August 20, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



241 



which is being done or may be done by the 

 National Physical Laboratory. 



It is planned that the advisory council 

 should act in intimate cooperation with the 

 Royal Society and the existing scientific or 

 professional associations, societies and insti- 

 tutes, as well as with the universities, technical 

 institutions and other institutions in which re- 

 search is or can be efficiently conducted. 



It is proposed to ask the Royal Society and 

 the principal scientific and professional asso- 

 ciations, societies, and institutes to undertake 

 the function of initiating proposals for the 

 consideration of the advisory council, and a 

 regular procedure for inviting and collecting 

 proposals will be established. The advisory 

 council will also be at liberty to receive pro- 

 posals from individuals and themselves to ini- 

 tiate proposals. 



It is contemplated that the advisory council 

 will work largely through sub-committees rein- 

 forced by suitable experts in the particular 

 branch of science or industry concerned. On 

 these sub-committees it would be desirable as 

 far as possible to enlist the services of piersons 

 actually engaged in scientific trades and manu- 

 factures dependent on science. 



The advisory council will proceed to frame 

 a scheme or program for their own guid- 

 ance in recommending proposals for research 

 and for the guidance of the committee of 

 council in allocating such state funds as may 

 be available. This scheme will naturally be 

 designed to operate over some years in ad- 

 vance, and in framing it the council must 

 necessarily have due regard to the relative 

 urgency of the problems requiring solution, 

 the supply of trained researchers available for 

 particular pieces of research, and the material 

 facilities in the form of laboratories and equip- 

 ment which are available or can be provided 

 for specific researches. 



Office accommodation and stafF will be pro- 

 vided for the committee and council by the 

 board of education. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 There is published in this issue of Science 

 the address of the president of the American 



Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Dr. W. W. Campbell. We hope to publish in 

 subsequent issues other addresses given at the 

 Pacific Coast meeting, together with reports 

 of the proceedings of the sections. 



Frederic Ward Putnam, emeritus pro- 

 fessor of American ethnology and archeology 

 in Harvard University, honorary curator of 

 the Peabody Museum, permanent secretary of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science from 1873 to 1898 and presi- 

 dent of the association in 1898, distinguished 

 for his contributions to anthropology, died at 

 Cambridge, on August 14, in his seventy- 

 seventh year. 



John Flric Nef, head of the department of 

 chemistry in the University of Chicago, em- 

 inent for his contributions to organic chem- 

 istry, died on August 13 at the age of fifty- 

 three years. 



Dr. Francis X. Mahonet has befen ap- 

 pointed health commissioner of Boston. 



The Ontario government has appointed a 

 commission to investigate the production and 

 shipment of nickel in relation to the condi- 

 tions created by the war. The members are 

 Mr. G. T. Holloway, of London (chairman) ; 

 Professor W. G. Miller, provincial geologist; 

 Mr. McGregor Young, E.G., Toronto, and 

 Mr. T. W. Gibson, deputy-minister of mines. 



The directors of British Dyes (Limited) are 

 establishing a research department, and have 

 invited Dr. G. T. Morgan, F.R.S., of the Royal 

 College of Science for Ireland, Dublin, to be- 

 come the head of the department. They have 

 named a technical committee to consist of 

 Dr. M. O. Forster, F.R.S., chairman. Dr. J. C. 

 Cain, Dr. G. T. Morgan, F.R.S., and Mr. J. 

 Turner. An advisory council, under the chair- 

 manship of Professor Meldola, F.R.S., is also 

 to be appointed. 



Dr. Edward W. Ryan, Scranton, chief of 

 the American Red Cross in Belgrade, has been 

 decorated by both the Serbian and French gov- 

 ernments for his work in the hospitals where 

 typhus fever has been raging. 



Dr. John W. M. Bunker, of the department 

 of hygiene and sanitation, and sanitary in- 



