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100.00 ican scientific organization (see SCIENCE, N. S., 53: 4, 1921) is active and the work is in progress. (c) The general secretary is making a study of the problem of securing a fuller attendance of members of the council at council meetings.

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The executive committee expressed itself as interested in the work for the advancement of science accomplished through the grants thus far made for research and the permanent secretary was instructed to communicate with the committee on grants and to arrange with that committee for the preparation of a general report on grants for research made by the Association from year to year.

The permanent secretary presented a report on the affairs of the Association, a summary of which will appear in a later issue of SCIENCE.

The general secretary presented a report considering the following items: (a) The supplying of the past publications of the Association to scientific institutions outside of the United States. (b) The committee on Mex

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A campaign for new members, especially among residents of Canada, was authorized, with special reference to preparations for the Toronto meeting. It was recommended that the medical men of the United States be specially invited to join the association.

It was voted that the edition of the new volume of the Summarized Proceedings of the association should include (a) the number of copies ordered and paid for in advance at the time of printing (over 1,600 copies were thus accounted for on April 23) and (b) an extra supply of 500 copies. The permanent secretary was authorized to distribute not over 50 copies gratis, to a selected list of libraries, etc., throughout the world. (The volume, including the Membership List, will appear about June 1. It may be purchased by members of the association for $1.50 if payment be made in advance of the final going to press; the price to non-members is $2.00.) It was voted that the price of the 1921 volume of Summarized Proceedings, including the Membership List, should be $2.00 to members and $2.50 to non-members, after the date of publication.

It was voted that the association would welcome an address, at the Toronto meeting. under the auspices of the Society of Sigma Xi, an affiliated society of the Association. The committee adjourned at 10.05, to meet in New York City early in November.

BURTON E. LIVINGSTON,
Permanent Secretary.

MEDALS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

AT the annual dinner of the Academy held at the Hotel Powhatan on April 26, a surprise was sprung upon the president, Dr. Charles D. Walcott, when Dr. W. H. Welch took the chair and introduced Dr. J. M. Clarke of the State Museum, Albany, New York, who out

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lined the scientific career of Dr. Walcott and announced that the committee had selected him as the first recipient of the Mary Clark Thompson Gold Medal for "eminence in geology and paleontology." Dr. Walcott in responding told how his attention had been attracted as a boy to the trilobites in the rocks near the old swimming hole and how he had pursued the study of these fossils with peculiar interest to the present day, for his paper read before the academy in its session that afternoon dealt with the structure of these trilobites.

In awarding the Agassiz medal President Walcott told of the desire expressed by Sir John Murray, on his visit to this country, to leave a fund to commemorate Alexander Agassiz, which took the form of the Agassiz Gold Medal for "original contributions to the science of oceanography." The medal for 1918 was awarded to His Serene Highness, Albert I., Prince of Monaco, the guest of the evening.

Dr. W. H. Dall of the Smithsonian Institution, described the scientific researches of the Prince of Monaco in the investigation of ocean currents and ocean life, including voyages in his especially equipped yachts from the Azores to the Arctic. The Prince founded at Monaco the Museum of Oceanography; later at Paris the Institute of Oceanography, and last December opened at Paris the Institute for Human Paleontology.

The Prince in reply said he had never expected that the work he had done with such pleasure would lead to the great honor he had now received. This honor, he said, should be shared with the companions who have worked for thirty-five years with him on board ship and in the laboratories. The Prince expressed the high regard which he has always held for the American people and for the political conditions which gave an opportunity for the reward of honest labor not to be matched elsewhere in the world.

President Walcott next announced the award of the Henry Draper medal to Dr. P. Zeeman of Amsterdam, Holland. Dr. C. G. Abbot read a letter from Dr. William W.

Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, explaining the importance of the work of Zeeman in demonstrating the doubling and tripling of the lines of the spectrum in a magnetic field twenty-five years ago. Dr. Abbot pointed out that by the study of the Zeeman effect Dr. George E. Hale, of the Mount Wilson Observatory, had been enabled to map the magnetic field of the sun spots and to show that the sun itself is a magnet. This led to the discoveries in spectroscopy announced by Dr. Hale at the present session of the Academy.

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In the absence of Professor Zeeman the medal was received in his behalf by the Secretary of the Legation of the Netherlands.

Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, gave a sketch of the life and work of Dr. Robert Ridgway to whom was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Gold Medal for his studies in

American Ornithology. Dr. Ridgway was born in Cromwell, Illinois, and at the age of fourteen discovered his first new bird. This brought him to the attention of Professor Baird. At seventeen he became a member of the Clarence King Survey of the west. Ridgway's "Birds of Northern and Middle America" is the most exhaustive and complete treatise on birds of any region in the world. A letter was read from Dr. Ridgway in which he paid high tribute to Daniel Giraud Elliot as his inspiration and example.

The Alexander Agassiz gold medal for 1920 was awarded to Rear Admiral C. G. Sigsbee, U.S.N., retired, who was assigned to hydrographic work in 1874 and carried out on the Blake a remarkable series of explorations in the Gulf of Mexico on new methods of deep sea sounding and temperature reading. Admiral Sigsbee not being present, the medal was received in his behalf by Rear Admiral Taylor, who read a letter from Admiral Sigsbee telling of the time when Professor Agassiz was on board the Blake.

The gold medal for eminence in the application of science to the public welfare was awarded to Dr. C. W. Stiles. Dr. Welch sketched the life of Dr. Stiles and described his achievements in the field of medical zool

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ogy. His greatest achievement was in recognizing the importance of the hookworm disease and in carrying out with the aid of the Rockefeller fund wholesale measures for its suppression. Dr. Stiles discovered the American variety of hookworm and made a complete survey of the south. At a result of this work the most severe cases of the disease have been eliminated from this country.

Dr. Stiles in receiving the medal told of the contempt that in his early days was cast upon those who attempted to make utilitarian applications of a science like zoology. But in spite of this attitude of hostility toward applied zoology he decided in 1891 to enter the field. Since then zoology has been of service to public health in many ways and there are great opportunities for the future. For instance typhoid fever is now so well understood that it could be completely eradicated by sufficient effort. Dr. Stiles stated he received the medal not so much as an individual but rather as a representative of the Public Health Service.

Dr. Albert Einstein of Berlin was called upon at the close of the session and replied very briefly in German, saying that he would not then speak, but would try to learn English before his next visit to Washington.

SCIENCE SERVICE

E. E. SLOSSON

THIRD AWARD OF THE DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT MEDAL

THE third award of the Daniel Giraud Elliot gold medal, namely, for the year 1919, together with the honorarium, was voted to Robert Ridgway in recognition of the eighth volume of "The Birds of Middle and North America," which appeared in the year 1919. The two previous awards of this medal were to Frank M. Chapman for his "Distribution of Bird-Life in Colombia," which appeared in 1917, and to William Beebe for the first volume of his "Monograph of the Pheasants," which appeared in 1918. Thus for the third time an American ornithologist secures this medal, an award which is open to the zoologists and paleontologists of the world.

In his address as chairman of the Elliot

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Medal Committee Professor Osborn spoke as follows:

In undertaking this great work Ridgway was not only placing the crown on his labors of a third of a century, but was giving expression to a plan made by Baird a half century before. Ridgway was therefore doubly inspired when, in 1901, he undertook the stupendous task of preparing a ten-volume treatise on all the birds of the western hemisphere north of South America. With unremitting zeal, and always maintaining the standard of thoroughness and accuracy set by the first volume of the series, he continued his labors until eight volumes have appeared, the last in 1919. Each volume contains about 850 pages, or a total of 6,800 pages in all. Nearly 900 genera are defined and over 3,000 species and subspecies described.

While giving expression to his exceptional powers of analysis and description trained by years of experience and observation, Ridgway has produced a work which in method, comprehensiveness, and accuracy, as well as in volume, has never been surpassed in the annals of ornithology. It is interesting to add that, like the poet, the ornithologist is born, not made. Remote from museums, libraries, and naturalists, Robert Ridgway was born at Mt. Carmel, Illinois, July 2, 1850. At the age of fourteen we find him trying to identify local birds with the aid of Goldsmith's "Animated Nature" and Goodrich's "Natural

History."' His first touch with Washington as the great center of ornithological research came through a letter enclosing a colored drawing of the Purple Finch, to which the young ornithologist gave the name "Roseate Grosbeak" (Loxia rosea). This letter found its way to the sympathetic hands of Assistant Secretary Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian Institution. In Baird Ridgway found a preceptor and friend eminently qualified to guide his special talents. Baird found in Ridgway a pupil who in due time became his worthy successor; and cordial relations then established have continued to bear fruit during the succeeding fifty-seven years.

At the early age of seventeen, that is, in 1867, Ridgway was appointed zoologist of the United States Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel, under Clarence King. Remaining in the employ of the government, he became, in 1880, curator of the Division of Birds in the United States National

Museum, a position he still occupies. He was a founder of the American Ornithologists' Union and from 1898 served as its president. A retiring

disposition and close application to his studies have prevented him from taking a prominent part in the activities of natural history organizations, and thereby he has gained time for research which has placed to his credit a greater number of works than has been produced by any other ornithologist. With Baird and Brewer he collaborated in the production of a five-volume quarto on the "Birds of North America."' This was followed by his standard "Manual of North American Birds,'' "Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists,' ," "Birds of Illinois," and "Color Standards and Color Nomenclature," a work generally accepted by naturalists throughout the world. Meanwhile he had published also some five hundred papers of varying length, and it was not until 1901 that the way was prepared for his magnum opus, "The Birds of Middle and North America,'' the eighth volume of which has won for him the award of the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal by the National Academy of Sciences.

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According to the deed of gift, the award of the Elliot Medal is made "to the author of such paper, essay or other work upon some branch of zoology or paleontology published during the year as in the opinion of the persons, or a majority of the persons, hereinafter appointed to be the judges in that regard, shall be the most meritorious and worthy of honor. ... As science is not national the medal and diploma and surplus income may be conferred upon naturalists of any country, and as men eminent in their respective lines of scientific research will act as judges, . . . no person acting as such judge shall be deemed on that account ineligible to receive this annual gift, and the medal, diploma and surplus income may in any year be awarded to any one of the judges, if, in the opinion of his associates, he shall, by reason of the excellence of any treatise published by him during the year, be entitled to receive them." Nominations on the work of the year 1920 in zoology and palæontology should be addressed to the Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., by whom they will be forwarded to the committee on award.

HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK CITY, May 4, 1921

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

THE United Engineering Societies have issued a statement in regard to the situation in the United States Patent Office, calling attention to the fact that wholesale resignations are crippling the service to the point of disorganization and are creating conditions that threaten American industrial enterprise and invention. The council, through its Patents Committee, of which Edwin J. Prindle, of New York City, is chairman, reports that the situation has become almost intolerable and quotes the new commissioner of patents, Thomas E. Robertson, as saying that remedial legislation at the present session of Congress is necessary if results approaching disruption are to be prevented.

The council appeals for support of pending patent legislation, which provides sufficient increases in salaries to check the exodus of employees from the Patent Office to private employment. In a little over one year, 110 members of the force of examiners, numbering 437, have resigned. During the first three weeks of the Harding administration six highly trained experts left the service to accept salaries two or three times as great elsewhere. In the past year 142 of the 560 clerical workers have resigned. There are thirty clerks in the Patent office who receive only $60 a month who would get $1,100 a year under the new salary bill.

Commissioner Robertson is quoted as stating that the Patent Office runs one of the largest ten-cent stores in the world. The enterprise has as its stock about 75,000,000 copies of about 1,500,000 patents, and new patents at the rate of from 600 to 1,000 a week add 50,000 more copies to be taken care of each week. Many patent copies are sold for a dime apiece during the year. There is a stenographic department handling legal work that turned out 13,000,000 words in the past year and brought in $62,000

revenue.

It is the opinion of the engineering, research and manufacturing associations of the United States that the scientific and industrial interests of the country are being jeopardized by

Patent Office conditions. The National Research Council, the American Chemical Society and the National Association of Manufacturers are among the organizations advocating Patent Office relief.

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

BECAUSE of their important service "for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge" the following members of the National Geographic Society have been awarded life memberships, under the provisions of the Jane M. Smith Fund:

R. G. McConnell, of Ottawa, Canada, for his distinguished service to geography in Canadian exploration.

Frank M. Chapman, of New York City, for his researches in ornithology with special reference to the geographic distribution of animal life.

Herbert E. Gregory, of New Haven, Connecticut, for his important original contributions to geographic science.

Donald B. MacMillan, of Freeport, Maine, for his additions to geographic knowledge through Arctic exploration.

J. B. Tyrrell, of Toronto, Canada, for his journeys and reports of exploration and discovery in the wilderness of northwestern Canada.

The National Geographic Society will begin explorations and studies this summer of the Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo del Arroyo ruins in the Chaco Canyon of Northwestern New Mexico. It was decided to study these ruins following a report to Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the society, and its research committee, headed by Frederick V. Coville, by a reconoissance party which visited the Canyon last summer (1920). The expedition will be led by Neil M. Judd, who has been a member of many expeditions to the American Southwest. The populous habitation of the Canyon in pre-Columbian times presents numerous geographical problems involving the relation. of a specialized environment to a people whose traces indicate numerous special characteristics. Not only will the architecture and ceramic remains be studied, but experts in desert flora and geology will accompany the expedition. It is yet to be determined whether the climate conditions have changed or whe

ther the canyon agriculturists had an irrigation system for their crops of beans, corn and squash.

EXCHANGE OF PROFESSORS OF ENGINEERING BETWEEN AMERICAN AND FRENCH UNIVERSITIES

ence.

THERE has been for some time a regular annual exchange of professors between individual universities in France and America in regular academic fields, such as literature, history, law, fine arts, economics, etc., but no such exchange in engineering or applied sciThese subjects are taught in France under special faculties, not included in existing exchanges with America. Furthermore, the French methods of teaching these subjects are unlike our American methods, for various reasons, based on the history, traditions and sociology of the two countries. The war showed the importance of engineering in production and distribution, and the many ties of friendship which bind us to France depend in various ways, upon applied science. It should therefore, be to the mutual advantage of France and America to become better acquainted with each other's ideals and viewpoints, in the study and in the teaching of these subjects.

With these purposes in mind, the late Dr. R. C. Maclaurin, in 1919, as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, consulted the presidents of six universities on or near the Atlantic seaboard, as to whether they deemed it desirable to cooperate in a joint exchange of professors with France, on a plan definitely outlined. Their replies being favorable to the project, a committee was appointed, with one member from each of the seven institutions, to report on the plan, and on methods of carrying it into effect. The committee met in December, 1919, and ratified the cooperative plan with some few modifications. The present president of the committee is Director Russell H. Chittenden, of Yale University, and its secretary Dean J. B. Whitehead of the Johns Hopkins University.

Since the Institute of International Education, in New York, concerns itself with the interchange of college students and teachers

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