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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1165 



ical Association, are : Drs. W. T. Councilman, 

 Harvey Cushing, Walter B. Cannon, Fritz B. 

 Talbot, James S. Stone, George Holmes, David 

 L. Edsall and Francis W. Peabody, Boston; 

 William G. llacCallum and Warfield T. 

 Longcope, New York; Lewellys F. Barker and 

 Theodore C. Janeway, Baltimore, and Eollin 

 T. Woodyatt, Ludvig Hektoen and Harry G. 

 Wells, Chicago. 



The advisory commission of the Conneil of 

 Ifational Defense and the National Research 

 Council have sent six American men of sci- 

 ence to England and France to study prob- 

 lems arising out of the war. Members of the 

 party and the subjects in which they will 

 specialize are: Dr. Joseph S. Ames, Johns 

 Hopkins University, aeronautical conditions; 

 Dr. Eichard P. Strong, Harvard University, 

 camp sanitation; Dr. Linsley E. Williams, 

 assistant health commissioner of New York 

 State; George A. Hulett, Princeton Univer- 

 sity, chemistry of explosives ; Dr. Harry Field- 

 ing Eeid, Johns Hopkins University, scien- 

 tific map making and photography from air- 

 planes, and Dr. George E. Burgess, of the 

 Federal Bureau of Standards, metals suitable 

 for guns and rigid dirigibles. The party is 

 accredited to the American Embassies in 

 Jjondon and Paris. 



Six professors of the University of Minne- 

 sota have been asked by the war department 

 to act as a scientific research board for the 

 district of the state of Minnesota. The duties 

 asked of them will require a considerable por- 

 tion of their time from now on. These men 

 are Professor John J. Flather, head of the de- 

 partment of mechanical engineering. Dean 

 George B. Franlrforter of the school of chem- 

 istry. Dr. L. G. Eowntree, head of the depart- 

 ment of medicine. Professor E. W. Thatcher, 

 head of the department of agricultural chem- 

 istry, L. W. McKeehan of the department of 

 physics, F. E. McMillan, of the department of 

 structural engineering. Dean Frankforter 

 and Professor Flather acted upon a special 

 navy board which made an inventory of Minne- 

 sota resources last summer and the figures 



which they gathered at that time will be of in- 

 estimable value in the present crisis. 



At the annual dinner and initiatory exer- 

 cises of the Washington University chapter of 

 Sigma Xi, the president of the chapter, Dr. B. 

 M. Duggar, discussed " Some Materials and 

 Problems in Plant Pathology." 



Dr. Charles Baskerville, director of chem- 

 ical laboratories of the College of the City of 

 New York, delivered an illustrated address at 

 the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on April 

 19, his subject being " The Hydrogenation of 

 Oils." 



At the recent meeting of the West Virginia 

 Scientific Society Dr. Ludvig Hektoen, of the 

 University of Chicago, delivered an address on 

 " Eecent Investigations of Infantile Paralysis." 



Mr. William Bowie, chief of the division of 

 geodesy, delivered recently an address before 

 the Geological Society of Washington, D. C, 

 on " Some Evidences of Isostasy." 



Dr. E. a. Pearson, president of the Iowa 

 State College, has been made chairman of a 

 committee which will include one member from 

 each congressional district of the state of 

 Iowa and whose duty will be to organize the 

 farmers of the state in the interest of food 

 conservation and increased production. The 

 creation of such a committee was recommended 

 by a conference of the leading men of the 

 state held at the state house on April 3 at the 

 call of Governor Harding. The governor will 

 appoint the other members of the committee. 

 The conference recommended an emergency 

 appropriation by the legislature of $100,000 

 for 1917 and an equal amount for 1918 to be 

 used under the supervision of the extension 

 department of the Iowa State College in a 

 campaign to increase the food production of 

 Iowa. 



Professor A. D. Wilson, director of agri- 

 cultural extension work of the University of 

 Minnesota, has been appointed by the govern- 

 ment to direct the work of farm production 

 and labor conservation in the northwest during 

 the continuance of the war. 



Professor Joseph Jasteow, of the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin, is giving a series of lectures 



