238 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1103 



giving warnings and advice on sanitary sub- 

 jects and disease prevention and a large stereo- 

 motograph. On the initial trip the train was 

 in charge of Dr. Joseph T. Porter, state health 

 commissioner, and Miss F. D. Herndone, his 

 assistant. Surgeon Carroll Fox, U. S. P. 

 H. S., also accompanied the train to inspect 

 health conditions in the state and to observe 

 the workings of this plan of popular sanitary 

 education. 



In commemoration of the centennial of the 

 independence of Argentina, 1816-1916, the 

 Academy of Medicine offers a prize of 2,500 

 pesos for the best unpublished work on a med- 

 ical subject presented at the Congress of So- 

 cial Sciences to be held at Tocyman, Argen- 

 tina, July 9, 1916. 



A Vienna manufacturer has given $100,000 

 to found an institution to study the technical 

 side of nutrition for the people, by correlating 

 the findings of organic chemistry, biology, 

 physiology, etc. It is to be called the Institut 

 fiir Yolksernahrung. 



The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation states that the minister of justice 

 has appointed a commissioner to study crime 

 in Chile and to report to the government his 

 recommendations for measures to prevent 

 crime, reform delinquents, and for the classifi- 

 cation and separation of prisoners. A labora- 

 tory of experimental psychology is to be es- 

 tablished in the penitentiary at Santiago, and 

 physicians in penal institutions will be re- 

 quired to furnish information or data in con- 

 nection with the work. 



For some years the formation of a society 

 and the publication of a journal devoted to 

 applied optics has been under consideration by 

 a number of persons. In November, 1915, 

 such a society, called the Association for the 

 Advancement of Applied Optics, was formed 

 in Rochester. This was so constituted that it 

 might become a local section of a larger society 

 when such should be organized. The officers 

 of the Rochester society are Dr. P. G. Nutting, 

 president; Dr. H. Kellner and Professor 

 Howard Minehin, vice-presidents; Mr. L. A. 

 Jones, recording secretary; Dr. F. E. Ross, 



corresponding secretary and Mr. Adolph Lomb, 

 treasurer. Since its organization this society 

 has held well-attended, regular meetings every 

 two weeks. The initial organization has shown 

 such strength that it has been decided to pro- 

 ceed at once with the organization of the larger 

 society so that the journal may be started 

 with the next calendar year. A committee on 

 organization is being selected and later, officers 

 and editors will be chosen by ballot. The 

 president and corresponding secretary of the 

 local society will serve as temporary chairman 

 and secretary of the organizing committee. 

 Both may be addressed at the Research Labo- 

 ratory, Kodak Park, Rochester. A tentative 

 draft of the proposed constitution and by-laws 

 will be submitted shortly for approval. 



Nature states that the Scotia, which was the 

 vessel that carried the Scottish National Ant- 

 arctic Expedition to the south polar regions, 

 under the command of Dr. W. S. Bruce, has 

 been burnt in the Bristol Channel, and has 

 been run ashore at Sully. It was hoped at the 

 end of the expedition that the Scotia might be 

 further endowed and handed over to the uni- 

 versities of Scotland as a well-fitted oceano- 

 graphical ship, but this was not to be, and she 

 fell to the hammer as a whaler. Later, how- 

 ever, she was chartered by the Board of Trade 

 as the most suitable vessel on which to carry 

 out ice observation, meteorology and oceanog- 

 raphy in the North Atlantic Ocean after the 

 wreck of the Titanic. 



The Broad Pass region of Alaska, which 

 has long been considered a possible source of 

 mineral wealth, has taken on additional in- 

 terest since the announcement of the route 

 chosen for the new government railroad con- 

 necting the Pacific coast with the interior of 

 Alaska. In anticipation of the probable de- 

 mand for information about this region the 

 United States Geological Survey began the 

 work of mapping its topography and geology 

 in 1913, and now presents the results of the 

 work in Bulletin 608, by F. H. Moffit, " The 

 Broad Pass Region, Alaska." Broad Pass is 

 the western part of a wide glacial valley which 

 is bordered by steep, straight mountain walls 

 and which lies parallel with a great east-west 



