SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1020 



In the department of geology of North- 

 western University the following appointments 

 have heen made, to take effect on September 1, 

 1914 : Joseph E. Pogue, of the tJ. S. Geological 

 Survey, to be associate professor of geology and 

 mineralogy; WiUiam H. Haas, of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, to be instructor in geology 

 and geography ; Henry R. Aldrich, of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Institute of Technology, to be 

 instructor in mining and metallurgy; John E. 

 Ball, of Northwestern University, to be assist- 

 ant in geology. 



Mr. F. E. E. Lamplough, of Trinity Col- 

 lege, has been appointed demonstrator of 

 chemistry in the University of Cambridge. 



Mr. D. T. Gwynne-Vaughan, professor of 

 botany in the Queen's University, Belfast, has 

 been appointed to the professorship of botany 

 at University College, Reading, vacant by the 

 resignation of Dr. Frederick Keeble, F.E.S., 

 who has been appointed director of the Experi- 

 ment Station and Gardens of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society at Wisley. 



Dr. Niels Bohr, of the University of Copen- 

 hagen, has been appointed reader in mathe- 

 matical physics in the University of Man- 

 chester. 



Dr. August Gutzmer, professor of mathe- 

 matics at Halle, has been elected rector of the 

 university for the coming year. 



Dr. Eugene Korschelt, professor of zoology 

 and comparative anatomy at MaAurg, has 

 been called to Leipzig, but has decided to re- 

 main at Marburg. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE 

 LIGHTNING FLASHES 



To the Editor op Science : If often becomes 

 necessary for me as editor to refer special 

 questions that arise to those who are better 

 versed in the knowledge of some special 

 branch of physics. 



I should be glad if any one of your readers 

 who has considered the question of the oscilla- 

 tory character of lightning would give me a 

 short report, from either a theoretical or an 

 observational point of view, as to what is 

 known on this subject, or his own experience 



therein. An elaborate paper on this subject 

 was published in the Meteorologische Zeit- 

 schrift for September, 1913, by Professor Dr. 

 Josef Mayer, of Ereising, Bavaria, defending the 

 conclusion that although the lightning flash ia 

 frequently oscillatory, yet it is also often of a 

 complicated nature in which every variety of 

 the discharge can occur, namely, both a pre- 

 liminary, a principal, a partial and an after 

 discharge; partial discharges of a simple na- 

 ture as shown by Feddersen, or of a double 

 nature as shown by Walter; moreover, the dis- 

 charge of thunder-clouds may also, under cer- 

 tain conditions, be continuous, but under 

 others, oscillatory or again pulsatory. 



This subject is one that interests every scien- 

 tist who is subject to danger from lightning. 

 I hope to receive responses from electricians 

 and physicists whose experiments and experi- 

 ence tend to elucidate the subject. 



Cleveland Abbe 



U. S. Weathee Bureau 



A NEW FORM OF COLLECTING PIPETTE 



The pipette described below has proved very 

 useful to the writer. It is made from a 

 calcium chloride tube about 200 mm. long and 

 the ordinary 50 c.c. rubber bulb commonly 

 used with the larger rubber-bulb pipettes. Both 

 are stock articles and may be readily procured 

 from laboratory supply houses. The calcium 

 chloride tube used in the pipette figured con- 

 sists of a glass bulb about 35 mm. in diameter 

 blown in a glass tube of 16 mm. diameter and 

 about 120 mm. long. This tube required to be 

 heated over a flame and drawn out to the 

 desired diameter for the pipette mouth. From 

 the opposite end of the glass bulb there ex- 

 tends a tube about 6 mm. in diameter suitable 

 for attachment of the rubber bulb. 



This form of pipette may be used in han- 

 dling in water any small or delicate object 

 up to six or eight nun. in diameter. (Not 



