of water is expected to add to our knowledge concerning the life of shallow lakes.

GOVERNOR SMITH of New York, has announced the appointment of five commissioners of the Enfield Falls Reservation, the property recently conveyed to the state by Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Treman, of Ithaca. They are Robert H. Treman, giver of the reservation; Liberty Hyde Bailey, of Ithaca, former dean of the New York State College of Agriculture; Mayor Edwin C. Stewart, of Ithaca; George A. Blauvelt, former state senator, and William E. Leffingswell, of Watkins, former assembly

man.

THE Council of the British Institution of Civil Engineers has made the following awards for papers read and discussed during the session 1919-20: Telford gold medals and Telford premiums to Mr. David Lyell, Mr. J. K. Robertson, and Major-General Sir Girard M. Heath; a George Stephenson gold medal and a Telford premium to Mr. Maurice F. Wilson; a Watt gold medal and a Telford premium to Mr. P. M. Crosthwaite; and Telford premiums to Major E. O. Henrici, Sir Francis J. E. Spring, Mr. F. O. Stanford, Mr. J. Mitchell, Mr. J. W. Sandeman, and Dr. A. R. Fulton.

DR. COLIN G. FINK, of New York, recently lectured before the graduate students in chemistry of Yale University on "The Organic Chemistry of Metal Carbides" and on “Contact Catalysis."

UNDER the auspices of the Southwestern Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mrs. M. D. Sullivan gave a lecture, entitled "Scientific Research and the Library," at the Carnegie Public Library of El Paso, Texas, on May 20 and on May 27, Professor Daniel Hull, assistant superintendent of the El Paso High School, gave a lecture on "The Einstein Theory of Relativity," at the Chamber of Commerce.

DR. E. B. ROSA, chief physicist of the Bureau of Standards delivered an address on May 20 before the Washington Academy of Sciences on "The Economic Value of Scientific Research by the Government."

THE Linacre lecture of the University of Cambridge was delivered on May 6, by Dr. Henry Head on "Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of the Speech."

DR. JOHN NELSON STOCKWELL, of Cleveland, known for his contributions to mathematical astronomy, at one time professor in the Case School of Applied Science, died on May 18, aged eighty-eight years.

GEORGE GILBERT POND, dean of the School of Natural Science of Pennsylvania State College, died at Hartford. He was born in Holliston, in March 1861. For five years he was instructor in chemistry at Amherst and then became a professor in the same department. He left Amherst to accept the appointment with the Pennsylvania State College.

DR. H. P. BARROWS, who resigned recently as professor of agricultural education at the Oregon Agricultural College and as state supervisor of agricultural education under the Smith-Hughes act to accept the position of federal regional agent for agricultural education with headquarters at San Francisco, died at San Francisco, on May 3.

DEATHS of scientific men are recorded in Nature as follows: John Alexander McClelland, professor of experimental physics in University College, Dublin, and known for his researches on secondary radio-activity; T. G. Bartholomew, the head of the cartographical firm which has been known since 1899 as the Edinburgh Geographical Institute; Rudolph Messel, president of the Society of Chemical Industry and past vice-president of the Chemical Society, London; L. T. O'Shea, professor of applied chemistry in the University of Sheffield and honorary secretary of the British Institution of Mining Engineers, and A. K. Huntington, emeritus professor of metallurgy at King's College, London.

THE Civil Service Commission announces an examination for supervising metallurgist. A vacancy in the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, for service in the field, at $4,000 to $5,000 a year, will be filled from this examination.

THE U. S. Civil Service Commission announces an examination for assistant for fishery food laboratory. A vacancy in the Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C., at $2,000 to $2,400 a year, and vacancies in positions requiring similar qualifications, will be filled from this examination. The duties of appointees will be to make analyses of fishery products, including canned products, oils, fish scrap, fish meal, etc., and to aid in the technology of development of methods of preservation and utilization of fishery products in the laboratory and in the field. Competitors will not be required to report for examination at any place, but will be rated on education, experience and a thesis.

THE Ellen Richards Research prize offered by an association of American college women, hitherto known as the Naples Table Association, is available for the year 1921. This is the tenth prize offered. The prize has been awarded four times, twice to American women and twice to English women. The competition is open to any woman in the world who presents a thesis written in English. The thesis must represent new observations and new conclusions based upon laboratory research.

THE Indiana Academy of Science held its annual spring meeting at the McCormack's Creek Gorge State Park near Spencer, Ind., on May 13 and 14. At the business meeting on the thirteenth the academy voted to direct the officers to prepare a suitable clause amending the constitution of the academy, so that affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science would be possible. Final action on this matter will, in all probability, be taken at the regular winter meeting next December. The academy members dined together in the dining rooms of the Christian Church at Spencer on the evening of the thirteenth and early the next morning proceeded by automobile to the State Park, where, under the leadership of Professor Malott, of Indiana University, who has made a special study of the region, the members explored the Flatwoods district and the gorge of McCormack's creek, which drains it. Pro

fessors Mottier and Scott, of Indiana University, led the botanists and zoologists on the trip.

DURING the past year the following papers have been presented before the Society of the Sigma Xi at the University of California under the presidency of Professor Herbert M. Evans:

September 27, Research behind the battle line: J. H. HILDEBRAND.

October 29, The processes of social phenomena: A. L. KROEBER.

November 20, A study of anger and pugnacity: G. M. STRATTON.

December 9, Low temperature research: W. H. RODEBUSH.

January 28, Hookworm and military efficiency: C. A. KOFOID.

February 18, The effect of alkali on plants: D. R. HOAGLAND.

March 3, On the construction of a geological scale for the Great Basin of North America: J. C. MERRIAM.

March 24, Physiological studies on aviators: J. L. WHITNEY.

April 21, Recent research in the organic compounds of nitrogen: T. D. STEWART.

May 5, Some aspects of the development of the anatomical sciences in America: H. H. EVANS.

CREATION of a Canadian Bureau of Scientific Research, at an initial cost of $600,000 for the site and construction and equipment of the building, and $50,000 for the first year's salaries and upkeep, has been endorsed. The leader of the Government and of the Opposition both supported it. The standardization of all measures used in Canada of length, volume, weight, etc., of all forms of energy and of scientific apparatus used in industry and the public services will be one of the main functions of the Bureau of Research.

THE Journal of the American Medical Association quotes from the Progresos de la Clínica of Madrid giving the royal decree establishing the Instituto Cajal as a center for scientific research in different branches of biology, and to prepare students to carry on research in other countries. The institute is also to offer facilities to a limited number of foreign re

search workers, especially those from Latin America, and will invite foreign professors to lecture on their specialties. The new institution will include the laboratories already installed in 1901 for biologic research and the laboratories maintained for research on experimental physiology, neuropathology and histology. A new building is planned and the whole will form a part of the National Institute of Sciences.

In order to stimulate more general research along the lines of better preparation and packing of foods and beverages, and to increase our knowledge of such changes induced by preparation or storage of such products, the Glass Container Association of America, Dr. A. W. Bitting, director of research, 3344 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill., will make seven awards in value from $50 to $150 for theses submitted prior to June 10, 1921. A thesis may cover any phase of the subject of foods or beverages-technological, bacteriological, or chemical. It may treat of any legitimate method of preparation, as sterilization by heat, pasteurization, salting, drying, smoking, pickling, sugaring, etc., the product to be packed in glass. The thesis may be bibliographical with abstracts, or may be a translation from work along the lines indicated. Any student working for a degree in any college or university is eligible to compete.

THE proceedings of the Paris Congress of Physiology under the presidency of Professor Charles Richet, will begin on Friday, July 16, and will end on the following Tuesday. The last congress was held at Groningen in September, 1913, and it was then decided that the next should be held in Paris. The subscription (35 francs) should be sent to M. Lucien Bull, l'Institut Marey, Avenue Victor-Hugo, Boulogne-sur-Seine (Seine).

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

IN recognition of the great and increasing need for competent specialists in the medical

sciences, a new course leading to the degree of doctor of medical sciences (D.M.S.) has been established at the Harvard Medical School. The first two years' work of this course is substantially identical with that of the regular medical students and this general training in the medical sciences is followed by a minimum of two years of concentration work in one of the laboratory departments. The qualifications and character of work required of those admitted to the concentration course are essentially the same as for Ph.D. students. The granting of the D.M.S. degree will be based on the same standard.

Ir has been planned for some time to found a university at Cologne. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the necessary formalities were complied with last year, and the new university has recently come into being very quietly. The various colleges and institutes have thus been collected into a state university which offers a chance to relieve the overcrowding of the university at Bonn. The new university starts with 2,000 students and over forty instructors.

PROFESSOR CECIL H. PEABODY, head of the department of naval architecture, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has resigned after thirty-seven years. Dr. Peabody has been in charge of the marine engineering course since its formation in 1883. Professor J. R. Jack will succeed Professor Peabody.

DR. WILLIAM E. FORD, of Yale University, has been promoted to a professorship of mineralogy and has been made a member of the governing board of the Sheffield Scientific School.

DR. H. E. WELLS, formerly professor of chemistry at Washington and Jefferson College and captain in the Chemical Warfare Service, U. S. A., has been appointed professor of chemistry at Smith College.

DR. J. P. MUSSELMAN, of Washington University, St. Louis, has been appointed associate in mathematics at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Musselman is the national president of the Gamma Alpha Graduate Scientific Fraternity.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

"PETROLIFEROUS PROVINCES "

IN a discussion of Petroliferous Provinces in a recent number of Mining and Metallurgy,1 Dr. Charles Schuchert has quoted from an article on 66 Some Factors in the Geographic Distribution of Petroleum "2 by the present writer, and has drawn certain conclusions and made certain inferences which are decidedly at variance with the ideas the author intended to convey. In order that some of the apparently ambiguous statements in the article on Geographic Distribution should not be generally misconstrued, it is desired to call attention to certain points which the reviewer has apparently overlooked.

Dr. Schuchert says:

Since the previous paragraph was written there appeared the suggestive paper by Mehl, already cited, in which he points out that all the major oil fields of the world are situated between 20° and 50° north latitude. Further, that there are no major oil areas within the tropics or in the southern hemisphere. As the known major oil fields lie between the present isotherms of 40° and 70° F., he thinks that this distribution "does suggest a distinctly zonal distribution of petroleum in which temperature may have been an important factor." The question that here arises is, Is this suggestion of present climatic conditions also true for the times when the oil was deposited in the strata in which it is now found, remembering that the oil fields were not made recently but are the accumulations of hydrocarbons of the seas of geologic ages? The answer is not at all in harmony with Mehl's suggestion, for we are living in an exceptional time of stressed climates and marked zonal conditions, while the mean temperature conditions during the geologic ages were warm and equable throughout most of the world, and this is even more true of the temperature of oceans than of the lands.

The paragraph that called forth this comment follows:

1 Bull. Amer. Inst. Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, No. 155, pp. 3058-3070, November, 1919. 2 Bull. Scientific Laboratories, Dennison Univ., Vol. XIX., pp. 55-63, June, 1919.

Attention is further called to the general correspondence between the position of the twentieth and fiftieth parallels in both hemispheres with the average annual isotherms of 70° and 40° respectively. Although these parallels are, in reality, nothing more than imaginary lines of geographic references, each does, in much probability, mark the average position of some isotherm as it has shifted in past geologic times. While the disposition of maximum accumulations as here bounded does not indicate a definite temperature zone within which petroleum has been formed, it does suggest a distinctly zonal distribution of petroleum in which temperature may have been an important factor.

There follows a few paragraphs further on:

Very often the rapid decay of organisms is pointed to as illustrating the manner in which petroleum is formed. In certain parts of the Mediterranean Sea, for instance, the accumulation and decay of organic detritus is so rapid that the lower levels of the water are filled with scattered globules of oil. Instead of illustrating how petroleum is formed, however, it points to the effective manner in which fatty matter is ordinarily separated out from accumulating sediments. Certainly, the globules which are escaping into the water offer no suggestion of being retrapped and converted into petroleum. It is only that part of the organic matter which is converted into oil so slowly that the accumulating sediments form a sufficient thickness and suitable succession to retain it against the tendency of the associated waters to drive it off, that may become petroleum.

So much has been added to our knowledge of the climates of past geological ages by the work of Dr. Schuchert and others that it does not seem appropriate, in an article not intended primarily for the beginning student in geology, to call attention to the fact that the present average annual isotherms are not necessarily coincident with the same isotherms throughout past geologic periods. Furthermore, it would appear that one might logically take for granted a general knowledge of the principles underlying temperature zones and the nature of their boundary lines as follows:

2. In general, the more widespread the oceans the less sinuous the isotherms.

3. During periods of more nearly universal oceans, the closer the parallelism between isotherms and parallels.

It would appear that the logical conclusions to be drawn from the two immediately preceding quotations, providing we may take for granted a knowledge of the general conditions of past climates, are as follows:

1. The belt between the parallels 20° and 50° north latitude was, during the periods when the petroleum of the zone was forming, some definite temperature zone the boundaries of which, the average annual isotherms, were essentially coincident with the parallels.

2. The temperatures of this zone very likely fluctuated within a single period and showed more or less marked differences from period to period.

3. The average of the fluctuating temperatures for this zone was not necessarily the same as that of this belt for the present time, viz., 40°-70° F.

4. The only reference to the formation of petroleum in this zone at present day temperatures (the Mediterranean Sea) does not illustrate the manner in which petroleum is formed.

The obvious inference of these conclusions is that could we determine the exact temperature conditions under which petroleum is formed there would be available another means of testing the temperatures of the various areas in which the petroleum was formed, during the periods when it was forming. In other words, some estimate could be made of the average temperature of the "petroleum zone"-that belt bounded by the parallels 20° and 50° north latitude-during the "petroleum periods."

There is one more point on which the present writer's view was, perhaps, not adequately stated, although his intention would seem to be clear. The following is from Dr. Schuchert's criticism:

... The writer also knows that hydrocarbons have accumulated in large amounts in seas within the tropics, yet seemingly the amount is far the

greatest in what is now the north temperate zone. That this zone has the greatest amount of petroleum is apparently due wholly to the greater land masses here, along with the necessary storage strata accompanied by the proper amount of deformation.

Even if Mehl's suggestion were correct, and we should accordingly think of next exploiting the temperature region of the southern hemisphere, we must not overlook the fact that the northern hemisphere is a land hemisphere, while the southern one is a water hemisphere, and therefore has greatly reduced continents.

To quote from the article on "Geographic Distribution":

Regardless of the lack of thorough prospecting, however, there is reason to believe that of the three zones, the equatorial belt between the twentieth parallels and adjacent belts in the northern and southern hemispheres extending north and south to the fiftieth parallels, the northern belt will, when investigations are carried to completion, be found the more productive. For instance, one may safely assert that, all other factors being equal, the amount of petroleum underlying a given area is directly proportional to the size of that area. It is evident that in the area of exposed lands neither the southern nor the equatorial belts compare favorably with the northern zone.

And again, in summarizing:

If we may grant, then, that within a limited zone, the equatorial belt, conditions have been unfavorable for the formation of accumulations of petroleum, on the average, it is logical to seek a belt in the southern hemisphere suitable for such deposits, to correspond with the belt in the northern hemisphere. Were the temperature factors alone to be considered, there is little doubt but that much might be expected from the southern zone. It has already been pointed out, however, that the area of exposed land within this zone is relatively small and of this a very large proportion consists of Pre-Cambrian or igneous rocks. Apparently little more is to be expected from the southern belt than from the equatorial zone.

As the writer stated in the article quoted by Dr. Schuchert, it was hoped "that the speculations would call forth a discussion of the principles involved and possibly stimulate investigations in the several branches of science interested." He was much surprised to learn