24 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1070 



unique natural history survey of the Chicago 

 area, first organized by Dr. W. K. Higby (now 

 deceased), who for many years was secretary 

 of the academy, was largely carried on by Mr. 

 Baker; the educational installations in the 

 museum of the academy were also prepared 

 under his direction. His address for the sum- 

 mer will be 1555 Highland Avenue, Eochester, 

 N. Y. 



The Croonian lectures before the Eoyal 

 College of Physicians of London were an- 

 nounced to be delivered on June 17, 22, 24 

 and 29, by Surgeon General Sir David Bruce, 

 C.B., F.E.S. The subject of the lectures was 

 " Trypanosomes Causing Disease in Man and 

 Domestic Animals in Central Africa." 



Dr. Shipley, master of Christ's College, 

 Cambridge, gave a lecture for the National 

 Health Society, on flies, lice and minor hor- 

 rors of war, at the house of the Royal Society 

 of Medicine, on June 16. 



UNIVEBSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Mr. Barton A. Hepburn, of New York, is 

 to present to Middlebury College a men's 

 dormitory costing nearly $200,000. Mr. Hep- 

 burn received his degree of A.B. at Middle- 

 bury. The building, on which work is to be 

 started at once, will be five stories of marble 

 or granite, in keeping with the other college 

 buildings. 



The Massachusetts Agricultural College has 

 recently received $4,000 by the will of Major 

 Henry E. Alvord, formerly chief of the dairy 

 division of the Department of Agriculture. 



The late Dr. W. Aldis Wright, vice-master 

 of Trinity College, has bequeathed the sum of 

 £5,000 for the use of the library of the Univer- 

 sity of Cambridge. 



Dr. Ruby Cunningham has been appointed 

 instructor in hygiene and an infirmary physi- 

 cian in the infirmary of the University of 

 California. 



Raymond B. Eobbins, Ph.D., has been ap- 

 pointed instructor in mathematics in the Shef- 

 field Scientific School, Yale University. 



At Western Reserve University new ap- 

 pointments have been made as follows : Arthur 

 Dunn Pitcher, Ph.D., professor of mathe- 

 matics; Jesse E. Hyde, A.M., associate pro- 

 fessor of geology; John M. Stetson, Ph.D., 

 instructor in mathematics; William Henry 

 Weston, Jr., A.M., instructor in biology. 



DISCUSSION AND COBEESPONDENCE 



editorial supervision for experiment station 

 publications 



The Experiment Station Record for April, 

 1914, contains a pertinent plea for the need of 

 judicious criticism of agricultural experimen- 

 tation. The following is written in order to 

 direct special attention to this need in experi- 

 ment-station publications. It is furthermore 

 desired to suggest that the general adoption of 

 certain policies now employed in many of the 

 experiment stations would eliminate from 

 publications such glaring features as poor 

 English and poor literary style, loose and 

 inexact statements, improper use of technical 

 terms, failure to recognize the existence of 

 published works of a similar nature or the 

 bearing of the results secured upon related 

 fields of science, drawing conclusions not war- 

 ranted by the data in hand, and the publica- 

 tion of superficial or inconclusive work. One 

 needs only to consult the recent publications 

 in order to convince himself that all of these 

 offences have been committed and it is logical 

 to suppose that they will continue to be com- 

 mitted unless measures for their prevention 

 are put into operation. 



The following quotations, taken at random 

 from scores of their kind, will suffice to illus- 

 trate the need of criticism. "The fungus was 

 run on artificial media," " The appressoria 

 were round, black bodies, from an eighth to a 

 quarter inch in diameter," " Infection experi- 

 ments were tried with cultures in the open and 

 in the greenhouse," " Infected plants can be 

 distinguished by a thin growth," " They 

 (pycnidia) are hollow within," " No peas have 

 been reported to be attacked by the eel worm 

 out of doors." These statements have been 

 chosen only because of my better famil- 



