18 Calvin Kendall, of Rochester, Minn., "For biochemical work of high order leading to the preparation of the compound 'thyroxin' and the determination of its chemical structure and giving results which contribute to the comfort and welfare of mankind." PROFESSOR STEPHEN A. FORBES, of the University of Illinois has been elected president of the Ecological Society of America. Ar the recent Chicago meeting of the American Psychological Association, Professor Margaret Floy Washburn was elected to the presidency. DR. WILLIAM BLUM, of the Bureau of Standards has been elected president of the Washington Section of the American Chemical Society. DR. F. M. PERKIN has received the honor of the order of commander of the British Empire. Dr. Perkin is one of the leading authorities upon the scientific treatment and utilization of coal and the production of oil from it. THE Italian Society of Sciences has awarded its gold medal for 1920 to Professor A. Signorini, of the University of Palermo, for his papers published during the last year. DR. C. O. JOHNS, chief of the color and protein laboratories of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, has resigned to accept the offer made him by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, to be director of the research laboratory of the company. MR. H. D. FOSTER has been appointed research associate at the Bureau of Standards by the Hollow Building Tile Association. ASSISTANT SURGEON-GENERAL J. H. WHITE, U. S. P. H. S., after the close of the sixth Sanitary Conference of the American Republics, to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, will proceed to Valparaiso, Chile, and other points on the West Coast of South America, via Panama, for the purpose of investigating sanitary conditions at the various ports. COMMANDER COPE, leader of the British Antarctic Expedition, is detained in Montevideo through the non-arrival of his dogs. He also encountering difficulty in obtaining fi owing to their unexpected cost. He propto give lectures at Montevideo and at Bue Aires, thus obtaining assistance from British communities. He will probably ceed south early in December in the wh Solstreif, without waiting for the dogs, though their absence makes sledging m difficult. PROFESSOR J. W. E. GLATTFELD, of the partment of chemistry of the University Chicago, will spend his winter quarter v. tion at the Desert Laboratory of the Carn Institution at Tucson, Arizona. DR. JULIUS STIEGLITZ, of the University Chicago, has delivered three lectures on Mayo Foundation at Rochester, Minnes The first was on Chemistry and Medici and the other two were on "The Electr A LECTURE was delivered at the Schoo Hygiene and Public Health of Johns E kins University, December 13, by Dr. Cha "S Wardell Stiles, U. S. P. H. S., on Practical Aspects of the Subject of Soil lution." DR. ALFRED F. HESS, of the New York versity and Bellevue Hospital Medical lege, will deliver the fifth Harvey Soc Lecture at the New York Academy of M cine on Saturday evening January 15. subject will be "Newer Aspects of S Nutritional Disorders." DR. YVES DELAGE, professor of zoology University of Paris, distinguished for work on protoplasm, heredity and gen biology, has died at the age of sixty-six ye PROFESSOR G. M. DEBOVE died on Nover 19, at almost seventy years of age. H known for his work on diseases of the stom and for the past seven years has been per nent secretary of the Paris Academy of M cine. AT the annual meeting of the Society American Foresters held in New York on December 20, the following officers were elected for 1921: President, R. C. Bryant, 360 Prospect St., New Haven, Conn. Vice-president, Paul G. Redington, Ferry Bldg., San Francisco, Calif. Secretary, Paul D. Kelleter, Atlantic Bldg., Washington, D. C. proximately $7,000 per annum. There are now about fifty vacancies in the commissioned grades which will be filled by promotion from the eligibles secured from the examinations to be held in February and April. Applicants for this examination should communicate with the Civil Service Commission or with the Director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Treasurer, E. H. Frothingham, Atlantic Bldg., Washington, D. C. A civil engineer degree Washington, D. C. Ar the recent meeting of the Indiana Academy of Sciences the officers were elected for 1921 were as follows: President, Howard E. Enders, West Lafayette. Vice-president, Frank M. Andrews, Blooming ton. Secretary, Walter N. Hess, Greencastle. THE American Pharmaceutical Association has elected the following officers: President, Samuel L. Hilton, Washington, D. C. First Vice-president, Charles E. Caspari, St. Louis, Mo. Second Vice-president, David F. Jones, Watertown, S. D. Third Vice-president, Hugo H. Schaefer, New York. Members of the Council, Henry M. Whelpley, St. Louis, Mo.; George M. Beringer, Camden, N. J.; John G. Godding, Boston, Mass. THE U. S. Civil Service Commission has announced examinations for the positions of junior engineer and deck officer in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to be held February 9-10 and April 13-14, 1921. These positions are the entering ones in the field force of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the initial salary will be $2,000 per annum, with a promise of increase to $2,400 after one month of satisfactory service. From these entering positions engineers will be promoted after six months of satisfactory service to the commissioned grades of the Survey which have relative rank with the grades from ensign to captain in the navy. The salaries of the commissioned personnel, including compensation for quarters, etc., and longevity pay, vary from a minimum of $2,500 to ap or B.S. in civil engineering is required of an applicant before appointment, but the examination may be taken in February or April and the appointment made effective on graduation. THE Laws Observatory of the University of Missouri, erected in 1853, has been torn down, and a new building is being erected to replace it about half a mile south of the former site. INCLUDED among the bequests of the late Dr. Lloyd Roberts of Manchester, England, are the following gifts to medical organization: to the Royal Society of Medicine, £5,000; to St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, £5,000; to Manchester Royal Infirmary and to the Royal College of Physicians, London, £3,000 each; and £2,000 to the Medical Society of London. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL THE University of Montpellier, which was founded in the thirteenth century, is preparing for the celebration of its approaching seven hundredth anniversary. THROUGH the death of Mrs. Lucy H. Bowdoin, of Salem, a bequest of $50,000 becomes available for Harvard Medical School, and $5,000 each will be given to the Essex Institute and Peabody Academy of Salem. It is planned to establish a technical school at Oberlin College with accommodations for about 700 students. FIRE, supposed to have originated from the furnace in a basement room, completely destroyed the office and private laboratory of Dr. Waddell, professor of pharmacology, and a large amount of physiological apparatus in the physiological laboratory of the University of 20 Virginia on the morning of December 24. The loss is largely, if not entirely, covered by insurance and there will be little interruption to the regular laboratory work. THE inauguration of President Wallace D. Atwood, of Clark College, will take place on February 1. Presidents and representatives from more than two hundred colleges have signified their intention of being present at the exercises. DR. HENRY RAND HATFIELD, professor of accounting on the Flood Foundation in the University of California, has been appointed dean of the faculties of the State University of California to succeed Professor John C. Merriam, who resigned to accept the presidency of the Carnegie Institution in Washington. AT the College of the City of New York, Professor Herbert R. Moody has been appointed professor of chemical engineering within the department of chemistry; Assistant Professor W. L. Prager has been promoted to an associate professorship, and Mr. Joseph A. Babor has been promoted to an instructorship. DR. ARDREY W. Downs, formerly assistant professor of physiology at McGill University, has been appointed to the chair of physiology in the University of Alberta. DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS DURING the sessions of two International Congresses of Anthropology, in 1906 at Monaco, and in 1912 at Geneva, rules were drawn up for the standardizing of the more The usual anthropometric measurements. work was undertaken in each case by a committee, and the official reports were published by certain members to whom this duty was assigned. The prescription of 1906 included measurements of the skull and of the head and facial features of the living. It was published in the French language by Dr. Papillault and appeared in the pages of L'Anthropologie (Vol. 17, 1906, pp. 559-572). The prescription of 1912 was the work of a larger and more representative committee, which aside from French, German and Italian memb Having these data in mind I was led While this statement, concerning the t official reports only, is strictly true, I sh have mentioned that equally accurate trustworthy reports were published in o countries, and especially should I have that of Dr. MacCurdy, also a member the committee. His report in full of the scription of 1912 was translated at the of the Congress for Dr. Rivêt's official c and appeared, later in the same year both SCIENCE and the American Anthrop gist. Had I noticed this earlier, I sh certainly have brought it to the attention the readers of my book, and wish to take opportunity to rectify my unintenti neglect. The citations referred to are the follow SCIENCE: N. S., Vol. 36, No. 931, No 1912, pp. 603–608. Amer. Anthropol., Vol. 14, No. 4, Oct.-I 1912, pp. 621–631. HARRIS HAWTHORNE WILD SMITH COLLEGE, A NEW DIKE NEAR ITHACA, N. Y. CONSIDERABLE attention has been give geologists to the dikes of central New Y Each newly discovered one is of interest and perhaps a note should be made of the occurrence of a rather large dike recently found. It has been exposed at the eastern side of the Portland cement quarry east of Shurger Point, six miles north of Ithaca. It is the first of the Ithaca region dikes found in limestone and is exposed for the height of the Tully limestone at the north and south walls of the quarry and in the shales along the quarry bed. No contact action was noticed. In places there is a thin calcite streak at the side of the dike, in others there is a tight contact between dike and wall rock. Strim on the calcite gave evidence of horizontal movement. The dike varies in width from 11" to 18" and is decidedly green, due to the serpentine in it. It strikes about N 3° E., parallel to the dip joints, like all the dikes near Ithaca. There may be some connection between this dike and a group of smaller dikes east of Ludlowville, two miles to the north. CORNELL UNIVERSITY PEARL SHELDON THE HAWAIIAN OLONA TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE1 for September 10, 1920, p. 240, Mr. Vaughan MacCaughey again calls attention to the remarkably durable fiber of the Hawaiian Oloná, and quotes Dr. N. Russel's rather inaccurate account of the people making the fiber and its products, fish nets and cords, some used especially for fish-lines. In view of the possible importance of this product, it seems worth while to correct certain statements. The name of the bird caught for its yellow feathers was O-o not O-u. As late as 1864, when the present writer first visited the Hawaiian Islands, there were some natives at Olaa still beating the mamake kapa and twisting the oloná fiber on their thighs. On the island of Molokai, as late as 1889 a photograph was taken of a native scraping the fiber. Surely Mr. MacCaughey must be aware that in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, is a fine cast from life of a native preparing this fine fiber, and there are 1 N. S., Vol. LII., No. 1341. many specimens of both the raw material, the finished product and the laau kahioloná or scraper which was sometimes a shell papaua (Meleagrina margaritifera) but more commonly a sharpened bone from the back of the honu, a sea turtle not a (fish, as Dr. Russel has it). The boards were made of any hard wood; the naou of Dr. Russel was perhaps the naio, or bastard sandalwood. As a specimen of the remarkable durability of the fiber, there is in the Bishop Museum a ball of fish-line used by the Kamehamehas for a hundred years and it is still in perfect condition. WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM QUOTATIONS PROFESSOR MICHELSON ON THE APPLICATION OF INTERference mETHODS TO ASTRONOMICAL MEASUREMENTS THE first information Professor A. S. Eddington, Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge University, received that his theoretical deductions concerning the angular diameters of certain stars and of the Betelgeuse, in particular, had been confirmed by Professor Michelson [in his paper at the Chicago meeting] was from a cable message from the New York Times. He was extremely interested and delighted at the results obtained and is anxiously awaiting full details. Talking to the New York Times correspondent he pointed out that many years ago Professor Michelson suggested a plan for measuring, at any rate to a much greater degree of accuracy than before, diameters of stars by the wave theory of light. "For some time now," he said, "they have been carrying on these experiments at Mount Wilson, and I presume that it is there that these most interesting results have been obtained. The great difficulty that they have had to contend with has, of course, been what is known as atmospheric tremor. They have been trying Michelson's methods and previously had obtained some very interesting results, but these were only with regard to very close double stars. By this means they got some very successful results with double stars, but when they 22 came to try to determine the angular diameter of stars they were up against a very much more difficult problem. I knew that they were working on these lines, but this is the first word I have heard of the results. "At a meeting of the British Association I delivered a presidential address to the mathematical and physical sections, and made reference to the fact that this experiment which was being carried out would be of the very greatest importance. We have of course had theories, and, working on those theories, I gave a table of what I thought would be the angular diameter of certain stars, and I am delighted to find that the figures so nearly correspond. This would seem to show the theories have been on the right side. "In particular, I noticed that Betelguese's diameter is 260,000,000 miles, which is enormously larger than the sun. That is a very interesting confirmation of the theory of Russell and Hertzsprung of giant and dwarf stars, giving direct evidence that Betelguese is one of the inflated stars and very different from the sun." Dr. A. C. Crommelin, chief of staff of the Greenwich Observatory, was interviewed today on Professor Michelson's discovery by The Evening Standard and expressed the interest the experts in England's principal observatory took in it. "Star diameters have been calculated hitherto," he said, "but have never before been actually measured. Michelson's announcement that he has measured Alpha Orionis and found it to have a diameter of 260,000,000 miles, 300 times bigger than the sun, is hopeful. "That the distance from the earth of such a star as Alpha Orionis, which is 900,000,000,000,000 miles away, should have been measured so long ago and the size of the star should remain unmeasured seems strange, but it was explained at the offices of the Royal Astronomical Society that the two measurements have to proceed on entirely different lines. 66 The Astronomical Society confirms Dr. Crommelin in the expectation of good results from Professor Michelson's work. For some time past he and his work have loomed increas ingly large in the astronomical world.-C CAUSES OF CLIMATIC OSCILLATI IN 1918 Professor Arldt, of Radel grouped the theories and weighed the dence which had been proposed by 117 so tists in the past sixty years on the ca of the glacial and interglacial epochs. none of these hypotheses are in all resp satisfactory, in his opinion, or can clain explain thoroughly all paleo-climatic nomena, he does not recognize any one th or group of them. This is not surpri since the fundamental conclusions underl these hypothesis have not been reached. In this paper of twenty-seven pages, does not give an exhaustive explanation of numerous hypotheses which have been posed but a brief statement concerning most important groups among them. He tinguishes two classes, Cosmic and Tell with three subdivisions for the first: Un sal, Solar and Telluro-Cosmic; and five the second: Dislocation of the Poles, At pheric, Intra-Telluric, Actologic and graphic. Although discussions and opin are to be found under each of these head his main contribution appears in crystal but abbreviated form in his conclusion, theories explaining Among numerous changes in climate of the earth, those shoul given preference which are based upon the pothesis that the factors which are of impor to-day in determining climate have always effective. . . . Most importance is attache Ramsay's theory which emphasizes most str the direct and indirect action of the moun Besides these orogenetic forces other element enumerated below, probably aided in the ge tion of the ice ages. 1. The rise of extensive mountains (Ramsay 2. The formation of ocean basins (Arldt). 3. The sinking of the entire ocean floor an 1 Theodore Arldt, "Die Ursachen der Klim wankungen der Vorzeit, besonders der Eiszei Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde, Band XI., s. 1918. |