380 



SCIENCE. 



[X.S. V()i..X\IH. Xo.455. 



subject for its first publication as a university 

 text. 



Mr. F has been investigating certain impor- 

 tant problems presented by the club-mosses, 

 among which the origin of the seed-habit is 

 prominent. 



Mr. G is engaged in investigating the 

 causes of the forms assumed by plant bodies, 

 as shomi chiefly by lovcer plants. He has 

 shown experimentally that form is in the 

 main a phenomenon of chemistry and physics, 

 and not to be explained by any mystical vital- 

 istic theory. 



Mr. H is investigating the ecological prob- 

 lems that underlie scientific forestry, his field 

 of operations having been chiefly in the Rocky 

 Mountains of Montana. He has just made 

 an important report to the government on 

 that region. 



Mr. J has in preparation a book for students 

 of plant physiology in which for the first time 

 the subject will be considered from the stand- 

 point of modern chemistry and physics. 



THE DEPAETMENT OP BACTERIOLOGY. 



Mr. A is engaged upon a study of some of 

 the poisonous substances produced by bacteria, 

 especially those that affect the red blood- 

 corpuscles. He is also preparing evidence to 

 be used in the suit between the states of Mis- 

 souri and Illinois concerning the Chicago 

 Drainage Canal. 



Mr. B. has nearly completed a piece of work 

 upon some disease-producing organisms found 

 in human blood and closely related to the 

 typhoid bacillus. 



THE DEPARTMENT OP PALEONTOLOGY. 



The work upon which Mr. A is at present 

 engaged, and which will occupy the large part 

 of the next two years, is a monographic study 

 of the extinct orders of Mesozoie reptiles 

 known as the Pterodactyls and Plesiosaurs. 

 This investigation is aided by a grant from the 

 Carnegie Museiun. 



Under the combined direction of Mr. A 

 and Mr. B, and with Mr. C's cooperation, Mr. 

 D, a fellow, is engaged upon a study of the 

 fossil diptera of America, based chiefly upon 



a collection loaned to the Dev>artinont by the 

 U. S. National Museum. 



THE HGHOOL OF OEOilRAl'UY IN THE 



SUMMER SESSIOy OF CORNELL 



UNIVERSITY. 



Interest in geography as a school subject 

 has grown rapidly within the past ten years. 

 Courses have multiplied in the summer ses- 

 sions of the universities, and an increasing 

 number of teachers in secondary and grade 

 schools have awakened to their need of better 

 training both in subject matter and in methods 

 of treatment. More than a dozen of the 

 larger universities now accept the subject for 

 admission, and examinations are regularly of- 

 fered by the College Entrance Examination 

 Board. 



These facts give special meaning to the 

 organization of the Cornell School of Geog- 

 raphy under the direction of Professor E. S. 

 Tarr. Although following upon the dis- 

 couraging typhoid epidemic of last winter, the 

 health of the school was excellent, and the at- 

 tendance much larger than was expected, in- 

 cluding grade, normal and high school teachers 

 and superintendents from seventeen states. 



The courses and instructors were as follows : 

 Physiography and geography of Europe, Pro- 

 fessor R. S. Tarr; dynamic geology and geog- 

 raphy of the United States, Professor Albert 

 P. Brigham, of Colgate University; home 

 geography and type studies in geography for 

 grammar grades. Dr. Chas. A. McMurry, of 

 Northern Illinois Normal School; commer- 

 cial geography. Principal Philip Emerson, of 

 Lynn; class-room problems and laboratory 

 methods for the grades, Supervisor E. H. 

 "Whitebeck, of Trenton State Normal and 

 Model Schools; laboratory in geograjihy, As- 

 sistant Principal Frank Carney, of Ithaca; 

 laboratory in geology, !Mr. Geo. C. Matson, of 

 Cornell University. 



A large number of field excursions were 

 made, in the vicinity of Ithaca, and to more 

 remote points such as Watkins Glen, Lake 

 Ontario and the coal region about Wilkesbarre. 

 On one evening of each week a round table 

 conference gave opportunity for informal dis- 



