August 26, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



founder, Mr. Charles C. Worthington, will 

 erect and endow, on his estate at Shawnee, 

 Monroe County, Pennsylvania, the necessary 

 buildings and equipment. 



The Worthington Society will have for its 

 purpose the consideration of bird life as it is 

 found in nature, and will also have many birds 

 under confinement for study and experiment. 



The following is a summary of the chief 

 topics that will present an immediate field for 

 experimentation, which it is proposed by the 

 liberality of the foundation to make contin- 

 uous and exhaustive in the hope of reaching 

 conclusive results. 



1. The stiidy and consideration of a bird as 

 an individual. It is believed that by means 

 of observation carried through the entire life 

 of the individual, with a daily record, brief or 

 elaborate, as exigencies may require, much will 

 be learned regarding matters that are now ob- 

 scure. Facts, such as growth, habits, health, 

 temper, etc., will be daily reported. 



2. The stvidy of the occurrence, extent, na- 

 ture and cause of variations in different repre- 

 sentatives of the same species. 



3. Changes in color and appearance corre- 

 lating with age, sex and season. 



4. Changes in color and appearance due to 

 light, heat, presence or absence of moisture, 

 and to food. How rapid a change in appear- 

 ance can be effected by a new environment or 

 a new set of conditions ? 



5. Heredity. What general characteristics 

 are transmitted ? Are acquired characteristics 

 transmitted? The consideration of atavism, 

 prepotency and telegony. 



6. Experiments in breeding. Hybridity and 

 the fertility of hybrids. The possibility of es- 

 tablishing a new physiological species. 



7. Experiments in change .of color due to 

 moult. 



8. Adaptability. The plasticity of animals. 

 How great a factor is this in domesticating 

 new kinds of animals? 



9. The leisure of animals. How is this ac- 

 quired ? Being acquired, how is this employed ? 



10. Instinct, habit and the development of 

 intelligence. 



11. The possibility of breeding insectivorous 

 and other beneficial kinds of birds to restock 



a given region or to increase native birds, as 

 has been done in the case of fish, by the United 

 States Eish Commission. 



A temporary laboratory and aviary is being 

 equipped, and preliminary work will begin 

 with the installment of a large number of na- 

 tive and foreign birds early in September. Mr. 

 Worthington has procured the services of Mr. 

 William E. D. Scott, Curator of the Depart- 

 ment of Ornithology at Princeton University, 

 as director of the proposed work. Mr. Bruce 

 Horsfall has been engaged as chief assistant 

 and artist. The corps of assistants and work- 

 ers will be increased as the plans of the Worth- 

 ington Society develop. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



Dr. S. Weie Mitchell, of Philadelphia, has 

 been elected a corresponding member of the 

 Paris Academy of Medicine. 



Dr. William Osler, professor of medicine 

 at the Johns Hopkins University, has been 

 appointed regius professor of medicine at the 

 University of Oxford in the place of Sir John 

 Burdon-Sanderson. The Medical Record 

 says : " This news will be received with deep 

 regret by a host of friends and admirers of 

 Dr. Osier in this country, who have long 

 looked on him as one of the leaders in Amer- 

 ican medical thought. Dr. Osier has passed 

 all his professional life as a teacher of medi- 

 cine, a vocation for which he is eminently 

 qualified by his broad culture, profound med- 

 ical learning, and an inborn gift of expression. 

 He was born in Teeumseh, Ontario, in 1849, 

 and was graduated in medicine from McGill 

 University, Montreal, in 1872, Eor ten years, 

 from 1874 to 1884, he was professor of the 

 institutes of medicine at McGill, from 1884 

 to 1889 he was professor of clinical medicine 

 at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- 

 phia, and since 1889 he has held the chair of 

 medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore. We beg to offer our congratula- 

 tions to the new regius professor of medicine 

 at Oxford, and at the same time to send an- 

 ticipatory greetings to Sir William Osier, 

 Bart. The Oxford School of Medicine is also 

 and especially to be congratulated." 



