July 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



79 



Participation, in contributions to these outside 

 journals is a valuable phase of the survey's ac- 

 tivity and should continue, but this method of 

 publication has certain limitations by reason 

 of both the capacity and the circulation of 

 these journals. It appears, therefore, that the 

 time has come to begin the issue of an annual 

 volume in the survey series that will afford op- 

 portunity for publication of short papers and 

 preliminary reports of a character not well 

 adapted to any of the present forms of publi- 

 cation. 



It is significant that so many of the geolo- 

 gists are making scientific contributions of 

 general interest that represent results inciden- 

 tal to other investigations or that are of the 

 nature of by-products in strictly economic 

 work. In order to develop greater breadth of 

 observation and investigation among the 

 geologists of the survey and to promote the 

 scientific possibilities of their professional 

 work means should be provided for prompt 

 publication of such papers in a permanent 

 form that will commend itself to the author 

 and to the scientific reader alike. Provision 

 has been made since 1902 for the current pub- 

 lication of short papers relating to economic 

 geology, and the time is opportune for a simi- 

 lar provision for scientific papers relating to 

 general geology. 



It is proposed to issue an annual volume in 

 the Professional Paper series, entitled " Con- 

 tributions to General Geology " (short papers 

 and preliminary reports). 



In advance of the printing of the full vol- 

 ume, separates, each including one or more 

 papers, will be issued to the number of ten or 

 twelve a year as the manuscript and illustra- 

 tions are ready, without waiting for material 

 for the full volume to be in hand or even prom- 

 ised. The papers included in these " Contri- 

 butions to General Geology" may relate to any 

 phase of geology, provided it possesses general 

 interest — petrology, paleontology, stratigraphy, 

 glaciology, structural geology, etc. This vol- 

 ume is intended not as a catch-all for current 

 odds and ends, but as a dignified collection of 

 scientific contributions, each worthy in im- 

 portance of subject, value of results and qual- 



ity of treatment for separate publication as 

 a bulletin or professional paper if it were of 

 suificient length. Two papers before me which 

 will probably be included in the first separate 

 of the 1913 " Contributions " are Mr. Shaw's 

 " Mud Lumps at the Mouths of the Missis- 

 sippi " and Mr. Gale's " Origin of Colemanite 

 Deposits." Illustrations in this publication, as 

 in the " Contributions to Economic Geology," 

 should be few in number and confined to line 

 cuts and halftones, for prompt publication is 

 essential. The date of actual publication will 

 be printed on the title-page of each separate. 

 The chief geologist will begin to receive 

 manuscripts at once, in the hope that several 

 separates may be issued between July and De- 

 cember, and that the 1913 volume may be pub- 

 lished early in January, when the first sepa- 

 rate for 1914 will also be expected. 



Geo. Otis Smith, 



Director 



MEDICAL EESEAECS IN GREAT BRITAIN^ 



Mr. Lloyd George, as minister responsible 

 to parliament for National Health Insurance, 

 has appointed the following persons as a com- 

 mittee with executive functions, to be knovsm 

 as the Medical Research Committee, for the 

 purpose of dealing with the money made avail- 

 able for research under the National Insurance 

 Act: 



The Right Hon. Lord Moulton of Bank, LL.D., 

 F.R.S. (chairman). 



Christopher Addison, M.D., F.E.C.S., M.P. 



Waldorf Astor, M.P. 



Sir T. Clifford AUbutt, K.C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P., 

 F.E.S., regius professor of physic, University of 

 Cambridge. 



Charles John Bond, F.R.C.S., senior honorary 

 surgeon, Leicester Infirmary. 



William Bulloch, M.D., F.R.S. , bacteriologist to 

 the London Hospital and professor of bacteriology 

 in the University of London. 



IMatthew Hay, M.D., LL.D., professor of forensic 

 medicine and public health, Aberdeen University. 



Frederick Gowland Hopkins, M.B., D.Sc, F.E.S., 

 reader in chemical physiology in the University of 

 Cambridge. 



^ From the London Times. 



