any problem without a great deal of inventiveness. Where necessary to indicate species an initial following the symbol does very well. Using these symbols the species of bearing trees at each section corner can be transcribed onto a sheet of cross section paper with one centimeter or quarter inch squares. Where correspondence between original and modern surveys is sufficiently close it is sometimes convenient to transcribe directly upon a county road map or topographic sheet, as this gives a ready guide for field checking. With an assistant reading locations and species it was found that an average county in Ohio could be transcribed in from thirty to fortyfive minutes, while one man working alone could do the job in one or two hours. If, for publication or other reasons, a map in colors is desired, distinctive colors can be assigned to each series, and the various shades of these colors to the important species of the respective series. The symbols may then be transcribed by means of properly colored dots upon two millimeter cross section paper. Finally and most important, it has been amply demonstrated that this network of specimen trees at one mile intervals affords a workable map of native vegetation, even within an area twenty miles square. One concrete instance of the usefulness of such a map within the Erie Basin of Ohio may be cited. The climax forest of glaciated Ohio is beech-maple, but there are considerable areas whose native vegetation is oak-hickory and also prairie. The map in question revealed with great promptness a correlation whose significance the reader may judge for himself; the beech-maple covers what was upland during the recession of the postglacial lake, the oak-hickory coincides with the great shallow bays formed at various stages of recession, and prairie (with occasional bog centers) marks clearly the deeper baymouths. These facts of course become especially illuminating when taken in connection with the events of to-day, patent in and about Sandusky and Maumee bays. II While stationed at Dorr Field, Arcadia, Florida, in 1918, the writer had excellent opportunity to test the utility of the airplane as an aid in vegetation reconnaissance and mapping. It goes without saying that experience of this sort came as a by-product of other duties which fairly filled the time. There are two basic facts to emphasize in connection with airplane reconnaissance-first, the tremendous increase in perspective made possible, and second, the fact that each type of vegetation preserves its distinctive shade of color, and often a distinctive texture, so long as it remains visible. Granted that vegetation types are distinctive in shade and texture from considerable. altitudes, one has only to examine mosaic airplane maps made with one of the excellent automatic cameras now available to realize that this method can be just as useful for mapping vegetation as for locating gunpits or analyzing topography. Because of the cost it is not likely that extensive photographic maps will often be undertaken by individuals, but pressure from individuals may be highly instrumental in getting organized agencies to undertake methodical mapping of this kind while native vegetation still remains. For reconnaissance mapping, however, the airplane should be of great service to the individual. The ecologist who is engaged in studying a given region ought to pause to balance the time he will spend in planning and later in piecing together isolated field studies to get their broad interpretation against the expense involved in taking two thirty-minute flights over the region. A minimum of two flights has been suggested because the first would permit intelligent planning of field studies while the second, taken at the conclusion of these studies, would permit their proper synthesis and criticism. Since expense is not the only objection that is likely to arise, it may not be amiss to mention that straight flying is uniformly a delightful experience and that notetaking or even map sketching can be performed with ease inside of the cockpit. The first flight in the Dorr Field region suggested clearly the essential relations between pine flatwoods, palmetto scrub, and prairie. These relations would have developed very slowly from field studies alone, as the forms of various areas were often misleading when viewed from ground level, and significant differences of contour were matters of inches rather than feet. From the air it seemed obvious that a key to the situation lay in the rainy season water levels. The prairies were observed to form a continuous system-the pathway of broad, shallow rainy season drainage lines-the palmetto scrub formed a fringing zone that might be occasionally flooded, while the pine flatwoods marked the true uplands. The truth of these first suggestions was conclusively fixed by subsequent field work and flights in both rainy and dry seasons. Incidentally, combined ground and aerial studies forced serious doubt of the true climax nature of the pine flatwoods, which seemed in a number of places to be suffering invasion by mesophytic dicotyl forest. It was a matter of some interest to learn later that this inference was borne out by unpublished data of two other botanists working on different parts of the peninsula. UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PAUL B. SEARS SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF PLANKTON INVESTIGATIONS THE following notice has just been received from Professor L. Joubin (Institut Océanographique, 195 Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris) the secretary of the subsection of biological oceanography of the International Union of Biological Sciences, International Research Council. An international meeting of the delegates of the national sections was held at Paris on January 27, 1921, under the presidency of the Prince of Monaco. At this meeting it was agreed that the study of plankton is not progressing as well as might be desired, because the methods of investigation vary and therefore can not give comparable results. There is need for standardizing the fundamentals of these methods by means of the preparation of a manual which will systematize them while at the same time leaving to each investigator a free hand to perfect and to complete them. These improvements would be taken into consideration in future editions. A circular will be sent to all naturalists (zoologists, botanists, physiologists and chemists) and institutions interested and they will be requested to have it reprinted in the scientific journals and distributed among those interested in oceanography, as well as to solicit opinions, advice, criticism, and observations of any kind. A committee was named to prepare the manual and to bring the plan before the meeting of the subsection of biological oceanography in December, 1921. Specialists who desire to participate in the commission for plankton studies are requested so to inform the secretary. It is requested that all replies, printed matter, data concerning capture, instruments, fabrics, nets, reagents, preservation, and technical methods of all kinds be addressed to the secretary. AUSTIN H. CLARK MADAME CURIE'S VISIT TO AMERICA (From a Correspondent) MADAME MARIE CURIE, of Paris, the student of radium, will visit this country in May as a guest of the women of America. She will bring with her her two daughters, the elder of whom is also a scientist. Madame Curie, internationally known for her studies on radium and its application as a remedial agent for cancer, is one of three unusually gifted daughters of a Polish educator. One of her sisters is principal of an important young women's school in Warsaw and the other is director of a large sanatorium in the Galician mountains. Madame Curie went to Paris from Warsaw as a young woman to study in the Sorbonne, and while in Paris married the brilliant physicist and student of radium, Professor Pierre Curie, who met a tragic death by accident in a Paris street in 1906. She is now a teacher in the Sorbonne and an investigator in the Curie Radium Institute, to the support of which she has devoted the money received by her from the Nobel Prize award, as also the money received from other awards. While in America Madame Curie will be given honorary degrees by several American universities and a medal by a leading scientific society. In addition a group of women in New York and Washington are trying to raise funds sufficient to purchase and present to her, as a gift from the women of America, a gram of radium for use in her experimental work in the Curie Radium Institute. When asked recently in Paris: "What would you most prefer to have in the world?" Madame Curie promptly replied "A gram of radium under my own control." She has never possessed such an amount of radium for her independent use, nor can she ever afford from her own means to buy it. She lives on the modest stipend received by her for her teaching and research work in the Sorbonne and does not care for more money except to put it into the equipment and support of her laboratory. If the beautiful idea of making to Madame Curie, on the occasion of her visit here, the gift of a gram of radium in recognition of her achievements in the interests of science and humanity, can be realized, it will be the most fitting and appreciated tribute that can be paid her. The radium will cost about $100,000 and contributions, even small sums, are earnestly solicited. If sent to Mrs. Vernon Kellogg, 1701 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C., they will be receipted and properly accounted for. THE ROCHESTER MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY THE spring meeting of the American Chemical Society will be held with the Rochester Section, Tuesday, April 26, to Friday, April 29, inclusive. A large and successful meeting is assured as many thousand members of the society are within a night's journey of Rochester and reduced railroad rates have been secured. A rate of one and one half fare for the round trip journey under the certificate plan has been granted. This is good from all parts of the United States, except New England, and west of Utah, the New England and Transcontinental Association having declined to give rates. The Rochester hotel is the headquarters. The preliminary program is as follows: Monday, April 25 4.00 P.M.-Council meeting, Rochester Club. 6.30 P.M.-Dinner to the council at the Rochester Club. Tuesday, April 26 10.00 A.M.-General meeting, Chamber of Com merce. Address of welcome, Hiram Edgerton, and W. Roy McCanne, president of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. Response, Edgar F. Smith, president of the American Chemical Society. General addresses, by Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., and Congressman Nicholas Longworth. 2.00 P.M.-General meeting, Convention Hall. Papers, by E. C. Franklin, C. E. K. Mees and others. 6.30 P.M.-College and Fraternity dinners. Wednesday, April 27 9.00 A.M.-Divisional meetings, Mechanics Institute. 1.30 P.M.-Divisional meetings, Mechanics Institute. 8.00 P.M.-Public address, speaker to be an nounced. Thursday, April 28 9.00 A.M.-Divisional meetings, Mechanics Institute. Sigma Xi Luncheon-Hotel Rochester. 2.00 P.M.-Divisional meetings, Mechanics Institute. 3.00 P.M.-Meeting of chairman and secretaries of local sections. 7.00 P.M.-Good-Fellowship meeting, Bausch and Lomb's Dining Hall. Friday, April 29 8.30 A.M.-Excursions. The following are the addresses of the divisional and sectional secretaries. Divisions: Agricultural and Food Chemistry: T. J. Bryan, 4100 Filmore Street, Chicago, Ill. Biological Chemistry: H. B. Lewis, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. Dye Chemistry: R. Norris Shreve, 43 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: H. E. Howe, 1701 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Organic Chemistry: H. T. Clarke, Kodak Park, Chemistry of Medicinal Products: Edgar B. Carter, 2615 Ashland Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind. Physical and Inorganic Chemistry: S. E. Shep- Sections: Sugar Chemistry: Frederick J. Bates, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. Cellulose Chemistry: G. J. Esselen, Jr., 248 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. Petroleum Chemistry: W. A. Gruse, Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa. The final program will be sent about April 20 to the secretaries of sections, to the council, to members of the Rochester Section, and to all members making special request. CHARLES L. PARSONS, Secretary THE HERTER LECTURESHIP IN November, 1902, Dr. and Mrs. Christian A. Herter, of New York, gave to the Johns Hopkins University the sum of $25,000 "for the formation of a memorial lectureship designed to promote a more intimate knowledge of the researches of foreign investigators in the realm of medical science." According to the terms of the gift, some eminent worker in physiology or pathology is to be asked each year to deliver a lecture at the Johns Hopkins University upon a subject with which he has been identified. The selection of the lecturer is made by a committee representing the departments of pathology, physiological chemistry, and clinical medicine, and if "in the judgment of the committee it should ultimately appear desirable to open the proposed lectureship to leaders in medical research in this country there should be no bar to so doing." The committee consists of Drs. MacCallum, Abel and Thayer. The trustees of the Johns Hopkins University announce that the twelfth course of lectures on this foundation will be given by Dr. Frederick Gowland Hopkins, F.R.S., professor of bio-chemistry and director of the bio-chemical laboratory, Cambridge University. The lectures will be given in the Johns Hopkins Hospital, at 4.30 P.M. on April 12, 13 and 14, the subjects being: (1) "Oxidation and reduction mechanisms in living tissues," (2) The function of oxygen in muscular activity," and (3) "The outlook in nutritional studies: an appraisement." 66 SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. ALBERT EINSTEIN, of the University of Berlin, arrived in the United States on April 2, coming in order to advance the Zionist movement, and the establishment of a University at Jerusalem. Dr. Einstein was accompanied by three other delegates, including Professor Charles Weizmann, who was head of the British Admiralty Chemical Laboratories during the war. There will be a Zionist meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House on April 10. Dr. Einstein's arrival was unexpected and no announcements have been made of scientific lectures. THE Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts was presented on March 14 to Professor Albert Michelson, for his discovery of a natural constant which has provided a basis for a standard of length. The award was made last year, but the actual presentation was deferred until Professor Michelson could go to England to receive it. DAVID CHARLES DAVIES has been appointed director of the Field Museum, Chicago, to succeed Dr. Frederick Skiff. Mr. Davies has been connected with the museum for twentyseven years, and, as assistant to Dr. Skiff, superintended the moving of the museum exhibits from the building in Jackson Park to the new quarters in Grant Park. The museum will be opened to the public on May 3. PRESIDENT HARDING has reappointed Colonel E. Lester Jones to continue as head of the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the appointment has been confirmed by the senate. MR. THOMAS ROBERTSON, of the patent law firm of Robertson & Johnson, Washington, has been appointed commissioner of patents. SURGEON JOHN D. LONG, who for the last two years has been supervisor of the U. S. Public Health Service in San Francisco, has been transferred to the office of Surgeon-General, in Washington. A DINNER of congratulation to Professor Sherrington on his election to the presidency of the Royal Society was given by the Physiological Society on March 11, at the Café Royal, London. Professor Sir E. SharpeySchafer proposed the toast of the guest and Professor Sherrington replied. IN recognition of the knighthood conferred upon him by the king, Sir Dawson Williams, editor of the British Medical Journal, was entertained by the council of the British Medcal Association at a complimentary luncheon on February 16. PROFESSOR DOUGLAS JOHNSON, of Columbia University, has been awarded the Janssen Medal by the Geographical Society of Paris, for his recent work on "Shore processes and shoreline development." This medal was founded in 1896 by the astronomer, J. Janssen, to encourage precision in the making of scientific observations, and is awarded each year to the author or explorer who shall have made the largest number of consistent scientific observations." DR. REID HUNT, professor of pharmacology in the Harvard Medical School, has been appointed by the Surgeon-General of the United States Public Health Service, a member of the advisory board of the Hygienic Laboratory to succeed the late Dr. W. T. Sedgwick. THE thirty-seventh session of the American Association of Anatomists was held at The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia, on March 24, 25 and 26. Dr. S. Walter Ranson, Northwestern University, and Dr. Robert J. Terry, Washington University, were elected members of the executive committee. The editorial boards of the two anatomical journals were reorganized. Dr. Charles R. Stockard, of Cornell University, was selected as managing editor of The American Journal of Anatomy, and Dr. John Lewis Bremer, of Harvard University, was made managing editor of The Anatomical Record. A CONFERENCE was held on March 25, of physicians summoned by Brigadier-General Charles E. Sawyer, President Harding's personal physician, to discuss with the president proposed plans for reorganization. Those attending the meeting were Surgeon-General Cumming, U. S. P. H. S.; Surgeon-General M. W. Ireland, of the Army; Surgeon-General E. R. Stitt, of the Navy; Dr. Charles H. Mayo, Rochester, Minn.; Dr. Edward Martin, Pennsylvania commissioner of health, and Dr. William F. Snow, New York, American Social Hygiene Association. General Sawyer said the discussion was a preliminary one to action for uniting government health units. An advisory council was formed, consisting of the Surgeon-Generals of the Army, Navy and Public Health Service and Dr. Mayo. Two other members will be added to the council, one an educator and the other a woman engaged in public welfare work. THE joint committee of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club have now completed the appointments to the reconnaissance of Mount Everest. The expedition is constituted as follows: Chief of the expedition: Colonel Howard Bury; mountaineers: Mr. Harold Raeburn (leader), Dr. A. M. Kellas, Mr. G. L. Mallory, Mr. George Finch; medical officer and naturalist: Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston. The surveyor-general of India telegraphs that, subject to the consent of the |