SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XXXIII. No. 853 



board officials and employees and members of 

 local boards of health. Five or six meetings a 

 year will be held for the presentation and dis- 

 cussion of papers. Most of the prominent 

 health board officials of the state have ex- 

 pressed themselves as strongly in favor of the 

 association, which promises to grow rapidly 

 in membership and influence. 



Kingston, Canada, has been appointed associ- 

 ate professor of geology in Western Eeserve 

 University. 



Dr. J. J. Laub, of Pleidelberg, has been ap- 

 pointed professor of theoretical physics and 

 geophysics in the University of La Plata. 



VNIFEBSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 By the will of Ernest V. Cowell, the Uni- 

 versity of California receives a bequest of 

 $750,000. It is for a hospital, a gymnasium 

 and an athletic stadium, each to cost $250,000. 



The Nebraska legislature has passed a bill, 

 which the governor has signed, appropriating 

 $100,000 with which to begin the development 

 of the campus of the College of Medicine of 

 the university, in Omaha. The issue pre- 

 sented in the legislature was whether or not 

 the state was ready to begin the development 

 of a complete medical college plant, and the 

 decision was aiSrmative, by a narrow margin 

 in the house and by a wide margin in the sen- 

 ate. 



Dr. Elmer Ellsw^orth Brown, U. S. Com- 

 missioner of Education, has been elected chan- 

 cellor of New York University. 



Bruce Payne, Ph.D. (Columbia, 1905), pro- 

 fessor of educational psychology in the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, has been appointed presi- 

 dent of the George Peabody College for 

 Teachers at Nashville. The old Peabody 

 College has been disbanded and President 

 Payne will have a free field in constructing 

 the new one, which is to have new grounds, 

 buildings and faculty, and one million and a 

 half additional endowment. 



Professor H. H. Newman, chairman of the 

 school of zoology. University of Texas, has re- 

 signed to accept an associate professorship of 

 zoology at the University of Chicago. All ap- 

 pointments in zoology at Texas have been 

 made and the details will be made public in a 

 subsequent number of this Journal. 



De. Clinton E. Stauffer, assistant pro- 

 fessor of geology at the School of Mining, 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 the reform of the calendar 



To the Editor of Science: A recent letter 

 by Professor Chamberlin in your journal en- 

 titled " Reform of the Calendar " has re- 

 interested me in the subject and suggested the 

 publication of another, and, it is hoped, more 

 correct view of the subject. A perusal of the 

 article " Calendar " in Encyclopsedia Britam- 

 niea will suggest arguments in its favor; as 

 to recent articles on the subject, time and 

 inclination are lacking for their reading and 

 the risk is run of anticipation on conflict. 



As the greater part of the eighteen folio 

 pages in the Encyclopedia is under the head 

 " Reformation of the Calendar " or treats of 

 intricate peculiarities calling for reform, the 

 legitimate effect of the article is the conclu- 

 sion that what is needed and possible is not a 

 reformation, but a 



Simplification of the Calendar 

 Let us then state this as a problem and at- 

 tempt a solution. The Encyclopaedia's defini- 

 tion may be condensed to read " A calendar is 

 a method of meting out time into hours, days, 

 etc., for ordinary use." It is therefore a 

 table of measures which establishes certain 

 units of time and defines the relations between 

 them, and this must be so done as to facilitate 

 the transaction of business. 



A fortunate solution must depend largely 

 on the units employed and Professor Wool- 

 house gives, as he must, the solar day and the 

 solar year as two natural and indispensable 

 units, mentioning later the month as a nat- 

 ural but not indispensable one. Owing to 

 these units being natural, they are incommen- 

 surable and simplicity requires the smallest 

 possible number of such units. It would 

 therefore seem advisable to exclude the month 

 from any controlling influence in the calendar. 



