900 



SCIENCE 



[N.S. Vol. XXXI. No. 806 



and the domestieator of animals virtually 

 contradict this idea, enough so at least 

 that there is good basis for De Vries's bold 

 prediction : 



A knowledge of the laws of variation must 

 sooner or later lead to the possibility of inducing 

 mutations at will, and so of originating perfectly 

 new characters in plants and animals. And just 

 as the process of selection has enabled us to pro- 

 duce new races, greater in value and in beauty, 

 so a control of the mutative process will place in 

 our hands the power of originating permanently 

 improved species of animals and plants. 



C. V. Piper 

 Washington, D. C, 

 March 5, 1910 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Following the advice of its advisory board. 

 The Wistar Institute of Anatomy is about to 

 extend its work by the establishment of a de- 

 partment of embryology. At a meeting of the 

 board of managers of the institute, held May 

 27, a professorship of embryology was estab- 

 lished, and Professor G. Carl Huber, of the 

 University of Michigan, was called to this 

 chair. Professor Huber wiU begin his work 

 at the Wistar Institute in 1911. 



Dr. William Colby Eucker, of the United 

 States Public Health and Marine-Hospital 

 Service, has been granted leave of absence 

 for one year to accept the position of health 

 commissioner of Milwaukee. 



Dr. C. p. Lorenz, formerly of the Queen's 

 University, Kingston, Ontario, has entered 

 upon the duties of his position as associate 

 physicist in the Physical Laboratory of the 

 National Electric Lamp Association. Mr. 

 A. G. Worthing, of the University of Michi- 

 gan, and Mr. M. Luckiesh, of the University 

 of Iowa, have also accepted appointments in 

 the laboratory. 



Mr. Jerome D. Greene, secretary of the 

 Harvard College Corporation, has been ap- 

 pointed superintendent of the Rockefeller In- 

 stitute for Medical Research and its new 

 hospital. 



Dr. Ales Hrdlicka has been promoted to a 

 curatorship of anthropology in the U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum. He has started for South 



America to carry on some work in Peru and 

 Bolivia and to attend the Congress of Ameri- 

 canists. 



Columbia UNrvrERSixY has conferred its 

 doctorate of science on Sir William Henry 

 White, for many years director of naval con- 

 struction of the British navy, and on Dr. W. 

 J. Mayo, the eminent surgeon of Rochester, 

 Minn. 



On the occasion of the installation of the 

 Duke of Devonshire as chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity of Leeds, the degree of doctor of 

 science was conferred on Lord Rayleigh, Sir 

 Clements Markham and Professor William 

 Osier. 



Lord Rayleigh has been promoted from a 

 corresponding to a foreign member of the 

 Berlin Academy of Sciences. 



Dr. W. Solomon, professor of geology at 

 Heidelberg, has been elected a foreign mem- 

 ber of the Academy of Sciences in Milan. 



The two eminent pharmacognosists. Pro- 

 fessor Arthur Meyer, of Marburg, and Pro- 

 fessor A. Tschirch, of Bern, were elected 

 honorary members of the American Pharma- 

 ceutical Association at the recent meeting in 

 Richmond, May 3-Y, 1910. 



Dr. Rollin D. Salisbury, professor of geo- 

 graphic geology at the University of Chicago, 

 has been elected president, and Dr. Henry 

 C. Cowles, assistant professor of plant ecol- 

 ogy, first vice-president, of the Geographic 

 Society of Chicago. 



The American Philosophical Society has 

 appointed its president. Dr. William W. 

 Keen, to represent it at the Centennial Jubi- 

 lee of the University of Berlin to be held in 

 October next. 



Professors Sollas and Bowman have been 

 appointed university representatives from 

 Oxford University to the eleventh Interna- 

 tional Geological Congress, to be held at 

 Stockholm. 



The Barnard Medal was awarded at the 

 commencement exercises of Columbia Uni- 

 versity to Professor Ernest Rutherford, 

 director of the physical laboratories. Univer- 

 sity of Manchester. This medal, established 



