June 16, 1022] 



SCIENCE 



635 



dent, Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Washington, 

 D. C. ; vice-presidents, Mr. G. R. Agassiz, Bos- 

 ton, Mass., Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, AVash- 

 ington, D. C, Professor F. W. Clarke, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, Professor Stephen A. Forbes, 

 Urbana, 111., Dr. David Starr Jordan, Stanford 

 University, Cal., Professor Edwin Linton, Co- 

 lumbia, Mo., Professor Edward S. Morse, 

 Salem, Mass., Professor Henry Fairfield Os- 

 born, New York, N. Y., Professor Addison E. 

 Verrill, New Haven, Conn., and Professor 

 Robert S. Woodward, Washington, D. C. 



Steps are now in progress for the formation 

 of a national committee, and Dr. Walcott has 

 addressed letters to various persons inviting 

 them to become members of the committee, and 

 to scientific bodies inviting them to name repre- 

 sentatives to serve on the committee, and indi- 

 viduals and organizations have been asked to 

 submit suggestions in regard to the general 

 subject of the memorial. 



While Spencer FuUerton Baird's scientific 

 attainments and public services are well and 

 widely known, the letter which Dr. Walcott has 

 sent out recalls that Baird was the secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, the virtual 

 founder of the United States National Mu- 

 seum, the creator and head of the United States 

 Fish Commission, and a prime mover in the 

 establishment of the United States Geological 

 Survey and the Bureau of American Ethnology. 



His personal contributions to knowledge in 

 tlie domain of biology were numerous and pro- 

 found. His ability and achievements, his fidel- 

 ity to the public weal, his unselfish devotion to 

 duty, the encouragement and aid he extended to 

 other workers, and the beauty and simplicity 

 of his character combined to produce one of 

 the most noteworthy figures in our national 

 history and one whom America will undoubt- 

 edly delight to Iionor on this appropiiate occa- 

 sion. 



Up to the present time the matters that have 

 been decided upon are a public meeting in 

 Washington on February 3, 1923, at which ad- 

 dresses will be delivered and announcements 

 made of the memorial or memorials that have 

 been determined on, and the placing of wreaths 

 on the grave of Baird in Oak Hill Cemetery, 

 tlie bust of Baird in the American Museum of 



Natural History, the Baird memorial boulder 

 at Woods Hole, and the Baird memorial tablet 

 at the Bureau of Fisheries building in Wash- 

 ington. 



Among the suggestions that have been made 

 for a permanent national memorial are (1) a 

 bust, statue, mural or open-air fountain, or 

 bronze mural tablet to be provided by voluntary 

 subscriptions and erected in the grounds of the 

 Smithsonian Institution or the National Zoolog- 

 ical Park, and (2) a fishery museum or exhibit, 

 with public aquarium, embracing both the 

 scientific and applied features of fishery prob- 

 lems, to be established by Congress under the 

 auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. 



It has been suggested also that there be estab- 

 lished a Baird memorial medal to be awarded 

 periodically to persons perfonning noteworthy 

 original or meritorious work in science, and 

 that there be published during 1923, preferably 

 under the auspices of the National Museum or 

 the Smithsonian Institution, a memorial volume 

 to be made up of original papers on scientific 

 subjects contributed by Baird's associates, col- 

 leagues and immediate followers. 



Hugh M. Smith 

 Cosmos Club, 

 Washington, D. C. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE 

 HISTORY OF MEDICINE 



According to the program as abstracted in 

 the British Medical Journal, as already an- 

 nounced, the Third International Congress of 

 the History of Medicine will be held in London 

 this summer from July 17 to 22. The congress 

 will be opened by the minister of health at the 

 liouse of the Royal Society of Medicine, on 

 Monday, July 17, at 10:30 a.m., after which 

 the delegates from foreign countries will be re- 

 ceived, and the president. Dr. Singer, will give 

 his address. In the afternoon the president of 

 honor. Sir Norman Moore, will give a reception 

 and address at the Royal College of Physicians ; 

 in the evening there will be a reception and 

 conversazione by Dr. and Mrs. Singer at the 

 Royal Society of Medicine, and an address by 

 Professor Elliot Smith. Morning sessions for 

 papers and discussions will be held on Tuesday, 

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and after- 



