 

 for the increase of the salaries of professors. 



At a meeting held on December 9, the board 

 of regents of the University of Michigan voted 

 to merge the homeopathic medical school with 

 the medical school of the university. The ex- 

 pense for the maintenance of the homeopathic 

 school was $47,000 last year and there were 

 seven graduates. 



Dr. George J. Heuer, associate professor of 

 surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, 

 has accepted the professorship of surgery in 



the Medical College of the University of Cin- 

 cinnati. By accepting the post, he will auto- 

 matically become chief of the surgical service 

 of the Cincinnati General Hospital. 



Professor Henry Jordan has recently been 

 made head of the department of electrical 

 engineering at Colorado Agricultural College 

 at Fort Collins. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 

 PUBLIC HEALTH AND MEDICAL PRACTICE 



The article "Education in Eelation to Public 

 Health and Medical Practice, by Professor 

 S. J. Holmes, which appears in the issue of 

 Science of November 25, 1921, is a highly 

 interesting presentation of a subject which will 

 merit discussion. Its author, however, falls 

 into the common error of those criticizing an- 

 other profession than their own, of somewhat 

 overstating the case and taking a too pessimis- 

 tic view of a situation which is constantly being 

 bettered, as, for instance, when he states that 

 "a large part of the time of well-trained med- 

 ical men is simply wasted in a kind of desul- 

 tory practice from which their patients secure 

 no permanent benefit," and that "humanity 

 comes very far short of getting out of the 

 medical profession the aid which it is capable 

 of furnishing." As a matter of fact, there 

 are 106,000,000 persons in this country the 

 vast majority of whom are perfectly well cared 

 for medically. The death rate in our larger 

 cities is constantly falling and there are 

 increasing nimibers of organizations devoted 

 exclusively to the study and promulgation of 

 public sanitation which are maintained by 

 physicians who furnish gratuitous time and 

 energy without stint. The laboratory tests 

 which the author enumerates are, for the most 

 part, now taught to every third year medical 

 student and the more elaborate tests of this 

 order are not requii'ed by more than four or 

 five per cent, of aU patients. 



The author further comments upon the 

 ignorance of sanitation among our immigrants 

 (which, of course, is deplorable) and writes 

 that the "uninstructed foreigner" "fails to get 

 competent aid when he is iU." 



