occurs this year at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The scientific program covers the three days of December 27, 28 and 29. The Local Committee is planning attractive features of general interest, including a trip to Rochester, that center of medical and surgical activities which the war conditions have raised to a plane of paramount importance. The four societies of the federation are the American Physiological Society, the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the American Society for Experimental Pathology. Many members of these societies are engaged in scientific work in support of our government in the great war struggle. The general secretary hopes that the scientific program will strongly reflect this present activity and that the meeting will be one of unusual interest and enthusiasm. The members of the societies are urged to make vigorous efforts to attend and to contribute to the program. The fact that the meetings of the American Association of Anatomists and the American Zoological Society occur at the same time and place lends the strong appeal of mutual and cooperative interest which every member of the federation will find it difficult to resist. CHARLES W. GREENE, General Secretary of the Federation. COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, October 25, 1917

THE PITTSBURGH MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS

THE American Society of Naturalists, in affiliation with Section F of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Botanical Society of America, will hold its thirty-fifth annual meeting at Pittsburgh, under the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh, beginning Tuesday, January 1, 1918.

There will be a smoker for Biologists on Saturday evening, December 29.

The Botanical Society of America will place the genetical papers of its program on Monday morning, December 31, and in the afternoon of the same day will present an invitation program including the presidential address of R. A. Harper.

Section F of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will have on Monday morning the address of the retiring vicepresident, G. H. Parker, and in the afternoon a symposium on "The contributions of zoology to human welfare."

By this arrangement there will be sessions of interest to the members of the American Society of Naturalists on the day preceding the meetings of the society.

The American Society of Naturalists will offer for Tuesday morning, January 1, a program of invitation papers.

The program for Tuesday afternoon will be a symposium on "Factors of organic evolution."

The Naturalists' dinner, in which members ' of the affiliated societies are invited to participate, will be held on the evening of Tuesday. At the close of the dinner George H. Shull will give his presidential address, "The genotype and its environment."

As the result of an apparently growing desire on the part of members of the American Society of Naturalists to contribute papers, the Program Committee will this year receive titles for a program to begin on Wednesday morning, January 2. It is desired that the papers be short and it should be remembered that the interests of the Naturalists are primarily on problems of organic evolution. The papers on this program will in general be arranged in order of the receipt of the titles, except that papers on similar subjects may be grouped. Titles with estimated length of delivery and statement of lantern or chart requirements must be in the hands of the secretary by December 1.

Nominations for membership must be sent to the Secretary not later than December 1 in order that the Executive Committee may give them due consideration before the meeting. Blank forms for nominations may be obtained from the secretary.

Headquarters of the Naturalists will be at the Monongahela House, Smithfield and Water Streets. Members are advised to make early reservations.

AT the Chicago meeting of the American College of Surgeons the following were elected fellows: Surgeon General Rupert Blue, United States Public Health Service; Surgeon General William C. Gorgas, United States Army; Surgeon General William C. Braisted, United States Navy; Colonel T. H. Goodwin, British Medical Corps; Colonel C. Dercle, French Medical Corps; Sir Berkeley Moynihan, Leeds, England.

DR. LOUIS B. WILSON, of the Mayo Foundation of the University of Minnesota, has been appointed director of the foundation.

FRANK C. BAKER, zoological investigator of the New York State College of Forestry, at Syracuse, formerly acting director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, has been appointed curator of the university museum at the University of Illinois, where his work will begin within a couple of months.

A TESTIMONIAL banquet was given by the Physicians' Club of Chicago, in honor of Dr. Frank Billings, at the Auditorium Hotel, on November 1. Dr. Augustus O'Neill acted as toastmaster. A silver loving cup was presented to Dr. Billings on behalf of the Physicians' Club.

A PEERAGE of the United Kingdom has been conferred upon the Right Honorable Sir Francis Hopwood, vice-chairman of the Development Commission, and a member of the General Board and Executive Committee of the National Physical Laboratory.

PRESIDENT POINCARE has conferred the Legion of Honor upon Dr. John Cadman, C.M.G., professor of mining in the University of Birmingham, in recognition of valuable services rendered by him in the cause of the allies.

PROFESSOR I. BANDI has been placed in charge of the newly opened institution at Naples for the production of therapeutic serums and vaccines as a center for research in hygiene and biology, with special regard to colonial condi

tions.

P. F. WALKER, dean of the engineering school and formerly head of the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Kansas, has been granted an indefinite leave of absence to enter the army. He has received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel and is stationed at Camp Cody, N. M. Professor George C. Shaad has temporarily assumed the duties of dean and Professor Frederick H. Sibley has been made head of the department of mechanical engineering.

JAMES H. BONNER, professor of forestry in the Montana State University, has been appointed captain in the engineers' section of the officers' reserve corps.

VICTOR K. LA MER, formerly chemist at the Carnegie Institution, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, has received a commission of first lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM JASPER KERR, of the Oregon Agricultural College, has been appointed head of the increased agricultural production campaign and chairman of the Food Committee of the State Council of Defense.

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PROFESSOR H. S. PRATT, of Haverford College, assisted by Frank C. Baker, zoological investigator of the New York State College of Forestry, made during the past summer study of the parasitic worms of Oneida Lake fishes. This work was made by cooperation between the U. S. Bureau of Fishes and the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, and was a part of the fish survey which has been carried on there for the past three years.

PROFESSOR CALVIN H. KAUFFMAN, curator of the Cryptogamic Herbarium, and professor in the department of botany of the University of Michigan, has left for Colorado where he will spend the year gathering and selecting mushrooms in order to experiment on them for certain malignant diseases which affect crops. Professor Kauffman was granted a year's leave of absence in order that he might work on these plant diseases for the United States government.

DR. WILLIAM C. FARABEE, director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, who recently returned from a two years' exploring trip to the Amazon River, is now engaged in installing the exhibits he collected. Thousands of rare specimens are being made ready and when finished they will occupy the entire floor of the museum. The collection, which will be opened to the public early in November, promises to be the finest of its kind in the world. In the absence of Director Gordon, Dr. Farabee is acting director of the museum.

DR. FRANK CARNEY, professor of geology and geography at Denison University, has resigned to enter the employment of The National Refining Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

L. M. TOLMAN, for seventeen years connected with the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and for the last three years chief of the central food and drug inspection district of that bureau, has resigned to become chief chemist of Wilson & Co., Chicago, to have charge of their control and research work.

SIR MAURICE FITZMAURICE, C.M.G., has been appointed to fill the vacancy on the advisory council of the Committee of the Privy Coun

cil for Scientific and Industrial Research of Great Britain, caused by the retirement, by rotation, of Mr. W. Duddell, C.B.E., F.R.S.

A PERUVIAN Medical Commission, which will tour the United States inspecting medical schools and hospitals, began its work in Baltimore, October 14, and from there went to Philadelphia and New York. The commission is composed of Professor Dr. Guillermo Gastaneta and Drs. E. Campodonico and R. Asplazu. The object of the commission is to secure information for the reorganization of the medical schools of Peru in accordance with American standards.

DR. HENRY C. SHERMAN, professor of food chemistry in Columbia University, who has recently returned from service in Petrograd as a member of the scientific division of the American Red Cross Mission to Russia, spoke of the work of the mission in Russia at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

PROFESSOR L. H. BAILEY, of Cornell University, will present a paper on the evening of November 12 before the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science in Washington on Permanent Agriculture and Democracy (suggested by the situation in China)."

PROFESSOR SIMEON E. BALDWIN, of Yale University, was reelected president of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences at its annual meeting on October 18. At this meeting Professor Baldwin read a paper on "The growth of law during the past year." Dr. Olive Day and Dr. George F. Eaton were elected vice presidents.

THE Harvey Society lectures will be given at the New York Academy of Medicine, as follows: Nov. 10, Dr. Carl L. Alsberg, Washington, D. C., "Current food problems"; Nov. 24, Dr. Linsly R. Williams, "The medical problem of the war"; Dec. 8, Professor Aldred S. Warthin, Ann Arbor, "The new pathology of syphilis."

MR. FISHER, the British minister for education, presided, on October 31, at a meeting in London, which was addressed by Mr. Waldorf Astor, on "Health problems and a state ministry of health." Mr. Kingsley Wood, of the

London County Council, and others took part in the discussion.

DR. GEORGE D. HUBBARD, head of the department of geology of Oberlin College, will address the annual meeting of the Central Association of Teachers of Science and Mathematics at Columbus, Ohio, which will be held

from November 30 to December 1, on "Why should geography be taught in the high

schools?" Dr. Hubbard has recently been retained in Toledo in connection with certain problems of physiography and geography involved in the riparian case in litigation in which agricultural and fishing industries clashed.

DR. R. H. WARD, of Troy, N. Y., known for his work in microscopy and from 1869 to 1892 professor of botany in the Renssellaer Polytechnic Institute, died on October 29, aged eighty years.

SIR WILLIAM JAMES HERSCHEL, discoverer and developer of the system of identification by fingerprints, died on October 24. Sir William was born in 1833. He was the grandson of Sir William Herschel, the English astronomer, and the son of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, whom he succeeded in the baronetcy in 1871.

THE death is announced of Mr. Charles Latham, at Glasgow. Mr. Latham was the first Dixon professor of mining in Glasgow University.

WILLIAM ROBERT SYKES, the inventor of the lock-and-block system of railway signalling, died on October 2, at the age of seventy-seven years.

UNDER an agreement between the executors of the estate of the late James Buchanan Brady and his heirs, most of the estate, estimated at $3,000,000, is now available for the New York Hospital, and makes possible the establishment of the James Buchanan Brady Foundation of Urology, which is in accordance with the testator's plans. Dr. Oswald S. Lowsley, who was named by Mr. Brady as director, has the plans of the foundation in charge.

THE Robert Dawson Evans Memorial for Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital will receive about $1,000,000, as residuary legatee of the estate of Maria Antoinette Evans.

THE forty-fifth annual convention of the American Public Health Association opened in Herbert C.

Washington on October 18.

Hoover, director of the United States Food

Administration, addressed the convention at its first general session. The program for the afternoon called for a joint session of the association with the American Social Hygiene Association, the Baltimore Medical Society and the Maryland Society for Social Hygiene. A symposium on easily preventable disease control in the army, the navy and the civilian community was given by Colonel F. F. Russell, U. S. A.; Surgeon R. C. Holcomb, U. S. N.; Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman of the commission on training camp activities; Assistant Surgeon General J. W. Kerr, of the Federal Public Health Service, and Surgeon William H. Frost, director of the Red Cross Sanitary Service.

THE Civil Service Commission of the State of New York announces examinations for the State Department of Health for a physiological chemist at a salary of $1,500; for a laboratory assistant in chemistry at a salary of $720 to $1,200 and for a laboratory assistant in bacteriology at a salary of $720 to $1,200. These positions are open to non-residents and to citizens of other countries except those at war with the United States, and in the first two positions a degree from a college maintaining a standard satisfactory to the commission or an equivalent education is required.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, New York University and the Presbyterian Hospital are beneficiaries in the will of Kate Collins Browne, who died on August 19. They will share the residue of the estate after half a million dollars is distributed in bequests.

YALE University has acquired by purchase another entire city block in the center of New Haven.

THE enrollment in the College of Medicine of the Universtiy of Cincinnati shows an increase of about 40 per cent. over last year. The enrollment in 1916 was 102 compared with 143 for the year 1917-18.

IN the Oregon Agricultural College Adolph Zeifle has been made dean of the newly created school of pharmacy; Miss Ava B. Milam dean of the school of home economics, and E. K. Soper, head of the department of mines at the University of Idaho, has been appointed dean of the school of mines to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Dean H. M. Parks to head the Oregon Bureau of Mines and Geology.

PROFESSOR HOTCHKISS, of the department of business education of the University of Minnesota, has been made chief of the department of economics during the absence of Professor Durand.

PROFESSOR C. C. PALMER, of the College of Agriculture of the State University of Minnesota, has been appointed head of the department of bacteriology, physiology and hygiene, at the Delaware College, Newark, Del.

DR. ALBERT C. HERRE, for several years past professor of geography and agriculture in the Bellingham, Washington, State Normal School, has recently been appointed head of the department of biology in the same institution.

EBEN H. TOOLE, recently of the Kansas Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas, has been appointed to succeed Professor G. N. Hoffer as assistant professor of plant pathology and physiology, at Purdue University. Professor Hoffer has been transferred to the Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue.

DR. C. C. FORSAITH, instructor in botany in Dartmouth College, has been appointed instructor in wood technology in the New York State College of Forestry.

E. A. REID, for the past two years instructor in electrical engineering at Minnesota, has

resigned to accept a similar position at the University of Illinois.

PROFESSOR CLARENCE A. MORROW, formerly professor of chemistry in the Nebraska Wesleyan University, has been elected assistant professor of agricultural biochemistry in the University of Minnesota.

MRS. J. A. NYSWANDER has been appointed assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Nevada, to take the place of her husband, who has been called to government service.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE THE "AGE AND AREA" HYPOTHESIS OF

WILLIS

THE "Age and Area" hypothesis of Willis, recently discussed and endorsed by Professor De Vries in SCIENCE,1 states that "the area occupied by any given species (of plants) at any given time in any given country in which there occur no well-marked barriers depends upon the age of that species in that country." The older the species is, in other words, the wider is its range. If confirmed, this hypothesis would be of the greatest scientific importance, for not only would it discredit the efficacy of natural selectionthe point chiefly emphasized by its author and Professor De Vries-but, by enabling us to identify with certainty the most widespread types as the most ancient ones, in any given region or in the world as a whole, it would also clear up a host of vexed questions in plant geography and plant phylogeny. Certain objections to the hypothesis appear to be so great, however, as to cast doubt upon its universal applicability; and a careful study of the floras of Ceylon and New Zealand, the regions with which Professor Willis has chiefly worked, serves to emphasize the complexity of the whole problem involved.

Factors other than age evidently share in determining the area occupied by a species.

1 De Vries, H., "The distribution of endemic species in New Zealand," SCIENCE, N. S., Vol. XLV., No. 1173, pp. 641-642, June 22, 1917.