July 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



85 



■carried on by the department of biology in 

 charge of Dr. Raymond Pearl. The depart- 

 ment has been accorded additional laboratory 

 space in the station building. The staff has 

 Ijeen increased by the appointment of Dr. 

 Frank M. Surface, formerly biologist of the 

 Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, as 

 hiologist; and of Mr. John Miner, a graduate 

 of the University of Michigan, where he spe- 

 cialized in the study of actuarial and statis- 

 tical mathematics under the direction of Pro- 

 fessor James W. Glover, as computer. 



On Friday, June 27, the new wing of the 

 Eothamsted laboratories was opened. Accord- 

 ing to the account in Nature Mr. Eunciman, 

 president of the British Board of Agriculture, 

 sketched the history of the Eothamsted Ex- 

 periment Station from its beginning in 1843 

 to the present time. The experiments grew 

 out of some pot trials made by Lawes as a 

 young man in the late 'thirties. The first 

 result was the discovery of superphosphate, 

 which alone had proved of almost incalculable 

 benefit to the world, markedly increasing the 

 yields of some of the British and Continental 

 crops, and rendering possible the economic 

 growth of wheat in Australia. Feeding ex- 

 periments on animals came later, and proved 

 of fundamental importance both to farmers 

 and physiologists. During the fifty-seven 

 years of their partnership, Lawes and Gilbert 

 had investigated most of the important prob- 

 lems connected with British agriculture, and 

 laid the whole community under a great debt 

 of obligation to them. The work thus begun 

 had expanded considerably under Mr. Hall's 

 directorship (1902-12), and the growth was 

 such that the new wing was already full, and 

 the director, Dr. Eussell, was preparing plans 

 for new buildings to be erected in commemo- 

 ration of the centenary of the birth of Sir 

 John Lawes (1814) and Sir Henry Gilbert 

 (1817). Mr. Eunciman expressed the hope 

 that the centenary fund would be well and 

 widely supported. 



Mb. Geo. Otis Smith, director of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, on June 30 addressed the 

 following letter to members of the survey: 



Secretary Lane to-day presented Mr. Brooks 



with the Conrad Maltebrun gold medal which he 

 had received from Paris through the Secretary of 

 State. In making this presentation Secretary Lane 

 expressed himself so thoroughly appreciative of the 

 investigative work of the survey that I regret that 

 a stenographic report of his remarks is not avail- 

 able. He expressed himself as gratified that this 

 honor had come to Mr. Brooks as the chief of the 

 Alaskan division of the survey, and added that he, 

 like his predecessors, had come to place large de- 

 pendence upon Mr. Brooks's intimate knowledge 

 of Alaska and its resources; and he regrets that 

 such signal honors as this medal awarded by the 

 Societe de Geographie of Paris come so seldom to 

 the workers in the government service. 



Addressing also Messrs. White, Marshall, Grover 

 and Spencer, who were present. Secretary Lane 

 emphasized hia appreciation of the fact that the 

 Geological Survey and other branches of the De- 

 partment of the Interior include among their mem- 

 bers men who are giving their very best service to 

 the government and are actuated by the highest 

 patriotism. To-day at Gettysburg men are re- 

 ceiving the honor due them for their services of 

 fifty years ago, but these men who are serving the 

 government to-day are no less worthy of medals 

 for heroism and of other honors, as well as old age 

 pensions, than are the veterans of the civil war, 

 but the day will surely come when due recognition 

 will be given to the civil service. In the mean- 

 time, however, it will be the endeavor to recognize 

 the worth of these leaders in scientific investiga- 

 tion and so far as possible to entice them away 

 from outside employment where their remunera- 

 tion would be larger. 



In his response, Mr. Brooks told the secretary 

 that he felt his indebtedness not only to his asso- 

 ciates in the Alaskan work, but also to those in 

 charge of the field branches of the survey, which 

 have trained the geologists, topographers and engi- 

 neers for service in Alaska, and thus made possible 

 the success of these investigations. Others, he 

 said, throughout the survey had done the work, 

 and the medal had come to the chief of the Alas- 

 kan division. 



The zoological expedition to Colombia of 

 the American Museum of Natural History 

 returned early in May, after an absence of 

 four months. As we learn from the Journal of 

 the museum the objects of the expedition 

 were first, to collect material for a habitat 

 group illustrating the bird life of the Magda- 

 lena Valley; second, to complete the ornitho- 

 logical survey of the Colombian Andes, begun 



