600 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLni. No. 1113 



farm near that city for the erection of a new 

 university. The location consists of 100 acres 

 overlooking London. Building operations will 

 not be commenced until the end of the war, 

 but plans will be prepared and the grounds 

 laid out. 



Cassius Jackson Ketser, professor of 

 mathematics in Columbia University, and M. 

 W. Haskell, professor of mathematics in the 

 University of California, will exchange chairs 

 for the half-year from August to December, 

 1916. 



Me. Eliot Blackwelder, professor of his- 

 torical geology at the University of Wiscon- 

 sin, has been appointed professor of geology 

 and head of the department, at the University 

 of Illinois. The appointment will take effect 

 on September 1. 



There have been promoted to assistant pro- 

 fessorships at Tale University, Joshua Irving 

 Tracey, Ph.D., in mathematics and Alexander 

 Louis Prince, M.D., in physiolog-y. 



At Eutgers College, Dr. F. E. Chidester, 

 associate professor of zoology, has been ad- 

 vanced to a professorship and made chairman 

 of the course in biolog-y; Dr. A. R. Moore, 

 associate professor of physiology at Bryn 

 Mawr, has been made professor of physiology 

 and head of the newly created department of 

 physiology ; and Richard Ashman has been ap- 

 pointed assistant in zoology. 



Dr. Wilbur A. Sawyer has been appointed 

 clinical professor of preventive medicine and 

 hygiene in the University of California. He 

 will continue also his work as secretary and 

 executive officer of the California State Board 

 of Health. The object of the creation of this 

 new department is to bring about the most 

 effective possible cooperation between the Uni- 

 versity of California and the California State 

 Board of Health. The new department will 

 include in its staff Dr. James G. Cmnming, 

 director of the Bureau of Communicable Dis- 

 eases of the State Board of Health, who will 

 become also assistant professor of preventive 

 medicine and hygiene, and, as lecturers in 

 preventive medicine and hygiene. Dr. William 



C. Hassler, Dr. John IST. Force, Dr. Jacob N. 

 Geiger, assistant director of the Bureau of 

 Communicable Diseases, and Chester G. Gille- 

 spie, C.E., director of the Board of Sanitary 

 Engineering of the California State Board of 

 Health. 



Among promotions at Stanford University 

 are: To the rank of associate professor, John 

 P. Mitchell in chemistry, Leonas L. Burl- 

 ingame in botany and Rennie W. Doane in 

 entomology; to rank of assistant professor, 

 Hayes W. Young in metallurgy, John F. 

 Cowan in surgery and Perley A. Ross in 

 physics. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THOSE FUR SEAL BONES 



" Millions of dollars' worth of seal and sea 

 lion bone deposits on the shores of the Pribilof 

 Islands, a vast store of government-owned fer- 

 tilizer available for practical use," is the way 

 the Washington dispatch of February 28 com- 

 ments on a report said to have been made by 

 the secretary of commerce to the House com- 

 mittee on merchant marine. One of these de- 

 posits is said to be " a mile long by half a 

 mile wide and fully six feet deep." This sug- 

 gests 83,000,000 cubic feet of bone — a wonder- 

 ful deposit, indeed! To complete the picture 

 it is stated that raw ground bone was bringing 

 $35 a ton in December. 



This sounds like a very important discovery. 

 It will be too bad if it proves not to be true. 

 The dispatch indicates that the deposits " have 

 not been fully surveyed." It is to be feared 

 that the completed surveys will be disap- 

 pointing. 



It is a fact that since the discovery of the 

 Pribilof Islands in 1786 upwards of 5,000,000 

 fur seals have been killed and their carcasses 

 left to rot on the killing grounds. These are 

 the bones which are referred to. There are no 

 prehistoric bones, since the death of the adult 

 animals from natural termination of life is at 

 sea, under the stress of the winter migration. 

 Of the five million animals killed about one 

 half were deposited on the great killing 

 ground near the village on St. Paul Island. 



