782 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1039 



determined by action of the trustees and the 

 council. 



The corporation of Yale University has ap- 

 proved a plan for inviting full professors of 

 the university to meet with the corporation 

 at luncheon from time to time during the 

 academic year. 



Plans for the celebration next June of the 

 semi-centennial anniversary of the founding 

 of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute are 

 rapidly taking definite shape. A program 

 drawn up by a sub-committee consisting of 

 Mr. Eockwood, Mr. Baker and Professor 

 Coombs has been adopted, and the committee 

 of three has been constituted an executive com- 

 mittee to carry it through. The exercises will 

 begin on Sunday, June 6, and close on Thurs- 

 day, June 10. 



A CERTAIN number of Belgian professors and 

 a growing number of students from Louvain, 

 Liege, Ghent and Brussels are now in Cam- 

 bridge, and although it has proved impossible 

 for the Louvain University to transfer its 

 corporate and official existence to Cambridge, 

 unofficial courses have been instituted, com- 

 bining, as far as possible, systematic instruc- 

 tion on the lines of the Belgian universities 

 with the individual requirements of refugee 

 students. It is typical of the disastrous con- 

 ditions in Europe that in view of the appeal 

 issued by the Belgian government for volun- 

 teers, it has been decided, in consultation with 

 the Belgian government, that only such stu- 

 dents as are physically unfit for military serv- 

 ice or have been rejected for other reasons by 

 the Belgian authorities, and are in possession 

 of a certificate to that efEect, can be accepted 

 by the hospitality and academic committees. 



R. T. BuEDiCK has been promoted to an 

 assistant professorship of agronomy at the 

 University of Vermont and the State Agricul- 

 tural College at Burlington. 



In the chemistry department of Wesleyan 

 Universtiy: Dr. M. L. Crossley, professor of 

 organic chemistry at William Jewell College 

 until 1913 and lecturer in Wesleyan Univer- 

 sity, 1913-14, has been appointed associate 

 professor and acting head of the department. 



Dr. H. Lee Ward has been appointed associate 

 professor in the department. 



James Murray, B.S.A., manager of the 

 farm of the Canadian Wheat Lands, Limited, 

 at Suffield, Alberta, has been appointed to the 

 chair of cereal husbandry in Macdonald Col- 

 lege, McGill University, in succession to Pro- 

 fessor L. S. Klinck, who resigned on August 1, 

 to accept the deanship of the College of Agri- 

 culture of the University of British Columbia. 

 Mr. Murray was formerly (1906-1911) super- 

 intendent of the Dominion Experimental Farm 

 at Brandon, Manitoba. 



DISCUSSION AND COBEESPONDENCE 



CAHOKIA MOUND 



In this journal, August 28, 1914, Mr. A. E. 

 Crook presented a brief note on the origin of 

 Cahokia Mound. The communication is here 

 quoted in full: 



A study of the materials composing the so-ealled 

 Monks or Cahokia Mound, in Madison County, 

 111., establishes, beyond doubt, that it is not of 

 artificial origin, as has been so generally held, but 

 that it is a remnant remaining after the erosion of 

 the alluvial deposits, which at one time filled the 

 valley of the Mississippi, in the locality known as 

 the ' ' Great American Bottoms. ' ' 



For the benefit of those who may not be 

 familiar with the subject, and for this reason 

 may be misled, we desire to say the statement 

 made by Mr. Crook is erroneous and without 

 the slightest degree of reason, and his con- 

 clusion would apply equally well to the pyra- 

 mids of Gizeh or the ruins of the valley of 

 Mexico. 



Cahokia, by reason of its magnitude and 

 importance, has led many to discuss its prob- 

 able origin. Three theories have been ad- 

 vanced: (1) It is the belief of some that 

 Cahokia is a natural formation. (2) Others 

 regard the lower part natural and the upper 

 part artificial. (3) Some, acknowledging it 

 to be the work of man, believe it to have been 

 erected at a period when the Mississippi flowed 

 between it and the line of bluffs to the east- 

 ward, thus placing the mound on the right 

 bank of the stream. However, no one of the 



