Febrtjart 3, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



127 



sia; (2) of effecting a closer contact between 

 scientific and educational institutions of Ameri- 

 ca and Russia, and (3) especially of helping 

 the reconstruction of the academic life of the 

 Russian universities and bringing relief to their 

 members. 



A LETTER has been received from the At- 

 torney-General of the United States by the 

 University of Chicago in appreciation of Pro- 

 fessor Henry C. Cowles, of the department of 

 botany, for his ecological investigations along 

 the Red River for use in connection with a suit 

 between the states of Oklahoma and Texas in 

 the Supreme Court of the United States. "Dr. 

 Cowles' investigations and testimony," the let- 

 ter states, "have been of great value to the 

 government, and, I am informed, to the cause 

 of science in that they bring to the aid of en- 

 gineering and physiographic investigations the 

 comparatively new science of ecology, where- 

 by the approximate time of the occurrence of 

 changes in rivers, their flood plains and banks, 

 is now definitely determined." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NOTES 



In addition to previous gifts to the building 

 fund totalling $300,000, Mr. Samuel Mather, of 

 Cleveland, has announced to the trustees of 

 Western Reserve University that he wUl pro- 

 vide funds for the erection of the new building 

 of the School of Medicine. The estimated cost 

 of the school building is $1,910,000, of the 

 animal house $93,500, of the power house 

 $473,000, and of connecting tunnels $53,700, 

 totalling $2,529,700. Plans and specifications 

 are complete and construction will begin in the 

 near future. The medical school building is 

 the first of a group, to be followed by the con- 

 struction of the Children's Hospital, the Ma- 

 ternity Hospital and the Lakeside Hospital, 

 all of which are affiliated with the School of 

 Medicine. The entire group will be situated 

 on the university campus. 



A BEQUEST of $150,000 to Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity is contained in the will of Mrs. Dexter 

 Smith of Springfield, Mass. The money will 

 be available either towards erection of a new 



library buUding or for the general endowment 

 fund at discretion of the trustees. 



E. I. Du Pont de Nemoues and Company 

 have authorized the continuance of the du Pont 

 chemical fellowships of the total value of 

 $15,000 in twenty colleges and universities 

 throughout the United States for the academic 

 year of 1922-3. The fellowships are for post- 

 graduate work. 



MoELAND King, who went to Lafayette Col- 

 lege last year from Union College as associate 

 professor of electrical engineering, has been 

 made professor and head of the electrical engi- 

 neering department. 



A. L. Pitman has been appointed assistant 

 director of the Bangor Station of the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology's school of 

 chemical engineering practice. 



H. R. Thealton, lately with Stone & Web- 

 ster in Boston, has been appointed assistant 

 professor of engineering at Dalhousie Univer- 

 sity, Halifax, Canada. 



Dr. R. H. Adbrs Plimmeb has been ap- 

 pointed by the senate of London University 

 to the university chair of chemistry, tenable at 

 St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, begin- 

 ning with the new year. At present he is head 

 of the biochemical department of the Rowett 

 Research Institute at the University of Aber- 

 deen. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 



ABRAHAM COWLEY AND THE AGRICUL- 

 TURAL COLLEGE 



I HAVE recently come upon a very interesting 

 piece of history relating to agricultural educa- 

 tion, while re-reading the essays of Abraham 

 Cowley. The paper on agriculture in volume 

 II of the 1707-1712 edition of his works con- 

 tains one of the first recorded recommendations 

 that I can find regarding the organization of 

 agricultural colleges. In that essay he has 

 the following to say : 



Did ever a father provide a tutor for his son 

 to instruct liim betimes in the nature and im- 

 provements of tliat land which he intended to 

 leave him? ... I could wish (but can not in 



