596 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1113 



it would not be permanent. But experiments 

 show tliat if the training is continued for a 

 few days with the instrument, the gain will 

 be transferred to the ordinary singing without 

 the instrument. This is the most encouraging 

 feature in the process and desertes to be an- 

 alyzed in great detail for the purpose of a 

 pedagogy of singing; this we are now attempt- 

 ing to do in the laboratory. Such questions as 

 these arise: How is association transferred 

 from the visual to the auditory-motor? What 

 are the common elements in visual and audi- 

 tory control? How can we isolate each of 

 these factors for the purpose of reduction of 

 error ? 



This type of training is convenient, inex- 

 pensive and rigid. The pupil may be assigned 

 any one of a hundred exercises in pitch train- 

 ing and practise all by himself under correc- 

 tion at every tone production; it may be to 

 reduce a tendency to sharp or flat, to eradicate 

 a tremulo, to gain control of a vibrato, or any 

 other pitch figure the master may set. It 

 gives opportunity for control drill under the 

 severest correction at every stage. 



Carl E. Seashork 



xjniveesitt of lowa 



ORVILLE A. DERBY 



In N'ovember last the newspapers published 

 a cablegram from Rio de Janeiro announcing 

 the suicide of Orville A. Derby, director of the 

 Brazilian Geological Survey. Letters from 

 mutual friends have now thrown all the light 

 on the subject that we can reasonably exisect 

 to get. 



Mr. Derby first went to Brazil in 1870 as 

 student assistant of Charles Fred Hartt, who 

 was then professor of geology at Cornell Uni- 

 versity. He made two other vacation trips to 

 that country, and went to Brazil finally in 1875 

 to be assistant geologist to the newly estab- 

 lished geological survey of the Empire, and 

 lived there the rest of his life. In 1877 the sui-- 

 vey was suspended, and Professor Hartt, its di- 

 rector, died at Eio. Mr. Derby was shortly 

 thereafter appointed curator of geology in the 

 National Museum at Eio, and held that posi- 

 tion until 1886 when he was put in charge of 



a newly established geological survey of the 

 state of S. Paulo, a position he held until 

 1904. In 1907 a new federal survey was pro- 

 vided for under Dr. Miguel Calmon, minister 

 of public works, with Derby as its chief. 



The war in Europe disturbed the financial 

 equilibrium of South American coimtries as 

 well as that of other parts of the world. Brazil 

 was probably obliged to economize wherever it 

 was possible to do so, and this led to the reduc- 

 tion of appropriations for the work of the geo- 

 logical survey to such a point as to destroy the 

 efficiency, and even to threaten the existence 

 of that organization. Probably the necessity 

 for such economies was not apparent to Mr. 

 Derby, and he looked upon them as an attempt 

 to discredit him and the bureau under his di- 

 rection. In any case he took the matter very 

 much to heart, and his friends find no other 

 reason, or shadow of a reason, for his suicide. 



Mr. Derby never married, and he led the 

 solitary life of a recluse and student. He was 

 held in the highest esteem by all who knew 

 him. His whole life was given to the study of 

 the geology of Brazil, and no one, living or 

 dead, knew it as he did, or was more pro- 

 foundly or more unselfishly interested in it. 

 At the time of his death he had published more 

 than a hundred and twenty-five papers on the 

 geology of Brazil, many of them in the Portu- 

 guese language, which he wrote with ease. 



His successor as the director of the geo- 

 logical survey of Brazil is Dr. L. F. Gonzaga 

 de Campos, one of the ablest and most trust- 

 worthy of the Brazilian geologists, and for 

 many years one of Mr. Derby's most competent 

 assistants. 



A fuller account of his life and work will be 

 published in the Bulletin of the Geological 

 Society of America. 



John C. Branner 



iStaxford University, Cal. 



PARIS-WASHINGTON LONGITUDEi 



Director B. Baillaud, of the Paris Observ- 

 atory, presented the results of the determina- 



1 Translation from Comptes Eendus de I' Acad- 

 emic des Sciences, February 14, 1916. 



