NOVEMBEE 5, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



643 



lege, Kalamazoo, Mieli., toward a fund of 

 $100,000. 



The trustees of the Joseph Bonnheim Me- 

 morial Fund, founded in 1897 by Albert Bonn- 

 heim and Fannie Bonnheim, of Sacramento, 

 in memory of their son, have conveyed the en- 

 tire property of the trust, now valued at ap- 

 proximately $100,000, to the University of 

 California. The income of the endowment 

 will be devoted to scholarships in the Univer- 

 sity of California for young men and young 

 women. 



Construction is about to begin on a labora- 

 tory building, to cost $100,000, to be erected 

 by the University of California on the new 

 465-acre site just purchased by the Univer- 

 sity of California, at a cost of $55,000, for its 

 citrus experiment station and graduate school 

 of tropical agriculture at Riverside. The di- 

 rector of this work of agricultural research at 

 Riverside is Dr. Herbert J. Webber, former 

 professor of plant breeding in Cornell Uni- 

 versity. 



Work has begun on the foundation for the 

 five-story building of the Hunterian Labora- 

 tory connected with Johns Hopkins Medical 

 School. The new building is located at the 

 corner of WoKe and Madison Streets, will be 

 50 by 100 feet and will cost about $65,000. 



New York University has added to its 

 graduate school courses in surgery by which 

 it will be possible for graduate students to se- 

 cure the advanced academic degrees of master 

 and doctor of science. The course does not 

 deal with the technique of surgical practise 

 but with subjects such as the application of 

 biological science to surgical diagnosis and 

 therapy. 



Me. James Cole Roberts, of the United 

 States Bureau of Mines, Denver, has been ap- 

 pointed to the Joseph Austin Holmes pro- 

 fessorship of safety and efficiency engineering 

 in the Colorado State School of Mines. 



Dr. Robert S. Morris, formerly of the Johns 

 Hopkins University, has been appointed to 

 the Frederick Forchheimer chair of medicine in 

 the medical department of the University of 

 Cincinnati. 



Dr. Robert H. Mullin, director of the lab- 

 oratories of the Minnesota State Board of 

 Health and assistant professor of pathology 

 and bacteriology at the University of Minne- 

 sota, has accepted an offer from the Univer- 

 sity of Nevada, at Reno, to take charge of 

 the hygienic laboratories of that institution. 



Dr. H. G. Earle has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of physiology at the University of 

 Hong Kong. 



Dr. Hermann Jordan, decent in Tiibingen, 

 has been called as associate professor of com- 

 parative physiology in Utrecht, as successor 

 to the late Professor A. A. W. Hubrecht. 



Professor Benecke, of the Berlin Agricul- 

 tural School, has been called to the chair of 

 botany at Miinster, as successor to Professor 

 Oorrens. 



Dr. Boris Zarnik, associate professor at 

 Wiirzburg, has accepted the professorship of 

 zoology at the University of Constantinople. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE 



electromotive phenomena and membrane 

 permeability 



In his very interesting presidential address, 

 printed in Science, Professor Bayliss^ discusses 

 among other things the origin of electromotive 

 forces in living cells. In this discussion Pro- 

 fessor Bayliss adopts the theory, originally sug- 

 gested by Ostwald and elaborated by Bern- 

 stein, R. Lillie and Hober, that the E.M.F. 

 observed in living tissue is due to a selective 

 ion permeability in the sense that normally 

 only cations are able to diffuse through the 

 membrane, but that if the membrane is in- 

 jured or if a cell is active its membrane be- 

 comes also permeable for anions. As a conse- 

 quence of this increase in permeability the 

 spot where this happens must become negative 

 if compared with a spot of normal or resting 

 tissue. To quote Professor Bayliss: 



I referred previously to the electrical change in 

 excitable tissues and its relation to the cell mem- 

 brane. It was, I believe, first pointed out by Ost- 

 wald and confirmed by many subsequent investi- 

 gators, that in order that a membrane may be im- 

 permeable to a salt it is not a necessary condition 



1 Science, 1915, N. S., XLII., No. 1085, p. 509. 



