348 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1106 



immediately following the close of the present 

 school year. The new location is in the great 

 medical center of Chicago and only a short 

 distance from the medical and dental col- 

 leges of the university, which will bring its 

 three Chicago departments into much closer 

 relations. 



An endowment of $50,000 to support gradu- 

 ate fellowships for Canadians in the American 

 University, Washington, has been made by the 

 estate of the late Hart A. Massey, of Toronto, 

 who desired to establish, if possible, some link 

 between the Methodism in Canada and the 

 United States. 



Mr. C. E. Peobyn has bequeathed the resi- 

 due of his estate, amounting to about £10,000, 

 to the University of Bristol. 



Nature quoting from the Pioneer Mail states 

 that the staff has now been selected for the 

 Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital 

 at Delhi, which Lord Hardinge opened on 

 February 17 : Principal and professor of medi- 

 cine. Dr. K. A. Piatt; professor of anatomy 

 and gynecology. Miss Hitton; professor of 

 pathology. Miss Field; professor of anatomy. 

 Miss Murphy; professor of chemistry. Miss 

 A. M. Bane; professor of biology and physiol- 

 ogy. Miss M. E. Holmer. It is expected that 

 tuition will begin next September, and the 

 government of India wiU contribute a lakh of 

 rupees (about $33,500) yearly to the annual 

 maintenance charges. 



Dr. Eoscoe Pound, Carter professor of jiu-is- 

 prudence, has been appointed dean of the Har- 

 vard Law School. Dr. Poimd is known to 

 scientific men for his studies of the phyto- 

 geography of Nebraska. He is a member of 

 the Botanical Society of America and a fel- 

 low of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. Dr. Pound was a mem- 

 ber of the Committee of the American Asso- 

 ciation of University Professors which drew 

 up its Report on Academic Freedom and 

 Academic Tenure. 



Professor Eliot Blackweldee, of the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin, has been called to the 

 headship of the department of geology at the 

 University of Hlinois. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



CROWN GALL OF PLANTS AND CANCER 



Recently I have made discoveries which 

 tie crown gaU of plants closer to cancer of 

 man and animals. I can now produce em- 

 bryonic teratomata at will by bacterial inocu- 

 lations. All that is necessary is to inoculate 

 growing plants in areas containing dormant 

 totipotent or pluripotent cells, using Bacterium 

 tumefaciens. Moreover, as in man, daughter 

 tumors are produced freely and these also con- 

 tain teratoid elements. These results have 

 been obtained repeatedly during the last two 

 months on Pelargonium, tomato, tobacco and 

 citrus. A full account will be published within 

 a short time. 



Erwin F. Smith 



"Washington, D. C, 

 March 3, 1916 



THE RISE OF SEA LEVEL SHOWN BY COASTAL 

 DUNES 



In a paper^ published in the second annual 

 report of the state geologist of Florida, in 

 1909, the writer called attention to sand dunes 

 on the coast of southern Florida and the rela- 

 tion of these dunes to present sea level. It is 

 altogether possible that others have noted the 

 value of the evidence shown by coastal dunes 

 as indicating changes of sea level with respect 

 to the land, but the writer has not seen any 

 references to the matter, and for that reason 

 mentions it again. 



Dunes may be divided into two classes^ — ■ 

 active and quiescent. Active dunes are those 

 that are still growing, fed by supplies of wind- 

 blown sand from some nearby expanse. Quies- 

 cent dunes are not growing, and are covered 

 with vegetation. A good example of an active 

 coastal dune is the great dune at Cape Henry, 

 Va. Good examples of quiescent dunes may be 

 found at many points along the Atlantic coast. 



At some quiescent dunes close to the shore 

 the writer has observed that a dime, as shown 

 by its shape and the stratification of its sands, 

 grew under conditions that no longer exist, 



itSanford, Samuel, "Topography and Geology 

 of Southern Florida," page 184. 



