674 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1434 



De. Edwabd Hall Nichols, professor of 

 clinical surgery in the Harvard Medical School, 

 died on June 12, aged fifty-nine years. 



Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, of the University of 

 Cambridge, known for his work in anthropol- 

 ogy and psychology, died on June 4, at fifty- 

 eight years of age. 



Nature notes that the first meeting of the 

 "Institut International de Chimie Solvay" was 

 held in Brussels on April 20-27, under the 

 presidency of Sir William Pope. It will be 

 remembered that before the war the late M. 

 Ernest Solvay set aside a capital sum to be ex- 

 pended in the course of thirty years by the 

 International Institute of Physics, and that 

 meetings under the auspices of this institute 

 have been held in Brussels both before and since 

 the war. More recently M. Solvay set aside a 

 further capital sum of one million francs, also 

 to be expended in thirty years, for the promo- 

 tion of the science of chemistry. The meetings 

 of the institute are attended by delegates from 

 different countries, the number being limited to 

 about thirty, so that the discussions may be as 

 free and as informal as possible. The recent 

 meeting was devoted to the consideration of a 

 number of those questions which affect the 

 foundations of modern chemistry, and its pro- 

 gram included the presentation of papers on 

 isotopes, by Soddy, by Aston, and by Perrin 

 and Urbain; on X-ray analysis and molecular 

 structure, by W. H. Bragg; on the electronic 

 theory of valency, by Mauguin; on optical 

 activity, by Pope and by Lowry; and on chem- 

 ical mobility, by Job. 



The Journal of the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation, quoting from the Preusa Mediea, 

 describes the centennial of the foundation of 

 the Aeademia Nacional de Medicinia at Buenos 

 Aires, April 18. The rector of the university. 

 Dr. Jose Arce, presided. The historical ad- 

 dress was delivered by the president of the 

 academy. Dr. Eliseo Canton. Among the an- 

 nouncements made was that of the institute of 

 experimental medicine, the first of its kind to 

 be founded in South America. A prize of a 

 gold medal and $5,000 was awarded to Dr. P. 

 Belou for his "Stereoscopic Atlas of the Anat- 

 omy of the Ear"; a silver medal and $3,000 to 



Dr. C. Lagos Garcia for Ms work, "Human 

 Sexual Malformations," and a copper medal 

 and $2,000 to Dr. F. Garzon Maceda for his 

 "Manual of Zoopharmacy." A work by Dr. 

 P. P. Rojas on the structure of the myocardium 

 received honorable mention. Three days were 

 devoted to the centennial ceremonies. 



Dr. R. S. McBride, scretary of the Gas and 

 Fuel Section of the American Chemical Society, 

 announces that the new section will meet with 

 other sections of the society at the fall meeting 

 to be held in Pittsburgh September 4 to 9. 

 Among the topics to be discussed will be the 

 general subject, "Combustion," in the form of 

 a special symposium to be conducted under 

 the chairmanship of Professor R. T, Haslem, 

 of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It 

 will include a program of papers on chemical 

 methods underlying fuel utilization. Officers 

 of the section are : Dr. A. C. Fieldner, Bureau 

 of Mines, Pittsburgh, chairman, and R. S. 

 McBride, Colorado Building, Washington, 

 D. C, secretary. Dr. McBride has requested 

 that any membei-s of the society having papers 

 to present at the meeting of this section should 

 forward them in full or in abstract form to the 

 chairman or secretary or should notify these 

 officers regarding their intention to prepare 

 the papers. 



The following resolution was passed by the 

 faculty meeting of Kenyon College, on May 

 29 : "Voted that the faculty deplores agitation 

 against the explanation of natural phenomena 

 known as the theory of evolution, and regards 

 such propaganda as dangerous to scholarship, 

 education and the progress of civilization." 



A GIFT of £10,000 has been made to aid 

 cancer research by Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Todman, 

 of Sydney, N. S. W., in memory of their 

 daughter. At the request of the donors Sir 

 Joseph Hood, M.P., has allocated the sum as 

 follows : £4,000 to the Imperial Cancer Re- 

 search Fund, Queens Square, Bloomsbury; 

 £1,000 each to the Middlesex Hospital, the 

 Cancer Hospital, Fulham Road, London, the 

 Christie Hospital, Manchester, the MacRobert 

 Endowment, Aberdeen University, and the 

 Cancer Hospital, Glasgow; and £500 each to 

 the Radium Institutes of London and of Man- 

 chester. 



