x over his shoulder of expression that 8 to claim for h as any one can render to ishing bread f broadening ng ourselves ing that the nterested in in the fate ngiosperms, good of all ng about a terested in union will ual underAt least nal botanfter all, to use the expressive slang of the day, "regular fellows." can The last few years have taught us all how small a reserve of food there is even in normal times. Largely as a result of the cataclysmic war famine now stalks over much of the earth. It needs no Malthus to convince us that an adequate food supply will become more and more the great problem of mankind. In spite of the haziness that envelops most of our present theories of productivity, one scarcely fail to have faith that it is the half light that precedes dawn. The complex and obscure factors involved in crop production need for their solution a far greater number of botanically trained investigators. With clearer theoretical understanding of these factors, there is every reason to believe that the earth will be made to yield more abundantly. It is to this field of investigation so vital to human welfare, that I confidently hope botanists will more and more devote their energies, both as a matter of duty to mankind, and as an earnest of faith in their science and the services it can render. CHARLES V. PIPER SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE CARNEGIE TRUST FOR SCOTTISH THE British Medical Journal states that the annual meeting of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland was held in a committee-room of the House of Lords, on February 9, with Lord Balfour of Burleigh in the chair. Lord Balfour said that the principal event of last year was the allocation of grants for the quinquennial period of 1920-25. In addition to the £200,000 from income, it had been resolved to allocate from the reserve fund £49,000. The explanation of this was that during the war the students at the universities were fewer, and therefore the trustees saved on the payment of fees. It would have been absurd to save that money and put it to the reserve, when many of the same students were coming back after the war and wanted it. The trustees thought it rig a temporary measure, to take it out o reserve fund, and give it to them to pay fees. Under the research scheme it had agreed that as an experiment for a peri three years the following annual gran offered to the universities to be spent in ment of half the salaries of persons en as part-time assistants or lecturers on tion that they devoted not less than half time to research, and that the univer should contribute the other half of the sa from other sources-Glasgow and Edin £1,000 each, St. Andrews and Aberdeen each. It was hoped that much good t universities would result from this com tion of teaching and research, and the so had been well received by the univer Although the amount available for assis to students was now fully £60,000, ther a deficit of £8,538 for 1919-20. The u sities were now increasing their tuition and as a result the poor student wou poorer than ever. Thus the difficulties very great. For many years the trustee been able to pay all eligible applicant whole of their class fees, but in 1911-12 had had to have an allowance system, be the income would not cover the whole o fee, and since then the trustees had been ing only a part of the fees. The situ would be further changed in the current owing to the increase in tuition fees. The discussion in which Lord Hal Lord Sands, and others took part, cer chiefly in the problem of allocating assis to the students. It was agreed that steps be taken to eliminate from the beneficiar the fund those applicants whose circumst were such as to render assistance unnece Proposals were made for strengthening declaration made by applicants and fo inquiry into individual circumstances. suggestions were discussed, but a decision not be reached until the alternatives been further considered in the light o views expressed by university authorities others interested. 280 MEETING OF THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEES Nature states that a combined meeting of THE PERSONNEL RESEARCH FEDERATION UNDER the auspices of the National Research Council and the Engineering Foundation, in the building of the National Research Council, Washington, the organization of the Personnel Research Federation was effected This federation includes in on March 15. its membership scientific, engineering, labor, It has management and educational bodies. been organized to bring research information ar which are engaged in p reported to the new fed of Labor Statistics tha organizations in the Un a sonnel Research Feder Treasurer: Robert W. 1 Acting Director: Beard the president of Carnegie ( The aims of the new creased efficiency of all of industry-employer, improved safety, health, ships. The immediate purpo Research Federation w organizations are studyi lems relating to person their endeavors, and t these endeavors can be tion minimized, neglecte lems considered and ad taken. On November 12, 192 ference was held in W auspices of the Nation and the Engineering For forty persons, includin national organizations of labor, capital, managers, and sociologists. The q sion was the practicabili cooperation among the ing research relating to industry and commerce to unskilled labor. Suc tions of persons doing d out interchange of the organizations al research. It is on by the Bureau States. The Perwill collect reCourage research rganizations and ivities. ected as follows: , representing the pers, representing yor. representing the representing the iml, assistant to ization are in- the Personnel or more prob the scope of ine whether zed, duplicaof the probwork under minary con- women in s of the work, and the influence of working conditions upon the health, output and happiness of the workers, are examples of those which could be made subjects of research. The underlying ideas which led to the conference, were (1) the advantages of studying such questions by the scientific method of gathering facts and using them to reach conclusions instead of discussing opinions and propaganda, and (2) the need for cooperation among the organizations and individuals engaged in such studies. GRANTS FOR RESEARCH MADE BY THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT the Chicago meeting of the association, the Committee on Grants distributed five thousand dollars for the year 1921 in different sciences as follows: MATHEMATICS One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor Solomon Lefschetz, of Kansas University, in support of his work in algebraic geometry. PHYSICS One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor W. F. G. Swann, of the University of Minnesota, for the investigation of atmospheric electric phenomena in the upper air. Two hundred and fifty dollars to Professor H. M. Randall, of the University of Michigan, in support of his work on the infra-red rotational absorption spectra of gases. Two hundred dollars to Professor Walter G. Cady, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in support of his work on electrical reactions produced by piezo-electric crystals in high frequency circuits, and the internal viscosity of elastic solids. One hundred dollars to Professor Paul F. Gaehr, of Wells College, for his study on the specific heat of tungsten at incandescent temperatures. One hundred dollars to Professor Arthur L. Foley, of Indiana University, in continuation of a previous grant for his experiments on the speed of sound close to the source. CHEMISTRY Two hundred dollars to Dr. Gerald L. Wendt, Unversity of Chicago, for investigations at high temperatures. Two hundred dollars to Professor Edgar, of the University of Virginia, for chase of a quartz mercury arc lamp for in photo-chemistry. ASTRONOMY Two hundred dollars to Dr. Sebastian A of Dudley Observatory, Albany, New support of his investigation of the vari wave-length of lines in different types of spectra. Two hundred dollars to Miss Caroline E. Vassar College Observatory, for assistanc measurement and reduction of phot plates. GEOLOGY Three hundred dollars to Mr. Frank B. Fort Wayne, Indiana, as a second grant port of his field studies on the stages of glacier as it retreated down the St. I Valley. Two hundred dollars to the Seismological of America, to replenish the fund at their for the immediate investigation of earthqu sending a competent observer to the plac currence before much of the evidence h obliterated. ZOOLOGY Two hundred dollars to Dr. P. W. Wh St. Stephens College, in addition to previo in support of his study of genetics in inse Four hundred and fifty dollars to Dr. N. of the United States Department of Ag for aid in a series of researches into the ogy of the cell; also to defray cost of pi of results already on hand. BOTANY Three hundred dollars to Professor ( Rigg, of the University of Washington, on the sphagnum bogs of the Puget Sou Five hundred dollars to Professor J. man, Missouri Botanical Garden, toward pletion of his work on the Senecio an genera. PSYCHOLOGY One hundred and fifty dollars to Profe Garth, of the University of Texas, for logical study of Indiana children in t States Indian Schools at Chilocco, Okla Albuquerque, New Mexico. One hundred and fifty dollars to Prof Boring, Clark University, for the prep a set of steel acoustic cylinders to be used in determining the nature of sensory response under conditions of normal psychometric situation. ANTHROPOLOGY Two hundred dollars to Professor A. L. Kroeber, of the University of California, for bibliographical and clerical assistance in connection with an ethnological investigation to determine the culture areas of aboriginal South America. One hundred and fifty dollars to Miss Helen H. Roberts, of the American Museum of Natural History, for a study of negro folk-music in Jamaica. PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor Carl J. Wiggers, Western Reserve University, in continued support of his investigation on the physiology of the circulation. One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor Frank A. Hartman, University of Buffalo, for aid in the study of suprarenal insufficiency, including circulatory, respiratory, temperature, and fatigue changes, as well as possible histological alterations in the ductless glands. Two hundred dollars to Professor W. E. Garrey, Tulane University, for the purchase of apparatus for hydrogen ion determination. One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor F. P. Knowlton, Syracuse University, in support of a study of the blood flow and gaseous metabolism in the thyroid gland. JOEL STEBBINS, Secretary Committee on Grants URBANA, ILLINOIS SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. WILLIAM CROCKER, associate professor of botany in the University of Chicago, has been appointed director of the newly founded Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Yonkers, New York. He will enter on his work next autumn. The board of trustees of the new foundation will consist of three business men and three scientific men. Professor John M. Coulter, head of the department of botany at the University of Chicago, and Raymond F. Bacon, of the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh, will be two of the scientific men, and these two will select the third. THE nomination made by ex-President Wilson, not confirmed by the Senate before adjournment, of Rear the position of Surged succeeding Rear-Adm has been sent again t dent Harding. HONORARY members Club of New York Ci four American and fo the dinner commemor versary of the opening 52 East Forty-first Stre ists were Dr. Giacomo of general chemistry Bologna, Italy; Dr. Her professor at the Collèg L'Ecole des Mines; D Brussels, Belgium, four soda process, and Sir fessor of chemistry eme College of Science and Kensington, England. Dr. John Uri Lloyd, o president of the America sociation; Dr. William New York, former presic Chemical Society, the Industry and the Eightl gress of Applied Chemis Smith, of Philadelphia American Chemical Socie provost of the Universi and Dr. Edward Westor DR. FRANK WIGGLESWOR S. Washington have b members of the Geologica THE following fifteen c selected by the council o to be recommended for society: Dr. W. E. Agar Professor W. L. Bragg, Dr. A. Church, Professo fessor W. H. Eccles, Dr. Mr. C. S. Middlemiss, Orton, Dr. J. H. Parson Philip, Dr. A. A. Robb, D' Eyncourt, and Mr. G. THE Council of the Ch awarded the Longstaff med iral E. R. Stitt to neral of the Navy, Braisted, retired, › Senate by Presi in the Chemists as conferred upon reign chemists at the tenth anni3 present home at The foreign chemmician, professor e University of uis Le Chatelier, France and at nest Solvay, of f the ammoniard Thorpe, proof the Imperial hnology, South Americans were cinnati, former -maceutical Asy Nichols, of the American of Chemical national Con-. Edgar Fahs ident of the until recently Pennsylvania, ewark, N. J. K and Dr. H. cted foreign of London. es have been oyal Society n into the W. Aston, T. Calman, rever, ProCedingham, K. J. P. ssor J. C. Tennyson Thorpe. The presentation was made at the annual general meeting on March 17. LIEUTENANT EUGENE F. Du Bois has been given the Navy cross for distinguished service in the line of his profession while attached to the U. S. Submarine N-5 upon the occasion of a collision between that vessel and the Charles Whittemore. PROFESSOR A. A. MICHELSON, head of the department of physics at the University of Chicago, has been appointed exchange professor at the University of Paris. His course of lectures will be on the general subject of "Physics" and will be given in the French language. The sixth Guthrie lecture in connection with the Physical Society of London, was delivered on March 11 by Professor Michelson, whose subject was Some recent applications of interference methods." THE Rumford Committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has recently made the following appropriations: To Professor P. W. Bridgman, of Harvard University, $400 in aid of his research on the thermal and optical properties of bodies under high pressure; to Professor Paul F. Gaehr, of Wells College, $250 in aid of his research on the specific heat of tungsten. THE Carnegie Institution of Washington has appropriated $750 for the support of the work of Dr. S. J. Holmes, professor of zoology in the University of California, on the factors of evolution in man. MR. EDWIN KIRK, who resigned from the U. S. Geological Survey in April, 1920, to do private work in South America, has been reinstated as geologist with the Survey. PROFESSOR EDWARD KREMERS has returned to active service in the University of Wisconsin, after a semester's leave of absence spent largely on historical studies. PROFESSOR E. W. D. HOLWAY, of the University of Minnesota, and Mrs. Holway, have returned from a year's exploration of the western slopes of the Andes in search of plant rusts. They went southward about as far as the island of Chiloé and northward to Quito, a range of forty degrees of latitude. thousand numbers were secured, in mo supplemented by phanerogamic specin the hosts. The collection is notable large proportion of grass rusts. DR. F. GOWLAND HOPKINS, professor chemistry at the University of Cambrid deliver the ninth Harvey Society lec the New York Academy of Medicine urday evening, April 2. His subject "The chemical dynamics of muscle.' Walter Fletcher, secretary of the Medi search Committee of Great Britain, v liver a Harvey lecture on April 16. THE following Mayo Foundation have recently been delivered: Preside Lyman Wilbur, of Leland Stanford sity, "Botulism"; Dr. J. Whitridge W professor of obstetrics in and dean of Hopkins Medical School, "A critical re twenty-one years' experience with C section"; Dr. G. Carl Huber, profe anatomy, University of Michigan, " mental observations on bridging nerve d DR. EDWARD C. FRANKLIN, professor ganic chemistry at Stanford Universi give a series of three lectures on the monia system of acid bases and salts," University of Wisconsin, on May 2 and A COURSE of twelve lectures on pe geology and the engineering phases troleum development was delivered March at Harvard University by Frede Clapp. Mr. Clapp also lectured bef Geological Conference in Cambridge, geologist's trip through China." DR. CHARLES A. SHULL, head of the ment of botany of the University c tucky, has received an invitation fr E. J. Russell, director of the Rothams perimental Station at Harpenden, Eng present a paper on "Osmotic Phenom related to soil moisture, before the 1 Society at its next annual meeting at in May. The meeting of the Faraday will be devoted this year to a syn and general discussion on "PhysicoProblems relating to the Soil." The |