FBBEUARy 25, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



285 



February 11. "The Sun" (wjtli illustrations), 

 by Professor Philip Fox, Northwestern Univer- 

 sity. 



February 25. "Liquid Air" (with demonstra- 

 tions), by Professor Henry Crew, Northwestern 

 University. 



March 10. "Radium" (with demonstrations), 

 by Professor H. N. McCoy, University of Chicago. 



March 24. "Modern Views of Electricity" 

 (with demonstrations), by Professor B. A. Milli- 

 kan. 



April 7. "Problem of Food Productions" 

 (with illustrations), by Professor John M. Coulter, 

 University of Chicago. 



April 21. "Bacteria of the Alimentary Canal" 

 (with illustrations), by Professor A. I. Kendall, 

 Northwestern University. 



Wallace W. Atwood, 



Secretary 



THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF 

 THE PACIFIC 



At the annual meeting of the Astronomical So- 

 ciety of the Pacific, held in San Francisco, Sat- 

 urday, January 29, 1916, the Bruce Gold medal 

 for 1915 was presented to Dr. George EUery Hale, 

 director of the Solar Observatory (Carnegie Insti- 

 tution), Mt. Wilson, Pasadena, Calif., for distin- 

 guished services to astronomy. This medal was 

 founded by Miss Catherine Bruce, of New York, 

 in 1897 with a fund of $2,500, and in the past 

 eighteen years has been awarded to thirteen as- 

 tronomers. 



The following astronomers who have been the 

 recipients of the medal were: 



Simon Newcomb, United States. 



Arthur Auwers, Germany. 



Sir David Gill, England. 



Giovanni V. Schiaparelli, Italy. 



William Huggins, England. 



Hermann Carl Vogel, Germany. 



Edward 0. Pickering, United States. 



George W. Hill, United States. 



Jules Henri PoincarS, France. 



J. C. Kapteyn, Holland. 



O. Blackluud, Russia. 



W. W. Campbell, United States. 



George E. Hale, United States. 



The nominations and the awarding of this medal 

 are probably the most unique in' the history of 

 science. Six of the leading observatories in Eu- 

 rope and America, namely, Berlin, Greenwich, 

 Paris, Harvard, Yerkes and Lick Observatories 



make the nominations. These are sent to the di- 

 rectors of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 

 who make the final selection from these nomina- 

 tions for the gold medal. 



Professor B. G. Aitken, astronomer. Lick Ob- 

 servatory, in his retiring president's address, paid 

 a tribute to Dr. Hale 's work, as a student, director 

 of the Yerkes Observatory and the Solar Observ- 

 atory, and in the problems of solar physics. The 

 address will be published in full in the publications 

 of the society. 



The second address of the evening was given by 

 Dr. H. D. Curtis, Lick Observatory, on the "Re- 

 cent Theories of Stellar Evolution." This was 

 followed by the election of officers for the en- 

 suing year. President, Dr. S. D. Townley, Stan- 

 ford University; Vice-president, C. S. Gushing, 

 San Francisco; Second Vice-president, Dr. H. D. 

 Curtis, Lick Observatory; Third Vice-president, 

 A. H. Markwart, San Francisco; Secretary-Treas- 

 urer, D. S. Richardson, San Francisco. 



THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF 

 AMERICA 



The tenth annual meeting of the Botanical So- 

 ciety of America was held under the auspices of 

 the Ohio State University at Columbus, Ohio, De- 

 cember 27-31, 1915, in affiliation with Section G 

 of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, the American Phytopathologieal So- 

 ciety and the American Society of Naturalists. 



The council for 1916 is as follows: 



President — R. A. Harper, Columbia University. 



Vice-president — Geo. T. Moore, Missouri Botan- 

 ical Garden. 



Treasurer — Arthur HoUick, Staten Island Asso- 

 ciation of Arts and Sciences. 



Secretary — H. H. Bartlett, University of Michi- 

 gan. 



Councilors — ^David Fairchild, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry; Wm. F. Ganong, Smith College; B. E. 

 Livingston, The Johns Hopkins University. 



One hundred and forty-six new members were 

 elected, and an amendment to the constitution was 

 passed which does away with the grade of ' ' fel- 

 low" in the society. The membership of the so- 

 ciety is now approximately 500. 



The address of Retiring President A. S. Hitch- 

 cock, ' ' The Scope and Relations of Taxonomie 

 Botany," followed the annual dinner for all botan- 

 ists, which was attended by 153 members of the 

 affiliating societies. It will be printed in Science. 



