from short rods in line with the plane of vibration, while the extremely small diameter of the rods would not sufficiently intercept the light vibrating in a plane transverse to their length. It is expected to continue the investigation with artificial light and other varied conditions, followed by a later account. ELIHU THOMSON THOMSON LABORATORY OF GENERAL ELECTRIC EDWARD BENNETT ROSA DR. EDWARD B. Rosa, chief physicist of the Bureau of Standards, at Washington, died suddenly at his desk on Tuesday afternoon, May 17, 1921. Dr. Rosa was at the time the chief of Division I. of the Bureau of Standards, the functions of which include research, standardization and testing in the fields of electricity, magnetism, photometry, radio communication, radium, X-ray, and public utilities. Dr. Rosa was appointed physicist in the Bureau in 1901. In 1910 he was given the grade of chief physicist. Dr. Rosa's painstaking accuracy in scientific research is well known among specialists in the fields in which he worked. His investigations have been published in 36 scientific publications of the bureau and 4 technologic papers, not to speak of a large number of special reports, circulars, and articles in technical journals. Among the researches of unusual interest may be mentioned the precise determination of the value of the coulomb, the value of the ampère, and of the ratio between the electrostatic and the electromagnetic units of electricity. His other laboratory researches included a wide range of problems chiefly connected with the improvement of the standards and methods used in precise electrical measure ments. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of Dr. Rosa's thoroughness and success in securing the cooperation of the technical groups interested may be found in the development and publication of the National Electrical Safety Code, the revised form of which has just recently appeared as a "Handbook" issued by the Bureau of Standards. In his work as administrator he successfully organized the work of electrical testing, photometry, radium testing, and research and standardization work involved in radio communication. Dr. Rosa showed a deep interest in all phases of the bureau's development, and will be remembered with profound respect and admiration by his colleagues. His work will endure as a permanent foundation for the branches of physics and electrical engineering to which he devoted so many useful years of his life. S. W. STRATTON DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE HARPSWELL LABORATORY THE Harpswell Laboratory was founded at South Harpswell, Maine, in 1898, as a summer school of biology by Dr. J. S. Kingsley, then professor of biology in Tufts College, Massachusetts. In 1913 it was reorganized as a scientific corporation under the laws of the state of Maine, with a board of ten trustees. Up to 1920, ninety-two scientists have worked in its laboratory at South Harpswell and over one hundred and ten papers have been published, as a result of this work, in American and foreign journals of biology. In the spring of 1921 the Harpswell Laboratory became a member of "The Wild Gardens of Acadia" Corporation, and this corporation alloted to the Harpswell Laboratory a tract of land of abundant acreage for its purposes and further growth at Salisbury Cove, Maine, on Mount Desert Island, with shore frontage and favorable life conditions, upon which the Harpswell Laboratory has established its Weir Mitchell Station. In its new site the laboratory is in close contact with the wild life sanctuary of Lafayette National Park, created recently on Mount Desert Island by the United States through the efforts of a group of its summer residents. This is the only National Park in the eastern portion of the Continent and the only one in the country in direct contact with the sea. This secures a permanent and rich area for biological study in every field, vertebrate and invertebrate. Salisbury Cove is an old fishing and farming hamlet on the north shore of Mount Desert Island about five miles from the town of Bar Harbor and on the county road from it to the town of Ellsworth on the mainland, where there is a railroad station and junction. The village of Salisbury Cove is a market gardening and farming community of quiet and simple kind, but Bar Harbor has good stores of every sort, an excellent hospital, express, telegraph, cable facilities, good train service. The class in zoology will be conducted by the acting director, Professor Ulric Dahlgren, of Princeton University, and two assistants, for six weeks, from July 6 to August 17, in which types of the principal groups of the animal kingdom will be studied as to their habits, structures and classification, together with a number of the more important subjects of general biology. Independent research workers may obtain rooms that can be occupied from June 25 to September 15. PRESENTATION TO DR. FREDERICK BELDING POWER DR. FREDERICK BELDING POWER, chemist in charge of the phytochemical laboratory, Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, was presented with a gold medal by Mr. Henry S. Wellcome, of London, before a gathering of distinguished guests, in the auditorium of the Cosmos Club, on the afternoon of May 9. The medal was given in recognition of Dr. Power's distinguished services to science during eighteen and one half years as director of the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories of London. Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, presented the medal to Dr. Power on behalf of Mr. Wellcome, who although present was suffering from a severe throat affection. In his address Dr. Walcott spoke briefly of the life and discoveries of Dr. Power: We have gathered here this afternoon to do honor to Dr. Frederick Belding Power, who for fifty years has spent his thinking hours among the complicated molecules of organic compounds; who, because he possesses that peculiar faculty of exhausting each subject which he takes up, has had the greatest influence both in America and Great Britain in raising the standards of our pharmacopoeias; who has gained distinction by his most difficult and life-consuming researches into the chemical composition of plant compounds. Dr. Power graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1874, in the same class with his life-long friend, Mr. Wellcome, who urged him to pursue his studies in Germany. He spent the years from 1876 to 1880 in Strassburg, becoming the assistant of Flueckiger, one of the greatest pharmacologists of Europe. Returning to America, he spent nine years in the organizing and building up of the department and school of pharmacy in the University of Wisconsin, four years in researches on essential oils in a newly organized chemical works near New York, and in 1896 Mr. Wellcome appointed him director of his chemical research laboratories in London. For eighteen and one half years he devoted his time exclusively to chemical research and the direction of a staff of research workers under him. One hundred and fifty important memoirs were published from the laboratories during this period. These covered a wide field of investigation, for which material was obtained from all parts of the world. Among these a very notable and complete study was made of the East Indian chaulmoogra oil, which resulted in the discovery of some physiologically active acids of an entirely new type. These form the basis of the new treatment of leprosy which gives promise of affecting a complete cure of one of the most terrible diseases of mankind. During these years in London, Dr. Power had the opportunity of meeting and forming the close friendship of the foremost scientific men of Great Britain. The recognition of his work by the leading chemists and other scientists of Europe would be perhaps exemplified in the high tribute paid to him by the late Lord Moulton, one of the most learned and versatile men in Europe, who was entrusted by Kitchener with the task of producing the high explosives for the war. Shortly before his death he chided Mr. Wellcome for permitting Dr. Power (who for family reasons had returned to America) to leave Great Britain, for, as he remarked, "there was no one in Europe who could fill his place." Dr. Walcott then formally presented the medal to Dr. Power, who expressed his appreciation of the honor bestowed upon him and his gratitude to Mr. Wellcome, saying: I can assure you that this memento will always be regarded by me as one of my most precious possessions. As I stand here there come to me many happy recollections of the friendship that has continued for nearly half a century. It was twenty-five years ago when I left America to take charge of the laboratories. There is one thought that is dominant in my mind, however, and that is an expression of gratitude to Mr. Wellcome. I am grateful for his encouragement and inspiration, but above all for having possessed for so many years so kind and true a friend. MEDALLION OF THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES A MEDALLION with which the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters commemorates its recent semi-centennial has been completed by Leonard Crunelle, Chicago sculptor, and is described in an article written by President E. A. Birge, of the university, for the forthcoming Transactions of the Academy. The medallion bears the portraits of six distinguished members of the academy. Its obverse bears the figure of Minerva tending the lamp of learning and a motto from Lucretius, "Naturæ species ratioque." The reverse carries the inscription, "The Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, 18701920," and the portraits of the following six members: William Francis Allen, hsitorian, professor of Latin and history at the university, 1867-1889, a great teacher and scholar; president of the academy from 1887 to 1889. Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, geologist, professor at Beloit College 1873-1882, director of the Wisconsin Geological Survey, 1876-1882, in charge glacial division of U. S. Survey, 18821887, president of the University of Wisconsin 1887-1892, head of the department of geology in University of Chicago, 1892-1919, now professor emeritus, Chicago; president of the academy, 1884-1887. Philo Romayne Hoy, physician, naturalist, prac tising in Racine from 1846 to his death, ardent student of bird life and the biology of Lake Michigan; president of the academy, 1875-1878. Roland Duer Irving, geologist, professor in the university from 1870 until his death in 1888, important member of the Wisconsin and U. S. Geological surveys and a leading authority on the geology of the Lake Superior region, 1873-1888; president of the academy, 1881-1884. Increase Allen Lapham, naturalist and geologist, resident of Milwaukee 1836-1875; collector and cataloguer of plants and fossils; state geologist, 1873-1875; charter member of the academy and its secretary from its organization until his death in 1875. George Williams Peckham, zoologist, teacher, high school principal and superintendent of schools in Milwaukee, 1873-1896, head of Milwaukee public library, 1896-1914; authority on habits and classification of insects; president of the academy, 1890-1893. The medallion was made possible by a fund of $1,200 for designing it and making the dies. This was donated by the following friends: A. J. Horlick, Racine; F. A. Logan, Chicago; F. P. Hixson, La Crosse; Mrs. C. W. Norris, Milwaukee; and E. A. Birge, T. E. Brittingham, C. K. Leith, M. S. Slaughter, and C. S. Slichter, all of Madison. Other friends have contributed to a fund by which copies of the medallion will be distributed. The six members were chosen partly for their intellectual eminence for their services to the academy, and in part for the periods in which their lives and activities fall. Three of them, Chamberlin, Hoy, and Lapham, were charter members. Each of the six served as president, except Lapham, who was secretary from its beginning until his death in 1875. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS ON Mme. Curie's return from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park, the Wolcott Gibbs medal was conferred on her by the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society, and she was entertained by the University of Chicago and by the associated women's organizations. After a visit to Niagara Falls she proceeded to Boston, where among other functions a dinner was given in her honor by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Mme. Curie planned to visit New Haven this week to be present at the installaation of President Angell on June 22. She expected to sail with her daughters for France on June 25. DR. CARL L. ALSBERG, having resigned as chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, to accept a position as one of the three directors of the Food Research Institute established at Stanford University by the Carnegie Corporation, the bureau chiefs of the department gave him a farewell dinner at the Cosmos Club June 17. Dr. L. O. Howard acted as toastmaster and Assistant Secretary Ball spoke informally and Dr. Alsberg replied. on AT the annual commencement of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute on June 10, the class of 1871 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its graduation, and H. P. Armsby of that class received the honorary degree of doctor of science, this being the first honorary degree ever conferred by the institute. THE degree of doctor of science was conferred on Dr. Edward Kenneth Mees, research chemist of the Eastman laboratory, at the seventy-first commencement of the University of Rochetser. INDIANA UNIVERSITY has conferred the degree of LL.D. on W. S. Blatchley, formerly state geologist of Indiana. FRANKLIN COLLEGE at its commencement on June 8 conferred the honorary degree of doctor of humane letters on Dr. Albert Perry Brigham, professor of geology in Colgate University. MISS ANNIE J. CANNON, of the Harvard College Observatory, has received from Groningen University in Holland an honorary doctor's degree in mathematics and astronomy, in acknowledgment of her work in the study of stellar spectra. Ar the anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society of London on May 24 its Linnean gold medal was presented to Dr. Dukinfield H. Scott, for his services to recent and fossil botany. PROFESSOR DWIGHT PORTER, since 1883 a member of the civil engineering department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and for twenty-five years professor of hydraulic engineering, has retired. We learn from Nature that Dr. W. T. Calman, who has been in charge of the Crustacea at the Natural History Museum since 1904, the author of "The Life of Crustacea" and of numerous articles on this group, has been appointed deputy keeper in the department of zoology. A NUMBER of changes have recently been made in the scientific staff of the Australian Museum, Sydney. Dr. C. Anderson, who has been mineralogist since 1901, succeeds the late R. Etheridge, Jr., as director. Mr. A. Musgrave fills the vacancy caused by the death of W. J. Rainbow, entomologist, and Messrs. J. R. Kinghorn and E. le G. Troughton, secondclass assistants, have been promoted to be first-class assistants in charge of reptiles, birds and amphibians, and mammals and skeletons, respectively. DEAN ALBERT R. MANN, of the New York State Agricultural College at Cornell University, has declined the position of head of the New York State Agricultural Department. Reference was made in SCIENCE to candidates" for this position. The word was not intended to imply that the position was being sought by the scientific men in question, but that their qualifications were such as to have led to the consideration of their appointment. DR. T. MITCHELL PRUDDEN has been elected a member of the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Anthony J. Lanza, of Cleveland, has been appointed by the board to inaugurate a department of industrial hygiene in the new ministry of health in Australia. PROFESSOR GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY has leave of absence from Yale University for the academic year 1921-22. With Mrs. MacCurdy he sailed for Europe on June 18 to become the first director of the American School in France for Prehistoric Studies. The school is scheduled to open at the rock shelter of La Quina near Villebois-Lavalette (Charente) on July 1. DR. HUGH H. YOUNG, director of the James Buchanan Brady Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital, will sail, June 25, for Europe. He will go first to Paris to attend a medical meeting and later to London, returning to the United States in August. THE Oxford University expedition to Spitzbergen is not only biological, as was stated in a note of our issue of May 13, nor mainly ornithological. It will include three zoologists, three ornithologists, a botanist, a geologist, a glaciologist, a geographer, a mineralogist, and a meteorologist, who, together with Dr. T. G. Longstaff will constitute an inland sledging party to explore and map an untouched area of New Friesland. Mr. Seton Gordon is accompanying the expedition as photographer. Mr. Julian S. Huxley is organizing the scientific work apart from the ornithology, which is under the direction of the Rev. Francis C. R. Jourdain. A CONFERENCE on conservation of resources of interior waters, called by the Secretary of Commerce, met at Fairport, Iowa, June 8 to 10. The chairman was Professor Stephen A. Forbes, of the Illinois State University and State Natural History Survey. Vice chairmen were Professor Herbert Osborn, Ohio State University; Carlos Avery, Minnesota State Fish and Game Commission; Professor H. C. Cowles, University of Chicago; J. E. Krouse, Davenport, Iowa; and Dr. A. T. Rasmussen, La Crosse, Wis. A GRANT of $450 has been made by the Committee on Scientific Research of the American Medical Association to Dr. Herbert M. Evans of the University of California for the continuance of his researches on the relations between ovulation and the endocrine glands. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL THE Carnegie Corporation and the General Education Board have each given half of $3,000,000 to the medical department of Van derbilt University as an endowment. Funds for the erection of new buildings are available from appropriations of $4,000,000 made by the General Education Board in 1919. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY has received a gift of $150,000 in memory of Dr. A. Alexander Smith, from Mrs. Helen Hartley Jenkins to complete the endowment of the department of medicine, for which Mrs. Jenkins had previously given the sum of $100,000. DR. C. H. CLAPP, president of the Montana State School of Mines at Butte, has been elected president of the State University of Montana, to succeed Dr. E. O. Sisson, who recently resigned. Ar the annual meeting of the university senate and board of trustees of Syracuse University there was established a research professorship in zoology, and Professor Charles W. Hargitt, since 1891 head of the department of zoology, was made its first incumbent. At his own request Professor Hargitt is relieved from active direction of departmental routine and Professor W. M. Smallwood becomes director. DR. JOHN W. M. BUNKER, formerly instructor in the department of sanitary engineering at Harvard University and for the last six years director of the biological laboratories of the Digestive Ferments Company, has been appointed assistant professor of biochemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DR. CHRISTIAN A. RUCKMICK, of the University of Illinois, has accepted an appointment as associate professor of psychology in Wellesley College. DR. E. V. COWDRY, since July 1, 1917, professor of anatomy at the Peking Union Medical College, Peking, China, has resigned that position to accept an appointment as associate member of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Davidson Black, formerly associate professor of embryology and neurology of the Peking College, has been appointed professor and head of the department of anatomy at the Peking College, succeeding Dr. Cowdry. |