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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1100 



director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey; 

 E. A. Conkling, chief geologist, Roxana 

 Petroleum Company; L. E. Trout, chief geol- 

 ogist, Maryland Oil Company; C. N". Gould 

 and Harper McKee, consulting geologists ; and 

 M. G. Mehl, W. C. Kite and Charles H. 

 Taylor, of the department of geology. Uni- 

 versity of Oklahoma. Much interest was 

 shown in the reading and discussion of these 

 papers. No organization was formed, but Pro- 

 fessor Charles H. Taylor and Director C. W. 

 Shannon were elected a committee to arrange 

 for another similar meeting to be held at 

 Tulsa, Oklahoma, at some future date. 



The London correspondent of the Journal 

 of the American Medical Association writes 

 that the British authorities have decided that 

 students in the fourth and fifth years of study 

 should complete their course as rapidly as pos- 

 sible but that students in the first, second and 

 third year should join the army. The effect of 

 recruiting is shown by the statistics of ten 

 leading medical schools, in which, during the 

 first year of the war, the nujnber of students 

 was 1,891, as compared with the normal num- 

 ber of 2,562. The number of medical students 

 who have entered Cambridge University this 

 year is forty-one, as compared with 116 in 

 the year 1913. The director general of the 

 Army Medical Corps has asked for an addi- 

 tional 2,000 physicians before Chrismas for 

 war service. The casualty lists of one week 

 show the names of fifteen physicians, and the 

 obituary lists of physicians killed usually 

 three or four. Sir D. Macalister, in his presi- 

 dential address at the opening of the present 

 session of the General Medical Council, said 

 that within the next few months every quali- 

 fied man of suitable age who was fit for the 

 work of an officer in the medical corps would 

 be needed. From the British dominions and 

 from other countries over 240 physicians had 

 been registered this year, and when certain 

 reciprocity arrangements had been completed, 

 the number from Canada would be considerably 

 increased. Although the War Office author- 

 ities recognized that the withdrawal from pro- 

 fessional instruction of large numbers of med- 

 ical students, of the first years, would have a 



serious effect on the future, they had deemed 

 it inadvisable to discourage junior students 

 who offered themselves for combatant service. 

 The result of medical students accepting com- 

 missions and enlisting was that the prospec- 

 tive shortage of 250 qualified practitioners per 

 annum, which he had mentioned on a former 

 occasion as probable during the coming years, 

 would almost certainly be exceeded. There 

 was one direction in which it appeared likely 

 some economy of medical students might be 

 effected. The minor vessels of the fleets car- 

 ried a surgical " probationer," and for this 

 work medical students who had completed 

 their physiologic and anatomic studies and 

 had been instructed in surgical dressing are 

 preferred. He was authorized to make it 

 known that any " probationer," who after, say, 

 six months' service, desired to present himself 

 for a professional examination or to resume 

 his studies, would be granted leave of absence 

 or be demobilized, and a less senior student be 

 appointed in his place. By such rotation of 

 service, a succession of students might con- 

 tinue to be employed in war work and yet the 

 qualification of none would be unduly delayed. 



Nature says : " The accounts of the local 

 committee of the Manchester meeting of the 

 British Association, held in September, lately 

 issued, show that the resolution to observe the 

 strictest economy in view of the exceptional 

 circumstances in which the meeting was held 

 was faithfully kept, and the local officers are 

 to be heartily congratulated on the success of 

 their efforts in this as in other directions. The 

 expenditure amounted to only £862 15s., and 

 22 per cent, was all that it was necessary to 

 ask from the guarantors. On the occasion of 

 the previous meeting, in 1887, the expenses 

 reached £3,652, and 35 per cent, of the much 

 larger guarantee fund was called up. The 

 meeting was in every way a success; it was 

 attended by many eminent scientific men, the 

 papers and discussions were of high value, and 

 the arrangements gave such satisfaction that 

 at the concluding meeting of the general com- 

 mittee many influential members expressed 

 the hope that future meetings might be " run " 

 on the same lines, excluding much of the lavish 



