Mat 28, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



785 



ical Society of America at its Philadelphia 

 meeting. Its purpose is to honor the memory 

 of the father of American entomology, Thomas 

 Say, by the publication of a series of volumes 

 on systematic entomology. These volumes 

 are to be of a monographic or bibliographic 

 character and to deal only v^ith the insects of 

 North America. It is hoped that a series of 

 volumes similar in appearance and of the same 

 high standard as the volumes of the John Hay 

 Society of England can be issued. To this end 

 a temporary committee consisting of J. M. 

 Aldrich and Nathan Banks, U. S. Bureau of 

 Entomology, E. P. Van Duze, University of 

 California, Morgan Hebard, Academy of Nat- 

 ural Sciences of Philadelphia, treasurer, and 

 Alex. D. MacGillivray, University of Illinois, 

 editor, vs^as appointed to solicit funds, and 

 when these are sufficient, to issue such works 

 as they may deem worthy of publication. The 

 most difficult problem confrotiting the com- 

 mittee is the securing of a fund sufficient for 

 publication. It is hoped that an endowment 

 fund, the income from which will be sufficient 

 for the issuance of about two volumes per 

 year, will eventually be available. Until such 

 a time, however, an attempt will be made to 

 obtain subscriptions for the issuance of vol- 

 umes. 



AWABDS OF TSE FRANKLIN MEDAL 

 The Pranklin medal, the highest recogni- 

 tion in the gift of The Franklin Institute of 

 the state of Pennsylvania, has recently been 

 awarded to Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and to 

 Thomas Alva Edison. The awards were made 

 on the recommendation of the institute's com- 

 mittee on science and the arts, that to Onnes 

 being in recognition of his " long-continued 

 and indefatigable labors in low-temperature re- 

 search which has enriched physical science, 

 not only with a great number of new methods 

 and ingenious devices, but also with achieve- 

 ments and discoveries of the first magnitude " 

 and that to Edison in recognition of " the 

 value of numerous basic inventions and dis- 

 coveries forming the foundation of world-wide 

 industries, signally contributing to the well- 

 being, comfort and pleasure of the human 

 laee." 



The Franklin Medal Fund, from which this 

 medal is awarded, was founded on January 1, 

 1914, by Samuel Insull. Awards of the medal 

 are to be made annually to those workers in 

 physical science or technology, without regard 

 to country, whose efforts, in the opinion of the 

 institute, have done most to advance a knowl- 

 edge of physical science or its applications. 

 The present awards are the first to be made. 



The medal awarded to Professor Onnes was 

 received on behalf by His Excellency, Cheva- 

 lier van Eappard, minister from the Eoyal 

 Netherlands government, at the stated meet- 

 ing of the institute on the evening of Wednes- 

 day, May 19, and at this meeting Mr. Edison 

 was the guest of the institute and received his 

 award in person. Following the presentations, 

 an address entitled " Electricity and Modern 

 Industrial GrovTth " was delivered by Mr. In- 

 sull. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Dr. Frank J. Goodnow was installed as 

 president of the Johns Hopkins University on 

 May 20. After he had delivered his inaugural 

 address on " Modern Educational Ideals," he 

 conferred degrees on twelve distinguished 

 scholars and scientific men who were presented 

 by Dr. William H. Welch. The scientific men 

 on whom the degree of doctor of laws was con- 

 ferred are as follows : John Mason Clarke, 

 state geologist and paleontologist of New York ; 

 John Dewey, professor of philosophy, Columbia 

 University; Simon Flexner, director of the 

 laboratories of the Eockefeller Institute for 

 Medical Eesearch; George W. Goethals, major 

 general of the United States Army, chief engi- 

 neer of the Panama Canal; Thomas Hunt 

 Morgan, professor of experimental zoology, 

 Columbia University; Michael I. Pupin, pro- 

 fessor of electro-mechanics, Columbia Univer- 

 sity; Eobert Simpson Woodward, president of 

 the Carnegie Institution. 



At its annual meeting held on May 12, the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, act- 

 ing upon the recommendation of the Eumford 

 Committee, voted : " That the Eumford Pre- 

 mium be awarded by the Academy to Charles 

 Greeley Abbott for his researches on Solar 

 Eadiation." The committee has appropriated 



