534 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 797 



A NATIONAL BUREAU OF SEISMOLOGY 

 The following resolutions were passed by 

 the Seismological Society of America at a 

 meeting held in San Francisco, on March 2: 



Whereas earthquakes which are normally re- 

 curring phenomena of the earth's crust have in the 

 past caused considerable loss of property and life, 

 and much of the distress and destruction has been 

 due to lack of knowledge of earthquakes and 

 their peculiar mode of action and of proper pre- 

 cautions against injury and, 



Whereas the magnitude of the destruction in 

 the Atlantic coastal region (Charleston earth- 

 quake of 1886), the Mississippi Valley region 

 (earthquake of 1812) and the Pacific Coastal 

 region (California earthquakes of 1857, 1868, 

 1872 and 1906) , makes it a matter of great import 

 to all the people, and the fact that with increasing 

 density of population the conditions are becoming 

 more favorable for greater destruction in the 

 future makes it important that action be not 

 longer delayed. 



Whereas the problems involved are of national 

 and international character and local authority or 

 private enterprise is insufficient to successfully 

 carry on such work, and this fact has been realized 

 already by many of the great nations including 

 Germany, England, Japan, Austro-Hungary, Italy 

 and Spain which have already established scien- 

 tific earthquake services for the benefit of their 

 peoples and the world at large. 



Resolved that the Seismological Society of Amer- 

 ica strongly favors the establishment of a National 

 Bureau of Seismology with power 

 (a) To collect seismological data, 

 (5) To establish observing stations, 



(c) To study and investigate special earthquake 

 regions within the national domain, 



(d) To cooperate with other scientific bodies and 

 organizations and individual scientists in forward- 

 ing the development and dissemination of seis- 

 mological knowledge. 



It also favors the organization of this bureau 

 under the Smithsonian Institution with the active 

 cooperation of other scientific departments of the 

 government. 



Resolved that copies of these resolutions be 

 transmitted to the President, President of the 

 Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representa- 

 tives, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 and the members of the House Committee on 

 Library which has this matter now under con- 

 sideration. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 The annual session of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences will be held in Washington, 



D. C, beginning Tuesday, April 19. 



The American Philosophical Society will 

 hold a general meeting at Philadelphia on. 

 April 21, 22 and 23. On the evening of April 

 22, there will be a reception in the Hall of the 

 College of Physicians, when Professor George 



E. Hale will deliver an illustrated lecture on 

 " The Work of the Mt. Wilson Solar Observa- 

 tory." The annual dinner will be held on the 

 evening of April 23. 



Professor Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, 

 the eminent Italian astronomer, has cele- 

 brated his seventy-fifth birthday. 



Dr. Wilhelm Hittorf, professor of physics 

 at Miinster, has been elected a member of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences. 



Professor W. M. Davis, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, has been elected an honorary member 

 of the Societa Geografica Italiana in Eome. 



Dr. W. J. Holland, director of the Car- 

 negie Museum, has been elected a correspond- 

 ing member of the Eoyal Academy of Sci- 

 ences, at Bologna, to fill the vacancy created 

 by the death of Albert Gaudry, of Paris. 



Dr. a. Hrdlicka, of the U. S. National 

 Museum, has been made a corresponding 

 member of the Anthropological Society in 

 Vienna. 



Sir William Ramsay has been nominated 

 as honorary member of the Chemical Society 

 of France. 



Sir Thomas Barlow, F.E.S., has been 

 elected president of the Eoyal College of 

 Physicians, London, in succession to Sir 

 Eichard D. Powell. 



Dr. F. W. Putnam, honorary curator of 

 the Peabody Museum of American Archeol- 

 ogy and Ethnology, Harvard University; Dr. 

 E. B. Dixon, assistant professor of anthropol- 

 ogy and Dr. A. M. Tozzer, instructor in Cen- 

 tral American archeology, have been ap- 

 pointed delegates of Harvard University at 

 the foundation of the Mexican National Uni- 

 versity in September, 1910. Professor Dixon 

 has also been appointed delegate at the Inter- 



