704 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1037 



these contributions possess the merit and fresh- 

 ness of having been written by the men who 

 actually did the field work on which they are 

 based. The authors are Joseph Grinnell, the 

 able and energetic director of the museum, and 

 several assistants, past and present, namely, 

 Harold C. Bryant, Joseph Dixon, Edmund 

 Heller, Frank Stephens, Harry S. Swarth, 

 Walter P. Taylor, and Miss Louise Kellogg. 



The museum has adopted a most liberal 

 policy in regard to the loaning of specimens, 

 so that responsible naturalists engaged in re- 

 visions of groups may have the benefit of its 

 material. In my own case, particularly in my 

 studies of the big bears of Alaska, of which 

 Miss Alexander has amassed the largest and 

 most important collection in existence after 

 that of the United States Biological Survey, I 

 have enjoyed such unusual courtesies in the 

 unrestricted use of specimens and field notes 

 that I feel it a privilege as well as a duty to 

 make this slight acknowledgment of the gen- 

 erosity and spirit of cooperation shown both by 

 the founder and the director of the museum. 

 0. Hakt Mereiam 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The American Society of Naturalists, in 

 affiliation with the American Society of Zool- 

 ogists, the Botanical Society of America, and 

 the Society of American Bacteriologists, will 

 hold its thirty-second meeting at Philadel- 

 phia, under the auspices of 'the University of 

 Pennsylvania, on Thursday, December 31. 

 The morning session will be open for papers 

 on evolution, genetics and related subjects from 

 members or invited guests. The program of 

 the afternoon will be a joint symposium with 

 Section F of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science on " The Value of 

 Zoology to Humanity." The annual dinner 

 will be held in the evening of the same day. 



The American Physiological Society, the 

 American Society of Biological Chemists, the 

 American Society for Pharmacology and Ex- 

 perimental Therapeutics, the American Soci- 

 ety for Experimental Pathology and the 

 Society of American Naturalists, will meet 



in the laboratories of the Washington Univer- 

 sity, St. Louis, on December 28, 29 and 30. 



The New York Academy of Sciences and its 

 affiliated societies had a general meeting at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, on 

 Monday, November 2, when Professor Regi- 

 nald A. Daly, of Harvard University, gave a 

 lecture on "Problems of Volcanic Action," 

 which was followed by a reception. 



Professor William Henry Bragg, who 

 holds the chair of physics at the University 

 of Leeds, is giving a course of four lectures on 

 X-rays and crystals at Brown University, as 

 part of the celebration of the hundred and 

 fiftieth anniversary of its foundation. 



Dr. Felix von Luschan, director of the 

 Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, and 

 professor of anthropology in the University of 

 Berlin, who was a guest at the Australian 

 meeting of the British Association, is at pres- 

 ent in this country, having been unable to 

 return to Germany. He lectured last week 

 at the University of Chicago. 



Professor David Todd has returned to 

 Amherst College, having made successful 

 photographs of the corona of the recent solar 

 eclipse from the estate of Count Bobrinsky, 

 about a hundred miles southeast of Kieff. 

 Owing to the mobilization, his instruments 

 did not arrive in time, but he was able to 

 obtain a camera and lenses that could be used. 



Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, head of the depart- 

 ment of agronomy of the University of Hli- 

 nois, has returned to his work after a year's 

 leave of absence. Dr. Hopkins during the last 

 year has been working for the interests of the 

 south with the " Southern Settlement and 

 Development Association," with headquarters 

 at Baltimore. 



President A. C. Humphreys, of the Stevens 

 Institute of Technology, will act as president 

 of the International Gas Congress, which meets 

 in San Francisco next September. 



The Alvarenga Prize for 1914 has been 

 awarded by the College of Physicians of Phila- 

 delphia to Dr. Herman B. Sheffield for an 

 essay entitled " The Fundamental Principles 



