September 24, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



415 



Massachusetts, New York and Illinois. In 

 each of these states is at least one great city 

 center of commerce and industry. Had this 

 fact any influence upon the position of these 

 three states? In order to answer this ques- 

 tion, the consecutive names of 2,000 native- 

 born persons were taken at random.^ Among 

 this 2,000, 549 were born in cities of more 

 than 100,000 population, and 1,365 are now 

 resident in these cities. The figures for New 

 York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and 

 Washington show 317 born in these cities, and 

 791 now resident. The figures for New York, 

 Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, Wash- 

 ington, Baltimore and Chicago show 355 born 

 and 851 now resident. The proportion ab- 

 sorbed by the larger cities is not, on the whole, 

 greater than the proportion absorbed by urban 

 as opposed to rural life. 



One thing the figures show conclusively, 

 that there has been a marked movement of dis- 

 tinguished persons from the northeastern sec- 

 tion of the United States to that section west 

 of the Mississippi and particularly that sec- 

 tion included in the Pacific and Mountain 

 states. City life is in no large sense respon- 

 sible for this movement. It is evidently a log- 

 ical reaction to the wide range of opportunity 

 which the west affords. 



Scott Neaeing 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 De. Max Planck, professor of physics at 

 Berlin, and Professor Hugo von Seeliger, di- 

 rector of the Munich Observatory, have been 

 made knights of the Prussian order pour le 

 merite. Dr. Ramon y Cajal, professor of his- 

 tology at Madrid, and Dr. C. J. Kapteyn, pro- 

 fessor of astronomy at Groningen, have been 

 appointed foreign knights of this order. 



M. Georges Van Biesbeoeck, Dr. Ing., ad- 

 junct astronomer at the Royal Observatory of 

 Belgium, situated at Uccle, has joined the staff 

 of the Yerkes Observatory, University of Chi- 

 cago, for the academic year 1915-16, with the 

 title of visiting professor of practical astron- 

 omy. His work will be chiefly devoted to 

 2 They started with I. F. Merrifield, and ended 

 ■with H. W. Ranger. 



double stars and to the regular program of de- 

 termining stellar parallaxes from photographs 

 made with the 40-inch refractor. 



The second Pan-American Scientific Con- 

 gress, which will meet in Washington, Decem- 

 ber 27, 1915, and adjourn January 8, 1916, will 

 be divided into nine sections, which, with their 

 chairmen, are as follows: Anthropology, Wil- 

 liam H. Holmes; Astronomy, Meteorology and 

 Seismology, Robert S. Woodward; Conserva- 

 tion of Natural Resources, George M. Rom- 

 mel; Education, P. P. Claxton; Engineering, 

 W. H. Bixby; International Law, Public Law 

 and Jurisprudence, James Brown Scott; Min- 

 ing and Metallurgy, Economic Geology and 

 Applied Chemistry, Hennen Jennings; Public 

 Health and Medical Sciences, William 0. 

 Gorgas; Transportation, Commerce, Finance 

 and Taxation, L. S. Rowe. 



Dr. Theobald Smith, head of the division 

 of comparative pathology of the Rockefeller 

 Institute for Medical Research, should be ad- 

 dressed at Princeton, N. J., after October 1. 



Dr. Richard Pearson Strong is returning 

 to this country from Servia to resume his 

 position as professor of tropical medicine in 

 Harvard Medical School. 



Dr. Seishu Kenoshita, professor of gyne- 

 cology and obstetrics in the Imperial Univer- 

 sity, Tokyo, Japan, has been designated by 

 the government to make an extensive tour and 

 study of American hospitals. 



News has been received of the safe return 

 of Vilhjalmar Steffanson, who has been con- 

 ducting a Canadian expedition to the far 

 north. He expects to spend two more years in 

 exploration. 



Dr. Stock, professor of chemistry at 

 Munich, has been appointed a member of the 

 Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry at 

 Dahlem. 



Dr. Elisha H. Cohoon has been appointed 

 administrative head of the psychopathic de- 

 partment of the Massachusetts State Hospital, 

 at Boston. Dr. E. E. Southard, who has been 

 director of the institution for a number of 

 years, will be relieved of his administrative 

 duties, but will retain the title of director and 



