168 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1259 



permanent field station will be established ; also 

 a forest pathological museum. All future com- 

 munications should be addressed to Labora- 

 tory of Forest Pathology, Spokane, Washing- 

 ton. 



Reasons for continuing the Chemical War- 

 fare Service as a permanent branch of the 

 War Department were presented to the House 

 Committee on Appropriations by General Wm. 

 L. Sibert. In part, he said : " An organization 

 of this kind would have as its biggest element 

 a research branch, the function of which branch 

 would be to keep abreast of the times in all of 

 the chemical appliances or substances necessary 

 or useful in war and, if the use of gas is con- 

 tinued or authorized, the training of troops 

 in the use of gas masks and things of that sort. 

 That would be a part of its functions, but 

 whether gas is used or not there are other 

 chemical substances, such as smokes, that have 

 a tactical use in warfare and the use of which 

 is growing. I refer to the making of screens 

 behind which troops can advance. We would 

 also have a proving ground force in connection 

 with our research force to try out appliances 

 that were developed either in our own labora- 

 tories or found abroad." 



The American Museum will continue its 

 Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition for 

 another year. The first expedition sailed from 

 the United States in March, 1916, and the 

 second in June, 1918, both imder the leader- 

 ship of Mr. Roy C. Andrews, of the department 

 of mammalogy. So far Mr. Andrews has can- 

 vassed especially the Ohino-Tibetan border and 

 western tropical China as far as Burma. He 

 is at present in Peking :and proposes, as soon 

 as the spring weather arrives, to proceed to 

 Urga in northern Mongolia. This town is 

 situated near the junction of two life zones, 

 the Siberian and the Mongolian and Central 

 Asian. In this region Mr. Andrews expects to 

 take moose, elk, wild boar and other large 

 game. After a four months' stay in northern 

 Mongolia, he hopes to hunt big-horn sheep 

 along the Chino-Mongolian frontier. The spe- 

 cies of mountain sheep found here is large, 

 with horns measuring sixty inches. In follow- 

 ing out the present program the expedition 



plans to be back in New York some time in 

 February, 1920. 



First Lieutenant Tracy I. Storeu, Sani- 

 tary Corps, has been discharged from mili- 

 tary service and has returned to his former 

 position at the musevim of vertebrate zoology 

 at the University of California after an 

 absence of sixteen months. 



Mr. H. F. Staley, formerly professor of 

 ceramic engineering at Iowa State College, 

 joined the staff of the Bureau of Standards in 

 December as metallurgical ceramist. 



The bureau of economic geology and tech- 

 nology of the University of Texas will co- 

 operate with the United States Geological 

 Survey in making explorations for potash 

 in the western part of the state. Orby C. 

 Wheeler has been engaged to take charge of 

 the work. 



Professor Fred W. Ashton has been 

 granted a leave of absence by the University 

 of the Philippines and has taken over new 

 duties as carbonization supervisor with the 

 Chemical Warfare Service at Manila, P. I. 



Mr. H. C. Raven, of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, has returned to Washington from 

 the island of Celebes, and has gone to Cornell 

 University to continue his studies. Mr. 

 Raven has collected in the East Indies during 

 the last six years more than four thousand 

 mammals and five thousand birds for the 

 ITational Museum. 



Henry Schmitz, Rufus J. Lackland fellow 

 in the Missouri Botanical Garden, who bas 

 been in the Naval Reserves since the begin- 

 ning of the war, has returned to resume his 

 work at the Garden. 



Nature states that Sir Lazarus Fletcher 

 will retire from the directorship of the Nat- 

 ural History Museum, under the age limit, on 

 March 31. The office was made in 1856, 

 under the style of superintendent of the Nat- 

 ural History Departments, so that the trustees 

 of the British Museum might obtain the 

 services of Sir Richard Owen, who supervised 

 the planing of the new mueum at South Ken- 

 sington, and retired shortly after its com- 



