Decembee 16, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



855 



CHEXnSTS IN AQBICTJLTURAI, COLLEGES, TEACHING 



AGRICULTUBAL STUDENTS, WHOSE NAMES 



APPEAR IN 



of agricultural college chemists, we shall 

 have left 4,425. The non-agricultural col- 

 lege chemists furnish 168 starred names, or 

 one name out of more than 31, while the 

 agricultural college chemists furnish one 

 starred name out of 25. This relative 

 standing would be considerably increased 

 were we to make correction for the num- 

 ber of chemists not members of the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Society. While it is doubt- 

 less a matter of pride that the agricultural 

 chemist is assigned such high rank among 

 American chemists by those who are con- 

 sidered by the editor of ' ' American Men of 

 Science" as the most capable judges, this 

 fact should serve as a stimulus to greater 

 effort. W. A. Withers 



Addenda. — Since the reading of the 

 above address the second edition of Ameri- 



AGRICULTCEAL COLLEGE CHEMISTS 



the directory and 5 starred names. They 

 have therefore not only maintained the 

 relative rank previously assigned them, but 

 have improved it. The distribution is 

 shown by the revised table. 



W. A. W. 



can Men of Science has appeared. It 

 shows that the Agricultural College Chem- 

 ists have made a net gain of 38 names in 



BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE PANAMA 

 CANAL ZONE 



A BIOLOGICAL survey of the Panama Canal 

 Zone is about to be undertaken under the di- 

 rection of the Smithsonian Institution. In 

 connection with all of the preliminary gov- 

 ernment surveys for transcontinental railway 

 routes, provision was made for biological 

 studies, and at the time of the building of the 

 Suez Canal a scientific commission was ap- 

 pointed to report on the facts pertaining to 

 the natural history of that region. When 

 the building of the Panama Canal was under- 

 taken by the United States appeals were 

 made by naturalists for the organization of a 

 similar survey of the Canal Zone. It was 

 found, however, that the officials in charge of 

 that work felt that the actual labor involved 

 was so great and the cost so enormous that 

 it was unwise to divert time or money in any 

 way from the single purpose of constructing 

 the canal. 



Under these circumstances. Professor C. H. 

 Eigenmann, of the University of Indiana, in- 

 duced various scientific bodies, including the 

 International Zoological Congress and the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, to address memorials to the Secre- 

 tary of the Smithsonian Institution urging 

 that the work be undertaken by the great 

 scientific institution under his direction. 



Secretarj' Walcott considered these appeals 

 and under his direction a meeting of repre- 

 sentatives of the National Museum, the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, and the Biological Sur- 

 vey, the Bureau of Entomology, and the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department 

 of Agriculture was held. Their decisions con- 

 firmed the desirability of such a survey and 

 in consequence of their opinions he prepared 

 the following memorandum which was sub- 

 mitted to President Taft: 



