•ilH) Scientific Intelligence. 



W. J. McGkk, the geologist and anthropologist, whose death 

 occurred on September 4, was a self-made man of varied gifts and 

 strong individuality ; beginning life as a worker on a farm, by 

 his ability and force of character he made for himself a prominent 

 place as a scientific investigator. Of formal schooling he had but 

 little, but he carried on his private studies in leisure hours, and 

 thus fitted himself for work in law and surveying. Geology early 

 interested him and his first extensive investigation, was a survey 

 of Northeastern Iowa ; in 1881-82 he also made a report on the 

 building stones of Iowa for the Tenth Census. When thirty 

 years old, he became connected with the IT. S. Geological Survey, 

 working in the southeastern part of the United States, where he 

 was engaged for several years in mapping an area of 300,000 

 square miles. He devoted himself particularly to surface and 

 glacial geology, and the pages of this Journal between 1878 

 and 1892 contain numerous articles by him on these and allied 

 subjects. He was the first president of the American Anthropo- 

 logical Society and had much to do with its organization. In 

 1885 he published a geological map of the United States and later 

 he gave a report on the Charleston earthquake of 1886. In 1893 

 he joined the Bureau of Ethnology, as ethnologist in charge, and 

 for ten years his work was largely in this field: an exhaustive 

 investigation of Tiburon island, Gulf of California, was one of 

 his most important labors. In 1903 he took charge of the depart- 

 ment of Anthropology of the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904 and 

 produced remarkable results. In 1907 he was appointed a mem- 

 ber of the Waterways Commission, and of this body he was 

 secretary at the time of his death. Thus his activity extended 

 over the fields of geology, anthropology, and hydrography. 



His personality was decided, perhaps aggressive, and on many 

 points both within and outside the scientific field he held original 

 views, but his energy and ability were never questioned. It 

 could hardly be a surprise to those who knew him that in his will 

 he left his body to a medical school for dissection, and directed 

 also that his brain be used for study and preservation for the 

 cause of science. 



Dr. Morris Loeb, Professor of Chemistry in New York Uni- 

 versity, died on October 8 at the age of forty-nine yeai - s. He 

 was early associated as assistant with Dr. Wolcott Gibbs of 

 Harvard University and followed him later in his own researches 

 on complex inorganic salts ; his work also extended into other 

 lines. He was a member of the Board of Education, and was 

 active in philanthropic work in New York City and elsewhere ; 

 among numerous generous gifts he presented $5<>,000 to Harvard 

 University in 1911 for the Wolcott-Gibbs Library. 



