of chemical research for new gases and protection against known gases which has been carried on by the Bureau of Mines. All testing and experiment stations will be under the direction of the Chemical Warfare Service.

The responsibility of providing chemists for all branches of the government and assisting in the procurement of chemists for industries essential to the success of the war and government has been intrusted to the Chemical Warfare Service.

All chemists now in the Army will be removed from their units and placed under the authority of the Chemical Warfare Service. Newly drafted chemists will be assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service.

Authority to assign enlisted men or commissioned chemists to establishments manufacturing for the government has been granted to the new section.

THE ORGANIZATION OF PHYSICIANS FOR WAR SERVICE

THE Council of National Defense authorizes the following:

As the first step in a nation-wide campaign to enroll every doctor in the United States in the Medical Reserve Corps of the Army, the Naval Reserve Force, or the Volunteer Medical Service Corps members of the committees of the Medical Section, Council of National Defense, for the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia met at the Hotel Washington in Washington. At this meeting the state representatives discussed with the representatives of the Council of National Defense details of the plan to be followed and received instructions.

This meeting is the first of a series, the United States having been divided into eight groups. The work will be subdivided among the state and county representatives of the Medical Section, Council of National Defense, in each state, and every doctor in the country who has so far not done so will be asked to apply for membership in the Medical Reserve Corps of the Army, Naval Reserve Force, or the Volunteer Medical Service Corps. El

igible to the Volunteer Medical Service Corps are all those who would be eligible to the Medical Reserve Corps were it not for being over the age of 55, physical disability, community or institutional need, or dependents. Women doctors are eligible to the Volunteer Medical Service Corps.

The states included in the various groups are as follows:

Group No. 1.-Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut.

Group No. 2.-New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia.

Group No. 3.-Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin.

Group No. 4.-Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi.

Group No. 5.-Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming.

Group No. 6.-Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado.

Group No. 7.-Washington, Oregon, Idaho. Group No. 8.-Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico.

By authority of Surgeon-General Gorgas, of the Army; Surgeon-General Braisted, of the Navy; and Surgeon-General Blue, of the United States Public Health Service; Dr. Franklin Martin, chairman of the general medical board of the Council of National Defense, has appointed the following committee on classification of the medical profession of the United States for military and civil purposes. Colonel R. B. Miller, Marine Corps, United States Army; Colonel V. C. Vaughan, Marine Corps, National Army; LieutenantColonel H. D. Arnold, Marine Corps National Army; Surgeon R. C. Ramsdell, United States Navy; Surgeon J. R. Phelps, United States Navy; Dr. Joseph Schoreschowsky, United States Public Health Service; Dr. Otto P. Geier, Dr. John D. McLean and Dr. C. E. Sawyer. Ex officio: Surgeon-General W. C. Gorgas, United States Army; Surgeon-General W. C. Braisted, United States Navy;

Surgeon-General Rupert Blue, United States Public Health Service; Lieutenant-Colonel F. F. Simpson and Dr. Franklin Martin.

This committee is authorized to meet at regular intervals and to cooperate with the committee on states activities, the state and county committees, and other agencies and societies engaged in advisory or executive functions dealing with classifications and enrollment for military, industrial and home needs.

THE STERLING BEQUEST TO YALE UNI-
VERSITY

THE residuary estate of John W. Sterling, which it is said will amount to $15,000,000, has been left by the terms of his will to Yale University. Mr. Sterling, who was of the law firm of Shearman & Sterling, died on July 5 while staying in Canada at the fishing lodge of Lord Mount Stephen. Of the remaining $5,000,000, $1,000,000 goes to the Miriam A. Osborn Memorial Home at Rye, N. Y., and $4,000,000 to relatives, friends, employees and charities. The clause which gives the residue of the estate to Yale University is this:

All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate not hereinbefore effectually disposed of, I direct my said trustees to dispose of in the manner following:

To apply the same, as soon after my decease as may be practicable, to the use and for the benefit of Yale University, in the erection in New Haven, Conn., upon land selected at its expense by it with the approval of my said trustees, of at least one enduring, useful and architecturally beautiful edifice, which will constitute a fitting memorial of my gratitude to and affection for my alma mater. The said trustees shall have entire liberty and discretion to apply any portion of the said property or its proceeds to the erection of a single building, and they shall apply the balance of said property, if any, to the erection and equipment of other fine and enduring buildings for the use of students in the academical or graduate departments, and, to some extent, to the foundation of scholarships, fellowships or lectureships, the endowment of new professorships, and the establishment of special funds for prizes.

In case I erect or provide during my lifetime for the erection of such a memorial edifice as is described in the first part of this article XXVIII., my trustees shall not be required to erect an additional memorial building, though they shall have complete power to apply my said residuary estate for the benefit of the said university to the erection of other edifices of a memorial character or to the other purposes specified in subdivision I. All buildings erected as aforesaid shall be made fireproof and shall be constructed in the most substantial manner.

Mr. Sterling was graduated from Yale in 1864. His bequest is the largest ever made to an American university, and the amount has only been exceeded by the gifts of Mr. Rockefeller to the University of Chicago and of Mr. and Mrs. Stanford to Stanford University.

MEMORIAL TO JOSIAH ROYCE

SOME of the personal friends and colleagues of Josiah Royce, who believe that his work and his character made a deep impression upon a wide circle of men and women, and that he became in fact the center of a large spiritual community, many of whose members were unknown to him, as he was unknown personally to them, feel that the reverence and affection which went out to him as a thinker and as a man should be embodied in some appropriate memorial of him at Harvard University, where he expressed himself in characteristic speech and writing for thirty years.

It is proposed, with this end in view, to create a fund of $20,000, to be known as the Josiah Royce Memorial Fund, the income of which shall go to Mrs. Royce during her life

time, and thereafter to the department of philosophy of Harvard College, to be used in such ways as the department shall decide from year to year.

There are evident reasons why this appeal should not be delayed until the return of normal conditions, natural as such postponement might on some accounts appear to be. And further, the due honoring of our moral heroes, though a privilege under all circumstances is

especially a privilege and a duty in heroic times.

Those who desire to subscribe may send their checks to Charles Francis Adams, Esq., treasurer of Harvard College, 50 State Street, Boston. CHARLES W. ELIOT,

CHARLES P. BOWDITCH,

president, American Academy Arts and Sciences, JOHN GRIER HIBBEN,

president, Princeton University,

R. F. ALFRED HOERNLE, chairman, Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Harvard University, LAWRENCE J. HENDERSON,

secretary, The Royce Club, JAMES J. PUTNAM, M.D. E. E. SOUTHARD, M.D. WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS PROFESSOR A. A. MICHELSON, head of the department of physics, University of Chicago, has been commissioned as lieutenant-commander in the navy.

DR. RICHARD C. MACLAURIN, president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has accepted the appointment of director of college training, in charge of the Students' Army Training Corps under the War Department's Committee on Education and Special Training aiming to mobilize the higher institutions of learning.

PROFESSOR JULIUS STIEGLITZ, chairman of the department of chemistry at the University of Chicago, has been appointed as special expert in the United States Public Health Service of the Treasury Department. This will not involve his work at the university. The government assigns him two assistants, who will be in the employ of the Public Health Service and will carry out their work in Kent Chemical Laboratory under Professor Stieglitz's direction.

MAJOR ANTON J. CARLSON, chairman of the department of physiology at the University of

Chicago, who is now in the Sanitary Corps of the National Army attached to the Food Division of the Surgeon General's Office, is at present on duty in England, making a study of food conditions in the rest camps of the United States Army.

M. K. AKERS, professor of applied electricity, at the State College of Washington, has been granted leave of absence for the duration of the war. He is now conducting research work in the development department of the Western Electric Company of New York. Harry L. Cole, instructor in chemistry at the State College of Washington, has been recommended for leave of absence during the period of the war, and is now training in the aviation camp at Berkeley, California.

THE Royal Society of Arts has awarded the Albert Medal for 1918 to Sir Richard Tetley Glazebrook, C.B., Sc.D., F.R.S., "for his services in the application of science to the industries of peace and war, by his work as director of the National Physical Laboratory since 1899, and as chairman of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics." The society's Albert medal, founded in 1863 to commemorate the presidency of Prince Albert, has been awarded annually "for distinguished merit in promoting arts, manufactures and commerce."

OXFORD UNIVERSITY has conferred the degree of master of arts honoris causa on John Louis Emil Dreyer, Copenhagen, late director of the Armagh Observatory.

THE Birmingham medal of the British Institution of Gas Engineers, has been presented to Mr. John West, of Southport. Mr. West, who is eighty years of age, has been awarded the medal in connection with his work for the gas industry and Ministry of Munitions.

THE David Livingstone Centenary medal of the American Geographical Society has been awarded to Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon in recognition of his valuable work of exploration in South America.

MR. HERBERT SAMUEL, M.P., has been elected president of the Royal Statistical Society of Great Britain.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM NORTH RICE, for the past fifty years professor of geology at Wesleyan University, is retiring from active work.

DR. S. J. BARNETT has resigned his post as professor of physics at the Ohio State University in order to accept the position of physicist-in-charge of experimental work at the department of terrestrial magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He entered upon his new work at Washington, on July 15.

THE series of War Lectures given in July at the University of Chicago include the following: James Rowland Angell, head of the department of psychology, spoke on July 2, on "Psychology in the Service of the Army." On the same date J. Laurence Laughlin, professor emeritus of political economy, discussed "Economic War Lessons for the United States." On July 3 Professor Julius Stieglitz, chairman of the department of chemistry, discussed Chemistry as a Factor in Modern Warfare." On July 5 Dean Rollin D. Salisbury, of the Ogden Graduate School of Science, presented "The Contributions of Geology to the War." On July 9 "Infectious Diseases and the War" was discussed by Edwin Oakes Jordan, chairman of the Department of hygiene and bacteriology.

THE faculty of the school of medicine of the University of Pittsburgh, have passed the following resolution in appreciation of Dr. R. E. Sheldon, who died on July 9:

Through the sudden death of Dr. Ralph Edward Sheldon, professor of anatomy, the school of medicine of the University of Pittsburgh has lost one of its efficient teachers, an indefatigable worker, and a man of resolution who has reaped abundant success. Dr. Sheldon's death has closed an active career, which was ascending to its acme in the mid-period of life. His work in the special field of neurology was gaining for him an eminent place with the leaders in this branch of research; his enthusiasm in building up his department was unbounded and his wide interest in the sphere of higher education was ever active. His colleagues deeply appreciated him in his work and as a loyal and trusted friend, and closely followed the growth of his successors. The medical faculty look forward to the publication of his book on neurol

ogy which will stand as the monument of his efforts.

Be it resolved that this appreciation of affection from his colleagues and associates be entered upon the minutes of this faculty meeting and the expression of their deep sorrow at his loss be extended to the members of his family.

DR. RICHARD RATHBUN, since 1897 assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and since 1899, in charge of the National Museum, died on July 16, aged sixty-six years.

PROFESSOR POZzi, a distinguished gynecologist and surgeon, on June 13, at the age of seventy-two years, was murdered in his consulting room by a lunatic patient, who thereupon committed suicide.

A CABLEGRAM was received on July 16 at the Harvard College Observatory from Professor B. Baillaud, director of the Paris Observatory, stating that Wolf's periodic comet was observed by Jonckheere, at Greenwich, in the following position:

July 9.508 G.M.T. R.A. 20h 35m 13* Dec. + 24°

It was first reported by the Yerkes Observatory in California after an absence of seven years.

THE daily papers state that Professor Vincent read recently before the Paris Academy of Sciences a paper in which he described the preparation of a new serum which it is stated has proved effective even in desperate cases of gas gangrene.

A SPECIAL emergency act to give the government control over all platinum in the United States was recommended by members of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives on July 1, after hearing further evidence of the short supply of the metal. Chairman Kitchin told the committee he believed the measure should be enacted immediately instead of waiting for the enactment of the revenue bill, which may impose a heavy tax on all platinum users. Members of the committee agreed the situation was serious enough to warrant prompt action to provide a sufficient supply of the metal for war manufacture.

SIR BERNARD MALLET, the Registrar-General of Great Britain, delivered a lecture recently at the Royal Institute of Public Health on "The effects of the war as shown in vital statistics." Dealing with the decline in the birthrate due to the war, he said that in England and Wales the births registered in 1913 numbered 881,890. In 1915 they fell to 814,614. In 1916 there was a further fall to 780,520, the slightness of the fall from the previous year being due to the increase in marriages in 1915, when the number celebrated reached the "record" figure of 360,885. In 1917 the births registered fell to 668,346, a decline from the 1913 figure of 24 per cent. Up to the present there had been lost in England and Wales in potential lives, on the standard of 1913, 650,000. He thought that it would be long before the birth-rate reached the figure that obtained before the war. Serious as this loss is to the coming generations in Great Britain, he continued, there is reason to believe that it had suffered less in this direction than the other belligerent nations. In terms of percentages of loss on the pre-war population it may be assumed that Germany has lost in potential lives the equivalent of 4.5 per cent. of its total pre-war population, Austria 5 per cent., and Hungary 7 per cent. The statement may be hazarded that the present war, by the fall of

births it has occasioned, cost the belligerent countries of Europe not less than 12 millions of potential lives. While the war has filled the graves, it has emptied the cradles. At the present time, every day that the war continues means the loss of 7,000 potential lives to the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Central Empires.

TECHNICALLY trained men and women are needed for the examining corps of the Patent Office. Those are wanted who have a scientific education, particularly in higher mathematics, chemistry, physics and French or German, and who are not subject to the draft for military service. Engineering or teaching experience in addition to the above is valued. The entrance salary is $1,500. Examinations for the position of assistant examiner are held

frequently by the Civil Service Commission at many points in the United States. One is announced for August 21 and 22, 1918. Details of the examination, places of holding the same, etc., may be had upon application to the Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C., or to the Patent Office. Should the necessity therefore arise temporary appointments of qualified persons may be made pending their taking the Civil Service examination. Application for such appointment should be made to the Patent Office.

OPPORTUNITIES in government work for women include the following, announced by the United States Civil Service Commission: Bacteriologist: Vacancies in Public Health Service, at $1,800 a year. Applicants must have graduated from a college or university of recognized standing in a course including biology and bacteriology and have had at least two years postgraduate experience in practical bacteriologic laboratory methods. Biochemist: The United States Civil Service Commission announces an open competitive examination for biochemist for both men and women for duty in Washington or elsewhere, at salaries ranging from $1,800 to $3,000 a year. Certification to fill the higher-salaried positions will be made from those attaining

the highest average percentages in the examinations. Competitors will not be required to report at any place but will be rated on education and experience and publications or thesis to be filled with application.

THERE are still many elements of uncertainty in the search for oil pools, but some of these are reduced to a minimum in regions where rock outcrops are conspicuous and the relation of the oil pools to the structure of the rocks is relatively simple. These are the conditions in the Big Horn Basin, Wyo., a report on which has recently been published by the United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, as Bulletin 656, (6 Anticlines in the southern part of the Big Horn Basin, Wyo." The report is one of a series on the existing and prospective oil fields of the state, several of which have already been published.