SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS Dr. GEORGE E. HALE, Director of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution, gave the public lecture at the annual meeting of the trustees of the Institution in Washington, on December 13, 1917. The subject of the lecture was "The development of the telescope and our expanding conception of the universe." Prof. H. C. CoWLES, of the University of Chicago, and Mr. E. W. SHAW, of the Geological Survey, spent two weeks of last October in Arkansas, continuing an investigation of the apparently fictitious "lakes" which have been shown on the maps of northeastern Arkansas for the past seventy-five years. Both the geological and the ecological evidence show that the lakes have had no real existence within a period of at least one hundred years. Their origin on the early land survey maps is still a mystery; later maps simply copied the "lakes" from the land maps or from one another. Messrs. COWLES and SHAW have devoted several weeks of each summer since 1913 to this investigation. Mr. J. E. SPURR, formerly of the Geological Survey and for the past twelve years a consulting mining geologist in New York and Philadelphia, has returned to Washington and is residing at 1755 Park Road. The Delegate of the Royal Swedish Government in the United States, Dr. HJALMAR LUNDBOHM, is well known to Washington geologists as the Director of the iron mines of Kiruna, Sweden, and author of papers on the geology of these ores. Dr. LUNDBOHм gave a talk on the Kiruna ores at the Petrologists' Club on December 18, 1917. Representative S. D. FESS of Ohio re-introduced on December 11, 1917, the bill for a national university. The bill provides $500,000 for such a university for the fiscal years 1918 and 1919. The institution would be governed by a board of trustees in cooperation with an advisory council representing the states. It would confer no academic degrees and would accept only students of postgraduate standing. The Patent Office Society of Washington has taken an active interest in the proposed Institute for the History of Science,1 realizing the great aid obtainable from such an institution in the administration of the patent laws, as well as its general usefulness in aid of scientific. investigation and the teaching of science. The Board of Managers of the Washington Academy of Sciences has voted its concurrence with the Patent Office Society in urging the location of the proposed Institute in Washington. 1 See Science, N. S. 45: 284, 635. 1917. ANNOUNCEMENT OF MEETINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED SOCIETIES Tuesday, February 5: The Botanical Society, at the New Ebbit Hotel, at 8.15 p. m. Program: The retiring President, T. H. KEARNEY, will deliver an address on Plant life on saline soils. Saturday, February 9: The Biological Society, at the Cosmos Club, at 8 p. m. Tuesday, February 12: The Anthropological Society, at the Public Library. Program: JOSEPH DUNN: Scotland. Wednesday, February 13: The Geological Society, at the Cosmos Club, at 8 p.m. Thursday, February 14, at the Cosmos Club, at 8 p. m. Program: GRINNELL JONES, of the Tariff Commission: Work of the Tariff Commission and its relation to the chemical industries. D. B. JONES, Bureau of Chemistry: Hydrolysis of Kafarine. Saturday, February 16: The Philosophical Society, at the Cosmos Club, at 8.15 p. m. Program: H. E. MERWIN, of the Geophysical Laboratory: Complementary colors and the properties of pigments. 30 min. I. G. PRIEST, of the Bureau of Standards: The photometry of lights of different colors. Illustrated. 20 min. B. C. KADEL, of the Weather Bureau: Some simplifications in recording instruments. 15 min. The programs of the meetings of the affiliated Societies will appear on this page if sent to the editors by the thirteenth and the twenty-seventh day of each month. Chemistry.-Methods of gas warfare. S. J. M. AULD.. Botany.-Blepharidium, a new genus of Rubiaceae from Guatemala. PAUL C. Zoology. A key to the Philippine subspecies of Obba marginata with notes This JOURNAL, the official organ of the Washington Academy of Sciences, aims to present a brief record of current scientific work in Washington. To this end it publishes: (1) short original papers, written or communicated by members of the Academy; (2) a complete list of references to current scientific articles published in or emanating from Washington; (3) short abstracts of certain of these articles; (4) proceedings and programs of meetings of the Academy and affiliated Societies; (5) notes of events connected with the scientific life of Washington. The JOURNAL is issued semi-monthly, on the fourth and nineteenth of each month, except during the summer when it appears on the nineteenth only. Volumes correspond to calendar years. Prompt publication is an essential feature; a manuscript reaching the editors on the second or the seventeenth of the month will ordinarily appear, on request from the author, in the next issue of the JOURNAL. Manuscripts may be sent to any member of the Board of Editors; they should be clearly typewritten and in suitable form for printing without essential changes. The editors cannot undertake to do more than correct obvious minor errors. References should appear only as footnotes and should include year of publication. Illustrations will be used only when necessary and will be confined to text figures or diagrams of simple character. The editors, at their discretion, may call upon an author to defray the cost of his illustrations, although no charge will be made for printing from a suitable cut supplied with the manuscript. Proof-In order to facilitate prompt publication no proof will be sent to authors unless requested. It is urged that manuscript be submitted in final form; the editors will exercise due care in seeing that copy is followed. Authors' Copies and Reprints.-On request the author of an original article will receive gratis ten copies of the number containing his contribution and as many additional copies as he may desire at ten cents each. Reprints will be furnished at the following schedule of prices: Covers bearing the name of the author and title of the article, with inclusive pagination and date of issue, will be $2.00 for the first 100. Additional covers $1.00 per 100. As an author may not see proof, his request for extra copies or reprints should invariably be attached to the first page of his manuscript. Remittances should be made payable to "Washington Academy of Sciences, and addressed to the Treasurer, William Bowie, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D. C., to Williams & Wilkins Company, 2419-2421 Greenmount Ave., Baltimore, Md., or to the European Agents. European Agents: William Wesley & Son, 28 Essex St., Strand, London, and Mayer and Müller, Prinz Louis-Ferdinand Str., Berlin. Exchanges.-The JOURNAL does not exchange with other publications. Missing Numbers will be replaced without charge, provided that claim is made within thirty days after date of the following issue. Volume I, however, from July 19, 1911, to December 19, 1911, will be sent for $3.00. Special rates are given to members of scientific societies affiliated with the Academy. THE WAVERLY PRESS |