July 4, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



19 



In reply to a question, the secretary stated that 

 a number of special committees had been formed, 

 consisting of specialists in various groups, and 

 that the general policy had been adopted to confer 

 with these committees upon questions and cases 

 afEecting their particular groups. Despite the ex- 

 perience that this method added greatly to the 

 routine of the secretary's ofl&ce, he felt the policy 

 should be not only continued, but also extended, 

 and he was wiUing to accept, without confirmation 

 by the section, any special committees chosen by 

 any general committees appointed for that pur- 

 pose. 



In conclusion, the secretary invited attention to 

 the fact that during part of the meeting the sec- 

 retary of the section had been obliged to be 

 absent from the session, and he therefore moved 

 that the edited copy of the reports, with his mar- 

 ginal notes as to action taken, be accepted as the 

 minutes of the joint meeting. Upon second, this 

 motion prevailed. 



C. W. Stiles, 

 Secretary of Commission 



At the afternoon general session, the secretary 

 of the commission reported in English upon the 

 resignations, nominations, amendments and resolu- 

 tions, recommended by the commission, and ap- 

 proved by the Section on Nomenclature, but he 

 did not read the report in full. 



The president of the commission gave a r&um^ 

 of the subject in French, translating most por- 

 tions of the resolutions verbatim, and adding cer- 

 tain explanatory remarks. 



All matters involved were voted upon by the 

 general session, en l)loo and without discussion 

 (which it had been decided should be confined to 



"It would be dangerous to make a law read: 



" 'Theft shall be punished by imprisonment for 

 one to ten years, except in such eases where the 

 thief has tuberculosis. ' But justice is tempered 

 with mercy if one law reads: 



' ' ' Theft shall be punished by imprisonment for 

 one to ten years,' and if another law reads: 



" 'The President (or the King) is empowered 

 to suspend punishment in certain cases in which, 

 in his judgment, a feeling of humanity demands 

 such a suspension.' 



"Suppose, now, it is shown that a thief, who 

 is sentenced to ten years imprisonment, is about 

 to die of tuberculosis; even if the sentence is 

 passed upon him, the President (or the King) 

 could parole or pardon the man in order to permit 

 him to go home to die." 



the meeting of the section). Against only four 

 dissenting votes, all the subject matter in question 

 was adopted and approved. 



C. W. Stiles, 

 Secretary of Commission 



AFFBOPBIATIONS FOS THE VNIVESSITY 

 OF ILLINOIS 



On June 24 Governor Dunne signed senate 

 bill 675 carrying an appropriation of $4,500,- 

 000 for the University of Illinois for the bi- 

 ennium 1913-1915. 



A correspondent writes: 



The signing of this bill by Governor Dunne is 

 one of the most important events in the history of 

 higher education in Illinois. 



First of all the passing of this bill indicates 

 that the legislature approved by an overwhelming 

 vote the miU tax for the university which was 

 passed by the preceding legislature, so that all the 

 leading parties, democrats, republicans, progres- 

 sives and socialists, have endorsed this policy with 

 unanimity. It indicates, too, the high-water mark 

 of the whole history of educational development in 

 the state. 



In the second place it marks an epoch on ac- 

 count of the particular form in which the bill was 

 passed since it leaves to the judgment of the board 

 of trustees, within certain broad lines, the use of 

 funds in the development of the institution and 

 puts a stop to tendencies shown in nearly all legis- 

 latures to interfere unduly with the management 

 of the institution by itemizing appropriations 

 which have the effect often of thwarting the very 

 purpose for which they were given. 



The people of the state are to be congratulated 

 that the university has never entered into politics 

 and that all parties have had an active part in its 

 development. The university was founded under a 

 republican administration, but it was in the regime 

 of a democratic governor — Governor Altgeld — that 

 it received its first large appropriation. It was a 

 republican administration that passed the mill tax, 

 but a democratic one that has made it permanent 

 and initiated a new form of passing the appro- 

 priation that marks a new era in the institutional 

 development. 



The present legislature has definitely settled an- 

 other important question — one upon which for 

 years there has been much discussion. In the 

 university bills that were first introduced this year 

 there was an item calling for $100,000 a year for 

 the support of medical education. A determined 



