852 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 805 



mis^ided aims, and to command us to 

 prepare a sounder, a happier condition for 

 our children and future generations, while 

 building up, during the trend of centuries, 

 a slowly rising foundation for a higher 

 humanity, a more god-like race. 



Leo Hendeik Baekeland 



THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 



At a meeting of the trustees of the General 

 Education Board, held on May 24 in New 

 York City, $682,450 in appropriations was 

 voted. Of this sum $538,000 was appropriated 

 conditionally for the endowment funds of 

 eight colleges, $113,000 for the furtherance of 

 demonstration work in agriculture throughout 

 the southern states, and $31,450 for the sal- 

 aries and expenses of special professors of 

 secondary education in the several state uni- 

 versities of the south. 



The appropriations voted in support of col- 

 lege endowments raised to $5,177,500 the sum 

 already spent in this direction. The seventy 

 colleges that have received these endowments 

 during the last four years of the board's activi- 

 ties have each raised sums in endowment 

 which taken with the board's gifts aggregate 

 $23,670,500. 



Conditional appropriations for endowment 

 were made to these colleges in the following 

 sums: 



Cornell Ckillege, Mount Vernon, la., $50,000 -in 

 addition to a like amount subscribed at the last 

 previous meeting of the board. 



De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind., $100,000. 



Marietta College, Marietta, 0., $60,000. 



Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., $100,000. 



Central University, Danville, Ky., $75,000. 



Drake University, Des Moines, la., $100,000. 



Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., $50,000. 



Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., $50,- 

 000. 



These eight colleges were selected from a 

 list of twenty-nine who petitioned the board 

 for assistance. 



The sum of $113,000 appropriated for dem- 

 onstration work in agriculture in the south 

 was made in the furtherance of the efforts 

 which Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, of the Depart- 



ment of Agriculture, is making in elevating 

 agricultural conditions through the southern 

 states by teaching intensive farming and the 

 scientific methods of crop raising. In giving 

 financial aid to this movement the General 

 Education Board is cooperating with the de- 

 partment at Washington. Last year the 

 board's contribution in this direction was 

 $102,000, which was divided among the vari- 

 ous states as f oUows : Florida, $5,000 ; Georgia, 

 $32,000; South Carolina, $22,000; North Caro- 

 lina, $24,000; Virginia, $22,000. In addition 

 $8,000 was spent in the administration of this 

 enterprise. 



The money voted by the board for the sal- 

 aries and traveling expenses of professors of 

 secondary education in the south is to be 

 spent, as previous appropriations have been, 

 in fostering the growth of high schools. The 

 board now has one such professor attached 

 to the state universities of Virginia, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, 

 Arkansas, West Virginia and Kentucky, pro- 

 vision for the last of which was made at the 

 meeting. The sole duty of these professors 

 is to urge throughout their several fields the 

 establishment of high schools. 



The trustees of the board who attended the 

 meeting were Frederick T. Gates, Eobert C. 

 Ogden, Walter H. Page, J. D. Eoekefeller, Jr., 

 Albert Shaw, Wallace Butterick and Starr J. 

 Murphy, of New York; Edwin A. Alderman, 

 president of the University of Virginia; Hol- 

 lis B. Frissell, president of Hampton Insti- 

 tute; Henry Pratt Judson, president of the 

 University of Chicago, and Wickliffe Rose, 

 general agent of the Peabody Education Fund. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 With a view of collecting material for the 

 life of Alexander Agassiz, any one having 

 any of his letters will confer a favor by send- 

 ing them to his son, G. R. Agassiz, Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., 

 U. S. A. The letters of any one who so 

 wishes will be copied and the originals re- 

 turned to the owner as soon as possible. If 

 any persons are unwilling to part with the 



