Decembee 30, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



951 



express my hope that, under their management, 

 and with their generous support, the university 

 may be an increasing blessing to them, to their 

 children and to future generations. 



Very truly yours, 

 John D. Rookefelleb 



The trustees, in adopting a resolution ex- 

 pressing their grateful appreciation of Mr. 

 Rockefeller's generosity, ordered spread upon 

 the records a minute, a copy of which will be 

 engraved and conveyed to Mr. Rockefeller by 

 a special committee of the board. The minute 

 reads in part: 



The board of trustees of the University of Chi- 

 cago accepts the gift made by Jlr. Rockefeller and 

 pledges itself to carry out in the spirit as well as 

 in the letter, the conditions accompanying it. It 

 is now twenty-one years since, in May, 1889, Mr. 

 Rockefeller made his first gift to the University 

 of Chicago. This final gift will make the total 

 amount which the university will have received 

 from its founder approximately thirty-five million 

 dollars. 



We know of no parallel in the history of edu- 

 cational benefactions to gifts so munificent be- 

 stowed upon a single institution of learning. But 

 unique as they are in amount, they are still more 

 remarkable for the spirit in which they have been 

 bestowed. Mr. Rockefeller has never permitted 

 the university to bear nis name, and consented to 

 be called its founder only at the urgent request of 

 the board of trustees. He has never suggested the 

 appointment or removal of any professor. What- 

 ever views may have been expressed by members 

 of the faculty he has never indicated either assent 

 or dissent. He has never interfered directly or in- 

 directly with that freedom of opinion and expres- 

 sion which is the vital breath of a university, but 

 has adhered without deviation to the principle 

 that while it is important that university pro- 

 fessors in their conclusions be correct, it is more 

 important that in their teaching, they be free. 



More significant still, this principle has been 

 maintained even in his attitude toward the teach- 

 ing of a subject so intimate as religion wherein the 

 mind is keenly sensitive to differences of opinion. 

 Although at times, doctrines have been voiced in 

 the university which traverse those the founder is 

 known to hold, he has never shown a desire to 

 restrain that freedom which is quite as preciou- 

 in theology as in other fields of thought. Such a 

 relationship between a great benefactor and the 

 institution which he has founded affords a motto 



for educational benefaction through all time to 

 come. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



In this issue of Science is published the ad- 

 dress of the retiring president of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence. We hope to publish in succeeding issues 

 the more important addresses and papers read 

 at the meeting of the American Association 

 and the national scientific societies together 

 with reports of their proceedings. 



The Nobel prizes, amounting to about $40,- 

 000 each, -were distributed by the King of 

 Sweden on December 10 with the usual cere- 

 monies. The prize-winners in science were 

 present to receive their prizes and gave the 

 statutory lectures. The recipients were, as 

 already announced, Professors Van der Waals 

 (physics), Wallach (chemistry) and Kossel 

 (medicine). 



Cambridge TjNn^ERSiTY will confer the de- 

 gree of doctor of science on Dr. George E. 

 Hale, director of the Solar Observatory, on 

 Mount Wilson. 



The bill to grant $250,000 for the construc- 

 tion of a monument to Commodore Perry at 

 Put In Bay, O., and the holding of a centen- 

 nial celebration in 1913 in commemoration of 

 the battle of Lake Erie, has been favorably 

 acted upon by the house committee on expo- 

 sitions. 



The Erench Society of Biology has awarded 

 the Godard prize to Mile. Anna Drzewina. 



It is announced from Cambridge that the 

 special board for biology and geology has ad- 

 judged the Walsingham medal for 1910 to A. 

 V. HiU, of Trinity College, for his essay en- 

 titled " The Heat Produced by Living Tissues, 

 with Special Reference to Muscular Activ- 

 ity"; and a second Walsingham medal to J. 

 C. E. Eryer, of Gonville and Caius College, 

 for his essay entitled " The Structure and 

 Formation of Aldabra and Xeighboring Is- 

 lands — with Xotes on their Elora and Eauna." 



Dr. Albert Ross Hill, president of the 

 University of Missouri, delivered the address 

 at the seventy-seventh convocation of the 

 L^niversity of Chicago. His subject was 



