SCIENCE 



Friday, Decembek 12, 1913 



CONTENTS 



Memoir of John Shaw Billings: De. S. Weir 

 Mitchell 827 



The Duty of the State in the Prosecution of 

 Medical Research: Propessoe Henry B. 

 Ward 833 



The Significance of the National Bird Law: 

 Raymond Theodore Zillmer 839 



The American Philosophical Association .... 843 



The American Society of Zoologists 843 



The Sigma Xi Convention 844 



Delegates to the Convocation WeeTc Meeting 

 of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science 844 



Scientific Notes and News 845 



University and Educational News 848 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



More Data on the History of the Dollar 

 Marie: Propessoe Florian Cajoei. A 

 Non-chromatic Region in the Spectrum for 

 Bees: Christine Ladd-Franklin. Notes 

 on a Chestnut-tree Insect: A. G. Euggles. 

 A Connecting Type? Peoeessoe A. M. 

 Eeese 848 



Scientific Books: — 

 Miall on the Early Naturalists: Professor 

 Wm. a. Locy. Snyder on the Chemistry of 

 Plant and Animal Life: Professor Andrew 

 Hunter. Buchanan's Household Bacter- 

 iology: De. William W. Browne. Prescott 

 and Winslow 's Elements of Water Bacter- 

 iology : Professor George C. Whipple .... 853 



Special Articles: — ■ 



The Chestnut Bark Disease on Chestnut 

 Fruits: Professor J. Franklin Collins. 

 Inter glacial MollusTcs from South Dakota: 

 Dk. Frank G. Baker 857 



The Indiana Academy of Sciences: Dr. A. J. 

 Bigney 859 



The Convocation Week Meeting of Scientific 

 Societies 860 



HSS. intended for publioatlon and books, etc., intended for 

 MTlew Bhould be sent to Profeaior J. McKeen Cattell, GarriBon- 

 en-Hudson, N. Y. 



MEMOIR OF JOHN SHAW BILLINGS'^ 



It has been the custom of the National 

 Academy of Sciences to commemorate in 

 memoirs those whom death has removed 

 from its ranks. Since the lives of men of 

 science are little known except to those en- 

 gaged in their own lines of research, some 

 record is the more to be desired of one who 

 illustrated the fact that scientific capacity 

 may exist with varied ability for the con- 

 duct of large affairs. This combination of 

 talents has been often found in the ranks 

 of the Academy, although in the belief of 

 the public, the man of science is presumed 

 to be incapable of the successful manage- 

 ment of commercial business. 



The many tasks to which his life of work 

 summoned the subject of this memoir have 

 become, since his death, for the first time 

 so widely known that it is unnecessary for 

 me to do more than to put on paper a brief 

 summary of his career and the reasons for 

 his election to this distinguished body of 

 men of science, where from 1887 to 1889 

 he rendered eiScient service as our treas- 

 urer and served on eight important com- 

 mittees or as a member of our council. The 

 life of our fellow member, in fact, needs 

 less restatement from us, because since he 

 died at least a half dozen men of impor- 

 tance have recorded their opinions of this 

 aittractive and much-loved man and of what 

 he effected during his ever-busy existence. 

 Moreover, a full and competent biography 

 has been undertaken, and will, I am sure, 

 do ample justice to one who owed nothing 

 to newspaper notoriety. Through his mod- 



1 Read before the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences, Baltimore, November, 1913. 



