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THE third half-yearly report on the progress of civil aviation in England has been issued as a White Paper. According to the abstract in Nature it is pointed out that regular air services have now been established from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and that passenger, mail and goods traffic is increasing. The total number of aeroplane miles flown in the half-year ending September 30, 1920, is nearly 700,000, whilst the aggregate since May, 1919, exceeds 1,000,000. The number of passengers by air exceeds 30,000, whilst the goods carried weigh little less than 90 tons. In value the imported goods exceed £500,000, whilst the exports and re-exports are about half that amount. As part of the mail services, about 50,000 letters have passed each way between London-Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam with a regularity which is notable. Of the three routes the best shows 94 per cent. of deliveries within three hours of schedule time, and the worst 76 per cent. As part of the organization for further improving these records, it is stated that the wireless direction-finding apparatus installed at Croydon has proved its value, enabling aircraft to correct their course in thick weather. The equipment of aircraft with apparatus for wireless telephony is extending, as it is found to be of considerable assistance to navigation. The fatal accidents are given as in the ratio of 1 per 50,000 miles flown or per 5,000 passengers carried. The international character of flying is brought out in a statement of activities in other countries.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

FOLLOWING the investigations made by Professor S. C. Prescott, instructor in industrial biology of the department of biology and public health of the Institute of Technology, who has just returned from Seattle, where he studied the work of the College of Fisheries of the University of Washington, it has been announced that the administrative committee of the institute is considering the inclusion of a course in the scientific problems of fish culture and problems of the fisheries. Establishment of a college of fisheries similar to that of the University of Washington has also

been suggested to Harvard University, by leading men in the fishing industry at Boston.

HERETOFORE Brazil has had no regularly coordinated university though she has had individual faculties vested with the power to confer degrees. The faculties of law and medicine and the polytechnic institute of Rio de Janeiro have now been combined and will be known henceforth as the University of Rio de Janeiro.

DR. JOHN M. THOMAS, since 1908 president of Middlebury College, has accepted the presidency of the Pennsylvania State College.

DR. E. K. MARSHALL, professor of pharmacology in Washington University, has been elected professor of physiology in the Johns Hopkins Medical School, beginning in July. Dr. Marshall received his bachelor's degree from Charleston College, 1908, and the doctorate in philosophy and medicine from the Johns Hopkins University.

AT Yale University the following lecturers in special applications of organic chemistry in the industries have been appointed: Dr. Ralph H. McKee, professor of chemical engineering, Columbia University; Dr. Moses L. Crossley, research chemist, Calco Chemical Co.; Dr. P. A. Levene, biochemist, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; Dr. David Wesson, technical manager, The Southern Cotton Oil Co.; Dr. Harry N. Holmes, professor of chemistry, Oberlin College, and Dr. Elmer V. McCollum, professor of chemistry, School of Hygiene, Johns Hopkins University.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH IN THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE, December 10, 1920, page 545, I commented upon the interesting fact that the observatory of the University of Virginia, named after the donor, Mr. McCormick of Chicago, is the only active observatory in our southeastern states. My further comment that Barnard and other astronomical enthusiasts, born and grown to manhood in the former slave-holding states, had found their opportunities in the great

northern observatories, was incorrect and unjust, in that it overlooked the case of Dr. C. P. Olivier, for several years an astronomer in the McCormick Observatory. I regret exceedingly this oversight, and I am at a loss to explain it, especially as Dr. Olivier was for a year a member of the staff of the Lick Observatory, and his valued astronomical contributions are thoroughly familiar to me. It is my duty and pleasure to say that the observatory of the University of Virginia, thanks in good measure to the abilities and enthusiasms of Director Mitchell and astronomer Olivier, is as efficient in good works as any existing observatory. It is greatly to be regretted that their financial resources are so limited.

I should like to say that my comments upon the astronomical situation in the southeastern states were primarily not intended to be taken in the negative sense. There was with me the hope that a public expression on the subject might lead to a better realization of existing needs, and to more adequate financial provision in the positive sense.

W. W. CAMPBELL

TECHNICAL STUDY AT OBERLIN COLLEGE IN SCIENCE for December 31 I find a note: It is planned to establish a technical school at Oberlin College with accommodation for about seven hundred students.

This statement is not quite correct. President King has several times proposed, upon his own responsibility and doubtless merely for informal consideration, a plan for technical departments chiefly in chemical engineering and metallurgy. I believe the proposal has not yet come to the faculty for formal consideration, so of course does not have their endorsement. As all matters of internal policy and administration in Oberlin are controlled by the faculty, in accordance with an old vote of the trustees twice recently reaffirmed and now in part of the nature of a contract, it is evident the proposal has not yet taken the first formal step toward adoption. President King, who is one of the staunchest

supporters of this Oberlin system, apparently thinks that it is not yet time for formal consideration of the plan. It has been mooted for two years, and indeed over fifteen years ago something of the sort was suggested, but it has received only individual consideration by members of the faculty. Judging from numerous conversations, I think the faculty, if they are asked to consider it, will decide the plan to be unwise. A general feeling among the faculty is that Oberlin's effort should be centered upon strengthening herself in every way as a college before entering upon university or technical school work.

MAYNARD M. METCALF

URTHER REMARKS ON "THE USE OF THE TERM FOSSIL"

THE short article entitled "The Use of the Term Fossil" published in No. 1330 of SCIENCE seems to have fulfilled the writer's object of stimulating discussion. The first criticism, by Garret P. Serviss, appeared in the Sunday American1 and while approving "poetic license" the author continues the plea for a more careful use of scientific terms by the scientist, as follows:

Half the fogs that trouble the ordinary reader when he undertakes to traverse the fields of science are due to the capricious use of words which ought to have an invariable signification.

In No. 1348 of SCIENCE, under the title "Professor Field's Use of the Term Fossil," Professor Authur M. Miller suggests the following definition: "Any trace of an organism that lived in a past Geological Age." He then states that such expressions as "fossil suncracks" and "fossil flood plains" are "illuminating" and "apt" and

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misunderstanding in biological discussions arises from the misuse of such terms as mutation and saltation? We would not quibble with Archbishop Trench's remark that words simply will not stay tied as regards their meaning but are "constantly drifting from their moorings," but the more the scientist allows his vocabulary to drift the more is he disturbed by the redefined or original terms of his colleagues who, believeing it impossible to use words of two, three or more meanings, continue to inflict long-suffering humanity with an ever-increasing nomenclature. Rather do we agree with Alice who, after listening to a dissertation by Humpty Dumpty in which he makes his words mean what he chooses them to mean-" neither more nor less," comes to the conclusion that his remarks are not particularly illuminating. Of Humpty Dumpty was, among other things, a poet, not a geologist!

But Professor Miller also states that

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A fossil is an object which indicates former existence of an organism which has been buried and preserved previous to historic time. According to this definition the mastodon preserved in the arctic ice is a fossil; the leaf buried in the gutter is not. It is also worth noting that Schuchert and others distinguish the recent or historic period as beginning the Psychozoic era. If in agreeing with this concept an error has been committed, it is certainly not a "popular" one.

Paleontology, the study of ancient life, is literally the study of fossils. Paleo is accepted in earth science as meaning geologically ancient. As a last analysis, which is the more "apt," paleo climates climates"?

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THE BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE

THE third edition of the Biographical Directory is now in type; it will be published as soon as the printers can complete their part of the work. The editor ventures to ask for the return of all proofs and also for information in case proof has not been received. A second copy of the proof (by letter post and with return letter postage) has been sent to those who did not return the first copy within a reasonable time. If it is not known that a scientific man can be reached at the address

given, or even that he is living, it will in most cases be undesirable to include the biographical sketch.

It is gratifying that the number of those engaged in scientific work in America has increased from about 4,000 in 1905 to about 10,000 at the present time. This circumstance, however, has greatly enhanced the labor and the cost involved in the preparation of the work, and it is not possible to write individual letters of enquiry in all cases where this might be desirable. The editor consequently makes public this request for the return of the corrected proofs of all biographical sketches.

J. MCKEEN CATTELL

GARRISON-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.

QUOTATIONS

WHEN AN INVENTION IS NOT AN INVENTION

THERE exists in our patent and copyright laws a gap which has always seemed to us a

lamentable one, and one which there is not the slightest justification for leaving unfilled. This has to do with the invention-we use the word though the law denies its propriety of printed forms for the keeping of accounts or any other purpose.

It goes without saying that much skill and thought may be expended upon the formulation of a set of forms which shall be the last word in furnishing a framework for the proper recording of a certain kind of data. Business of many kinds is dependent upon tabular devices of this sort under one head or another; the invention of such a form may be of great value to its users. It would seem that the man who devotes his time and energy and ingenuity to getting up a thing of the sort ought to be rewarded to the same degree and in the same manner as the man who invents a new safety pin or a novel design for a perfumery bottle or a clever trade-mark. But under the law and the decisions as they now stand he is able to get no protection of any description; you or I or anybody else may manufacture and sell his form in direct competition with him and he has no redress save to undersell us.

The hitch lies in the fact that the law defining invention is so worded that a blank form to be filled in by the user is not an invention. It has no mechanical features, and it is not a process or a product. If the inventor be sufficiently ingenious to design it in such fashion that the user has to punch a hole as part of the process of using it, or join two parts of it in a certain predetermined relationship, or fold the left fifth over upon the right fifth and tear them half off and turn one of them over again in order to bring into juxtaposition two parts of the paper that were originally remote, this constitutes the mechanical feature necessary to make the form stand up under fire as an "invention" entitled to patent protection. But in the absence of such a feature the patent examiners will have nothing to do with it; and if the unhappy inventor turns to the copyright division, he learns that whether his device is an invention or not, it certainly is no publication and he can not protect it by copy

right. Even the feeble solace of a design patent seems denied him.

The situation has long been familiar to us. We are inspired to comment on it by a subscriber who shows us a farmers' account book which he has devised. This is an admirable article, and at the same time it fills a want; for the farmer, never an accountant, is required to keep accounts under penalty of paying an income tax on a lot of income that isn't income. But our subscriber can't advertise his little book decently, for if he does some substitute that doesn't have to meet any advertising expense will appear and wipe out his market. We think he has a grievance against the government that tells him that an invention is sometimes an invention and sometimes isn't. Scientific American.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

"The Airplane." By FREDERICK BEDELL, Cornell University. D. Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 257.

The theory of flight has more than kept pace with the development of the airplane. It is possible, on the basis of constants determined in wind tunnels, to predict very closely the performance of an existing airplane or to design a plane for some desired performance. The fundamentals of this theory of flight are embodied in a number of recent treatises and are readily available to the student. In Bedell's work they are not only available but are presented in so attractive and understandable a form as to compel the interest of the reader. The present reviewer has read the book through twice, for the pleasure of following so masterly a presentation. Everything is reduced to its simplest terms; every idea is driven home; the influence of each element is illustrated by a series of graphs; the whole subject seems to develop itself. It is a book for the amateur, but it is also the best of beginning books for the serious student. And it explains so convincingly many things which are troublesome to the beginner, as for example, why can not speed be increased in level flight

merely by opening the throttle, as in the case of an automobile.

Professor Bedell's book shows an unusual gift for clean cut analysis and exposition; there are but few scientific or technical books that demonstrate these qualities in so high a degree.

1 The book does not attempt to extend the science of aeronautics. It is devoted primarily to a discussion of the problem of sustentation; the matter of stability is also treated, but in a qualitative way. It falls in a category between the popular book, superficial and inadequate, and the treatise, involved, and complicated. It is a book destined for a long and useful life. LIONEL S. MARKS

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in the principal belligerent countries of Europe between 1913 and 1918. All of the curves presented, with the single exception of that for Prussia, ended on a high point in 1918. The question was raised as to what would be their course after that year, and it was shown that England and Wales gave a value of 73 per cent. for 1919 against 92 per cent. for the high point in 1918. The first three quarters of the year 1920 give for England and Wales a value of 46.8 per cent. This is 10 points lower than the figure for 1913! For every death England had more than two births.

The Journal Officiel has recently published the 1919 figures for France (77 non-invaded departments only) to the following effect:

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with 198 in 1918, 179 in 1917, 193 in 1916, 169 in 1915, 110 in 1914, and 97 in 1913. In other words, in the next year immediately following the cessation of hostilities France's death-birth ratio came back to less than that of 1915, the first whole year of the war. With an increase of 157 per cent. in marriages in 1919 over 1918 there seems little risk in predicting that 1920 will show a ratio not far from 100, which will be about the normal prewar status, France having had for some time a nearly stationary population. The 1920 vital index for France may well prove to be considerably below 100.

Another, and even more striking illustration of the exceedingly transitory effect of war upon the rate of population growth, is seen in the figures for the City of Vienna. Probably no large city suffered so severely from the war as did this capital. Yet observe what has happened, as set forth in Table I. To this table I have added, for the sake of rounding out the data of this and the former paper, the death-birth ratios of the United States Registration Area for as many years as they are available, and for England and Wales, 1912 to 1920 (first three quarters of latter year).

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These figures are shown graphically in Fig

ure 1.

We note that:

1. The high point of the Vienna curve in 1918, 229 per cent., is higher than that for France (198 per cent.), and probably higher than for any other equally large aggregate of population in the world.

8 First three quarters of year only.

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