70 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1255 



acting professor in tlie department of electrical 

 engineering, to professor ; Robert M. Anderson, 

 acting professor in the department of engineer- 

 ing practise, to professor; Lewis E. Armstrong, 

 instructor in the dei>artment of mathematics, 

 to assistant professor. 



Mr. Lester Toder, formerly with the chem- 

 ical section of the Agricultural Experiment 

 Station of Iowa State College, is now at the 

 TJ. S. Technological School, Carney's Point, 



]sr. J. 



The chemistry department of the Univer- 

 sity of Ndbraska announces the following addi- 

 tions to its teaching staff : Dr. Horace G. Dem.- 

 ing, of the University of Illinois, as professor 

 of chemistry in charge of general and physical 

 chemistry; Mr. B. Clifford Hendricks, of Peru, 

 Nebr., State Normal School, as assistant pro- 

 fessor of chemistry; Mr. T. J. Thompson, of 

 Kansas Wesleyan University, as instructor in 

 organic chemistry. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE LILLE SOCIETY OF SCIENCES 



To THE Editor of Science: I wish to call 

 the attention of American scientists to the 

 following extracts from a letter received from 

 Dr. Charles Barrels, professor of geology at 

 ■ the University of Lille and actively interested 

 in the Society of the Sciences of Lille. Dr. 

 Barrois writes : 



For four years I have been cut off from the num- 

 ber of the living, reduced to servitude, without re- 

 ceiving a letter or a scientific book; I have not 

 been able during this time to communicate with 

 anybody in the world, nor to have any news of my 

 family. That has been harder to me than physical 

 sufferings and bombs. 



My geoloigical institution has been twice demol- 

 ished by bombs, but I was able to save the collec- 

 tions from the debris and they were respected by 

 the Germans. Our library of the Society of Sci- 

 ences was unfortunately burned so that I am much 

 embarrassed in my work; the books of the Public 

 Library were also burned, those of the university 

 were saved, but that was the least important li- 

 brary. 



I am working at present to build up again my 

 university, our Geological Society of the North, all 

 the members of which are scattered, ruined or 



killed. I do not yet know if I shall succeed; books 

 are necessary, and money is necessary to continue 

 my publications and I fear it can not be obtained 

 in France where they are much impoverished. I 

 look sadly at the manuscripts of my confreres, en- 

 trusted to my care for publication. ... I am quite 

 a little disconcerted at being reduced to mendicancy 

 in my old days, for our learned societies, but the 

 American devotion and generosity have been shown 

 so great in these latter days, that we believe we 

 can be assisted by them openly. 



If any one has any books or specimens that 

 they think would be of assistance to Dr. 

 Barrois and his associates in connection with 

 the Library and Museum of the Society of the 

 Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution will be 

 very glad to transmit them to the society at 

 Lille. 



Charles D. Walcott 



root pressure and root exudation 

 A recent note in Science by Professor 

 Kremers^ upon the use of dahlias for experi- 

 mental work upon osmosis reminds the writer 

 of his use of the same plant for the dem- 

 onstration of root pressure and the exuda- 

 tion of water in quantity. The growth from 

 the tuberous roots is vigorous and in a short 

 time is ready for the setting up of the ex- 

 periment. The quantity of water exuded and 

 the pressure are adequate for a thorough dem- 

 onstration of these phenomena as outlined for 

 example in Ganong's " Plant Physiology " and 

 fully equal to the best plants which the writer 

 has used in such demonstrations. 



In this connection the writer wishes to ex- 

 press a thought which has been more and 

 more impressed upon him in his work as a 

 teacher of physiology, pathology and even 

 morphology of plants. Each institution, and 

 especially is this true of the smaller ones, is 

 working out its technical problems in an 

 isolated fashion, often repeating unprofitable 

 experiments which have been found by other 

 institutions to be unsuccessful. In other 

 eases especially useful plants or types of ap- 



1 ' ' Experimental Osmosis with a Living Mem- 

 brane," Edward Kremers, Science, N. S., Vol. 

 XL VIII., No. 1250, December 13, 1918, p. 599. 



