in rare and valuable flora and fauna specimens has been prevalent in scientific circles. The reservation of this region was formally advocated in a report of Stephen T. Mather, director of the National Park Service at Washington in 1917. The National Dunes Park Association, of which Mr. William P. Gleason, of Gary, Indiana, is now president, has also taken up the matter and has secured a large membership of adherents who enthusiastically advocate the preservation of this wonderland region.

All of these movements have been largely combated by the residents of Porter county, in which the choicest of the dunes are located because of an undercurrent of various misunderstandings. It has been thought by the Porter county residents, and notably the commercial interests of Valparaiso, the county seat, that through a setting aside of the dunes, bordering its fifteen miles of lake front, for a park, would deprive the county of its industrial development which many have held to be paramount to the preservation of those "useless sand hills." The Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce standing primarily for the industrial and commercial development of its valuable water front, strongly opposed any movement looking to the securing of the former objective and the loss of the latter.

Recently there has come into being a new spirit of cooperation. Ex-State Senator Bowser, of Chesterton, Porter county, a director of the National Dunes Park Association has laid a proposal before the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, that both bodies cooperate in the attainment of the objectives which have hitherto been considered antagonistic. The bond of cooperation has been formed through the appointment of a general committee, a legal committee and a boundary committee by President John Sievers, of the Chamber of Commerce. Of these the boundary committee consisting of W. E. Harris, Herman Pollentske, Edward Morgan, J. G. Johnson, Guy Stinchfield, George Pearce, Frank R. Theroux have reported in favor of a three-mile lake front park dedicated to Porter county, but this

committee wisely qualified their report by stating that the final settlement of boundaries could not yet be determined and many related interests and questions would need to be considered before the limits could be fixed.

It is significant that at a later meeting the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce passed the following resolution which shows that the business men of Porter county appreciate the importance of the dune conservation undertaking.

The Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce recommend to the National Dunes Park Association that a board of three consulting engineers be appointed before any final steps on ultimate boundary lines are taken. An industrial engineer to be selected by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers; an engineer on town planning by the Society of American Architects; and a scientist by the Agricultural Department and the Smithsonian Institution to plan coordinately for the proper relation of the industrial, esthetic and scientific Dune-Land heritage nature has placed in the lap of Porter County.

THE IOWA POLICY CONCERNING STATE

PARKS

THE thirty-seventh General Assembly of the State of Iowa authorized the creation of state parks out of funds from the fees obtained from hunters license fees. It provided that $50,000 be taken out of this fund and on the recommendation of the fish and game warden and the Iowa State Board of Conservation to the executive council state parks could be created and lakes improved. The governor and executive council later (in 1917) appointed L. H. Pammel, of Ames, Joseph Kelso, of Bellevue, and John F. Ford, of Fort Dodge, members of this board, the curator of the historical department being an ex-officio member. The board met and elected Mr. E. R. Harlan secretary and L. H. Pammel chairman.

This board and the fish and game warden recommended the purchase of what is known as the Devil's Backbone Park in northwestern Delaware county. The executive council directed the purchase of some 1,200 acres

along the Msquoketa River, embracing one of the few trout streams left in Iowa, containing also some magnificent old white pine. This park was to have been dedicated on October 1, but owing to unprecedented rains the matter of dedication was postponed. The park was to have been presented by L. H. Pammel on part of the State Board of Conservation and accepted by Governor W. L. Harding.

Five-minute talks were also to be given by other members of the board.

A second state park has recently been established in what is known as the horseshoe bend of the Des Moines River near Keosauqua. The board and executive council also authorized the purchase of the largest boulder of the Iowan drift in the Mississippi valley, and three acres of land surrounding the boulder. The Keosauqua area of 1,123 acres contains a large number of interesting native trees especially oaks and shrubs. Among the birds, some of the rarer species in Iowa are found here, like the drumming pheasant. Bob white is abundant. The board went so far as to get the signatures of all farmers within a mile from the park to preserve this area outside of the park as a wild-life reserve.

The policy of the board will be to keep the lakes and purchase land on the shores for state parks, to establish one or more highways or county parks in many of the counties in the state. The larger parks are to be for the "preservation of places of historic, natural or recreational interest authorizing donations in aid of such purposes and to make an appropriation therefore, provided for aid by municipal corporations and authorizing boards of supervisors to extend county road systems." Many generous gifts have been made. The Brandt sisters of Davenport donated 57 acres in what is known as "Wild Cat Den," containing some rare ferns and interesting from an ecological standpoint. The citizens of Farmington and Van Buren county purchased outright 100 acres containing a lotus (Nelumbo lutea) pond of 40 acres.

There have been more than 100 petitions for state parks. Where it is not possible to buy at this time leases are made so that the wild life may be preserved along the

Yellow River in Allamakee county and the Ice Cave near Decorah. The thirty-eighth General Assembly appropriated $100,000 annually for the creation of these parks, eliminating the fish and game warden so that the recommendations now are direct to the executive council from the State Board of Conservation.

MATTERS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST IN
CONGRESS1

MR. FESS has reintroduced his bill for a national university, which failed of final action in the Sixty-fifth Congress. The present bill is H. R. 9353: “To create a national university at the seat of the Federal Government." The institution, to be known as the "National University of the United States," is to be governed by a board of trustees, consisting of the U. S. Commissioner of Education and twelve appointed members; the acts of the board are subject to approval by an advisory council, consisting of one representative (usually the president of the State University) from each state. No student is to be admitted unless he shall have obtained the degree of master of science or master of arts from an institution of recognized standing. No academic degrees are to be conferred. An initial appropriation of $500,000 is provided. The bill was referred to the Committee on Education.

A fact of interest to the scientific public is that the "Army reorganization bill" (S. 2715, Mr. Wadsworth; and H. R. 8287, Mr. Kahn) makes no mention of the Chemical Warfare Service. In his letter accompanying the bill, Secretary of War Baker suggests that the Chemical Warfare Service be made a part of the Engineer Corps. The proposal to abolish the Service as a distinct unit, comparable with the Tank Corps, is being vigorously opposed by the Council of the American Chemical Society.

Warnings issued by the Public Health Service in September that a recurrence of the 1918 pandemic of influenza was probable in

1 From the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.

the autumn months of 1919, stirred renewed interest in the various, bills and resolutions providing for investigations of that disease, but no final action had been taken at the time of this report, although Mr. Harding's S. J. Res. '76 was reported in the Senate on October 1.

On September 3, Mr. McKellar introduced S. 2920: "To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out investigations of the causes and means of prevention of fires and dust explosions in industrial plants." The bill provides $100,000 for such investigations. Referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.

A plan for private development under Federal concessions, of the platinum resources of Alaska is contained in H. R. 8988: "To incorporate the United States Platinum Corporation and to aid in the development of the mineral resources of Alaska, and for other purposes," introduced on September 3 by Mr. O'Connell (by request). The proposed Corporation would have a capital stock not to exceed $50,000,000; would be exempt from Federal taxation; would be empowered to receive concessions and leases of governmentowned platinum sands in Alaska; would pay a royalty of one eighth of its net products; and would furnish $100,000 for the maintenance of five "U. S. Government Commissioners of Platinum and its Allied Industries," whose duties are not defined in the bill. Referred to the Committee on Public Lands.

No action was taken on the invitation of the French government to send delegates to a meteorological conference in Paris on September 30, and the United States was, therefore, not officially represented.

AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION

THE thirty seventh stated meeting of The American Ornithologists' Union will convene in New York City, from November 11 to 13. The headquarters will be at The Belleclaire, Broadway and 77th Street. Owing to the crowded condition of hotels in New York, members intending to be present are urged to make reservations well in advance. Reserva

tions might also be made at The Pennsylvania, opposite the Pennsylvania Station, 7th Avenue and 33d Street.

The public meetings will be held at the American Museum of Natural History, 77th Street and Central Park, West, from 10 A.M. until 4 P.M. each day. The reading of papers will form a prominent feature of the meetings. All classes of members are earnestly requested to contribute, and to notify the secretary before November 5, as to the titles of their communications, and the length of time required for their presentation, so that a program for each day may be prepared.

As this is the first meeting since the war, interesting reports may be expected from some of the members who served in the military or naval service. In addition to the usual social features there will be opportunities to visit the New York Zoological Park, the Brooklyn Museum, Audubon's home in Audubon Park, and the New York Historical Society, where the original drawings of Audubon's Birds of America are preserved.

Each member is requested to recommend to the secretary the name of at least one new associate for election to the union.

1939 BILTMORE ST., N.W., WASHINGTON, D. C.,

T. S. PALMER, Secretary

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS DR. THEODORE W. RICHARDS, professor of chemistry at Harvard University, and director of the Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Laboratory, has been elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London.

PROVOST EDGAR F. SMITH, of the University of Pennsylvania, received the degree of doctor of laws from Queen's College at Kingston, Ontario, at the convocation of Canadian universities on October 16.

DR. FREDERICO GIOLITTI, formerly professor of metallurgical chemistry and metallography at Turin has been presented with the Bessemer medal of the British Iron and Steel Institute. DR. ERIC K. RIDEAL, a graduate of Cambridge University and of the University of

Bonn, more recently captain of the Royal Engineers in the British Army, has been appointed visiting professor of physical chemistry at the University of Illinois for the

current year.

PROFESSOR GEORGE C. WHIPPLE, of Harvard University has been appointed director of the division of sanitation in the bureau of hygiene of the International League of Red Cross Societies. The associate director will be Colonel Francis F. Longley, U. S. A., who served as colonel of the 26th Engineers in France.

THE Massachusetts Forestry Association has submitted to the Governor of Massachusetts the names of Herman H. Chapman, of the Yale Forest School, New Haven, Connecticut; E. C. Hirst, state forester of Concord, New Hampshire, and William C. Howard, assistant superintendent of the State Forests, Albany, New York, as candidates to head the Massachusetts Division of Forestry, and also to fill the office of commissioner of conservation.

AMONG the war prizes awarded by the French Academy of Sciences are the three Montyon prizes of £100, given respectively to MM. Louis Martin and Auguste Pettit, of the Pasteur Institute, for a memoir of icterohemorrhagic spirochetosis; MM. Weinberg and Seguin, of the same institute, for a research on gas gangrene; and MM. Rouvillois, G. L. Pédeprade, and A. Basset for their studies on war surgery. A prize of £120 was awarded to M. Paul Ravaut for his researches on paludism, and one of £80 to M. Goris for studies on the localization of alkaloids and glucosides in vegetables and on the preparation of catgut.

DR. W. H. RANKIN, for five years assistant professor of plant pathology in the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, has been appointed officer in charge, Field Laboratory of Plant Pathology, St. Catherines, Ontario, in the Canadian department of agriculture, and has entered upon his duties.

PROFESSOR J. O. ARNOLD, dean of the faculty of metallurgy and professor of metal

lurgy in the University of Sheffield since 1889, has retired.

DR. ELWOOD MEAD, professor of rural institutions in the University of California and chairman of the California Land Settlement Board, has been appointed a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

DR. OLIVER KAMM, assistant professor of organic chemistry in the University of Illinois, has returned to Urbana after an eight months' leave of absence spent in organizing a chemical research laboratory for the American Writing Paper Company, at Holyoke, Mass. Dr. R. E. Rindfuss, of the University of Illinois, has accepted a permanent position with the same company as director of Chemical Research. Dr. Kamm remains connected with the company in an advisory capacity.

MR. PAUL C. STANDLEY, of the Division of Plants, U. S. National Museum, has returned from a collecting trip through Glacier National Park, Montana. Data were secured for a handbook of the plants of the park, to be issued by the National Park Service.

PROFESSORS EDWARD W. BERRY AND JOSEPH T. SINGEWALD, JR., of the Johns Hopkins University, have returned to Baltimore, after spending six months in geological investigations in the South American Cordillera. Over one thousand miles were traversed on mule-back and the Andes were crossed eight times between Huancayo, Peru and Concepcion, Chile. Much valuable material was made shipped home. The expedition was possible by a fund in memory of the late Professor George H. Williams.

PROFESSOR OLAF P. JENKINS has resigned from his position as geologist to the Arizona Bureau of Mines, University of Arizona, at Tucson, to undertake geological work in foreign countries for S. Pearsons & Son, Ltd., of London.

DR. C. BONNE and his wife, Mr. C. BonneWepster, of Surinam (Dutch Guiana), students of South American mosquitoes, are spending two months at the National Museum in the study of the mosquito collection.

ALFRED F. BARKER, professor of textile industries at the University of Leeds, England, has been visiting the United States.

Nature states that the Scandinavian Association for a Tropical Biological Station has decided to send an expedition this autumn to select a site for a research station to study marine biology. Dr. Th. Mortensen, who is chairman and founder of the association, will lead a small party including probably Dr. Nils Holmgren and a botanist. They will visit Celebes, North Borneo, Amboina, and New Guinea.

DR. VITO VOLTERRA, professor of mathematical physics in the University of Rome, and a member of the Italian Senate, delivered six lectures on the Hitchcock foundation at the University of California, between October 13 and October 21. The subject of the first four lectures was "The Propagation of electricity in a magnetic field," and that of the last two

was

"Derivate functional equations." During his stay in California he visited the Yosemite Valley and was a guest of Director Campbell at the Lick Observatory and of Director Hale, at the Mount Wilson Observatory. After visiting the Grand Canyon of the Colorado he will go to Houston, Texas, where he will give some lectures at Rice Institute. From there he will go to the Atlantic coast, where he will visit a number of universities.

A SERIES of fortnightly lectures on industrial problems are being delivered at the Guildhall, London, under the auspices of the Industrial League and Council. The speakers will include Mr. E. J. P. Benn, Professor Ripper, Dr. Russell Wells, Sir Auckland Geddes, Sir George Paish and Lord Emmott.

J. W. H. TRAIL, F.R.S., who for fifty-two years held the chair of botany at the University of Aberdeen to which he was appointed at the age of twenty-six, died on September 18.

IT is stated in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences that the proposed American Meteorological Society, formal organization of which is suggested for action in connection with the next meeting of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science, is expected to have a large Washington membership, drawn from the staff of the Weather Bureau and from among the meteorologists of the Army and Navy. It is suggested that the Monthly Weather Review be made the medium for publishing meteorological and climatological articles, while a monthly leaflet published by the society would contain news, announcements, notes and queries.

THE following resolution was adopted by the technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry at the meeting held in Chicago, for September 24 to 27.

WHEREAS, due to the decay of pulpwood and woodpulp the paper industry is suffering an annual loss of $5,000,000, and

WHEREAS, in order to reduce this loss to a minimum a scientific investigation of the cause and possible control of such infection is essential, and

WHEREAS, The Forest Products Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wis., is in an exceptional position to undertake this special investigation, Therefore,

Be it resolved, that this association use every means within its power to secure a specific appropriation of $50,000 for this special investigation to be conducted by the Forest Products Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wis.

THROUGH the action of the congressional Public Buildings Commission, of which Senator Smoot is chairman, the U. S. Geological Survey has been compelled to give up to the Internal Revenue Bureau nearly half of its office space in the Interior Department Building. Economic Geology says: "This by forcing as many as three geologists to work in a single small room with no adequate space for the study of maps and collections is a serious blow at the efficiency of the organization. The action is an example of the failure of Congress to understand the nature of scientific work and to realize that a geologist's room is essentially a laboratory within which it should be possible to retain in accessible condition, collections of minerals, rocks and ores representing field work that in some investigations may extend over a period of several years."