Apeil 5, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



557 



some of our most notable engineering enterprises 

 have grown out of eflforts to control them. It waa 

 computed by Generals Humphreys and Abbott half 

 a century ago that the Mississippi alone sweeps 

 into its lower reaches and the Gulf 400,000,000 

 tons of floating sediment each year (about twice 

 the amount of material to be excavated in opening 

 the Panama Canal), besides an enormous but un- 

 measured amount of earth-salts and soil-matter 

 carried in solution. This vast load not only causes 

 its channels to clog and flood the lowlands of the 

 lower river, but renders the flow capricious and 

 diflBcult to control. Furthermore, the greater part 

 of the sediment and soil-matter is the most fertile 

 material of the fields and pastures drained by the 

 smaller and larger tributaries. Any plan for util- 

 izing our inland waterways should consider floods 

 and their control by forests and other means ; the 

 protection of bottomlands from injury by over- 

 flows and uplands from loss by soil-wash; the 

 physics of sediment-charged waters and the phys- 

 ical or other ways of purifying them; the con- 

 struction of dams and locks, not only to facilitate 

 navigation but to control the character and move- 

 ment of the waters; and should look to the full 

 use and control of our running waters and the 

 complete artiflcialization of our waterways for the 

 beneflt of our people as a whole. 



It is not possible properly to frame so large a 

 plan as this for the control of our rivers without 

 taking account of the orderly development of other 

 natural resources. Therefore, I ask that the In- 

 land Waterways Commission shall consider the 

 relations of the streams to the use of all the great 

 permanent natural resources and their conserva- 

 tion for the making and maintenance of prosperoiis 

 homes. 



Any plan for utilizing our inland waterways, to 

 be feasible, should recognize the means for ex- 

 ecuting it already in existence, both in the federal 

 departments of War, Interior, Agriculture and 

 Commerce and Labor, and in the states and their 

 subdivisions; and it must not involve unduly bur- 

 densome expenditures from the national treasury. 

 The cost will necessarily be large in proportion to 

 the magnitude of the beneflts to be conferred, but 

 it will be small in comparison with the $17,000,- 

 000,000 of capital now invested in steam railways 

 in the United States — an amount that would have 

 seemed enormous and incredible half a century 

 ago. Yet the investment has been a constant 

 source of profit to the people and without it our 

 industrial progress would have been impossible. 



The questions which will come before the Inland 

 Waterways Commission must necessarily relate to 



every part of the United States and aifect every 

 interest within its borders. Its plans should be 

 considered in the light of the widest knowledge of 

 the country and its people, and from the most 

 diverse points of view. Accordingly, when its 

 work is suificiently advanced, I shall add to the 

 commission certain consulting members, with 

 whom I shall ask that its recommendations shall 

 be fully discussea before they are sumitted to me. 

 The reports of the commission should include both 

 a general statement of the problem and recom- 

 mendations as to the manner and means of at- 

 tacking it. 



80IENTIFI0 N0TE8 AND NEWS 



The bodies of Berthelot and his wife were 

 entombed in state in the Pantheon on March 

 25 in the presence of President Pallieres, the 

 cabinet ministers, the diplomatic corps, mem- 

 bers of the French Academy, judges, deputies, 

 senators and deputations from learned socie- 

 ties. M. Briand, minister of education made 

 an address. Every school in France was closed 

 as a sign of mourning. 



The portrait-group of Drs. Halsted, Kelly, 

 Osier and Welch, of the Medical School of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, painted by Mr. 

 John S. Sargent, R.A., was unveiled on the 

 evening of January 19, 1907, in McCoy Hall. 

 The painting was hung at the south end of 

 the hall, where the wall had been appropriately 

 draped. The portrait-group was presented to 

 the university by Miss Garrett and accepted 

 on behalf of the trustees by President Eemsen. 

 The Sargent portrait of Miss Garrett was 

 hung in the panel to the left. Dr. Welch gave 

 an account of some of the experiences of the 

 sitters, and Mr. Eoyal Cortissoz, of the New 

 Yorh Tribune, spoke of Sargent as an artist. 



At the New York meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 a silver loving cup was presented to Professor 

 W. F. Ganong by Professor G. F. Atkinson 

 on behalf of the former members of the So- 

 ciety of Plant Morphology and Physiology, as 

 a token of appreciation of Professor Ganong's 

 long and efficient services as executive officer 

 of that society. 



At the fourth International Mathematical 

 Congress to be held at Eome from April 6 to 

 11, 1908, lectures have been arranged by Pro- 



