will yield rich collections in all branches of science.

The material will be exhibited in the proposed Hall of Asiatic Life in The American Museum of Natural History, which it is hoped the city will add to the museum buildings in the near future, and it is hoped that this expedition will make New York the center of Asiatic scientific activity.

The scientific results of the Third Asiatic Expedition will be embodied in a series of volumes that should be, for many years to come, the standard work on the natural history of Central and Eastern Asia, and also in popular books written in non-technical language. Furthermore, the public will be regularly informed of the whereabouts and the activities of the members of the expedition, for articles written in the field will be published in Asia Magazine.

Those responsible for the expedition desire to make it a factor in the development of the educational life of the Chinese Republic. China has no institution wherein natural history objects can be studied and exhibited by modern methods and where the scientific work of her own people can be encouraged and directed. It has therefore been decided to invite the Chinese government to cooperate with the expedition in carrying on its work in the Orient. China will be invited to delegate to the expedition certain men who have had already preliminary instruction in various branches of science; under specialists these men, while in the field, will receive training in modern methods of scientific exploration and study.

When the expedition has been completed, it has been agreed to deposit in Peking a duplicate set of the collections, which will form the basis of the Chinese Museum of Natural History. The proposed institution will then have a valuable nucleus of specimens for exhibition and study and a staff of expert Chinese to carry on the work. It will remain for the government to set aside a suitable building where the collections can be housed.

4

THE THOMAS A. EDISON PRIZE THE most meritorious research on "The effects of music" submitted to the American Psychological Association before June 1, 1921, will be awarded a prize of $500.

This sum has been placed at the disposal of the association by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. It is the wish of Mr. Edison and his associates to direct attention toward the importance of research in the psychology of music. They point out that we have to-day all too little scientific understanding of the effects, both affective and volitional, which contrasted sorts of musical selections produce on listeners of differing native endowments and training, under varying conditions of mood, season and physical condition.

Researches brought to completion during the present academic year may be submitted in competition for the Thomas A. Edison prize. Manuscripts may be sent at any time before May 31, 1921, to the undersigned, who will transmit them, without the names of the authors, to the members of the committee of award, to be designated by the American Psychological Association. Manuscripts should be submitted in form for publication.

The following topics are suggested as suitable, but the choice of subject is not limited to this list. The committee will welcome any research bearing directly on the nature of music and the way it influences people. Classification of musical selections according to their psychological effects.

Individual differences in musical sensitivity.
Types of listeners.

Validity of introspection in studying affective responses to music.

Modification of moods by music.

Effects of familiarity and repetition: Emotional durability of various types of selections. Effects of contrasting types of music on muscular activity.

Other objective (physiological) measurements of effects of musical stimuli.

An experimental study of music as an aid in synchronizing routine factory operations.

The problems proposed for investigation are indeed complex, the conditions extremely vari

ment of Agriculture, to succeed the late Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, whose death occurred in February last.

DR. THOMAS F. HUNT, dean of the college of agriculture at the University of California, has been appointed a member of the permanent committee of the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, Italy.

MR. PAUL MOORE, director of the Information Bureau of the War Trade Board, has been appointed secretary of the Division of Research Extension of the National Research Council.

MR. R. M. WILHELM, chief of the thermometer laboratory of the Bureau of Standards, resigned in September to accept a position with the C. J. Tagliabue Manufacturing Company, of Brooklyn, New York, manufacturers of thermometric apparatus.

ROBERT HALL CRAIG, formerly sanitary engineer with the surgeon general of the army and later sanitary and hydraulic engineer with the Construction Division of the Army, Washington, D. C., and Henry Ward Banks, 3d, formerly research chemist with the Harriman Research Laboratory, New York City, and the National Biscuit Company, have formed a partnership under the name of Banks and Craig, consulting engineers and consulting chemists, with offices in New York City.

THE Iowa Physics Research Board, an organization allied with the Iowa Academy of Science, has been formed as a result of the annual meeting of the Iowa Academy held last May at the University of Iowa, at Iowa City. About twenty-five college physicists are members of the board, which is organized to give mutual help in aiding research work in physics in the state. Three members serve as an executive committee. These are Professor D. W. Morehouse, of Drake University, Profssor Roy D. Weld, of Coe College, and Professor G. W. Stewart, of the University of Iowa. Professor Stewart is the secretary of the committee.

DR. HENRY A. CHRISTIAN, Hersey professor of the theory and practise of physic

at the Harvard Medical School, has returned to his position at the medical school and as physician-in-chief of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, after a year's leave of absence spent in Washington as chairman of the Division of Medical Sciences of the National Research Council. From June 25 to July 2, 1920, he delivered five lectures at the University of Washington, Seattle, and he will deliver an address before the Mississippi Valley Medical Association. at Chicago, October 27.

DR. EDWARD PHELPS ALLIS, JR., of Palais de Carnolès, Mentone, Maritime Alps, France, well known for his basic researches in com

parative anatomy, is now in America, and is expected to spend three or four months in the United States previous to returning to the Allis Laboratory to resume his work.

PROFESSOR C. W. HEWLETT, of the department of physics of the University of Iowa, has returned to the university for the work of the academic year after spending the summer in the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, at Schenectady, N. Y.

HOWARD E. SIMPSON has returned to the chair of geographic geology at the University of North Dakota after a semester's leave of absence. During the leave he served as visiting professor of geology and geography in the University of Southern California.

PROFESSOR HOMER R. DILL, director of the vertebrate museum at the University of Iowa, has returned to the university after spending the summer making collections for the museum in the Hawaiian Islands and in the Billy Goat Pass region of Washington.

A GROUP of twelve physicians of the Mayo Foundation has organized the "Osler Society for the Study of Medical History." Dr. William C. MacCarty, associate professor of pathology, has been chosen president.

COOPERATIVE work has been worked out by Professor Frank Schlesinger, professor of astronomy at Yale University, between the government Observatory at Wellington, New Zealand, and the observatory of Yale University. This plan, which has received the approval of

the university corporation, involves the sending to New Zealand by the university of apparatus to photograph the stars of the southern hemisphere for compiling zone catalogues.

As has been noted in SCIENCE, a special conference was called together by the Royal Society to consider the future of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. We learn from Nature that the conference held its first meeting at Burlington House on September 28, Sir Joseph Thomson in the chair. The following is the list of delegates: Sir David Prain, Sir Arthur Schuster, Mr. J. H. Jeans, Professor H. E. Armstrong, Dr. F. A. Bather, and Dr. P. C. Mitchell, representing the Royal Society; Professor M. Knudsen, Denmark; M. A. Lacroix, France; Dr. G. van Rijnberk, Holland; Professor R. Nasini and Comm.-Ing. E. Mancini, Italy; Dr. H. Nagaoka, Japan; Mr. R. Laache, Norway; Baron Alströmer, Sweden; Dr. H. Escher, Dr. M. Godet and Dr. H. Field, Switzerland; Dr. R. M. Yerkes, Dr. L. E. Dickson, Mr. L. C. Gunnell and Dr. S. I. Franz, U. S. A.; Sir Henry Hayden and Dr. S. W. Kemp, India; Sir Thomas Muir, South Africa; Sir Edward Parrott, Queensland; Professor E. W. Skeats, Victoria; Mr. C. B. Rushton, Western Australia; and Professor A. Dendy, New Zealand. The delegates were the guests of H. M. Government at a dinner at the Carlton Hotel on September 29.

DR. RAYMOND PEARL, director of the department of biometry and vital statistics, school of hygiene and public health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, will give a course of Lowell lectures in Boston beginning on December 1. The subject is "The Biology of Death," and the subjects of the separate lectures are: (1) Senescence and death; (2) The chances of death; (3) The causes of death; (4) Correlation of death rates; (5) Inheritance of life duration; (6) The trend of mortality and some of its consequences.

THE following course of public lectures on the "History of Science" is being given at Yale University under the auspices of the Gamma Alpha Society: "History of mathematics," Professor E. W. Brown; "History of

chemistry," Professor John Johnston; "History of biology," Professor L. L. Woodruff; History of psychology," Professor R. P. Angier; "History of physics," Professor H. A. Bumstead; "History of geology," Professor H. E. Gregory, and "History of astronomy," Professor Frank Schlesinger.

PRESIDENT E. A. BIRGE, of the University of Wisconsin, gave an address at the dedication of the biological buildings which have been erected at Fairport, Iowa, by the Bureau of Fisheries.

A JOINT meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, the New York Section of the American Chemical Society and the New York Section of the American Electrochemical Society, was held at the Chemists Club in New York City on October 15. The subject of the evening was "Proposed new departures in government chemical work," and the meeting was addressed by Dr. S. G. Cottrell, director of the Bureau of Mines, and Dr. Carl Alsberg, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture.

THE regular October meeting of the Physics Club of Philadelphia is to be held on Friday evening, October 29, at the Randal Morgan Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. It will be addressed on the work of the Bureau of Standards by Dr. F. C. Brown, assistant to the director.

DR. RUDOLF EUCKEN, recently retired from the chair of philosophy at the University of Jena and at one time German exchange professor at Columbia University, will give lectures during the winter semester at the University of Helsingfors.

DR. ISADORE DYER, dean of the medical school of Tulane University, known for his work on leprosy and malignant skin diseases, died at his home in New Orleans, on October 12.

THE United States Civil Service Commission announces for November 23, 1920, an open competitive examination for superntendent and director in the Bureau of Fisheries. Two vacancies exist, one for duty at Key

West, Florida, at $1,800 a year, and the other at Beaufort, N. C., at $1,500 a year, each with a possible bonus of $20 a month. Competitors are not required to report for examination at any place, but will be rated on physical ability, education and experience. Further information may be obtained by application to the Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C.

Natural History, the journal of the American Museum of Natural History, says the largest and most mysterious land animal known in the world to-day has been named Baluchitherium osborni by its discoverer, C. Forster Cooper, now curator in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, England. The animal is like neither an elephant, nor a rhinoceros, nor a titanothere, nor a moropus. Mr. Cooper writes that the ankle bone is certainly that of a perissodactyl and seems nearer to the rhinoceros than anything else. A giant primitive rhinoceros tooth, ten centimeters across, has been found, which indicates the. presence of rhinoceroses of gigantic size in the Bugti beds of Baluchistan in Oligocene times, which was a strange faunal period. The Baluchitherium, if a rhinoceros, certainly had a very long neck, more like that of a gigantic giraffe than that of a horse. Two of the anterior vertebræ of this monster have recently been received in the American Museum and have been compared with all our large land animals, living and extinct, with no result. These neck vertebræ dwarf those of all the largest land animals. The Bugti beds, which have been explored by Cooper and by Pilgrim, also yield a hornless rhinoceros, Paraceratherium, in which the lower incisor teeth are turned downward; a hippopotamus that is typical except that it lacks front teeth; and a beautiful anthracothere called Gelasmodon. This gives us a glimpse into the still unknown mammalian life of southwest India.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

PLANS are now being prepared for a new building for the department of chemistry of

Yale University, which has hitherto carried on its work partly in the Kent Chemical Laboratory and partly in the Sheffield Chemical Laboratory. According to present plans, the new building will be located on the PiersonSage Square, just north of the Sloane Physics Laboratory. It will have a total floor area of 100,000 square feet; and, in addition to the usual laboratories and recitation rooms, will include an ample number of rooms for research work.

DR. GEORGE BLUMER, who resigned last spring from the deanship of the Yale Medical School, will serve for this year as clinical professor of medicine. Dr. Wilder Tileston will be associated with him with the same title, and Dr. Edward H. Hume, the dean of the medical school of Yale-in-China, who is on leave of absence in this country, will serve as visiting professor of medicine.

DR. G. H. WOOLLETT, of the University of Minnesota, has been elected associate professor of chemistry at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Woollett was formerly connected with the University of Mississippi. Dr. Victor A. Coulter, who served as a gas officer in France, has been elected assistant professor of chemistry in the same institution.

AFTER serving for twenty-five years as head of the department of horticulture and entomology, and eleven years as head of the department of entomology, of Purdue University and Experiment Station, Professor James Troop now relinquishes his position in the experiment station and will devote his time to teaching in the school of agriculture. Professor John J. Davis, formerly with the United States Bureau of Entomology is now head of the department at Purdue.

AT the University of Chicago Dr. Lester R. Dragstet has been appointed assistant professor of physiology and William Berry instructor in psychology.

DR. A. B. MACALLUM, administrative chairman of the Research Council of Canada, has been elected to the new chair of biochemistry