230 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX, No. 1262 



profession of statistics is confronted witli an 

 opportunity for unparalleled service to the 

 medical sciences, among them preventive medi- 

 cine. 



Edwin W. Kopf, 

 General Chairman 

 Committee on Statistical Study of 

 THE Influenza Epidemic, 

 Section on Vital Statistics, 

 American Public Health Assn. 

 One Madison Avenue, 

 N. Y .City 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON 



The faculty of Cornell University has 

 passed the following resolutions on the death 

 of Professor Atkinson: 



The University Faculty desires to express its 

 profound sorrow and its sense of great loss througli 

 tiie death, on November 14, of George Prancis 

 Atkinson. 



Since Jus return to his alma mater in 1892, he 

 has been a member of this faculty. In 1896 he 

 was appointed professor of botany. During this 

 period of more than a quarter of a century, which 

 was devoted unceasingly and enthusiastically to 

 research, he became an active working member 

 of numerous scientific societies, and attained an 

 eminent position among the botanists of the world. 

 In mycology, particularly, he had an international 

 reputation and he was regarded as the foremost 

 authority on the fiesihy fungi of this country. In 

 June, 1917, the board of trustees generously re- 

 lieved him of all further teaching and administra- 

 tive duties in order that he might devote his time 

 entirely to his researches in this field. His excep- 

 tional abdlity and high place among American men 

 of science was f ormially recognized by ihis election 

 to the National Academy of Sciences, in AprU, 1918. 

 To his services as a teacher in that higher sense of 

 the word which implies ability to impart enthu- 

 sdiasm and love for research, the success of the large 

 niunber of botanists throughout the country who 

 have been his pupils bears glowing testimony. 



His end came suddenly as the result of influenza 

 followed by pneumonia, incurred during a collect- 

 ing trip on the Pacific coast in pursuance of the 

 great m'onographic situdy of fleshy fungi upon 

 which he had been engaged for many years, and 

 whioh was nearing completion. In the death of 

 Professor Atkinson not this faculty alone but the 



whole community of working men of science have 

 lost a gifted colleague; a man of genius who 

 contributed much to the world's knowledge of 

 botany. His work lives after him, not only in his 

 writings but in the inspiration imparted to a 

 younger generation of investigators in the field in 

 which he was an honored master. 



MEDICAL RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation states that the Walter and Eliza 

 Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and 

 Medicine has been established in Melbourne 

 in connection with the Melbourne Hospital, 

 through the generosity of the trustees of the 

 Walter and Eliza Hall Fund. The institute is 

 controlled by a board representing the trustees, 

 the University of Melbourne and the Mel- 

 bourne Hospital. A spacious building, in- 

 cluding a basement and three stories, has been 

 erected at a cost of over $60,000 in imme- 

 diate connection with tlie pathologic depart- 

 ment of the hospital. The hospital itself has 

 recently been entirely rebuilt and now con- 

 tains 350 beds. Applications for the offices 

 of director and of first assistant of the insti- 

 tute are being invited through the agent-gen- 

 eral for Victoria, Melbourne Place, Strand, 

 London, from whom full information may be 

 obtained. The director has the management 

 of the institution; devotes his whole time to 

 this work, is responsible for keeping research 

 as the primary object of the institution, will 

 give all assistance to the medical staff and 

 other officers of the Melbourne Hospital in 

 postmortem work and clinical pathology, will 

 make arrangements for clinical instruction 

 and laboratory instruction to medical students 

 in postgi-aduate work, and provide or main- 

 tain the comforts of patients or others 

 residing in, or who use the hospital. His term 

 of service is five years and he is eligible for 

 reappointment. His salary is $5,000 a year, 

 and in addition, the board will procure an en- 

 dowment insurance on the director's life, to 

 be payable at the age of sixty or predecease, 

 the annual premium for this insurance being 

 $3Y5. If the director comes from America, 

 $625 will be allowed for travel expenses. Ap- 



