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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1069 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The seventieth birthday of Professor Elie 

 Metehnikof, was celebrated in Paris recently, 

 though the international Festschrift planned 

 in his honor has been abandoned. At the 

 exercises Professor Darboux spoke on be- 

 half of the Paris Academy of Sciences and 

 Dr. Eoux on behalf of the Pasteur Institute. 



Mr. Thomas A. Edison was given the degree 

 of doctor of science by Princeton University, 

 at its recent commencement. 



Honorary degrees were conferred at the 

 recent commencement of George Washington 

 University upon men of science as follows : 

 doctor of laws, William H. Dall, of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey and the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, and Otto H. Tittmann, lately 

 superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey; doctor of medicine, Shep- 

 herd I. Franz, of the Government Hospital for 

 the Insane. 



The University of Pittsburgh has conferred 

 the degree of doctor of science on Eeid Thomas 

 Stewart, professor of mechanical engineering 

 and for thirty years a teacher in the Unirersity 

 of Pittsburgh. 



The Howard N. Potts gold medal of the 

 Franklin Institute has been awarded to Dr. 

 W. J. Humphreys for his paper " The Thunder- 

 storm and Its Phenomena." 



Professor Bashford Dean, of Columbia 

 University, has been elected an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Societe Zoologique de France in 

 recognition of his contributions to the embryol- 

 ogy of vertebrates. 



The medical faculty of the University of 

 Heidelberg has awarded the Kussmaul medal 

 and the prize from the Kussmaul endowment 

 to the surgeon, Professor Braum of Zwickau. 



Professor Henrik Mohn, the distinguished 

 ISTorwegian meteorologist, has celebrated his 

 eightieth birthday. 



Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, K.C.B., who 

 has been appointed first sea Lord of the Brit- 

 ish Admiralty, is a fellow of the Eoyal So- 

 ciety and is known for his researches on elec- 

 trical physics. 



Dr. John E. Murlin, assistant professor of 

 physiology in Cornell University Medical Col- 



lege, New York City, has declined the perma- 

 nent position of biochemist at the pellagra 

 hospital of the U. S. Public Health Service at 

 Spartanburg, S. C. He has also declined the 

 professorship of physiology and physiological 

 chemistry at Fordham University Medical 

 School. 



With the aid of the fund given to the uni- 

 versity by Mrs. Amey Richmond Sheldon, the 

 Harvard division of geology has sent W. G. 

 Foye, assistant in the division, to Fiji. In 

 that archipelago he will study the coral reefs, 

 the uplifted limestones and the volcanic rocks. 

 He will soon be joined by W. M. Mann, of 

 the Bussey Institution at Harvard. Also as a 

 Sheldon fellow, Mr. Mann will specially con- 

 sider the distribution of organic species in its 

 relation to the origin of the islands and reefs. 

 Their joint investigation is planned to last 

 nine to twelve months. Another Sheldon fel- 

 low, Sidney Powers, is spending six months 

 on an investigation of the volcanoes and ig- 

 neous rocks of the Hawaiian Islands. 



Dr. Joseph E. Pogue, associate professor of 

 geology, Northwestern University, sailed on 

 June 15 from New Orleans for a three months' 

 visit to Colombia, where he will carry on geo- 

 logical studies in the Andes near Bogota. 



Maurice Parmelee, who took the degree of 

 doctor of philosophy at Columbia University 

 in 1909, has been voted the Squires prize 

 by that university. This prize is awarded 

 quinquennially " to such graduate conducting 

 an original investigation of a sociological 

 character as shall be adjudged most worthy by 

 a committee of award, consisting of the presi- 

 dent, the professor of sociology and one of the 

 professors of political economy. Such award 

 shall be deemed to be a recognition of scien- 

 tific ability and achievement, as well as an 

 encouragement of research."' Mr. Parmelee 

 is now engaged in literary work of a sociolog- 

 ical nature in New York City. 



Another surgical unit, made up almost ex- 

 clusively of Harvard surgeons, will sail from 

 New York on June 22 for service in one of 

 the field hospitals of the English army. 

 The location of the hospital has not been 



