undertaken and the monthly Journal of the American Ceramic Society is the logical result. The first number is a very attractively prepared journal of seventy-two pages. It is well edited and well printed on good paper. The contents of the first number are as follows: Editorials: To the Public The Fuel Curtailment Orders The National Research Council Edward Orton, Jr. Original Papers and Discussions: Kaolin in Quebec-Keele Special Pots for the Melting of Optical Glass— Bleininger. The Effect of Gravitation upon the Drying of Ceramic Ware-Washburn Test of a Producer Gas-Fired Periodic KilnHarrop Notes on the Hydration of Anhydrite and Dead-Burned Gypsum-Gill Meetings of the Local Sections, American Ceramic Society The present officers of the society are: Vice-president—A. F. Greaves-Walker, Trustees A. F. Hottinger, Membership in the society is open to any one interested in any branch of the ceramic industries and application should be made to the society. All members receive the Journal gratis. C. F. B. ENGLISH VITAL STATISTICS THE Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the English registrar-general's seventy-ninth annual report on vital statistics for the year 1916, which has just been published, is of unusual interest, because in that year the war existed long enough to affect the figures considerably. The birth rate was 20.9 per thousand living, and was the lowest on record. It was 4.6 below the average for the ten years 1905-1914 (which were practically unaffected by the war). On the whole, the reduction of natality, which amounted to about 12 per cent. on the figures for 1914, is less than might have been expected, and compares favorably with the experience of other belligerent countries. The civilian death rate was 14.1 per thousand living, and was slightly below the average of the decennium before the war. The rate of 1916 is considered to be the lowest recorded, provided allowance is made for the effect of enlistment on the population. The standardized mortality of males ordinarily exceeds that of females. Up to 1860 the excess was not more than 9 per cent.; but in 1916, in consequence of the war, the excess amounted to 32 per cent. The most remarkable feature is the low death rate in the first quinquennium of life. It was much lower than any previously recorded, and was less than half the rate prevailing in the concluding years of the last century. The all-age mortality from typhoid and from scarlet fever was the lowest on record, while diphtheria and influenza were more fatal than the average. But the death rate from tuberculosis showed a further advance on the high rate of 1915, although the increase did not extend to young children, the mortality under 5 years being the lowest hitherto recorded. Cancer was more fatal in 1916 than in any other year, and cerebrospinal fever continued to be abnormally destructive. In view of the loss of life in the war statistics of childhood are of unusual importance. The births in England and Wales in 1916 were in the proportion of 1,049 males to 1,000 females, against 1,033 to 1,000 in the preceding five years. This proportion is by far the highest recorded during the last half century. It certainly bears out the old view, regarded by some as a superstition, that war increases the proportion of male births because nature endeavors to compensate for the loss of male life in warfare. Of the deaths at all ages, 41.1 per cent. were those of infants under the age of 1 year. These deaths correspond to a mortality rate of 91 per thousand births, the lowest ever recorded. It was below the average in the preceding decennium by 20 per cent. This decline was in part due to low diarrheal fatality, but the greater part of it is accounted for under other diseases less subject to climatic influences. The mortality in infants from tuberculosis was 2.39 per thousand births, much the lowest on record. WAR COMMITTEE OF TECHNICAL SOCIETIES THERE has been organized a war committee of technical societies consisting of the following members: American Society of Civil Engineers, Nelson P. Lewis, Major James M. Boyle; American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Harold W. Buck, Dr. A. S. McAllister; American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Professor A. M. Greene, Jr., R. N. Inglis; American Institute of Mining Engineers, David W. Brunton, Edmund B. Kirby; American Gas Institute, Dana D. Barnum, E. C. Uhlig; American Electrochemical Society, Joseph Bijur, Dr. Chas. A. Doremus; Illuminating Engineering Society, Louis B. Marks, Preston S. Millar; Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, Christopher R. Corning, George C. Stone; American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, Henry Torrance, F. E. Matthews; American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Dr. Chas. F. McKenna, Frank E. Dodge. The chairman, D. W. Brunton, has addressed the following letter: The men who, at the call of patriotism and duty, have joined the colors, are not only risking their lives, but are cheerfully sacrificing their careers and in many instances their financial interests to protect the honor of the nation. It, therefore, becomes the duty of those of us who, for various reasons, are unable to enlist, to do something more than our share in keeping the machinery of industry moving. Other wars have been fought only on land and sea, but in this conflict the combatant areas have been greatly extended by the advent of submarines, flying machines and even subterranean warfare. In previous wars the armies and navies of belligerents were practically the only forces engaged; in this war the full economic strength of nations is drawn into the contest and every branch of scientific and industrial effort is taxed to the utmost. Intensifying production and conserving the supply of food and clothing constitute service within the reach of all, but the engineers, electricians and chemists of this country can go a step further and utilize their technical training to de velop such new devices and improvements, equipment and methods as will give our Army and Navy that superiority which will assure victory. Inventive talent in this country is by no means confined to the membership of our societies; members who have employees or acquaintances of an originative turn of mind should make an effort to stimulate that most useful talent by passing on to such persons the bulletins as they are received, and also by calling attention to the numerous ably written articles on the mechanical phases of the war, published in technical and popular magazines. In the world-conflict which is going on to-day the three dominating factors, the submarine, the automatic machine gun and the flying machine, are all American inventions. This nation is still in its youth and can therefore be expected to do in future still greater things than it has done in the past. War is a new occupation to us, but under the stimulus and pressure of its necessity, we should advance as far in the arts of war during the next two years as we normally would in twenty. Some of the civilian engineers of this country are now rendering great service to the government through the agencies of the Council of National Defense, the Naval Consulting Board, the National Research Council and their numerous auxiliary committees, but unfortunately only a small proportion of the technical men of this country are so situated that they can go to Washington and engage in this service; therefore, some means of utilizing the patriotism and originative thought of our members had to be devised. For this purpose the War Committee of Technical Societies has been organized, and it hopes to give the members of the technical societies who are obliged to stay at home, an opportunity to use their inventive talent and technical training in the study of the varied problems which arise in the preparation for and prosecution of the war-thus making valuable contributions to the national cause. The greatest care will be taken to discover and utilize everything of value that may inhere in suggestions and inventions submitted. Not only will they receive studious examination, but when neccessary, trials and experiments will be conducted. All inventions which have successfully passed the necessary examinations and tests are turned over to the particular department of the Army and Navy Service where they may be most profitably utilized. D. W. BRUNTON, Chairman THE NEED FOR NUTRITION OFFICERS IN MILITARY CAMPS THE Surgeon-General has been authorized to station in each of the larger military camps and cantonments in this country a nutrition officer whose duties will be those of an adviser to the camp commander, the camp surgeon and the camp quartermaster on all matters relating to the nutritive value of foods. There is still need for a considerable number of men well trained in food chemistry and physiology of nutrition, who can qualify as lieutenants and captains in the Sanitary Corps for this assignment. Upon receiving commissions these officers will be given training for a period at the Medical Officers' Training Camp, Camp Greenleaf, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and will then be subject to appointment as nutrition officers, or to duty of a similar nature overseas. This work has proved to be of signal importance in the interest of proper nutrition of the soldiers and of the economic use of foods both in this country and overseas. Application for information should be made to Lieutenant Colonel John R. Murlin, Sanitary Corps, Office of the Surgeon General, 7th and B Sts., NW., Washington, D. C. The following officers of the Division of Food and Nutrition of the Medical Department, U. S. Army, are on duty overseas: Majors Phillip A. Shaffer, A. J. Carlson, Ernest B. Forbes, John P. Street. Captains Frank C. Gephart, Walter H. Eddy, Fred F. Flanders, J. Garfield Riley, Ernest L. Scott, Leon A. Congdon, H. A. Mattill, F. B. Kingsbury, Marion G. Mastin, Arthur W. S. Thomas, Drury L. Weatherhead. Lieutenants Cleon C. Mason, Willard R. Line, C. A. Cajori, A. G. Hogan, S. C. Dinsmore, A. A. Reithwiesner, A. F. Wussow, F. J. Funk, L. V. Burton and A. A. Schaal, Sanitary Corps. Lieutenants A. D. Shohl, Rolla B. Hill, R. W. Bury and A. T. Hipps, Medical Reserve Corps. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. EDWARD A. SPITZKA has been promoted to be lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps, U. S. A. MR. WILLIAM BOWIE, hydrographic and geodetic engineer and chief of the division of geodesy of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, has been commissionel a major in the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army and has been assigned to duty in the department of map making. PROFESSOR ROSS P. ANDERSON, of Cornell University, has received a captaincy in the Chemical Warfare Service of the United States Army and has been sent to France. For the last year, Captain Anderson has been absent from Cornell on leave, carrying investigations on the removal of gasoline from natural gas for the United Natural Gas Company, of Oil City, Pa. While at Cornell he had charge of the courses in gas analysis. CAPTAIN J. F. MCCLENDON, Sanitary Corps, U. S. A., has been ordered to Camp Fremont, Menlo Park, California, to serve as nutrition officer of that camp. He has leave of absence for the period of the war from his position as associate professor of physiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. A. H. HOLT, of the college of applied science, University of Iowa, has been appointed captain in the Engineering Corps of the Army and is stationed at Camp Lee, Va. DR. FLOYD K. RICHTMYER, assistant professor of physics at Cornell University, has left Ithaca to accept a temporary civilian appointment as radio engineer in the Signal Corps of the United States Army at Washington. The appointment was made as a result of research work done by Professor Richtmyer this summer. He plans to return to Ithaca before the university reopens in October. THE experimental ammonia plant and laboratory of the Bureau of Soils at Arlington, Virginia, has been transferred to the Nitrate Division of the Ordnance Department of the Army. The work is in charge of Dr. R. O. E. Davis and Mr. L. H. Greathouse. DR. WILLIAM T. MCCARTY has been appointed physical director of the aviation unit at Mineola, N. Y. MR. STEPHEN C. BRUNER, formerly assistant pathologist at the Estación Experimental Agronómica, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba, has been appointed pathologist to succeed Mr. John R. Johnston, now head of the Office of Sanadad Vegetal, Habana. DR. VERN B. STEWART has accepted an appointment in the Bureau of Plant Pathology at Washington, and is now engaged in work on the pathological aspects of market inspection of vegetables. MISS ZELMA ZENTMIRE has been appointed to fill the place of J. J. Hinman, water chemist and bacteriologist at the University of Iowa, who leaves soon for service in the Sanitary Corps of the Army. H. F. TAYLOR, assistant for developing fisheries and for saving and use of fishery products in the Bureau of Fisheries, has visited Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago for the purpose of studying the equipment of industrial laboratories and the assemblage of equipment to be installed in the Bureau's laboratory when built. THE University of Pennsylvania expedition to the hitherto unknown Indian tribes in the mountains between Venezuela and Colombia in charge of Theodore De Booy, curator of the University Museum, has returned, having accomplished its purpose in a much shorter time than was believed possible. This was due largely to the assistance of the Venezuelan government. ACCORDING to a press dispatch Vilhjalmar Stefansson, arrived at Dawson, Yukon, on August 29. He is recovering from his serious illness and intends to make a Red Cross lecture tour, beginning in New York in October. THE Royal College of Surgeons, London, has accepted the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians to appoint a joint committee to consider the proposals for the establishment of a Ministry of Health. This committee has co-opted representatives of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, and Dr. Hamer, London, Dr. H. R. Kenwood, Chadwick professor of hygiene in the University of London, and Dr. Robertson, Birmingham, will join the committee. The representatives of the college of physicians are the president, Dr. Norman Moore, Sir Bertrand Dawson, Sir J. F. H. Broadbent, and Dr. Ormerod (registrar). The representatives of the college of surgeons are the president, Sir George Makins, Sir Berkeley Moynihan, Mr. Waring and Mr. Ryall. THE trustees of Cornell University have passed resolutions in memory of Professor Henry Shaler Williams, in which they say: As a teacher he was very conscientious; he was especially strong as a teacher in his laboratory, where his close personal attention and his constructive criticism gave his students a training of incalculable value. As an investigator he attained a very high rank. His studies of Devonian paleontology, of the geological history of organisms, and of the evolution and geographical and geological modification of fossil faunas stand out as important contributions to the literature of these subjects. He was honored by election to the more important American and foreign geological societies. Although his devotion to his students and his attainments as an investigator gave him eminence, yet to those of us associated with him he will be remembered especially because of his personality. His sweetness and gentleness of character and his thoughtfulness of others won him the love of all who were so happy as to know him. DR. BYRON D. HALSTED, for nearly thirty years professor of botany in Rutgers College and botanist for the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, died at his home in New Brunswick, N. J., on the night of August 27, as the result of paralysis. PROFESSOR F. P. TREADWELL, the author of widely used text-books of analytical chemistry, died suddenly of heart-disease at his home in Zürich, Switzerland, on June 24 last. Treadwell was an American by birth (1857, Portsmouth, N. H.), but spent most of his life abroad. His professional activity after serving as Bunsen's lecture assistant from 1878 to 1871 was at the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule in Zürich. THE death is reported of M. Maurice Chevreux, the naval engineer. M. Chevreux laid claim to having drawn the plans of the first Zeppelin which succeeded in navigating the air. THE Board of Agriculture of Great Britain has made an order authorizing in England and Wales the killing on and after August 1, until the next close season, of certain migratory wild birds to increase the food supply. THE twelfth annual report of the British Science Guild has been published, and copies can be obtained (price 1s. each) on application to the secretary, British Science Guild, 199, Piccadilly, W. London. The report contains addresses by Lord Sydenham, Sir Henry Newbolt and Sir Algernon Firth, delivered at the recent annual meeting of the guild, with particulars of the British Scientific Products Exhibition which is being organized by the guild, and memoranda on the British dye industry, the introduction of the metric system, scholarships for higher education, the teaching of science and other subjects. As has been noted in SCIENCE active steps are being taken with a view to the establishment at Cambridge of an Institute of Agricultural Botany, the primary function of which will be the breeding and distributing of im proved varieties of agricultural crops. We learn from Nature that the scheme in question was very fully described by Mr. Lawrence Weaver, of the Board of Agriculture, at a meeting of the Agricultural Seed Association held on July 15. It appears that the new institute will be modelled on the famous Swedish plant-breeding station at Svälof, and that its activities will be to follow two distinct lines, one of which will be purely scientific, while the other will have a commercial outlook. More precisely, the scientific wing will be concerned with the producing of pure cultures of new varieties on the field-plot scale; the economic wing will deal with the growing and distribution on a large scale of these varieties. Presumably, on the Svälof model, the scientific side will oversee the operations of the commercial to the extent of guaranteeing the purity of the stocks distributed by the latter. It has been announced that subscriptions towards the establishment of the new institute amounting in the aggregate to upwards of £30,000, have already been received, including a sum of £10,000 down and £2,000 a year for five years from the firm of Sir Robert McAlpine and Sons. It has also been announced that the Board of Agriculture will provide the necessary buildings and equipment. A TEMPORARY exhibition was opened in a few of the galleries of the British Museum on August 1. The exhibition galleries were closed by order of the government as a measure of economy in the spring of 1916, and, owing to the necessity of increased precautions against air raids, all the most valuable objects have been removed to places of greater safety. The trustees, however, have deeply regretted the closing of their doors to visitors, and especially to soldiers from the oversea Dominions. An exhibition has accordingly been arranged, consisting chiefly of casts and facsimiles, which it is hoped will both be instructive in itself and representative of some parts of the treasures of the British Museum. The exhibition will include Greek sculpture, classical coins, British coins and medals, historical documents and autographs (naval and military), illuminated manuscripts, early Bibles and other printed books of interest and beauty. If the experiment of reopening is successful, it may be possible to extend it later to other galleries of the Museum. The exhibition is open from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. and from 2 to 5, each week day. A guide-book to the exhibition is in preparation and photographs and museum publications are obtainable in the entrance hall. A SPECIAL general meeting of the Royal Society was called on July 31 to consider the advisability of expelling enemy foreign members, and notice of the following motion to be submitted to the meeting was given by Sir George Beilby and Dr. M. O. Forster: That, in view of the war having continued during nearly four years without any indication that the scientific men of Germany are unsympathetic towards the abominable malpractises of their government and their fellow-countrymen, and having regard to the representative character of the Royal Society among British scientific bodies, as recognized by the patronage of his Majesty the King, the council forthwith take steps necessary for removing all enemy aliens from the foreign membership of the society. The London Times says: Although Sir George Beilby and Dr. Forster are both members of |