310 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1421 



hooves every member of the society, if he 

 wishes for a recovery of chemical activity in 

 our country, not only to himself continue to 

 support the work of the society through the 

 period of depression, which is sure to be tem- 

 porary, but also to see that every other reputa- 

 ble person in America interested in chemistry 

 comes into the society to give it new life, new 

 vigor and increased resources. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



AN INSTITUTE OF HYGIENE IN LONDONi 



It has been known for some time that the 

 Eockefeller Foundation has been seriously con- 

 sidering the recommendation for the establish- 

 ment of an Institute of Hygiene, contained in 

 the report of the post-graduate medical com- 

 mittee published last May (the Athlone com- 

 mittee). The recommendation was that an 

 Institute of State Medicine should be estab- 

 lished in London with well equipped labora- 

 tories and an efficient staff. It was further 

 recommended that the institute should also pro- 

 vide instruction in other directions, including 

 courses in forensic medicine, toxicology and 

 industrial medicine. 



These recommendations were considered by 

 an expert committee, with the minister of 

 health as chairman. In view of the difficulty 

 at present of financing the scheme, the whole 

 case was put before the Rockefeller Foundation 

 as one in which they might think it well to co- 

 operate in the general interest of progress in 

 public health. 



The minister of health has announced that 

 the Rockefeller Foundation have offered to pro- 

 vide a sum of two million dollars towards the 

 cost of building and equipping an Institute or 

 School of Hygiene in London, on the under- 

 standing that the British Grovernment accept 

 the responsibility of providing for the staffing 

 and maintenance of the school when it is estab- 

 lished. This generous offer has been accepted 

 by the minister of health on behalf of the gov- 

 ernment. 



Hygiene, like other departments of medicine, 

 knows no boundaries. In that sense this fine 

 gift is made for the benefit of international 



1 Prom the British Medical Journal. 



medicine, but this country is grateful to the 

 Rockefeller Foundation that it should have 

 been selected. The Athlone committee esti- 

 mated that the cost of maintaining an Institute 

 of State Medicine would be about £10,000 a 

 year. The scale on which the Rockefeller gift 

 will make it possible to establish the Institute 

 of Hygiene (it amounts at the present rate of 

 exchange to over £400,000) will call for a 

 larger expenditure for staff and maintenance; 

 we have heard it estimated at £25,000 a year. 

 Those familiar with the Athlone report will 

 remember that it proposed to associate the 

 institute with the University of London. This 

 recommendation, it would appear, is not to be 

 carried out, and the annual expenditure will 

 therefore not come out of moneys at the dis- 

 posal of the university grants committee, but 

 will be found by a special vote of Parliament. 

 The intention is, we believe, that the Institute 

 of Hygiene shall be administered by a mixed 

 committee, representing the various bodies in- 

 terested, for it is to be remembered that Lon- 

 don already possesses certain important ele- 

 ments of an institute of hygiene. 



COOPERATION BETWEEN THE GOVERN- 

 MENT AND INDUSTRY IN STAND- 

 ARDIZATION 



At the request of the Honorable Herbert C. 

 Hoover, secretary of commerce, the American 

 Engineering Standards Committee has desig- 

 nated Mr. A. A. Stevenson, the retiring chair- 

 man of the committee, as a special representa- 

 tive to work with the department in the co- 

 operation between its division of simplified 

 practice and the American Engineering Stand- 

 ards Committee. 



The division of simplified practice is a co- 

 ordinating unit of the Department of Com- 

 merce assisting in those reductions of excessive 

 variety and other simplifications which many 

 industries are undertaking in order to decrease 

 the cost of production and distribution of 

 manufactured articles. The work of the divi- 

 sion was organized in the latter part of 1921 

 and is now actively under way. 



The American Engineering Standards Com- 

 mittee, which serves as a national clearing 

 house for a broad field of engineering and 



