158 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1074 



when Nebraska and Colorado, for instance, 

 were tuge swamps frequented by strange 

 beasts whose fossil remains are now found in 

 the rocks formed from the sand and mud of 

 the ancient swamps, which have since been 

 elevated thousands of feet. The book of 244 

 pages is as a whole distinctly popular in char- 

 acter. 



VNIVEBSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Governor Dunne has signed the bill giving 

 $5,000,000 to the University of Illinois for the 

 biennium. It is the largest grant made in a 

 single law to any university in the United 

 States. 



The University of California has accepted 

 an offer of the Children's Hospital, of San 

 I'rancisco, whereby the hospital remains inde- 

 pendent financially and administratively, but 

 whereby all its resources become available for 

 the educational purposes of the University of 

 California Medical School. 



A SEPARATE department of chemical engi- 

 neering on the same plane as the mining, civil, 

 electrical and mechanical engineering depart- 

 ments wiU be established in the Columbia 

 graduate engineering school next fall. The 

 head of this department will be Professor Mil- 

 ton C. Whitaker, who has been the professor 

 of engineering chemistry for the past five 

 years. For the past ten years the university 

 has offered courses leading to the degree of 

 chemical engineer in the department of chem- 

 istry but the rapidly increasing importance 

 of these industries based upon the applications 

 of chemistry and the subsequent demand for 

 men especially trained in fundamental engi- 

 neering problems has led the university to 

 supplement these courses with the more elabo- 

 rate facilities and opportunities offered in a 

 separate chemical engineering department. 



The new announcement of the West Vir- 

 ginia University states that on and after Sep- 

 tember 1, 1917, two years of collegiate work, 

 including courses in physics, chemistry, biol- 

 ogy and French or German, will be required 

 for admission to the medical school. 



The University of Cincinnati is again giv- 



ing a pre-medical summer course in physics, 

 analytical chemistry, organic chemistry and 

 zoology. The term lasts from June 7 to Au- 

 gust 14, a period of ten weeks. 



Dr. M. Allen Starr has resigned the pro- 

 fessorship of neurology at the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia Univer- 

 sity, and has been succeeded by Dr. Frederick 

 Tilney, Brooklyn. 



Dr. R. H. Goddard, instructor in physics at 

 Clark College for the past year, has been made 

 assistant professor. 



The following appointments have been made 

 in the medical faculty of McGill University: 

 Assistant professor of chemistry. Dr. F. W. 

 Skirrow ; assistant professor of physiology. Dr. 

 J. A. Gray; associate professor in pathology. 

 Dr. Horst Oertel ; assistant lecturer in physiol- 

 ogy, Dr. T. P. Shaw; lecturers in immunology, 

 Drs. J. C. Meakins and Fraser B. Gurd; lec- 

 turer in hygiene. Dr. E. St. J. Macdonald; 

 lecturer in biology, Dr. F. S. Jackson, and as- 

 sociate professor of physics. Dr. L. V. King. 



Dr. Richard Heymons has been appointed 

 professor of zoology in the Berlin School of 

 Agriculture. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESFONDENCE 

 the fundamental equation of mechanics 

 I. In regard to the question whether F = ma 

 or F/F' ^=a/a' is the better form in which to 

 introduce the fundamental equation of me- 

 chanics, the first point of difference between 

 Professor Hoskins and myself may be stated 

 as follows:^ 



Professor Hoskins's method presupposes, as 

 a matter of common knowledge (in advance of 

 any statement of the fundamental equation), 

 the difiicult concept of mass or inertia; while 

 my method postpones the introduction of this 

 concept until the student is in position to de- 

 fine it intelligently in terms of the simpler 

 concepts of force and acceleration. 



In an attempt to justify his introduction 



" at the outset " of the " body-constant," mass, 



1 See Professor Hoskins's article in Science for 



April 23, 1915, whioh was written in reply to an 



article of mine in Science for February 5, 1915. 



