June 2, 1911J 



SCIENCE 



851 



UNIVEBSIIY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Mr. T. C. Du Pont has given $500,000 to 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 toward its proposed new site. Announcement 

 is also made of two hequests of about this 

 amount : a trust fund of between five hundred 

 and six hundred thousand dollars, created by 

 Francis B. Greene some five years ago, will 

 be received by the institute for the assistance 

 of students, and it will receive nearly $500,000 

 from the bequest of Mrs. Emma Rogers, 

 widow of William B. Rogers, the first presi- 

 dent of the institute. These large gifts in 

 addition to the $100,000 for ten years appro- 

 priated by the state, will make it possible for 

 the institute to purchase a new site and erect 

 the necessary buildings. 



By the will of Mrs. Lydia Augusta Barnard, 

 of Milton, Mass., EadcliSe College received 

 $75,000 for a dormitory and $40,000 for schol- 

 arships, and Harvard University receives $60,- 

 000 for the study of jurisprudence and legis- 

 lation. 



The Harvard College corporation has voted 

 to approve the establishment of a school for 

 advanced instruction in medicine in general 

 accordance with a plan proposed by the Fac- 

 ulty of Medicine; the intention is that the 

 school shall go into operation at the beginning 

 of the academic year 1912-13, that it shall 

 have a separate dean and administrative 

 board, and that it shall ultimately absorb the 

 Summer School of Medicine. Instruction in 

 the school is to be provided if possible by the 

 existing departments of the Medical School, 

 but, if necessary, instructors will be appointed 

 specifically for giving instruction in the new 

 school. The courses of instruction will con- 

 sist of all-day courses, intermittent courses 

 and research courses. 



The preamble of the statute exempting stu- 

 dents in natural science and mathematics 

 from examination in Greek passed congrega- 

 tion at Oxford on May 16 by a vote of 156 

 to 79. 



Plans for the extension of the work of the 

 department of physiology of Columbia Uni- 

 versity are being carried out. Three addi- 

 tions to the staff have been made: Frank H. 



Pike, of Chicago University, to be assistant 

 professor; Horatio B. Williams, of Cornell, 

 to be an associate, and Donald Gordon to be 

 an instructor. Dr. Williams is spending the 

 summer in Europe visiting several labora- 

 tories and arranging for the purchase of appa- 

 ratus for electrocardiographic and other work. 

 Professor Burton- Opitz will have charge of 

 the instruction of the medical students and 

 Professor Pike of much of the work in gen- 

 eral physiology. A course in clinical physi- 

 ology, dealing with the application of physi- 

 ological methods to problems of clinical medi- 

 cine has been established. Changes in the 

 laboratories will be made during the present 

 summer. The income of the George G. 

 Wheelock Fund is to be devoted to the exten- 

 sion of the library. The chief professorship 

 of physiology, held by Frederic S. Lee, has 

 been entitled the Dalton Professorship, in 

 memory of John C. Dalton, who was in point 

 of time the first experimental physiologist of 

 America and gave distinguished services to 

 the Columbia School of Medicine for thirty- 

 five years. 



Dr. S. O. Mast, professor of botany at 

 Goucher College, has resigned in order to 

 accept an associate professorship in zoology in 

 the Johns Hopkins University. He will take 

 up the duties connected with his new position 

 at the opening of the next school year. 



At the University of California J. G. 

 Fitzgerald has been appointed associate pro- 

 fessor of bacteriology; J. Frank Darnel, as- 

 sistant professor of zoology, and A. U. Pope, 

 assistant professor of philosophy. Instructors 

 have been appointed as follows: C. J. Lewis, 

 in philosophy; Frank Irwin and Thomas 

 Buck, in mathematics; C. L. Baker, in miner- 

 alogy and geology; D. W. Morehouse, in 

 astronomy. 



DISCUSSION AND COEBESPONDENCE 



the test of vitalism 

 To THE Editor of Science : Such attempted 

 definitions of vitalism as those furnished by 

 your correspondents fail to give a clear con- 

 ception of the idea usually conveyed by the 

 word. Its real significance, I think, is better 



