June 23, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



895 



farmer who had taken it from a field where 

 cattle had died with symptoms of poisoning. 

 The similarity of these sclerotia to the com- 

 mon ergot gave further indication of its prob- 

 able poisonous character and a quantity of the 

 diseased grains was collected for testing, but 

 no animals were available at the time and 

 learning from Professor P. H. Eolfs that he 

 was working on the life history of the fungus 

 (as recorded by Stevens and Hall when they 

 published descriptions of the two Paspalum 

 ergots in the Botanical Gazette in 1910) the 

 matter was dropped. There was, however, a 

 short note on these observations published in 

 my report on plant diseases in Maryland in 

 1902, in the Maryland Horticultural Society 

 Eeport for 1902, as follows: "A fungus dis- 

 ease causing the seeds of a wild grass (Pas- 

 palum IcBve) to expand and break open like 

 popcorn has been abundant and has been sus- 

 pected of being poisonous to cattle." 



Since then a few cases of stock disease, 

 sometimes confused with the well-known but 

 yet little understood "horse disease," have 

 occurred in Maryland, where the Paspalum 

 ergot was abundant enough to be suspected 

 and, judging from the experimental results so 

 well worked out in Mississippi, was without 

 much doubt the cause of the trouble. 



The Claviceps sclerotia which replace the 

 Paspalum grains are frequent in Maryland 

 nearly every year, though in some years al- 

 most absent and sometimes, as in 1915, un- 

 usually abundant. 



J. B. S. ISTOETON 



Ageicultueai, Experiment Station, 

 College Paek, Md. 



names of celestial elements 

 I WISH to learn the name of the giver and 

 first place of publication of the following : 

 ISTeptunium of Mendeleef, cited by Biclok and 

 Martin; Coronium (the same as Mendeleef's 

 "x"), said to be by Huggins; Helium, Auro- 

 rium and ISTebulum (or N'ebulium), the last 

 two cited by Crookes, presidential address 

 Brit. Ass. 1898. Any one who can give me any 

 one of the citations will confer a favor upon 

 the subscriber. B. K. Emerson 



Amheest, Mass 



QUOTATIONS 



ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN THE 

 LAND GRANT COLLEGES 



On July 2, 1862, President Lincoln approved 

 the act establishing the Land Grant Colleges 

 of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, and on 

 March 3, 1863, he approved the act incorpo- 

 rating the ISTational Academy of Sciences. 

 When the nation was stricken down with civil 

 war it sought relief in science, on the one 

 hand, establishing institutions for the scien- 

 tific education of all the people in the arts of 

 peace, on the other hand, recognizing excep- 

 tional merit in science and making the most 

 distinguished men of the country the advisers 

 of the government. 



ITow when the world is again infected by 

 war more terrible than can be imagined in 

 this one great nation which has escaped, we 

 are naturally driven to think of " prepared- 

 ness," and it will be well if this movement can 

 be directed to making the nation strong 

 through education and scientific research. At 

 least three bills are before the Congress which 

 are more important for the welfare of the 

 country and its defense from foreign aggres- 

 sion, should that ever become necessary, than 

 any enlargement of the army and navy. These 

 bills would establish a national university, ex- 

 tend secondary education in industry and 

 agriculture, and establish research stations for 

 engineering at the college of agriculture and 

 mechanic arts. 



A national university at Washington, hold- 

 ing the same position toward the state and 

 privately endowed universities as these hold 

 or should hold to the colleges and schools of 

 each state, would correspond with the estab- 

 lishment of the ISTational Academy of Sciences 

 during the civil war, but could be made far 

 more effective in its influence on research and 

 on the efficient conduct of the departments of 

 the government. 



The Smith-Hughes bill provides for the pro- 

 motion of the vocational education of boys 

 and girls of high-school age through coopera- 

 tion of the nation and the states. There is 

 appropriated for the first year $1,700,000 with 

 an increment each year for eight years on con- 

 dition that each cooperating state shall appro- 



