April 18, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



371 



schools and educational institutions in Italy 

 and abroad. These articles are by Piero 

 Giacosa, on the " Institutes of Experimental 

 Sciences " (physics and chemistry) ; by Pietro 

 Bonf ante, on the " New Scientific Degrees " ; 

 by Eugenie Strong, on the " Britannic School 

 in Rome " ; by Alfredo Ascoli, on a " Legisla- 

 tive Alliance " ; by Andrea Galante, on the 

 "English Education Bill of 1917"'; by L. 

 Duchesne, on the " Transformation of the 

 University Teaching in France " ; by V. 

 Scialoja, on the " Giuridic Entente between 

 France and Italy " ; by P. S. Leicht, on the 

 '■' College of Spain and Flanders in Bologna," 

 and by G. Castebiuovo, on the " Reform of the 

 Engineering Schools in France." 



We should soon like to see some articles on 

 the educational institutions and research lab- 

 oratories of the United States and to learn 

 of their vast development and progress along 

 these lines. "We would recommend that Amer- 

 ican scholars write these articles and in them 

 present also their suggestions for the most 

 interesting studies and fields for research in 

 science, literature and law, and indicate the 

 schools, colleges and laboratories that might 

 most profitably be visited by Italian col- 

 leagues and students, in order to begin this 

 intercourse and cooperation from which many 

 advantages are to be expected. 



Giorgio Abetti 



Washington, D. C. 



GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON 



In the death of George Francis Atkinson 

 American botany has suffered an incalculable 

 loss. Stricken unexpectedly he died at the 

 beginning of what promised to be his most 

 productive period of activity. Having served 

 for more than a quarter of a century as pro- 

 fessor of botany in Cornell University he had 

 only recently been relieved by the trustees 

 of all teaching and administrative duties in 

 order that he might give the remaining years 

 of his life to iminterrupted research. He 

 hoped particularly to be able to complete and 

 put in final form for publication his mono- 



graphic studies on the fleshy fungi of North 

 America. In the pursuit of this undertaking 

 ho had gone without assistants for an ex- 

 tended collecting trip to the far west. Here 

 with characteristic enthusiasm for his work 

 and lured by the surpassing richness of the 

 fungous flora near Mt. Ranier he overtaxed 

 his strength, exposed himself to inclement 

 weather, and contracted a severe cold. This 

 rapidly developed into influenza followed by 

 pneumonia, and he died on November 15, in 

 the Tacoma Hospital at Taeoma, Washington. 

 His end came suddenly and found him alone 

 far from friends and home. After his re- 

 moval to the hospital, though critically ill, 

 his chief worry concerned the recently col- 

 lected specimens which he had been forced to 

 leave uneared for in the room of his boarding 

 house. Shortly before he died, in his last 

 delirium, he attempted to dictate to his nurse 

 some notes concerning his fungi. Thus death 

 found him engrossed to the very end in the 

 science which he had so long served and which 

 he loved so well. He lies buried at South 

 Haven, Mich., near the home of his boyhood. 

 Ithaca and Cornell will not see him again. 

 To his friends and colleagues it is a thing in- 

 credible that his genial personality and bril- 

 liant mind are gone from among us. The 

 words, " Professor Atkinson is dead " have 

 passed from lip to lip and left us almost un- 

 convinced. The memory of him and his work 

 now so clearly before us will serve as a guiding 

 influence through the coming years. It is 

 particularly gratifying to the writer to be 

 able to give here an expression of his ap- 

 preciation of one whom he revered as a great 

 teacher and valued as a true friend. 



Professor Atkinson was born in Raisinville, 

 Monroe County, Michigan, January 26, 1854. 

 He received his preliminary academic train- 

 ing at Olivet College, coming later to Cornell 

 Universit.y, from which he was graduated in 

 1885. The following year he began his scien- 

 tific career as professor of zoology at the Uni- 

 versity of North Carolina, and between the 

 years 1886 and 1890 published about fifteen 

 papers in the field of zoology. In 1888 he 

 accepted the professorship of botany and 



