356 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1267 



Dr. George Barger has been appointed to 

 the chair of chemistry in connection with 

 medicine at Edinburgh University. Dr. Barger 

 is at present research chemist to the Medical 

 Research Committee, National Health In- 

 surance. 



At the University of Cambridge Mr. Joseph 

 Barcoft, F.E.S., of King's College, has been 

 appointed reader in physiology; Mr. A. V. 

 Hill, I'.E.S., of King's College, university lec- 

 turer in physiology, and Dr. Hartridge, of 

 Kings College, university lecturer in the phys- 

 iology of the senses. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



PATENT REFORM PROSPECTS 



A Report of the Patent Committee of the 

 National Research Council, recommending 

 inter alia, (1) the separation of the Patent 

 Office from the Department of the Interior, 

 (2) the creation of a single Court of Patent 

 Appeals, to be located in "Washington, and (3) 

 certain salary readjustments, is being printed 

 in the March issue of the Journal of the Pat- 

 ent Office Society — of which additional con- 

 tents are as follows : " The Patent Office from 

 1828 to 1836 " (a historical article), by W. J. 

 Wyman; "A United States Patent Commis- 

 sion" (preferring a commission to a commis- 

 sioner), by John Boyle; "A Proposed Reor- 

 ganization of the Examining Corps" (advo- 

 cating the grouping of related divisions into 

 " departments," to be supervised by the respec- 

 tive members of a strengthened board), by 

 Bert Russell; '' Art Classification of Patents 

 for Patent Office Use" (favoring reliance on 

 analogies of structure and function), by G. A. 

 Lovett. 



It is understood that the matters referred to 

 in the above-mentioned report are but initial 

 measures and that the Patent Committee has 

 been continued, to press for necessary legisla- 

 tion. 



At a meeting of the Patent Office Society on 

 February 17, the following resolution was 

 taken with reference to the proposed separa- 

 tion: That the Patent Office Society approve, 

 and support by all proper means, both as an 

 organization and as individuals, that National 



Research Council bill which provides for the 

 establishment of the Patent Office as a separate 

 institution, independent of the Interior De- 

 partment and of every other existing depart- 

 ment of the government. The discussion of the 

 foregoing resolution included no single word of 

 disesteem toward Secretary Lane, under whose 

 jurisdiction the office now is. 



Dr. Geo. E. Hale, chairman of the Council, 

 in an address to the Patent Office Society on 

 March 3, 1919, stated the present personnel of 

 the council's enlarged Advisory Committee on 

 Industrial Research, including many well- 

 known leaders in the industrial world. Dr. 

 Hale deprecated the impracticable distinction 

 between " pure " and " applied " science, and 

 emphasized again, even in connection with in- 

 dustrial advance, the importance of what he 

 preferred to call the fundamental sciences. 



Because Dr. Hale had also stressed the im- 

 portance of those cross connections for which 

 the Research Council aims to provide, asso- 

 ciating the various groups of specialists now 

 at work in diversified and somewhat isolated 

 fields, and because of the prospect of a con- 

 tinued activity on the part of the Patent Com- 

 mittee as above referred to, this latest an- 

 nouncement was construed by Dr. Hale's hear- 

 ers as justifying the hope of some very real 

 and general cooperative eilort toward the es- 

 tablishment of a patent system that shall in 

 fact do its proper part — -nationally and per- 

 haps internationally — " to promote the progress 

 of science and the useful arts." 



Bert Russell 



a standard scientific alphabet 

 To the Editor of Science: May I call the 

 attention of Mr. J. C. Ruppenthal whose 

 letter on, " A Standard Scientific Alphabet " 

 appeared in Science for February 21, 1919, 

 pp. 191-192, to the International Phonetic 

 Association. 



Its secretary, just before the war, was Paul 

 Passy, its address, 20 rue de la Madeleine, 

 Bourg La-Reine, Seine, France; its organ, 

 Le Maitre Phonetique. It had about 1,800 

 members and it has adopted an International 

 alphabet which can be used for all languages 



