May 20, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



781 



members of the teaching profession, it can not 

 accomplish its announc-ed primary purpose unless 

 its activities are such as, in the opinion of the 

 majority of university teachers, actually tend to 

 advance and dignify their profession. And it can 

 not long retain the beneficial influence which it 

 may properly exercise over the policies of insti- 

 tutions, unless their faculties and governing 

 boards continue to believe that the foundation 

 will fulfill the promises implied in its rules. 



Certain recent acts of the foundation appear 

 to Tis to be not only inequitable in themselves 

 but also to be likely to destroy the confidence of 

 university teachers and university boards in the 

 stability of the foundation's policy, in the trust- 

 worthiness of its announcements, and in the gen- 

 eral tendency of its work to render the profession 

 more attractive to young men of independent 

 spirit and high ability. While we do not feel 

 called upon to express any opinion concerning the 

 intrinsic desirability of a general and unqualified 

 system of length-of-serviee pensions, we consider 

 the abrupt abolition of such a system, without - 

 notice, after individuals and institutions have 

 for four years been basing their acts upon the 

 foundation's announcement that it would grant 

 such pensions, to be unfair to those directly af- 

 fected and provocative of indignation in nearly 

 all teachers not directly alTected. We, therefore, 

 respectfully request that your board, as early as 

 may be convenient, reconsider its action upon 

 this matter. We believe, also, that further legis- 

 lation is desirable, with a view to reassuring the 

 academic public against the anticipation of other 

 sudden and radical changes of the foundation's 

 policy, and with a view to promoting a better and 

 more sympathetic understanding between the 

 management of the foundation and the general 

 body of teachers. 



While we do not desire to suggest the details 

 of the legislation to be adopted, we are of the 

 opinion that some such measures as the following 

 would make for the advancement of the teaching 

 profession, and therefore for the realization of 

 the purposes of the foundation: 



1. The adoption by your board of such supple- 

 mentary legislation as shall effectually safeguard 

 the interests of those who have, during the past 

 four years, been influenc-ed in the conduct of their 

 affairs by expectations aroused by the old service- 

 pension rule. 



2. The adoption of a new rule, whereby no es- 

 sential changes may be made in any of the funda- 

 mental rules of the foundation without several 



years' notic-e, duly promulgated to all of the insti- 

 tutions upon the accepted list. 



.3. The inclusion in the membership of the board 

 of trustees of representatives of the teaching 

 branch of the profession. 



All of which is submitted to your favorable- 

 consideration. 



C. Stuabt Gagee, 

 W. I. Daumfobd, 

 H. B. Shaw, 



Committee 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Professoe Svante Aerhekics, of Stock- 

 holm, has been appointed Silliman lecturer at 

 Yale University. 



Dr. George E. Hale, director of the Mount 

 WUson Solar Observatory, has been elected 

 an honorary member of the Royal Institution, 

 London. 



Cambridge Uxn'ERsiTY wiU confer honorary 

 degrees this term on Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., 

 principal of the University of Birmingham, 

 and Professor W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., professor 

 of organic chemistry in the Victoria Univer- 

 sity of Manchester. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society on 

 May a the following candidates for fellowship 

 were elected into the society: Mr. J. Barcroft, 

 Professor G. C. Bourne, Professor A. P. Cole- 

 man, Dr. P. A. Dixey, Dr. L. X. G. Filon, 

 Mr. A. Fowler, Dr. A. E. Garrod, Mr. G. H. 

 Hardy, Dr. J. A. Harker, Professor J. T. 

 Hewitt, Professor B. Hopkinson, Dr. A. Lap- 

 worth, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir W. B. Leish- 

 man, Mr. H. G. Plimmer and Mr. F. Soddy. 



At a meeting of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, held on May 11, it was 

 voted to award the Rumford premium to 

 Charles Gordon Curtis " for his improvements 

 in the utilization of heat as work in the steam- 

 turbine." 



Dr. F. L. Chase has been appointed acting 

 director of the Yale Observatory. 



Professor Frederic P. Gorhaji, of the bio- 

 logical department of Brown University, has 

 been appointed by the commissioners of shell 

 fisheries of the state of Rhode Island to make 

 a study of the distribution of the sewage in_ 



