64 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 993. 



estate of the late Levi M. Stewart, of Minnea- 

 polis. Mr. Stewart in the last year has given 

 away $630,000, practically half of the estate 

 that was left him. About $400,000 went to 

 churches, colleges and charitable institutions 

 in Maine. 



By the action of a New Haven court Tale 

 University is adjudged not entitled to a legacy 

 of $700,000. The money was devised by Mrs, 

 Henry O. Hotclil^iss, who died last year. The 

 court rules that the wiU is void because Mrs. 

 Hotchkiss did not get for herself complete and 

 ultimate control of the money. 



Dr. John Huston Finley was installed 

 president of the University of the State of 

 New York and commissioner of education on 

 January 2. The inaugural address by Dr. 

 Finley was given in the afternoon session. 

 Other speakers included St. Clair McKelway, 

 chancellor of the university ; Nicholas Murray 

 Butler, president of Columbia University, and 

 Calvin N. Kendall, commissioner of education 

 of New Jersey. The program for the evening 

 included addresses by Governor Glynn, 

 Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the interior; 

 Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of Har- 

 vard University, and Jean J. Jusserand, am- 

 bassador from France. 



The American Political Science Associa- 

 tion at its Washington meeting last week 

 adopted a resolution providing for the ap- 

 pointment of a committee of three " to ex- 

 amine and report upon the present situation 

 in American educational institutions as to 

 liberty of thought, freedom of speech and se- 

 curity of tenure for teachers of political sci- 

 ence." The committee was authorized to co- 

 operate with similar bodies of other societies 

 of the social sciences. 



The examiners for the Shaw Fellowship 

 open to graduates in philosophy of the four 

 Scottish universities have recommended that 

 it be awarded to Mr. G. A. Johnston, of Glas- 

 gow. It is of the annual value of about £160, 

 and is tenable for five years. 



Mr. A. E. MoRTiMEE-WooLF has been ap- 

 jiointed demonstrator in the department of 

 anatomy at King's College, London. 



Mr. George Sentee, D.Sc. (Lond.), Ph.D.. 

 (Leipzig), reader in chemistry in the Univer- 

 sity of London and lecturer in chemistry at 

 St. Mary's Medical School, has been appointed 

 head of the department of chemistry at Birk- 

 beck College, London, in succession to Dr. 

 Alexander McKenzie, who has been elected to- 

 the chair of chemistry at University College,. 

 Dundee (University of St. Andrews). 



DISCVSSION AND COBEESFONDENCE 



A modern text-book op geology AND 



EVOLUTION 



Time, after all, is a matter of relativity for 

 most of us. To-day, under circumstances, may 

 really be yesterday. A little scientific book of 

 the time of the middle of last century — a few 

 years, say, after the publication of Darwin's 

 " Origin " — has just come under my eyes. But 

 it could not have come much before because- 

 its title page bears the imprint, " Quebec, 

 1913." 



It is a little text-book (in French) of geol- 

 ogy : " Abrege de Geologie, par L'Abbe V.-A. 

 Huard, A.M., Directeur du Naturaliste Cana- 

 dien, Conservateur du Musee de I'Instruction 

 Publique, et Entomologiste ofEciel de la Prov- 

 ince de Quebec." 



It is one of a series of similar books by the 

 same author (zoology, botany, mineralogy, 

 geology) which form a " Cours abrege d'his- 

 toire naturelle, a I'usage des maisons d'educa- 

 tion." It is, in other words, an introductioQi 

 and guide to science for the rising generation 

 of French Canadians. 



It comprises six chapters about the earth's 

 crust, the agents that modify it and the fossils- 

 that lie in it; and a seventh divided into two 

 articles : " Art. 1, L'histoire primitive du genre 

 humain ; Art. 2, Ce quil f aut penser du trans- 

 formisme." It is this last chapter particularly 

 that seizes one's attention. 



The first paragraph of the first article con- 

 cerns the " age of the human species." It is 

 as follows: 



" The infallible authority of the Church — 

 [have I n-eglected to mention that the revers&- 



