June retired from the chair of physics at Cornell University, was elected general secretary of the association. The other officers elected and a report of the meeting are given elsewhere in this issue.

DR. SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ was elected president of the American Psychological Association at the meeting held in Cambridge last week.

PROFESSOR RALPH B. PERRY, of Harvard University, was elected president of the American Philosophical Association at the meeting in Ithaca last week. Professor Alfred H. Jones, of Brown University, was elected secretary.

Ar the Boston meeting of the Paleontological Society, officers were elected as follows: President, F. B. Loomis, Amherst; Vice-presidents, C. C. Case, Ann Arbor; Ralph Arnold, Los Angeles; E. M. Kindle, Ottawa; Secretary, R. S. Bassler, Washington, D. C.; Treasurer, Richard S. Lull, New Haven; Editor, W. D. Matthew, New York.

Ar the Society of American Bacteriologists, also meeting in Boston, the following officers were elected: Dr. Charles Krumweide, of the research laboratory of the New York Health Department, president; Dr. F. C. Harrison, president of the MacDonald College in Montreal, vice-president; Dr. A. Parker Hitchens, of Indianapolis, was reelected secretary-treasurer, and Dr. J. W. M. Bunker was chosen assistant secretary, a new position in the organization. New members of the council are Dr. F. P. Gay, professor of pathology and bacteriology at the University of California, and Dr. C. G Bull, professor of immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene in Baltimore. A committee on national research was created, consisting of all the past presidents, with Dr. Bunker as executive secretary, and Dr. S. C. Prescott, of Boston, as chairman.

THE William H. Nichols medal of the American Chemical Society will be conferred on Dr. Irving Langmuir for his work on "the arrangement of electrons in atoms and molecules," at the March meeting of the New York Section of the society.

THE Perkin medal for 1919 has been awarded by the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry to Dr. Chas. F. Chandler, for his work on the standardization of kerosene. The committee in making the award called especial attention also to the work Professor Chandler, as head of the chemistry department of the school of mines at Columbia University, has done in training men for the chemical industry. The medal will be presented to Dr. Chandler, "dean of American chemists," at the regular meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry, American Section, at the Chemists' Club, New York City, on January 16.

DR. LOUIS A. BAUER will repeat his illustrated lecture on "The Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919, and the Einstein Effect" at the Johns Hopkins University, Monday afternoon, January 12; at Yale University, under the auspices of the Society of Sigma Xi on the evening of January 13; and at Brown University on the evening of January 16. At the stated meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston on January 14, he will give an illustrated address on Observations of the Solar Eclipse at Cape Palmas, Liberia, and other Stations."

AT the meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington on January 3 the following papers were read: Enoch Karrer: I. "Diffusion of light in a searchlight beam." II. "The contrast sensibility of the eye at low illumination." F. E. Wright: "The contrast sensibility of the eye as a factor in the resolving power of the microscope." L. A. Bauer: "Further results of observations of the solar eclipse of May 29. 1919.

SIR OLIVER LODGE delivered the TruemanWood lecture on 66 Some Possible Sources of Energy," at the Royal Society of Arts on December 10.

WE learn from Nature that on December 10, a memorial tablet with a medallion portrait and a suitable inscription was unveiled in memory of Sir Ramsay in the presence of Lady Ramsay and a large number of friends and members of the University of Glasgow.

The address of presentation was delivered by Professor G. G. Henderson, of the Regius chair of chemistry, and the custody of the memorial was accepted on behalf of the University Court by the vice-chancellor. The medallion is the work of Mr. Paulin, and is an excellent likeness; the design of the memorial is due to Sir John J. Burnet. The mural tablet is placed at the head of the great staircase leading to the Bute Hall and the Hunterian Museum. It is set in an arched recess lined with grey marble, and bears reliefs illustrating Sir William Ramsay's numerous decorations and honors.

THE trustees of the American Medical Association have made an appropriation of money to further meritorious research in subjects relating to scientific medicine and of practical interest to the medical profession, which otherwise could not be carried on to completion. Applications for grants should be sent to the Committee on Scientific Research, American Medical Association, 535 North Dearborn Street Chicago, before February 1, 1920, when action will be taken on the applications at hand.

WE learn from the Journal of the American Medical Association that on the initiative of Professors Forssner, Forssell, Holmgren and Dr. Key, of Stockholm, and Professors Quensel and Petrén, of Upsala, and Lund, a meeting was held recently to organize the Svenska Sällskapet for medicinsk forskning to promote scientific research in Sweden. Already 169 members are enrolled and the officers elected. They include a number of prominent laymen, directors of banks, consuls and others besides leading professors in the medical sciences. Professor Quensel in the opening address emphasized that the rapidly changing world has brought the necessity for new orientations and the blocking out of new routes, and he cited the saying, "If the human race can be perfected, it is in the medical sciences that the means for this must be sought." The aim of the new society is to provide funds for medical research, and the treasury starts with a donation of 5,000 crowns from a legacy.

THE next annual congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, which suspended these meetings during the war, is to be held at Brussels from May 20 to 24, inclusive, by invitation of the Burgomaster, M. Adolphe Max. Delegates will be invited from all the universities, municipalities and other public bodies in due course. Meanwhile, all wishing to take part should communicate with the Hon. Secretaries, the Royal Institute of Public Health, 37 Russell-square, London, W.C. 1.

THE magnetic-survey vessel Carnegie left Washington on October 9, on a two year cruise of 64,000 nautical miles. She arrived at her first port of call, Daker, Senegal, West Coast of Africa, on November 23, but owing to bubonic plague sailed a few days later and is now en-route to Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving there about the end of January. Mr. J. A. Fleming, Chief of the Magnetic Survey Division of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, has been designated to represent the director of the department in the inspection of the work and vessel at Buenos Aires, and he accordingly sailed from New York on December 31. The scientific personnel of the present cruise consists of the following: J. P. Ault, in command; H. F. Johnston, magnetician, second in command; Russell Pemberton, surgeon and observer; A. Thomas, H. R. Grummann and R. R. Mills, observers.

ACCORDING to the Journal of the American Medical Association during a recess in sessions of the International Conference of Women Physicians in New York, thirty-five distinguished women physicians from foreign countries visited the Johns Hopkins Hospital recently and studied facilities at the institution. The general program for the day was arranged by Dr. Florence R. Sabin, Baltimore, who received the delegates. The first inspection was of the gynecologic department, where Drs. Howard A. Kelley, Guy Hunner and Thomas S. Cullen acted as pilots. At the Harriet Lane Home, an exhibition of children's diseases was prepared. Dr. John J. Abel, gave a short address on the general subject of physiology, followed by a talk on dietetics by E.V. McCollum. Dr. George L.

Streeter gave a talk on embryology. Luncheon was served at 1 o'clock, after which Dr. Adolf Meyer, head of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, lectured on the work of his department. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to a study of the obstetric departments.

PROFESSOR GEORGE C. WHIPPLE, of Harvard University, as has been noted in SCIENCE, has been appointed director of the division of sanitation in the Bureau of Hygiene and Public Health of the League of Red Cross Societies. He has been granted leave of absence from Harvard University for the second half year and will go to Geneva in February, returning to Cambridge in September, 1920. The organization referred to will be virtually the Health Department of the League of Nations, and it will offer exceptional opportunities for sanitary engineers. Heretofore the Red Cross has chiefly engaged in relief work. It is now to add to this work that of preventing disease by improving sanitary conditions. Professor Whipple is a member of the engineering firm of Hazen, Whipple & Fuller, New York City. Another member of this firm, Colonel Francis F. Longley, has been appointed associate director of the division and will go to Geneva about the first of December in order to be ready to undertake emergency work in the Balkans should typhus fever break out there.

THE fall meeting of the Bureau of Personnel Research, which was recently held at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, was attended by representatives of the following cooperative concerns: the American Multigraph Sales Company, the American Rolling Mill Company, the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, the Carnegie Steel Company, the Commonwealth Edison Company, Crutchfield and Woolfolk, Equitable Life Insurance Company, B. F. Goodrich Company, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, H. J. Heinz Company, Kaufmann Department Stores, Miller Saw-Trimmer Company, Packard Motor Car Company, Philadelphia Company, Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company E. W. Woods Company, and The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Dr. Bingham, the

head of the division of applied psychology of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, was one of the speakers at the meeting.

A BILL recently has been passed by the Canadian House of Commons creating a federal department of health and providing for a minister of health and advisory committee. The authority of the department will extend to all matters affecting health within the jurisdiction of the Dominion of Canada.

AT the recent Bournemouth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science a meeting was held with the object of eliciting opinions as to whether the recently formed Scientific Research Association should be continued or wound up. Professor A. Gray presided over a small attendance. It was explained by Mr. A. C. Tansley, the acting secretary, that the functions of the new association were the establishment of adequate means of communication and coordination in science, the organization of the endowment for research, and publicity and propaganda. Circulars sent out last spring to 2,000 scientific people had elicited only 230 replies. There appeared to be a certain amount of hostility to the association on the part of leading scientific men, and there was apathy on the part of the general mass of scientific workers. No decision was arrived at, but Professor Gray said that they must press upon already existing bodies the desirability of conserving to the very utmost the interests of pure science.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

A SCHOOL of public hygiene has been established as a separate department of the University of Pennsylvania. This department, which has been under the supervision of the medical school, and which was the first school of public hygiene in America, will continue under the direction of Dr. Alexander C. Abbott as director.

A NEW $150,000 chemistry building has been completed at the State College of the University of Montana, Bozeman. Appropriate dedicatory exercises will be held on January 14. Professor W. F. Coover, head of the chemistry department of the Iowa State College, will de

liver the principal address. The occasion of the dedication marks the completion of twentyfive years of service in the institution by Professor W. M. Cobleigh, head of the department of chemistry.

DR. HAROLD HIBBERT has been appointed assistant professor of chemistry in the research department of organic chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

DR. LOUIS E. WISE has severed his connection with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, where he held a research position at their Jackson Laboratory, Wilmington, Del., and has accepted the position of professor of forest chemistry at the New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y.

DR. HARLAN H. YORK, head of the botanical department at Brown University, has resigned to take charge of similar work at the University of West Virginia, Morgantown, West Virginia. MR. G. H. HARDY, fellow and mathematical lecturer of Trinity College, Cambridge, has been appointed to the Savilian professorship of geometry at Oxford University.

DR. JOHN CRUICKSHANK, pathologist to the Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, has been appointed Georgina M'Robert lecturer in pathology in the University of Aberdeen.

PROFESSOR C. H. DESCH has been appointed professor of metallurgy at the University of Sheffield, in succession to Professor J. O. Arnold. Since September, 1918, Professor Desch has been professor of metallurgy in the Royal Technical College, Glasgow.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE A SPLENDID SERVICE

APART from the eminent contribution rendered to science and the Pan-American spirit by Dr. Branner in the publication of his fine geological map and monograph,1 it is a particularly distinguished and generous service to common American interests made by the Geological Society of America at the 1"'Outlines of the Geology of Brazil; to accompany the Geologic Map of Brazil," by John Caspar Branner, Bulletin Geological Society of America, Vol. 30, No. 2, June, 1919.

expense of its own treasury. For the first time the Geological Society has ventured so far afield and freely invested its resources in what might seem at passing glance purely the scientific welfare of an alien country; but it is not to be denied that the claim of fraternity had no little to do with the attitude of the Geological Society toward this enterprise. The bond of geological brotherhood between the United States and Brazil has been a long and strong one. Out of the little village of Aurora on Cayuga Lake, New York, came the first impulse toward the establishment of this tie, when the generosity of the late E. B. Morgan enabled a Cornell professor and some of his students in 1871 to begin the systematic study of the rock geology of the Amazonas valley.

Thus started the Brazilian careers of Professor Charles Fred Hartt and his young associates, Orville A. Derby, Herbert H. Smith and John C. Branner who joined the work in 1874, and their labors are now a historical part of the development of geology on the South American continent. So perhaps it is eminently appropriate that an American Geological Society should now come to the help of one of these pioneers in Brazilian geology and enable him to summarize and commemorate the results of his own and his associates' life-long work in that country. Dr. Derby became a Brazilian subject; Dr. Smith, after a life of rich experience as a scientific collector, recently met a tragic end. Upon Dr. Branner has fallen the mantle, for during his active years he has been a frequent visitor to Brazil and an unremitting student of her geology. To him thus comes the privilege of preparing the first geological map of the whole area of that vast country so far as exploration has gone, and of setting forth the conclusions drawn by himself and by many colleagues and collaborators in this great field.

This note is not intended to be a review or

critique of Dr. Branner's map. It is a most illuminating production, of necessity drawn on broad lines and with a few simple explanatory devices, thus intimating at a glance how much remains for future students of the

science in this fertile land. We applaud the author on his achievement; others may express this appreciation more analytically; but in this paragraph we acclaim the high-minded attitude of the Geological Society of America in making so wise a use of its money and so excellent a contribution to the common good of the Pan-American States and to geological science.

J. M. C.

WEIGHT OF BODY MOVING ALONG EQUATOR TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: A prominent engineer, Dr. Carl Herring, recently proposed to me the following question: "Does a body in motion along the earth's equator weigh less (or more) than the same body at rest?" Since this question, in some form or other, has come up several times in recent discussions, the following solution, although entirely elementary, may be not without interest.

Let us picture the body as supported by a string from the roof of a train running westward at speed v along the equator, and let S the tension in the string.

=

The question then is: What is the relation between 8 and v?

Let V (1,038 miles per hour) be the absolute velocity of a point on the earth's equator (neglecting the motion of the earth in its orbit and the motion of the solar system in space). Then V-v is the absolute velocity of the train (eastward) in a circular path of radius R (3,963 miles).

Hence, by a well-known formula of kinematics, (V-v)2/R= the absolute acceleration of the body toward the center of the earth.1 Further, let W = the ordinary weight of the body (that is, the value of the supporting force S when the train is at rest on the earth's

1 Dr. Hering's surprising statement in SCIENCE for October 24, 1919, implying that engineers do not generally recognize the idea of "acceleration" in a direction perpendicular to the path, is not borne out by an examination of engineering text-books, all of which (fortunately) define acceleration in the standard way as the rate of change of vector velocity. For further comment on Dr. Hering's paper, see Professor C. M. Sparrow's letter in SCIENCE for November 21.

S = W

V2 gR

{1 + [1-(1-7)']}. (4)

From these equations we see that as v, the westward train-speed, increases from 0 to V, the supporting force S will increase from W to (1.00345) W, which is its maximum value; as v increases from V to 2V, S will decrease again from its maximum value to W; and if v is increased further to about 18 V, S will become zero.

For reasonable train-speeds, therefore (up to one or two thousand miles per hour!), a body moving westward will require an increased force to support it against falling.

For example, let v 60 miles per hour. Then if W=1 lb., we find S=1.000387 lb., an increase of about 1/25 of one per cent.

2 Reasons for preferring the form F/F'=a/a′ to the form F=ma as the fundamental equation of mechanics may be found in two articles by E. V. Huntington: "The Logical Skeleton of Elementary Dynamics," American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 24 (1917), pp. 1-16; "Bibliographical Note on the Use of the Word Mass in Current TextBooks," ibid., Vol. 25 (1918), pp. 1-15; also in controversial papers in SCIENCE from December, 1914, to October, 1917.