June 23, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



675 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NOTES 



Announcement is made that the residue of 

 the estate of the late Hamilton B. Tompkins, 

 of New York City, left in his will to Hamilton 

 College, amounts to $650,000. 



The salary endowment fund of Vassar Col- 

 lege has reached the sum of $3,030,000. 



A RESEARCH fellowship of $1,000 for the 

 study of orthopedics in relation to hygiene and 

 physical education will be offered by Wellesley 

 College, beginning in September and continu- 

 ing for one year. 



Dr. Frank I. Kern, professor of botany, 

 has been appointed dean of the newly estab- 

 lished Graduate School of the Pennsylvania 

 State College. 



M. D. Hersey, associate professor of phys- 

 ics, R. P. Bigelow, R. R. Lawrence and H. W. 

 Shimer have been promoted to full professor- 

 ships at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology. Dr. Bigelow will be professor of 

 zoology and parasitology; Professor Lawrence 

 is a member of the electrical engineering de- 

 partment; Dr. Shimer will be professor of 

 paleontology. 



Dr. R. E. Cokeb, M.S. (North Carolina), 

 Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), head of the division 

 of scientific inquiry of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, has been elected to a professorship 

 of zoology in the University of North Carolina. 



GrEOGEAPHERS who received their doctorates 

 at Chicago have recently been promoted as 

 follows: To a professorship, Carl 0. Sauer, at 

 the Universitj' of Michigan. To associate pro- 

 fessorships, Stephen S. Visher, at Indiana 

 University; Wellington D. Jones and Charles 

 C. Colby, at the University of Chicago. To as- 

 sistant professorships, Robert S. Piatt and 

 Derwent S. Whittlesey, also at Chicago. 



At the University of Kansas, assistant pro- 

 fessor Curt Rosenow has been promoted to an 

 associate professorship in psychology and Dr. 

 Hulsey Cason (Columbia, '22) has been ap- 

 pointed assistant professor of psychology. 



Dr. Elwood S. Moore, dean of the School 

 of Mines of the Pennsylvania State College, 



has resigned, to take charge of the work in 

 economic geology at the University of Toronto. 



Dr. John Macpherson, lately retired from 

 the post of commissioner of the Board of Con- 

 trol for Scotland, has accepted for three years 

 the professorship of psychiatry at the Univer- 

 sity of Sydney. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 

 OBSERVATIONS OF FALLING METEORITES 



To the Editor of Science: The numerous 

 recently reported occurrences of falling mete- 

 orites are so contradictory and so at variance 

 with what reason would lead one to expect as 

 to make one quite cynical concerning the value 

 of human testimony. 



Few natural phenomena, it may be stated by 

 way of introduction, are more likely to unduly 

 excite the imagination than those attendant 

 upon a fall of meteorites. The suddenness, the 

 unexpected nature of the occurrence, the light 

 and noise, and perhaps above all the sensation 

 of fear aroused when a solid body is suddenly 

 projected from seemingly empty space, all have 

 effect, and it is not surprising that accounts 

 are widely variable — dependent upon the flex- 

 ibility of the imagination, more perhaps than 

 upon powers of observation. Few persons, 

 however well trained, can look calmly and crit- 

 ically upon the phenomena. Fewer yet can, in 

 the brief space of time, estimate the height of 

 the body when first seen, or note such facts as 

 may be of service in calculating its direction 

 and rate of progress. 



A peculiar feature of the case is the lack of 

 ability on the part of an observer to locate the 

 place of fall unless, indeed, he happens to actu- 

 ally see it strike the ground. This is due to 

 several causes, and, in part at least, to the low 

 angle at which the stones sometimes enter our 

 atmosphere, which permits a continuation of 

 flight for some distance, even miles, beyond 

 the point at which they seemingly must strike 

 the earth, and in part to the fact that one is 

 unable to correctly estimate the distance, which 

 may be much greater than supposed. No less 

 an experienced student and collector than the 

 late H. A. Ward once told the writer of his 



