June 1, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



559 



letter from him reports as follows : " My re- 

 cent trip, to Che Kiang was brought to a 

 summary close by the outbreak in that region. 

 I could not get any transport and very nearly 

 had my retreat cut off. ISTothing can be done 

 until the provinces have come to an agreement 

 as to just how the government is to be run. 

 There is only north Chili (a province of 

 China) left to work in and I hope to go there 

 in the autunm. China is in such an unsettled 

 state that if it were not for the war in Europe 

 it would be attracting everybody's attention. 

 Conditions are no better than they were dur- 

 ing the revolution of 1911." 



Dr. W. L. Abbott, who has enabled the in- 

 stitution to take part in much field work dur- 

 ing the past thirty years, and who is now 

 financing the explorations of Mr. Eaven, has 

 made a short collecting trip to Santo Domingo. 

 On this island, which was the scene of Dr. Ab- 

 bott's earliest expedition, in 1883, he collected 

 a number of mammals, birds, reptiles, mol- 

 lusks, insects and Indian relies. 



Mr. John B. Henderson, a regent of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, has conducted a 

 series of dredgings from his yacht Eolis off 

 Key "West, Florida. Owing to the excep- 

 tionally good weather conditions and to the 

 fact that the Gulf Stream had receded much 

 farther off shore than is usual, the party was 

 enabled to carry on most successful operations 

 upon the Pourtales Plateau. This is a strip 

 of rocky bottom off the Florida Keys extend- 

 ing some forty or fifty miles and lying between 

 the depths of 100 and 200 fathoms. It is one 

 of the richest localities in American waters 

 with a fauna peculiarly its own. The material 

 collected covers all groups of marine inverte- 

 brates. 



Dr. Paul Bartsch, of the N"ational Museum 

 staff, and Mr. John B. Henderson, also col- 

 lected in Cuba, the Florida Keys, and in Flor- 

 ida, where marine invertebrates were secured 

 by dredging. The Cerion Colonies composed 

 of land mollusks from the Bahamas, planted 

 some time ago by Dr. Bartsch in the Florida 

 Keys, as an experiment to discover the effect 

 of the environment, were examined. Observa- 

 tions and notes were also made on the birds 

 seen on the islands visited. 



APPROPRIATIONS OF THE GENERAL EDUCA- 

 TION BOARD 



The General Education Board, disbursing 

 moneys from the John D. Eockefeller Fund 

 for the promotion of education, has an- 

 noimced annual appropriations amounting to 

 $878,004. It is announced also that since the 

 University of Chicago has raised $3,461,600 

 for its medical school, subscriptions of the 

 General Education Board and of the Eocke- 

 feller Foundation, amounting to $2,000,000, 

 become valid at once. 



By a final gift of $350,000 to the Johns Hop- 

 kins Medical School the board announced that 

 it had completed its contribution of $1,750,000 

 for full-time medical teaching in that institu- 

 tion. When the board announced the first of 

 its gifts for the reorganization of the depart- 

 ments of medicine, surgery and pediatrics in 

 Johns Hopkins, the total contributions were 

 set at $1,400,000. 



Aims of the board in making the gift were 

 exisressed then by the Eev. F. T. Gates, then 

 chairman, in these words: "We think it im- 

 portant that the clinical subjects should be 

 cultivated and taught by men freed from the 

 distraction involved in earning their living 

 through private practise. They will hence- 

 forth be in a position to do any service that 

 either science or humanity demands." The 

 fund thus completed is known as the William 

 H. Welch Endowment for Clinical Education 

 and Eesearch. 



In announcing the release of the money for 

 the University of Chicago the board added 

 that its policy was to "use its fumds with a 

 view to inducing others to cooperate toward 

 the same ends. Thus its contributions for 

 nearly aU purposes are supplemented by other 

 gifts secured through the cooperation of the 

 General Education Board." 



Annual appropriations to other funds and 

 for other educational purposes as planned in 

 former years were: 



To Momnouth College, Monmouth, 111., $60,000 

 toward a total of $250,000. 



To Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kan., $100,000 

 toward a total of $400,000. 



For professors of secondary education in state 

 universities,, $35,130. 



