INTELLECTUAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ALLIED AND FRIENDLY COUNTRIES

In the beginning of 1917, there was founded in Italy, with its seat at the University of Rome, a society having the title: Associazione italiana per l'intesa intellettuale fra i pæsi alleati ed amici (Italian society for intellectual intercourse between allied and friendly countries). Its president is Senator V. Volterra, and the names best known in the literature and science of Italy are represented on the committee which directs its work.

The name of the society is self explanatory -in the publication of a quarterly review, entitled L'intesa intellettuale, its work has already begun in a definite way. The purpose of the review, which is the same as that of the society, may be explained as follows: (1) More active and frequent intercourse between universities, academies of science, and, in general, educational institutions of the allied and friendly countries; (2) increased teaching of the Italian language in foreign countries, with greater extension in Italy of the teaching of the languages of allied and friendly countries; (3) exchange of teachers of every order and rank; (4) reciprocal acknowledgment of the requirements for admission to the universities and courses of lectures; (5) exchange of students either for special study or to acquire general knowledge of the different countries; (6) to facilitate the exchange of publications and books and to increase knowledge of Italian works; (7) to

make known by translation the best Italian works; (8) cooperation in the field of science and its practical applications, and especially in the law in regard to questions of private law; (9) intellectual relations of every kind between people who wish to render more close, durable and fruitful the union of the nations which fought the battles of civilization together.

Some of these purposes coincide with those stated in the outline of the plan for an interallied research council proposed by Dr. G. E. Hale. In the National Research Council, founded by him at the beginning of the present war, Dr. Hale planned a constant interchange of methods and results which would secure the complete cooperation of the Allies and the United States, and provide means of reaching common agreement between them in regard to the immediate necessities of the war, and now for the more fruitful works of peace.

Probably in no country other than Italy are to be found so many foreign institutions for research in science, literature, history and the arts. These are of course means of cooperation and exchange, but the exchange is now only on one side owing to the lack of similar organizations for Italian people in foreign countries. The principal difficulty in cooperating with us is certainly that of language; and there is no doubt that the English and Italian speaking peoples should become more familiar with each other's language in order to acquaint themselves better with Italian and English works.

As exchange of teachers and students is one of the best methods of overcoming this particular difficulty, in July, 1917, our Ministry of Public Instruction elected a committee with Senator V. Volterra as its president to study and draft a law regulating the exchange of teachers and the interscholastic relations of Italy with foreign countries. Early in 1918 the committee presented its plan, in a report which gives its fundamental conceptions and principal arrangements. These are given in the first article of the first issue of L'intesa intellettuale and are here summarized.

According to its program the committee proposes that an independent office be instituted in the Ministry of Public Instruction to promote and direct the exchange of teachers with foreign countries, to send abroad Italian men of letters for historical or scientific research or to teach, to summon foreign teachers or students to Italy, to regulate fellowships, to provide eventually for the foundation of Italian institutions of higher education outside the boundaries of Italy, and to cultivate in every way our intellectual relations with other nations.

The office will consist of a council and an executive board, with the Minister of Public Instruction as president of both. In the council, composed of twenty-one members, the faculties of the universities, the Minister of Public Instruction with the two general directors of higher and secondary instruction, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that of Agriculture, of Industry and Commerce, and the Congress are all duly represented. As the Ministry of Public Instruction is given power to elect two members at large, elements outside the school and state administration may also have representation.

With full autonomy in its deliberations and in the administration of funds which must be assigned by the departments concerned, the office has that freedom necessary to accomplish its varied and delicate functions.

The council issues every year a general program of the various activities of the office, but the really active body is the executive board composed of seven members elected by the council from its own members.

The law which has already been mentioned gives rules for those going to foreign countries to teach or to study, providing for their legal status and for that of foreign professors who come temporarily to Italy for the purpose of teaching. The Italian professors who, by the arrangement of the office and with the approval of the proper ministry, go to foreign countries, are divided into three classes according to the length of time they are to be absent from the kingdom: for less than one

year, for more than one year and less than five, or for more than five years. On the foreign professor who teaches in Italy is conferred the dignity of the Italian professor of equal rank, and legal validity is given to his course of lectures, under certain conditions.

The last part of these regulations determines the legal value of studies pursued outside the kingdom, of study of foreigners in Italy, and of the fellowships. In general, studies and examinations taken in state institutions or those of equal rank in foreign countries are accepted as of the same value as studies and examinations taken in schools of the same rank in Italy. The fellowships are not restricted, as hitherto, to graduates, but may also be awarded to university students who desire, for the sake of some special work, to visit laboratories, libraries, or foreign archives. Every year a certain number of fellowships is offered to students and graduates (provided they are of not more than two years standing) of high schools, normal and professional schools, and special institutions, in order to make it possible for them to follow courses of study in foreign countries. Among the advantages of such a plan, by no means the least important will be the preparation of good teachers of foreign languages.

The outline given here offers nothing more that the general plans of an extended program. The law itself will constitute the basis for proposed international conventions to facilitate and promote our intellectual relations with foreign countries, and to extend knowledge of Italy beyond our boundaries on the one hand and, on the other, to gain information about the friendly countries.

To give rapid development to this plan and to cooperate with the state institutions in Italy and abroad for its accomplishment is of course one of the most important tasks of the Italian Association. Probably similar associations in the allied and friendly countries will be able to cooperate with it for this purpose.

The other articles of the first two issues of L'intesa intellettuale which reached this country deal with the organization of the

schools and educational institutions in Italy and abroad. These articles are by Piero Giacosa, on the "Institutes of Experimental Sciences" (physics and chemistry); by Pietro Bonfante, on the "New Scientific Degrees "; by Eugénie Strong, on the "Britannic School in Rome"; by Alfredo Ascoli, on a "Legislative Alliance"; by Andrea Galante, on the "English Education Bill of 1917 "; by L. Duchesne, on the "Transformation of the University Teaching in France"; by V. Scialoja, on the "Giuridic Entente between France and Italy "; by P. S. Leicht, on the "College of Spain and Flanders in Bologna," and by G. Castelnuovo, on the "Reform of the Engineering Schools in France."

We should soon like to see some articles on the educational institutions and research laboratories of the United States and to learn of their vast development and progress along these lines. We would recommend that American scholars write these articles and in them present also their suggestions for the most interesting studies and fields for research in science, literature and law, and indicate the schools, colleges and laboratories that might most profitably be visited by Italian colleagues and students, in order to begin this intercourse and cooperation from which many advantages are to be expected.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

GIORGIO ABETTI

GEORGE FRANCIS ATKINSON

IN the death of George Francis Atkinson American botany has suffered an incalculable loss. Stricken unexpectedly he died at the beginning of what promised to be his most productive period of activity. Having served for more than a quarter of a century as professor of botany in Cornell University he had only recently been relieved by the trustees of all teaching and administrative duties in order that he might give the remaining years of his life to uninterrupted research. He hoped particularly to be able to complete and put in final form for publication his mono

graphic studies on the fleshy fungi of North America. In the pursuit of this undertaking he had gone without assistants for an extended collecting trip to the far west. Here with characteristic enthusiasm for his work and lured by the surpassing richness of the fungous flora near Mt. Ranier he overtaxed his strength, exposed himself to inclement weather, and contracted a severe cold. This rapidly developed into influenza followed by pneumonia, and he died on November 15, in the Tacoma Hospital at Tacoma, Washington. His end came suddenly and found him alone far from friends and home. After his removal to the hospital, though critically ill, his chief worry concerned the recently collected specimens which he had been forced to leave uncared for in the room of his boarding house. Shortly before he died, in his last delirium, he attempted to dictate to his nurse some notes concerning his fungi. Thus death found him engrossed to the very end in the science which he had so long served and which he loved so well. He lies buried at South Haven, Mich., near the home of his boyhood. Ithaca and Cornell will not see him again. To his friends and colleagues it is a thing incredible that his genial personality and brilliant mind are gone from among us. The words, "Professor Atkinson is dead" have passed from lip to lip and left us almost unconvinced. The memory of him and his work now so clearly before us will serve as a guiding influence through the coming years. It is particularly gratifying to the writer to be able to give here an expression of his appreciation of one whom he revered as a great teacher and valued as a true friend.

Professor Atkinson was born in Raisinville, Monroe County, Michigan, January 26, 1854. He received his preliminary academic training at Olivet College, coming later to Cornell University, from which he was graduated in 1885. The following year he began his scientific career as professor of zoology at the University of North Carolina, and between the years 1886 and 1890 published about fifteen papers in the field of zoology. In 1888 he accepted the professorship of botany and

zoology in the University of South Carolina, and in 1889 became professor of biology and botany in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. While at the latter institution he published as a bulletin of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station perhaps his best known zoological paper on the root-gall nematode, Heterodera radicicola. His interests shifted rapidly, however, to the fields of plant pathology and mycology, and in 1892 he returned to his alma mater to accept the position of assistant professor of botany. He became associate profesor in 1893, and at the death of Professor Prentiss in 1896 became head of the department.

During the last twenty-five years of his life, though burdened with the multitudinous duties of teaching and administration, he found time to devote himself to research in various fields of botany. He labored untiringly and published over one hundred and fifty papers concerning his investigations. These reveal an unusually wide range of interests. He was also the author of extensively used text books including, "The Biology of Ferns," "Elementary Botany," "A College Text Book of Botany" and "Mushrooms Edible, Poisonous, etc." He rapidly attained an eminent position among the botanists of the world, and received many honors. He was the first president of the Ameican Botanical Society, and throughout his life took an active part in numerous other scientific organizations. His high standing as a scientist was given formal recognition when in 1918 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Science. He served as a delegate to the International Botanical Congresses of 1905 and 1910 held in Vienna and Brussels respectively, and at these meetings used his influence to obtain legislation making for greater stability and uniformity in botanical nomenclature. He traveled in various countries of Europe studying in the field the fleshy fungi of the different regions, and making the acquaintance of an extensive circle of his European colleagues. He was widely known in other lands as a prominent American student of the fungi. Although his interests covered many fields of botany his highest attainments

were

realized in mycology. He was undoubtedly one of the foremost students of the fleshy Basidiomycetes which America has produced. Through years of enthusiastic collecting and study he had acquired a herbarium of specimens and a wealth of photographs and notes which gave him a thoroughly comprehensive grasp of this field. Had he lived to complete the extensive illustrated monograph of this group which he had in process of preparation it would have far surpassed in thoroughness and scope any similar paper on these fungi which has yet appeared in any language. His inability to do so will always remain a source of great regret to his students, and constitutes a very distinct loss to the science of mycology. In the field of general mycology Professor Atkinson was especially interested in questions of phylogeny. Any newly discovered fungus which promised to supply a transition form from one group to another gained his immediate interest. This interest in phylogeny found expression in his comprehensive papers on the origin of the Phycomycetes and Ascomycetes, and is also reflected in the numerous papers which he and his students published on the ontogeny of the fruit-body in many members of the Agaricaces and related groups. The unusual keenness of his reasoning powers and the richness of the fund of knowledge from which he drew his conclusions are revealed in some of the philosophical discussions in these papers. His marvelously retentive memory was at once the admiration and the despair of his students.

He was a man of firm convictions, resolute in setting for himself the highest standards of scientific excellence, and impatient of mediocrity in others. His untiring devotion to his work will long remain an inspiration to those whose fortune it was to know him intimately as teacher or friend. HARRY M. FITZPATRICK

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE GERMS OF INFLUENZA AND YELLOW FEVER1

MAJOR H. GRAEME GIBSON, R. A. M. C., who died recently at Abbéville, was a martyr to

1 From the London Times.

science and almost at the hour when, in company with two other workers, Major Bowman, Canadian Army Medical Corps and Captain Conner, Australian Army Medical Corps, he had completed the discovery of what is very probably indeed the causative germ of this influenza epidemic.

A preliminary note regarding this germ was published by these doctors on December 14, 1918, in the British Medical Journal, and thus Major Graeme Gibson's work takes precedence over later publications. At the time, however, the proof of the discovery was not complete. It has now been completed, as we understand; and Major Gibson's death furnishes a part of the evidence. His eagerness and enthusiasm led him to work so hard that he finally fell a victim to the very virulent strains of the germ with which he was experimenting. He himself caught the influenza, and pneumonia followed.

The germ belongs to the order of filterpassers and is grown by the Noguchi method. It is reported that monkeys have been infected with it quite easily, and have developed attacks producing small hemorrhages in the lungs a soil quite suitable for the reception of the pneumococcus. The chain of evidence thus seems to be very strong. Further, we understand that the germ closely resembles that described by Captain Wilson in the British Medical Journal a few weeks ago. Thus Captain Wilson's work seems to confirm the work of Major Graeme Gibson and his colleagues.

It is interesting to note that this work, which has had such fatal consequences for one of the party, has been conducted by three Army doctors, a member of the British forces, a member of the Canadian, and a member of the Australian. The directors of the Medical Service in France deserve the greatest credit, we learn, for the splendid support they have given these workers, while the Medical Research Committee, working with the Army authorities, has rendered invaluable help.

Attention has been so firmly fixed in these last months upon influenza that an interesting event in the medical world has more or less

escaped attention. This is the description by Professor Noguchi of a new germ in connection with yellow fever.

That disease has for long furnished a subject of discussion, because doubt existed as to its exact causation. Dr. Noguchi states that the organism discovered by him belongs to the class known as spirochetes, of which the spirochete of syphilis and that of relapsing fever are other members.

If the discovery is confirmed it will add another link to the wonderful chain of discoveries forged in connection with this disease. The fever was first described in Barbados in 1647. Its dreadful virulence soon earned it its evil reputation, and this virulence became a matter of world-wide concern when in the socalled " great period" of the fever it visited Cadiz in five epidemics, Malaga, Lisbon, Seville, Barcelona, Palma, Gibraltar and other European towns. At Lisbon in 1857 some 6,000 persons died in a few weeks.

The fever remained a mystery up till about 1881, when Dr. Charles Finlay, of Havana, propounded the idea that mosquitoes carried the infection. The view found small support at first, but later Ross's work on malaria reawakened interest in it. Then came the Spanish-American war and the appointment of a commission by the American government to investigate Finley's theory. The workers nominated were Walter Reed, James Carroll, A. Agramonte, and Lazear. They began by collecting the suspected mosquitoes, allowing them to feed on yellow fever patients, and then submitting themselves to the bites. Their labors were crowned with immediate success, though lives of great value were heroically sacrificed. It was proved that the mosquito Stegomyia fasciata is the agent of infection, that the virus of the disease is present in the blood during the first days of infection, and that "the germ is so small that it can pass through a Chamberland filter." Infection could not be produced till after several days from the time when the mosquito had bitten the yellow fever patient, so that it was evident that the germ underwent some change in the body of its insect host.