serving with the Medical Corps of the U. S. Army.

DR. P. W. BRIDGMAN has returned from the naval experimental station at New London, Connecticut, to his work in the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Harvard University.

DR. EDGAR BUCKINGHAM, who has been associated with the work of the scientific attaché of the American Embassy in Rome, has returned to Washington.

PROFESSOR MOSES GOMBERG, of the department of chemistry of the University of Michigan, who has been serving in the Ordnance Department since early in the war, has returned to the university to assume his former work. Professor Gomberg, while in the service, held the rank of major.

DR. GEORGE H. A. CLOWES, formerly of the Gratwick Research Laboratory at Buffalo, N. Y., and lately engaged in research at the American University Experiment Station of the Chemical Warfare Service on the physiological effects of war gases, left Washington in January to take up biochemical research at the laboratories of Eli Lilly & Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana.

DR. ASHER F. SHUPP has resigned his position as research chemist on dyestuffs for E. I. duPont de Nemours and Company, and is now working on an industrial fellowship at the Mellon Institute.

MR. SETH S. WALKER, formerly associate chemist of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and more recently chemist to the Florida Fruit Products Company, has been appointed soil chemist for the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station at Baton Rouge.

HENRY ALLEN GLEASON, associate professor of botany and director of the botanical gardens at the University of Michigan, has accepted a position as first assistant in the New York Botanical Gardens.

PROFESSOR W. W. ROWLEE, of Cornell University, has returned to Ithaca after an absence of several months in Central America. There, as a specialist in timber, he was Investigating the growth and availability of certain

woods of possible use in airplanes and other implements of war.

DR. WILLIAM H. NICHOLS, president of the American Chemical Society, has announced the appointment of the committee to estimate the cost and outline policies for the proposed National Institute of Drug Research to which reference has already been made in SCIENCE. The committee consists of Dr. John J. Abel, the Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Raymond F. Bacon, director of the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research; Dr. Frank R. Eldred, research chemist; Dr. Charles H. Herty, editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, chairman; Dr. Reid Hunt, Harvard University, Dr. Treat B. Johnson, Yale University; Dr. P. A. Levene, Rockefeller Institute, and F. O. Taylor, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Division, American Chemical Society.

APPOINTMENT of a committee to study government records of the influenza epidemic has been announced by the Bureau of the Census. Dr. William H. Davis is chairman, the members including C. S. Sloane, representing the Bureau of Census; Dr. Wade H. Frost and Edgar Sydenstricker, of the Public Health Service; Colonel D. C. Howard, Colonel F. F. Russell, and Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Love, United States Army; Lieutenant-Commander J. R. Phelps and Surgeon Carroll Fox, United States Navy.

THERE was organized at Washington, D. C., on February 14, an association to be known as the Agricultural History Society. The officers of the society are: Dr. Rodney H. True, Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C., president; Professor Wm. J. Trimble, Agricultural College, N. Dak., vice-president; Lyman Carrier, Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C., secretary-treasurer; Professor R. W. Kelsey, Haverford, Penna., and O. C. Stine, Office of Farm Management, Washington, D. C., members of the executive committee. The object of the society is "to stimulate interest, promote study and facilitate publication of researches in agricultural history." Any one interested in this subject, who pays

the dues of $1.00 per year, is eligible for membership and should write to the secretarytreasurer.

WE learn from Nature that a course of six public lectures on "Physiology and National Needs," arranged in conjunction with the Imperial Studies Committee of the University of London, is being delivered at King's College, Strand, W. C. The first lecture was by Professor W. D. Halliburton on February 5 on "Physiology and the Food Problem," and succeeding lecturers will be Dr. M. S. Pembrey, Professor F. G. Hopkins, Professor A. Harden, Professor D. Noel Paton, and Professor A. Dendy. On February 4, Professor J. T. MacGregor-Morris delivered the first of a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on "Study of Electric Arcs and their Applications." On February 6, Dr. W. Wilson gave the first of two lectures on the movements of the sun, earth, and moon, illustrated by a new astronomical model. The Friday evening discourse on February 7 was delivered by Professor J. G. Adami on medical research in its relationship to the war; and on February 14 by Professor Cargill G. Knott on earthquake waves and the interior of the earth.

THE Hunterian Oration was delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on February 14, by Major General Sir Anthony A. Bowlby.

DR. JOHN WALLACE BAIRD, professor of experimental psychology in Clark University, last year president of the American Psychological Association, died on February 2, at the age of forty-five years.

CAPTAIN THEODORE DE BOOY, the archeologist and explorer, died at his home in Yonkers, on February 18. Captain de Booy was born in Holland, thirty-six years ago, and came to the United States in 1906. He was in charge of the West Indian archeological work of the Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

MR. M. N. STRAUGHN, formerly of the Bureau of Chemistry in Washington, died in Porto Rico on January 9, 1919.

THE death of Sir James Sawyer, formerly professor of pathology and medicine at Birmingham, on January 27, in his seventy-fifth year, is announced.

FIGURES are printed to the effect that the 1,200 casualty lists published by the German army and navy contained the names of 1,158 physicians reported slightly wounded, 332 severely wounded, 663 killed, 422 as succumbing to disease, 212 taken prisoner, seventy-two missing and one killed by gas.

THE U. S. Civil Service Commission announces for March 12, an examination for observer and meteorologists, for men only. Vacancies occurring in the Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture, for duty in Washington, D. C., or in the field, at entrance salaries ranging from $1,260 to $1,800 a year, will be filled from this examination.

THE Grasselli Chemical Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, has announced its intention to found a medal to be awarded annually by the New York Section of the Society of Chemical Industry for the thesis presented before the section which shall, in the opinion of the medal committee, offer the most useful suggestions in applied chemistry.

PROFESSOR J. ROTGANS, of Amsterdam, was given a sum of money, collected by subscription, on the recent twenty-fifth anniversary of his entering on the practise of medicine. He has donated this sum as a nucleus of a fund for cancer research in the Netherlands.

THE sum of £3,000 has been given by Mr. G. T. Hawkins, of Northampton, towards the building and equipment of a pathological laboratory at the Northampton General Hospital.

THE Goodrich conservation bill, which has been the center of controversy in two sessions of the Illinois legislature, has been reported favorably out of committee in the house. The bill calls for a bi-partisan commission of four to take over the work of the state geologist, state entomologist, fish and game commission, state board of forestry, and state park board. It also provides for a director who

shall have supervision of the work of conservation. The house amended the bill by authorizing the Illinois Academy of Science to suggest candidates for membership on the board.

THE Bellevue Hospital unit, numbering three hundred physicians, nurses and enlisted men, attached to Base Hospital No. 1, at Vichy, near Paris, has received orders to prepare to sail and probably will return at once. Major John H. Wyckoff, secretary of the medical faculty of the New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, who was formerly one of the heads of the American hospital, has received a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Arthur M. Wright, commander of the hospital, in which he said his organization had been relieved and that the hospital had been taken over by an evacuation hospital personnel. The unit is composed of many wellknown New York physicians and nurses from Bellevue Hospital and 200 enlisted men who were recruited at the Medical College for overseas duty. It set sail for France on February 18, 1918, and has since handled a large number of the American Army wounded cases. Base Hospital No. 1 was one of the largest near Paris and received mostly American cases. The organization was prepared for 500 patients but at one time cared for as many as 3,200 cases. The unit includes twenty-six physicians, sixty-five nurses and 200 enlisted

men.

of electrical engineering and applied mechanics.

THE farmers of New Jersey, through their representatives at the annual state agricultural convention at the State Capitol at Trenton, have requested the Legislature to provide an appropriation for a horticultural building at the State College of Agriculture at New Brunswick.

THE gift to the University of Caifornia Museum of valuable textiles left by the E. E. Caswell Estate and presented to the university through Regent Phoebe A. Hearst, was acknowledged by the board of regents at the recent monthly meeting in San Francisco. The textiles have been loaned to the Palace of Fine Arts for exhibition.

IN the reorganization on the basis of departments at Yale University, Professor B. B. Boltwood has been elected chairman of the university department of chemistry.

PROFESSOR GUY WEST WILSON has been appointed associate botanist and plant pathologist in Clemson College, South Carolina.

FROM Nature we learn that Dr. R. M. Cavan, of the chemistry department of University College, Nottingham, has been appointed principal of the Technical College, Darlington, and Mr. W. H. Watson, of the chemistry department of the Northern Polytechnic Institute, has been appointed vice-principal and head of the chemistry and natural science department of the Municipal College, Portsmouth.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

Ar the commemoration day exercises of the Johns Hopkins University on February 22, Dr. William H. Welch, who presided, announced that a sum of approximately $400,000 had been given anonymously for the erection of a building at the Johns Hopkins Hospital to serve as a woman's clinic.

THE present applied science building of the University of Toronto, which has been condemned, will be removed and in its place will be erected a large engineering building. The chemistry and mining buildings will be enlarged and will accommodate the department

This metal has already been applied in a number of cases to commercial devices for this purpose, one of which is being manufactured at the present time by the Central Scientific Company.

Any increase of sensitiveness, or any reasonable amount of force on a given temperature change may be obtained by manipulation of the length, width and thickness of the metal. By using very thin sections extreme sensitivity may be obtained, deflections as great as one fourth inch per degree Centigrade being possible. On the other hand, by materially increasing the thickness great force can be created, in one instance approximately one fourth pound per degree Centigrade.

On account of the process of manufacture employed, the danger of permanent set has been practically eliminated, so long as the metal is not overstrained.

G. E. Thermostatic Metal, as it is known to the trade, is produced regularly in thicknesses from .015 to .25 inch; widths up to 6 inches and lengths up to 36 inches. In special cases it may be obtained in thickness as small as .005.

I feel sure that a knowledge of the characteristics and adaptability of this material will enable many experimenters to solve problems of temperature control or indication with much greater ease and accuracy than heretofore. CHESTER I. HALL

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY,
FORT WAYNE, IND.

COMMON NUMERALS

THE origin of our common number symbols has never been clearly established, but until recently all writers on this subject agreed that these symbols were transmitted to Europe by the Arabs who had obtained them from India. This is the view expressed in the general encyclopedias and in our mathematical histories which consider this question. For example, in the eleventh edition of the Britannica under the word "numeral" there appears the following statement:

The areas designated by states appear in the following table:

What is quite certain is that our present decimal system, in its complete form, with the zero which enables us to do without the ruled columns of the abacus, is of Indian origin. From the Indians it passed to the Arabians, probably along with the astronomical tables brought to Bagdad by an Indian ambassador in 773 A.D.

In view of these facts it is very interesting to note that during recent years available data relating to the origin of our common number symbols have been carefuly reexamined by Carra de Vaux, who published in volume 21 of Scientia a brief summary of his results. Among the most surprising of these results number are the following: Our common symbols originated in Europe and from there were transmitted to the Persians. Both India and Arabia received them from Persia, so that the common term Hindu-Arabic numerals is decidedly misleading. The common numerals did not come from letters of the alphabet, but were formed directly for the purpose of representing numbers.

It does not appear likely that all of these conclusions reached by Carra de Vaux, who has made an extensive study of the intellectual life among the Mohammedans, will be at once accepted, but they tend to exhibit the weak foundation upon which the history of our common numerals has thus far rested. In fact, the nature of this question is such that it seems likely that general agreement as regards the origin of our numerals can result only from that attitude of mind (known as philosophy) which would rather accept as facts what can not be proved than acknowledge ignorance. Conclusions similar to those of Carra de Vaux were also expressed in a Russian work by N. Bubnow (1908), which was translated into German and published in Berlin in 1914. G. A. MILLER

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH FOR AVIATORS TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In his article on "Psychological Research for Aviators" in SCIENCE of January 24 Dr. Dunlap inadvertently neglects some of the most important

work on tests of flying ability. Burtt, Troland and Miles were working at Cambridge in the spring and summer of 1917, and the work of Captain Henmon at Kelly Field No. 2 in the spring of 1918 was contemporaneous with and under the same authorization as that of Professor Stratton. A prophesy based upon Captain Henmon's results was of notable influence in leading the director of military aeronautics to authorize tests of ability to learn to fly in connection with the regular work of the examining boards. E. L. THORNDIKE

TEACHERS COLLEGE,

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Professor Thorndike has called my attention to the fact that in my article on psychological research for aviators in SCIENCE of January 24, I made no reference to the work of Burtt, Troland and Miles, and the work of Henmon, which was reported in relatively full detail in Thorndike's article in the preceding (January 17) number of SCIENCE. A footnote referring to Thorndike's report should have been inserted in my article to prevent the supposition that I was covering the work of all investigators. No detailed information concerning the work of Burtt, Troland and Miles was given me until Thorndike's address appeared, hence I should not attempt to describe it. The work started by Stratton, and subsequently developed by Stratton and Henmon, should, as I stated in my article, be reported by Stratton.

I may add that important work in aviation was done by a number of psychologists not mentioned by either Thorndike or myself: Maxfield for instance conducted a valuable piece of research which was, I believe, reported to the psychology committee.

I trust it will be understood that my report was not intended as a comprehensive account of all work in aviation by psychologists, and that if I am able, later, to give a full account of all work done under my control, I shall not attempt to relate the activities of other psychologists except in so far as those activities had direct effects in facilitating or interfering with my own work. KNIGHT DUNLAP

QUOTATIONS

THE HISTORY OF INFLUENZA ALTHOUGH the term influenza was not formally adopted by the Royal College of Physicians of London till 1782, the disease was known to Hippocrates and other ancient physicians, and a formidable list of epidemics in various parts of the world between the years 1173 and 1875 is given by Hirsch in his "Handbook of Geographical and Historical Pathology." Records of outbreaks in this country between 1510 and 1837 were collected by Theophilus Thompson and published by the Sydenham Society in 1852; they were brought down to 1891 by E. Symes Thompson. Many physicians, among them such men as Sydenham (1675), Huxham of Plymouth (1729), Arbuthnot (1732), Sir George Baker (1762), and John Fothergill (1775) had written about the disease from the clinical point of view, but Immanuel Kant, who, like Bacon, took all learning for his province and was specially interested in medicine, was one of the first to direct attention to its epidemiology. Towards the end of the eighteenth century influenza swept over nearly the whole world. It reached Siberia and Russia, China and India, in the autumn of 1781, and in the following December and February it invaded successively Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain. Kant, in a "Notice to Physicians" published in the lay press of Königsberg on April 18, 1782, considered the disease in its relation to physical geography. He expressed the opinion that it was spread not only by atmospheric conditions but by infection conveyed by insects. The paths of communication between Europe and other parts of the world by sea and by caravan were, he thought, the means of conveyance of many diseases, and he found reason to believe that the Russian trade route to China by land had brought several kinds of harmful insects from the farthest East. The epidemic of 1781-82 spread along the Baltic coast till it reached Königsberg; thence it travelled to Danzig and Prussia. Kant's interest in influenza is shown