solicit the concurrence therein of both the local and the national scientific and engineering societies, and to publish the same generally, or in its discretion, always with careful regard to the aims of those to whom the project is due. The following questions raised in a report made to the Patent Office corps by a special committee charged to cooperate with the personnel committee of the National Research Council will indicate something of the tendency of measures for which it is hoped to gain early consideration: What does the Patent Office need besides men and materials? Feeling that the time is at hand when the Patent Office must enter upon either a period of very rapid decline or else upon a period of revitalization and expansion, shall we not test the notion that it may actually be easier, and in every respect better, for the office, exhibiting a new vision of its task, to ask a great deal more, rather than to continue its petition for the very, very little that has so often been denied it? Relying upon the assistance of the composite committee generously formed by the National Research Council Can assistance be got, even now, in the making of a genuine advance in the indispensable work of reclassification of patents and of literature? Can all who are employed in the work of examination be in any way further encouraged and aided to become specialists in one or another of the branches of applied science-rather than mere rule-parrots and picture-matchers? And would a proposed departmental organization of the office aid to this end? Can these gains against dilatory prosecution made under the energetic efforts of Commissioner Ewing be rendered secure for the future by (e. g.), dating the terms of patent monopolies from the date of filing-in order to create an incentive for diligent rather than dilatory prosecution? Could any adjustment of extra fees for extra claims discourage the "fog-artists" and create an incentive for a more genuine effort on the part of attorneys to find the meat of the coconut-instead of putting it up to the office, the courts or the public to do so? Can any elevation of the standards of practise (effected perhaps with the assistance of the patent bar) relieve the office at the same time from an undue burden of editorial work and from any suspicion of complicity in the wholesale netting of "suckers by men who indulge in misleading advertisements or contingent prosecution? Can the divisions of the office advantageously be grouped into departments, each comprising several divisions handling analogous problems-a chemical department, an electrical department, an "'instrument'' department, a motive power department and the like, each under some expert of distinction in a particular field, and this body of experts having not only authority within their respective departments, but exercising collectively an enlightened and final appellate jurisdiction? Can the salaries of these proposed department heads (constituting an enlarged and strengthened board) and the salaries of chiefs of divisions, and of others, be made such as to justify able and provident men in remaining for a much longer average term within this branch of the service? Could the establishment in Washington of some great related institution, such as the proposed Institute for the History of Science, aid materially by an assembling, in this vicinity, of permanent exhibits genuinely illustrative of the advance of, e. g., the chemical arts, the electrical arts, the motive power arts, the transport arts, etc., with a corresponding assembling and arrangement of pertinent literature from all the world, and with such an administrative organization as shall supplement the resources of this office, among others, sustaining its standards, while at the same time providing, in support of those who can maintain their scholarly interests and professional instincts, something of the stimulus and the opportunities of a true national university? The mentioned special committee of the Patent Office Society takes this means of urging upon all interested the forwarding of any patent reform suggestions at once to Dr. Wm. F. Durand, National Research Council, Washington, D. C. It is not expected that patent reform can claim primary consideration during the continuance of the war, but it is felt that the time is ripe for at least a study of conditions and a renewed consideration of certain fundamentals from which it is felt that the office charged "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts "-has departed through lack of information and support. BERT RUSSELL, Secretary, SCIENTIFIC EVENTS FREE PUBLIC MEDICAL LECTURES THE faculty of medicine of Harvard University offers a course of free public lectures on medical subjects to be given at the medical school, Longwood Avenue, Boston, on Sunday afternoons at four o'clock, beginning January 6 and ending April 21, 1918. January 6. Social hygiene and the war, Dr. Wm. F. Snow, major, Medical Reserve Corps, U. S. A. January 13. Surgical shock, Dr. W. T. Porter. January 20. Teeth and their relation to human ailments; a plea for conservation, Dr. G. H. Wright. January 27. Home nursing, with demonstrations, Elizabeth Sullivan. February 3. Child welfare during the war, Dr. Richard M. Smith. February 10. Child welfare, Miss Mary Beard. February 17. Shoes and structure of the foot, Dr. E. H. Bradford. February 24. Social infection and the community, Bishop Lawrence. March 3. The deformed mouth of a child; its effect on the child's future, Dr. L. W. Baker. Food: how to save it, Dr. L. J. March 10. Henderson. March 17. What to eat during the war, Dr. F. W. White. March 24. Some aspects of fatigue, Dr. Percy G. Stiles. March 31. Camp sanitation and control, and hospital administration at Camp Devens, Dr. Glenn I. Jones, major, Medical Corps, U. S. A. April 7. Accident and injury, first aid (with simple demonstrations), Dr. J. Bapst Blake. April 14. Immunity to contagious disease, Dr. E. H. Place. April 21. Hay fever and asthma, Dr. I. Chandler Walker. April 28. Food administration during the war, Dr. Julius Levy (under the National Food Committee). THE POPULAR MEDICAL LECTURES TO BE GIVEN AT The program is as follows: January 4. The control of vice diseases among troops through civil and military cooperation, Colonel L. U. Maus, U. S. Army. January 18. Surgery of the present war, Dr. Leo Eloesser. February 1. Industrial fatigue, Professor E. G. Martin. February 15. Food poisoning from canned goods, Dr. E. C. Dickson. March 1. Recent experiences of a medical man in the war zone, Dr. William P. Lucas, professor of pediatrics, University of California. March 15. Circulation of the blood, Dr. A. A. D'Ancona. Illustrated with moving pictures. WARTIME WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE How the work of the Forest Service was realigned to meet war conditions is described in the Annual Report of the Forester, which in the absence of the head of the service is made by Acting Forester A. F. Potter. The report also states that practically every form of use of the forests was greater than ever before, that the receipts again touched a new high level with a total of $3,457,028.41, and that the increase in receipts over the previous year was $633,487.70. "When the grazing charge has been advanced to cover the full value of the grazing privilege," says the report, "the income from the national forests will be close to the cost of operation. The present annual cost is about $4,000,000." An increase equal to that of the last fiscal year would close the gap." The Forester, Henry S. Graves, is now serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, with a commission as lieutenant colonel, in connection with the forest work for the supply of the needs of our overseas troops and those of the Allies. A number of other members of the Forest Service reeived commissions in the Tenth Engineers (Forest) while many more entered the ranks. Wood and other forest products have almost innumerable uses in modern warfare. Never before has the demand for exact knowledge been so urgent. "In the work relating to forest utilization and forest products, the resources of the service have been employed to the limit of their capacity since the war began in rendering assistance to the War and Navy Departments, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, various committees of the Coun cil of National Defense, and manufacturers of war orders. The peace-time program has been largely discontinued. The force and the work have been centered in Washington and Madison. Every effort has been made to bring available knowledge to the attention of the organizations which have need for it and to assist in anticipating their problems." Much of the work has concerned aircraft material. It has included also problems connected with the construction of wooden ships and of vehicles. Assistance has been given to hardwood distillation plants in order to increase the production of acetone and other products needed for munition making. A commercial demonstration has shown that costs of producing ethyl alcohol from wood waste can be materially reduced. Methods have been developed by which walnut and birch can be kiln-dried in a much reduced time with comparatively little loss. In general, the report says, much assistance has been given on a great variety of war problems relating to forest resources and the manufacture, purchase, and most efficient use of • wood and other forest products." In spite of the many new demands upon the Service and the entrance upon military duties of a considerable number of its men, the administrative and protective work on the national forests was continued without disorganization. "Upon request of the War Department the preliminaries of recruiting and officering the Tenth Engineers (Forest) were handled. Increase of crop production in and near the forests was stimulated and the forage resource of the forests was made available for emergency use up to the limit of safety. In the latter part of the summer a fire season of extreme danger, made worse in some localities by an unusual prevalence of incendiarism, was passed through with relatively small loss of property and with no reported loss of life." WAR ACTIVITIES OF THE GEOLOGICAL THE activities of the Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, during the fiscal year 1916-17 have been concentrated on investigations connected with military and industrial preparedness, as shown by the Annual Report of the director of the survey, just made public. These activities have included the preparation of special reports for the War and Navy Departments and the Council of National Defense, the making of military suveys, the printing of military maps and hydrographic charts, and the contribution of engineer officers to the Reserve Corps. The survey's investigations of minerals that have assumed special interest because of the war have been both expanded and made more intensive. Special reports giving results already at hand, the product of years of field and office investigation, have been published for the information of the general public or prepared for the immediate use of some official commission, committee or bureau. Geologic field work has been concentrated on deposits of minerals that are essential to the successful prosecution of the war, especially those of which the domestic supply falls short of present demands. Every available oil geologist is at work in petroleum regions where geologic exploration may lead to increased production. Other geologists are engaged in a search for commercial deposits of the (6 war minerals "— manganese, pyrite, platinum, chromite, tungsten, antimony, potash and nitrate. The war not only diverted practically all the activities of the topographic branch of the survey to work designed to meet the urgent needs of the war department for military surveys, but led to the commissioning of the majority of the topographers as reserve officers in the Corps of Engineers, United States Army. A large contribution to the military service is made by the map-printing establishment of the survey. This plant has been available for both confidential and urgent work, and during the year has printed 96 editions of maps for the war department and 906 editions of charts for the navy department. Other lithographic work, some of it very complicated, was in progress at the end of the year. During the year the survey published 203 scientific and economic reports, and at the end of the year the survey members holding ap pointments from the secretary numbered 934, an increase of 62. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS THE American Association for the Advancement of Science begins its annual meeting at Pittsburgh on the day of issue of the present number of SCIENCE. The address of the retiring president, Dr. Charles R. Van Hise is given this evening, his subject being "Economic Effects of the World War in the United States." It is expected that the meeting of the association and of the national societies meeting at the same time will be smaller than usual, and that scientific problems of national concern at the present time will occupy most of the programs. Careful consideration was given to the desirability of holding the meeting. It was decided that the service it could render to science and the nation was far greater than any drawbacks. This was the opinion both of scientific men and of the officers of the government who were consulted. SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, who has long been a correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sciences, has now been elected an associate member of the academy. DR. WILLIAM W. KEEN, of Philadelphia, has declined the renomination of president of the American Philosophical Society, after serving ten years in that capacity. DR. ALEXIS CARREL, having been detained in America by official duties, the Harben lectures he was to have delivered in England at the end of this month have been postponed. GILBERT N. LEWIS, professor of physical chemistry and dean of the college of chemistry in the University of California, has been granted leave of absence for the half year beginning January 1, 1918, to serve as major in the Ordnance Department of the U. S. Army. He is to go at once to France. MR. CHARLES S. WILSON, state commissioner of agriculture of New York, has been reappointed to that office by the newly organized Council of Farms and Markets at Albany. His original appointment was made almost three years ago by the governor. Mr. Wilson was then professor of pomology in the State College of Agriculture at Cornell. DR. FRANK C. HAMMOND has been appointed a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health to serve during the absence in France of Dr. Alexander C. Abbott. A NUMBER of additional members of the University of California faculty have entered Army service, including Joel H. Hildebrand, associate professor of chemistry, now a captain in the Ordnance Department; Dr. A. L. Fisher, assistant in orthopedic surgery, now a captain in the U. S. Medical Reserve, attached to Base Hospital No. 30; and W. F. Hamilton, A. R. Kellogg, and J. B. Rogers, of the department of zoology, now in the Forestry Reserves. F. G. TUCKER, assistant professor of physics at the State College of Washington, has been granted leave of absence to take up his duties as second lieutenant in the U. S. Coast artillery. THE Council of the Royal Meteorological Society has awarded Dr. H. R. Mill the Symons gold medal for 1918 "for distinguished work in connection with meteorological science." THE following letter has been received by the Duke of Connaught, President of the Royal Society of Arts from Mr. Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio. I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your Royal Highness's letter and the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, which were forwarded to me through the British Ambassador at Washington. I wish to express my appreciation of the honor conferred upon me by the Royal Society of Arts as a recognition of the work of my brother Wilbur and myself towards the solution of the problem of flight. I appreciate with the utmost gratification the honor of being placed by your society among such men as those to whom this coveted medal has been awarded in years past. PROFESSOR FREDERICK STARR, of the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago, who has been in the Orient for the past year on leave of absence, will renew his work at the university with the winter quarter, giving courses in prehistoric archeology and general anthropology. Professor Starr has been conducting special anthropological investigations in Korea and has published a book of some five hundred pages in Japanese. He has also published a paper on "Korean Coin Charms," which is issued by the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Before leaving Japan Professor Starr gave two public addresses, one before the Tokyo Anthropological Society and one before the Asiatic Society of Japan. PROFESSOR CHARLES BASKERVILLE, professor of chemistry and director of laboratories of the College of the City of New York, delivered a lecture at the Royal Canadian Institute, Toronto, Canada, on December 8, the subject being, The Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils. DR. E. O. HOVEY, of the American Museum of Natural History, delivered a public address on "Two years in the far North" at Syracuse University on December 7, under the auspices of the Sigma Xi Society. PROFESSOR O. D. VON ENGELN, of Cornell University, addressed the Physiographers' Club of Columbia University on November 23 on "Types of Alaskan glaciers and features of the associated deposits." SIR ARTHUR NEWSHOLME gave this year the Lady Priestley Memorial Lecture of the National Health Society. The subject was The child and the home." DR. LOUIS POPE GRATACAP, for the last twenty-seven years curator of mineralogy and a member of the staff of the American Museum of Natural History for forty-one years, died at New Brighton on December 19, aged sixty-seven years. DR. CHARLES M. MANSFIELD, scientific assistant in the Biochemic Division of the U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry, died at his home in Washington, D. C., on December 17. Dr. Mansfield was an accomplished photographer and had contributed several articles to the photographic journals. THE death is announced at the age of 43, of Dr. J. Rambousek, professor of factory hygiene, and chief state health officer, Prague. LIEUT. CYRIL GREEN, known for his work in plant ecology and the physiological anatomy of water plants, was killed on the Palestine front early in November. He had been a member of the staff of the department of botany of the University College, London. Since the outbreak of the war he had been appointed head of the department of botany in the new Welsh National Museum at Cardiff, a position which was to have been held open for him until the conclusion of hostilities. THE death is announced on November 4 of M. R. Nichéls, professor of geology in the University of Nancy. THE Society of American Bacteriologists will hold its annual meeting in Washington, D. C., on December 27, 28 and 29. The morning and afternoon sessions will be held in the new National Museum. The president is Dr. Leo F. Rettger, New Haven, Conn.; the secretary, Dr. A. Parker Hitchens, Glenolden, Pa. Ar their recent annual meeting the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington accepted from Mrs. E. H. Harriman the gift of the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor. This gift comprises about 80 acres of land, the office building with its records and other contents, the large residence and other buildings. In addition Mrs. Harriman has given to the trustees of the institution securities yielding an annual income of $12,000, as a fund for the office. The total valuation of the gift is about half a million dollars. The transfer has been made by Mrs. Harriman in order to ensure the permanent continuation of the work of the Eugenics Record Office. Except that the former board of scientific directors is dissolved the immediate management and personnel of the office have not been affected by the transfer. THE regular monthly meeting of the California Academy of Sciences was held on December 19, when a lecture was given by Professor J. C. Bradley, Cornell University, on "The Okefinokee" (illustrated). Following the lecture Dr. Barton W. Evermann spoke |