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fessor Beecher said of these collections: Professor Marsh "brought forth in such rapid succession so many astonishing things that the unexpected became the rule. The science of vertebrate paleontology could not assimilate new material so fast. . . . The constant stream of vertebrate riches which, from 1868 to 1899, flowed into the Peabody Museum from the Rocky Mountain region had a similar bewildering effect upon Marsh, for it was impossible for him to do more than seize upon what appealed to him as the most salient. As a collector Marsh was seen at his best, and the collections he amassed during his forty-five years and more of activity in this direction form a lasting monument to his perseverance and foresight."

In Marsh's day, Peabody Museum was a very busy place, with a large staff unearthing and preparing the collections so that the master mind might make the treasures known to science. At least 400 new species and 185 new genera were described in abbreviated form previous to 1896, mainly in the American Journal of Science. In 1892 came the first check to his activity, and Marsh had to let go a considerable portion of his staff. He was then sixty-one years of age, but he struggled on, thinking that somehow he could describe the great mass of still unknown animals assembled in the museum, and make them fully known in large monographs Seven years later the Great Reaper took him, with his work still undone.

Professor Charles E. Beecher took up the work after Marsh's death, but he had no one to assist him in unearthing the collections except two preparators. Even under these conditions, however, the public were shown for the first time the skeletons of some of the wonderful animals of the past mounted as they appeared in life. The exhibition collections grew apace, and long before Professor Schuchert succeeded Beecher in 1904, they had outgrown the building. Two years later Professor Lull was added to the staff. Now we have mounted or ready to mount so many of our treasures that we are yearning for the new Peabody Museum, to take the place of the

original building which was destroyed in 1917 to make way for the Harkness dormitories. Professor Marsh left $30,000 "to be expended by the trustees of said Peabody Museum in preparing for publication and publishing the results of my explorations in the West." The trustees have heretofore held that only the income of this fund should be used in this way. However, having only this income to devote to the Marsh Collections, it was but natural that progress should be slow. We have now come to realize this fully, and the recognition has brought use to a new turn in the administration of the collections.

As it was evidently Professor Marsh's wish that both the income and the principal of the "Marsh Publication Fund" should be used in work on his collections, the trustees of the museum have recently decided to spend as much of the fund as will be required to make known the collections. The study of the Marsh material is therefore progressing far more rapidly than it has at any time since the donor's death. We have now on the staff of the museum, working under the guidance of Professor Lull, besides the two preparators, the following research associates: Dr. George F. Eaton and Assistant Professor John P. Buwalda, who give us half their time, and Drs. Edward L. Troxell and Malcolm R. Thorpe, who devote all their time to the Marsh collections.

In unearthing the unknown in science, no one can predict what the results will be, or how quickly they will be forthcoming, but we trust that in this case they will be abundant and timely. In working out the new things, however, we have also to consider the old ones, which, viewed in the light of the knowledge of to-day, were inadequately described. How vast are the treasures that Professor Marsh has left us is not even at this time fully known to the curators, but if it should take from ten to twenty years more to complete the description of the fossil vertebrate material assembled by Professor Marsh, Yale will but be the richer scientifically.

YALE UNIVERSITY

CHARLES SCHUCHERT

WILLIAM GILSON FARLOW1 THE Botanical Society of America records its appreciation of the great loss sustained by the society, by American science, and by botanical science throughout the world, in the death of Professor William Gilson Farlow.

Educated as a physician, he yielded readily to Asa Gray's suggestion that he broaden the scope of botany at Harvard University by developing there an interest in flowerless plants, which up to that time had scarcely appeared above the horizon of professional botanists in America. In preparation for this he traveled extensively in northern Europe, at a time when extended travel was uncommon, meeting and forming personal relations with the leading authorities on cryptogams; and he had the very unusual privilege of working in De Bary's laboratory at Strasbourg, where he associated intimately with other young men who were to continue the work of this great leader after his own untimely death.

Never overburdened by large numbers of half-interested students, Dr. Farlow communicated his own enthusiasm and industrious habits through long years to a limited number of men who have been counted for a generation among the leaders in American botany, and particularly in that branch of the science which De Bary's classical studies of fungous parasitism laid as the foundation on which the art of phytopathology has been reared of late, particularly in America, with much success and economic benefit.

Though familiar with ferns, and especially with the marine alge of New England, of which he published an early monograph, Professor Farlow's interest always centered in the fungi, and the larger number of his publications have dealt with these plants.

He served his science particularly well in securing for permanent reference preservation the historic herbarium of Curtiss, one of the pioneers in American mycology, and that of Tuckerman, long the authority on American

1 Memorial adopted by the Botanical Society of America.

lichens; and since the death of Asa Gray, in 1887, he has been recognized at home and abroad as the foremost of American botanists.

Among his unpublished manuscripts is the completion of a compendious Bibliographic Index of North American Fungi, one volume of which was printed in 1905, and of which the remainder should be brought to publication promptly now that his work on it is done. A keen critic, an encouraging teacher, a kindly and sympathetic friend, and a man of the broadest international interest, Professor Farlow is mourned by all who knew him.

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

RESEARCH on rubber cultIVATION A CORRESPONDENT writes from Sumatra : During the last week of August and the first week of September, 1919, Dr. J. J. van Hall, director of the Laboratory of Plant Diseases in Buitenzorg, Java, and Dr. R. D. Rands, botanist in the same laboratory; specially engaged on a study of the brown bast disease of the Hevea rubber, made a journey to Sumatra to study conditions there.

On September 2, 1919, a conference on brown bast disease was held at the A. V. R. O. S. (Algemeene-proefstation voor Rubber-Cultur, Oost-kust van Sumatra) Proefstation. This was attended by Acting Director F. C. van Heurn, of the A. V. R. O. S. Mr. J. C. Maas, and Dr. H. Heuser, also of the A. V. R. O. S., Dr. J. J. van Hall and Dr. R. D. Rands, both of the Laboratory of Plant Disease, Mr. Carl D. La Rue and Mr. P. E. Keuchenius, botanist and mycologist respectively, of the Holland-American Plantations Company, and Dr. J. G. Fol, director of the experiment station of the Cultur Maatschappij Amsterdam.

The cause of the disease was first discussed, Dr. Rands giving recent evidence secured by him pointing to a physiological origin. Mr. Carl D. La Rue stated that results obtained by Professor H. H. Bartlett and himself in 1918, and later by himself alone, indicated that the same bacterium was always present in bark affected with brown bark disease. Mr. Keuchenius stated that he also found bacteria to be constantly present in diseased tissue, and that he had secured positive results from inoculations with these bacteria.

Conditions favorable to attack by the disease were also discussed as well as methods of treat

ment. All present agreed that the disease is the most serious one known to the rubber industry, that treatment alone was too expensive, and that methods of prevention should be discovered if possible. Later at a special meeting an experiment was planned by Messrs. Rands, Maas, Keuchenius and La Rue to test more fully whether or not the disease may have a physiological cause. After visiting a number of rubber estates on the east coast of Sumatra and in Atjeh, Drs. van Hall and Rands returned to Java.

The first technical meeting of the personnel of the experiment stations for the rubber culture was held in Buitenzorg, Java, on November 1, 1919. Representatives of the Central Rubber Proefstation, the West-Java Proefstation, the Malang Proefstation, the Besoeki Proefstation, the Laboratorium voor Plantenziekten, and the research department of the Holland Plantations Company.

Among the subjects discussed were brown bast disease, mildew-diseases of leaves, borers, thinning out of trees on estates, and selection. The last topic is only now beginning to be a matter of concern to rubber planters, although experiment station workers have been interested in it for several years.

EXPERIMENT STATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF

MINES

IN connection with the work of the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, the bureau is now conducting eleven mining experiment stations, located in the various mining centers of the country, and bending their energies toward the special mining problems that are local to their part of the country. So great has been the demand for knowledge concerning the character of the work undertaken at these various mining stations and its general relation to the mining industry, the bureau has issued a bulletin describing the work of the stations. Dr. Van H. Manning, director of the bureau, sketches the work of the different stations as follows:

The station at Columbus, Ohio, situated at a clayworking center is employed mostly on ceramic problems. In this country there are about 4,000 firms manufacturing clay products, including brick, tile, sewer pipe, conduits, hollow blocks, architectural terra cotta, porcelain, earthenware, china and art pottery. The amount invested in these industries is approximately $375,000,000 and the value of the products exceeds $208,000,000 annually.

The station at Bartlesville, Okla., is investigating problems that arise in the proper utilization of oil and gas resources, such as elimination of waste of oil and natural gas, improvements in drilling and casing wells, prevention of water troubles at wells, and of waste in storing and refining petroleum, and the recovery of gasoline from natural gas.

What the Bureau of Mines has done for the great coal-mining industry, chiefly through investigations at the experiment station at Pittsburgh, Pa., has been published in numerous reports issued by the bureau. Some of the more important accomplishments have been the development and introduction of permissible explosives for use in gaseous mines, the training of thousands of coal miners in mine-rescue and first-aid work, and the conducting of combustion investigations, aimed at increased efficiency in the burning of coal and the effective utilization of our vast deposits of lignite and lowgrade coal.

The Salt Lake City station has devised novel methods of treating certain low-grade and complex ores of lead and zinc. These methods show a large saving of metal over methods hitherto employed, and have made available ores that other methods could not treat profitably.

The Seattle station is busy with the beneficiation of the low-grade ores of the Northwest, and the mining and utilization of the coals of the Pacific states; the Tucson station is working on the beneficiation of low-grade copper ores; and the Berkeley station has shown how losses may be reduced at quicksilver plants and how methods at those plants can be improved.

In the conduct of these investigations the bureau seeks and is obtaining the cooperation of the mine operators. At more than a dozen mills in the west engineers from the stations are working directly with the mill men on various problems, and the results they already have obtained more than warrant the existence of the stations. Success in solving one problem may easily be worth millions to the country. Mining men are using these stations more and more freely as they realize that the government maintains these stations to help them, and that the difficulties of the operators, both large and small, will receive sympathetic consideration and such aid as the stations can give.

GRANTS FOR RESEARCH OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT

OF SCIENCE

AT the St. Louis meeting of the association, the council assigned the sum of $4,500 to be expended by the Committee on Grants for

Research during the year 1920. The members of the committe for the current year are: Henry Crew, chairman; W. B. Cannon, R. T. Chamberlin, G. N. Lewis, George T. Moore, G. H. Parker, Robert M. Yerkes, and Joel Stebbins, secretary.

The committee will hold a meeting in Washington in the month of April, when the distribution of the grants will be made. Applications for grants may be made under the general rules given below, which were adopted in 1917; but the committee especially invites suggestions from scientific men who may happen to know of cases where young or poorly supported investigators would be greatly helped by small grants.

1. Applications for grants may be made to the member of the committee representing the science in which the work falls or to the chairman or secretary of the committee. The committee will not depend upon applications, but will make inquiry as to the way in which research funds can be best expended to promote the advancement of science. In such inquiry the committee hopes to have the cooperation of scientific men and especially of the sectional committees of the association.

2. The committee will meet at the time of the annual meeting of the association or on the call of the chairman. Business may be transacted and grants may be made by correspondence. In such cases the rules of procedure formulated by the late Professor Pickering and printed in the issue of SCIENCE for May 23, 1913, will be followed.

3. Grants may be made to residents of any country, but preference will be given to residents of America.

4. Grants of sums of $500 or less are favored, but larger appropriations may be made. In some cases appropriations may be guaranteed for several years in advance.

5. Grants, as a rule, will be made for work which could not be done or would be very difficult to do without the grant. A grant will not ordinarily be made to defray living expenses.

6. The committee will not undertake to supervise in any way the work done by those who receive the grants. Unless otherwise provided, any apparatus or materials purchased will be the property of the individual receiving the grant.

7. No restriction is made as to publication, but the recipient of the grant should in the publica

tion of his work acknowledge the aid given by the fund.

8. The recipient of the grant is expected to make to the secretary of the committee a report in December of each year while the work is in progress and a final report when the work is accomplished. Each report should be accompanied by a financial statement of expenditures, with vouchers for the larger items when these can be supplied without difficulty.

9. The purposes for which grants are made and the grounds for making them will be published. JOEL STEBBINS,

Secretary

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

RICHARD C. MACLAURIN, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1909, died from pneumonia in Boston on January 15. Dr. Maclaurin was born in Scotland in 1870. He was educated at the Universities of New Zealand and Cambridge, and was appointed professor of mathematics in the University of New Zealand in 1898. In 1907 he was appointed professor in mathematics and physics in Columbia University.

DR. JACQUES LOEB, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, was elected president of the American Society of Naturalists at the recent meeting held in Princeton.

PROFESSOR F. B. LOOMIS, of Amherst College, has been elected president of the Paleontological Society.

DR. PHOEBUS A. T. LEVENE, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, in New York, was elected associate member of the Société Royale des Sciences Médicales et Naturelles of Brussels, on December 1, 1919.

MR. J. H. JEANS, of Cambridge, formerly professor of mathematics in Princeton University, has been nominated as secretary of the Royal Society.

DR. PAUL SABATIER (Toulouse), and Dr. Pierre Paul Emile Roux (Paris), have been elected honorary members of the British Royal Institution.

THE Swedish Medical Association has awarded its jubilee prize this year to Dr.

Hans Gertz of the physiological laboratory of the Karolinska Institut for his work on the functions of the labyrinth. It was published in the Nordisk Medicinskt Arkiv in 1918.

THE president and fellows of Magdalen College of Oxford University on the express recommendation of the General Board of the Faculties decided to award a pension of £450 per annum to Professor Sydney Howard Vines, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., fellow of the college, and honorary fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, who is resigning the Sherardian chair of botany with the fellowship on December 31 next, after a tenure of thirtyone years. This is the first occasion on which the new system of pensions for professors instituted by the college with the approval of the university has been brought into operation.

PROFESSOR EDGAR JAMES SWIFT, head of the department of psychology of Washington University, has been invited to give two lectures before the officers and students of the Post Graduate School of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The subjects of these lectures are "Thinking and Acting" (February 14), and "The Psychology of Handling Men" (April 10).

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

AT the dinner of the alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held in Cambridge on January 10, it was announced that the endowment fund of four million dollars had been obtained by the alumni, thus securing the gift of an equal sum from the hitherto anonymous "Mr. Smith." It was revealed that "Mr. Smith," who has now given eleven million dollars to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is Mr. George Eastman, president of the Eastman Kodak Company.

THE trustees of Oberlin College have granted increases of salaries for all in the service of the institution. Early in the fall the faculty of the college appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Professor C. G. Rogers to consider the salary needs of the members of

the faculty. The report of the committee, approved by the faculty, was transmitted to the trustees, and findings calling for a fifty per cent. increase in the salaries of all teaching and administrative officers of the college, dating from September 1, 1919, were approved. This action adds about $175,000 to the annual budget of the college.

ANNOUNCEMENT has been made at the University of Pennsylvania of a gift of $50,000 from the estate of William C. Goodell for the establishment of a chair of gynecology in the medical school. The trustees have adopted a resolution providing that as far as possible rooms and facilities for the carrying on of research work be extended to emeritus professors in all departments.

THE pathological buildings of the Johns Hopkins Hospital group, the professional workshop of Dr. William H. Welch, was wrecked by fire, January 12. It is said that none of the valuable specimens was lost, nor were any of the records of research work damaged.

PROFESSOR A. P. COLEMAN, geology, has been elected dean of the faculty of arts of the University of Toronto. Professor J. Playfair McMurrich, anatomy, has been elected chairman of the board of graduate studies, which corresponds with the graduate faculty in many universities.

DR. HAROLD PRINGLE, lecturer on histology and assistant in the department of physiology in the University of Edinburgh, has been appointed professor of physiology in Trinity College, Dublin, in the room of the late Sir Henry Thompson.

DR. F. W. KEEBLE, assistant-secretary of the British Board of Agriculture, has been elected to the Sherardian professorship of botany of Oxford University in succession to Professor S. H. Vines.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

THE POLYDOGMATA OF THE PHYSICIST

THE mind of the physicist may be said to be somewhat in confusion. But there is no reason to hope that it ever will enjoy the