March 24, 1911J 



SCIENCE 



451 



In Iowa a new method of administration of 

 the State University and other state schools 

 was entered upon this last year. The boards 

 of regents were abolished and the three state 

 institutions are being governed by one board 

 of education, the members of which are ap- 

 pointed by the governor. In Kansas a similar 

 law has just been passed and awaits only the 

 signature of the governor to make it effective. 



If such radical changes are to be made it 

 would seem wiser that they should come upon 

 the initiative of the universities themselves 

 rather than from politicians. At any rate it 

 should be done only after a careful study of 

 the whole situation. 



This senate committee at the University of 

 Illinois is entering therefore upon an auspic- 

 ious work. It is expected that it will be en- 

 gaged at least one year before a report will be 

 prepared. 



The members of the board of trustees of the 

 university are much interested in this under- 

 taking for they realize the need of a definition 

 of their duties and powers and they will be 

 only too glad to have a statement made of the 

 relations of the board to the state government, 

 on the one hand, and the relations of the board 

 to the university, on the other hand. 



Four leading members of the board — Presi- 

 dent William L. Abbott, Mr. Fred L. Hatch, 

 for fifteen years a member of the board, Mrs. 

 Mary E. Busey and Mrs. Laura B. Evans — - 

 were present at this initial meeting and gave 

 it their hearty approval. 



The fifteen members of the senate com- 

 mittee that is to carry on this important work 

 during the coming year represent (either as 

 graduates or as former instructors) some 

 eighteen leading universities, three law 

 schools, three technical schools, two col- 

 leges, all in the United States and five 

 foreign universities and technical colleges. 

 The members of the committee are the 

 following: Professor Henry Baldwin Ward, 

 chairman. Professor Arthur IST. Talbot, Pro- 

 fessor Herbert W. Mumford, Assistant Pro- 

 fessor James H. Pettit, Assistant Professor 

 Henry L. Eietz, Professor Frederick Green, 

 Professor Ernest E. Dewsnup, Professor 



Julius Goebel, Mr. Charles H. Mills, di- 

 rector of the School of Music, Mr. Phineas 

 L. Windsor, librarian. Professor Boyd H. 

 Bode, Associate Professor Wm. A. Oldfather, 

 Professor Frederick M. Mann, Professor Ed- 

 ward S. Thurston, Mr. Charles M. McConn, 

 secretary. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Dr. Henry Pickering Bowditch, professor 

 of physiology at the Harvard Medical School 

 for thirty-five years, eminent for his contribu- 

 tions to this science, died on March 13, in his 

 seventy-first year. 



Dr. William H. Nichols, president of the 

 eighth International Congress of Applied 

 Chemistry, was the guest of honor at a dinner 

 tendered him by twenty-two members of the 

 executive and sectional executive committees 

 of that congress on March 7, at the Engineers' 

 Club, New York City. The occasion for this 

 dinner was Dr. Nichols' departure on an 

 European trip. He will visit Italy, Austria, 

 Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and 

 England, and to the chemists of these coun- 

 tries he will personally carry invitations to 

 the congress. 



Lieutenant-Colonel David Prain, F.E.S., 

 director of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

 has been elected a member of the Athenwum 

 Club. 



We learn from Nature that Professor H. E. 

 Armstrong, F.R.S., has been nominated the 

 delegate of the Eoyal Institution at the cele- 

 bration of the centenary of the Eoyal Fred- 

 erick University of Christiania, and Sir 

 James Crichton-Browne, F.E.S., as delegate 

 at the celebration of the 500th anniversary of 

 the University of St. Andrews. 



PnoFESSOR Joseph P. Iddincs recently de- 

 livered two lectures before the geological de- 

 partment of the Johns Hopkins University on 

 " Some Problems in Eock Classification." 



Dr. H. E. Ives, of the research department 

 of the National Electric Lamp Association, 

 delivered an illustrated lecture on " Color 

 Measurement" at a well-attended open meet- 



