in longitude 66° 57′ and latitude 44° 49′; the westernmost point is Cape Alva, Wash., in latitude 48° 10′, which extends into the Pacific Ocean to longitude 124° 45'.

From the southernmost point in Texas due north to the forty-ninth parallel, the boundary between the United States and Canada, the distance is 1,598 miles. From West Quoddy Head due west to the Pacific Ocean the distance is 2,807 miles. The shortest distance

from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the United States is between points near Charleston, S. C., and San Diego, Calif., and is 1,152 miles.

The length of the Canadian boundary line from the Atlantic to the Pacific is 3,898 miles. The length of the Mexican boundary from the Gulf to the Pacific is 1,744 miles. The length of the Atlantic coast line is 5,560 miles and that of the Pacific coast line is 2,730 miles. The Gulf of Mexico borders the United States for 3.640 miles.

Nearly all maps of the United States show the parallels of latitude as curved lines and are likely to lead the ordinary observer to believe that certain eastern or western states are farther north than some of the central states that are actually in the same latitude. For this reason, one who is asked which extends farther south, Florida or Texas, is very likely to say "Texas," but, as stated, the mainland of Florida is nearly 50 miles farther south than the southernmost point in Texas. For the same reason, when we consider the geographical positions of countries south of the United States we find that errors are likely to be made in estimating position or extent in longitude. Few realize that the island of Cuba, for example, if transposed directly north would extend from New York City to Indiana, or that Habana is farther west than Cleveland, Ohio, or that the Panama Canal is due south of Pittsburgh, Pa., or that Nome, Alaska, is farther west than Hawaii.

THE BRITISH DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

THE following is a list of Research Associations which have been approved by the

department as complying with the conditions laid down in the government scheme for the encouragement of industrial research and have received licenses from the Board of Trade:

The British Boot, Shoe and Allied Trades Research Association, Technical School, Abington Square, Northampton. Secretary-Mr. John Blakeman, M.A., M.Sc.

The Brittish Cotton Industry Research Association, 108, Deansgate, Manchester. Secretary-Miss B. Thomas.

The British Empire Sugar Research Association, Evelyn House, 62, Oxford Street, London, W.1. Secretary-Mr. W. H. Giffard.

The British Iron Manufacturers' Research Association, Atlantic Chambers, Brazennose Street, Manchester. Secretary-Mr. H. S. Knowles. The Research Association of British Motor and Allied Manufacturers, 39, St. James's Street, London, S.W.1. Secretary-Mr. Horace Wyatt. The British Photographic Research Association, Sicilian House, Southampton Row, London, W.C.1. Secretary-Mr. Arthur C. Brookes. The British Portland Cement Research Association, 6, Lloyd's Avenue, London, E.C.3. Secretary-Mr. S. G. S. Panisset, A.C.G.I., F.C.S. The British Research Association for the Woollen and Worsted Industries, Bond Place Chambers, Leeds. Secretary-Mr. Arnold Frobisher, B.Sc. The British Scientific Instrument Research Association, 26, Russell Square, W.C.1. SecretaryMr. J. W. Williamson, B.Sc.

The Research Association of British Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers, c/o Messrs. W. B. Peat & Co., 11, Ironmonger Lane, E.C.2.

The Linen Industry Research Association, 3 Bedford Street, Belfast. Secretary-Miss M. Burton.

The Glass Research Association, 50, Bedford Square, W.C.2. Secretary-Mr. E. Quine, M.Sc. The British Association of Research for Cocoa, Chocolate, Sugar Confectionery, and Jam Trades, 9, Queen Street Place, E.C.4. Secretary-Mr. R. M. Leonard.

THE CENTENARY OF OERSTED'S DISCOVERY'

ON August 31 and September 1 the centenary of the discovery of electromagnetic action by the Danish physicist, Hans Christian Oersted, was celebrated at Copenhagen. Meetings were held in the Town Hall and 1 From Nature.

university, at which many Scandinavian men of science were present, and the occasion was marked by the publication of some of Oersted's scientific correspondence. It was during the winter of 1819-20 that Oersted observed that a wire uniting the ends of a voltaic battery affected a magnet placed in its vicinity, and after prosecuting his inquiries some months longer, in July, 1820, he published his Latin tract, 'Experimenta circa effectum Conflictus Electrici in Acum Magneticum." The importance of his discovery received instant recognition. Ampère, Arago and Davy all seized on the idea, and four months after the publication of his tract Oersted was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society and awarded the Copley medal. Efforts to connect magnetism with electricity had hitherto met with little success, and Wollaston, in his discourse as president of the Royal Society, referring to Oersted's discovery, expressed the hope that "the gleam of light which thus beams upon us may be the dawn of a new day, in which the clouds which have hitherto veiled from our sight the hidden mysteries of light and heat, of electricity and magnetism, may be dispelled." Oersted, who was the son of a country apothecary, originally studied medicine, but turning his attention to chemistry and physics while at Copenhagen University, and he held that position until his death in March, 1851, at the age of seventy-three. Known alike for his genial and kindly nature and for his scientific labors, he was the author of some two hundred memoirs, and received many honors at home and abroad.

Twenty

five years after his death a bronze statue of him was erected on the old fortification of Copenhagen.

THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON MATHEMATICAL RequiremeNTS

THE National Committee on Mathematical Requirements held a meeting at Lake Delavan, Wisconsin, on September 2, 3 and 4, at which a number of reports were discussed and adopted. A report on The Revision of College Entrance Requirements received the greatest amount of discussion. It is hoped

that this report may be released for publication early in October. It includes a general discussion of the present problems connected with college entrance requirements in mathematics, a report of an investigation recently made by the National Committee concerning the value of the various topics in elementary algebra as preparation for the elementary college courses in other subjects and a suggested revision of the definitions of entrance units in elementary algebra and plane geometry. A copy will be sent to any person interested upon application to the chairman of the committee, Professor J. W. Young, Hanover, N. H.

A preliminary draft on mathematics in experimental schools was discussed at this meeting. Mr. Raleigh Schorling of the Committee has spent over a year collecting material for this report. Miss Vevia Blair of the committee presented her report on the present status of disciplinary values in education. It is expected that this report also will be released for publication in October. It gives a critical review of the complete literature concerning the experimental work on the transfer of training.

Professor E. R. Hedrick presented a report which he prepared at the request of the National Committee on "The Function Concept in Secondary School Mathematics." This report also will be published in the near future. A preliminary report on junior high school mathematics is in the press of the U. S. Bureau of Education and should be ready for distribution early in October. A subcommittee under the chairmanship of Professor C. N. Moore in preparing a report on "Elective courses in mathematics in secondary schools." A committee under the chairmanship of Professor David Eugene Smith is preparing a report on "The standardization of terminology and symbolism" and Professor R. C. Archibald is preparing one on "The training of teachers." It is expected that all three of these reports will be presented for the consideration of the national committee in October.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

THE First Pan-Pacific Scientific Conference closed its three weeks session at Honolulu on August 20. Delegates were present from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Samoa and from several scientific organizations and Federal Bureaus of the United States. The

Eugene and the School of Medicine in Portland. An attempt will be made to bring together in one course the premedical and medical years and to obliterate the divisions commonly existing between premedical, preclinical and clinical studies.

AT Tulane University the following ap

lished by the Bishop Museum under the direction of a committee consisting of Dr. Arthur L. Dean, president of the University of Hawaii, Dr. Herbert E. Gregory, Yale University, Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, United States Geological Survey and Dr. Henry S. Washington, Geophysical Laboratory. This committee announces that the daily proceedings of the conference, including the discussions and the resolutions adopted, will be issued shortly and that the detailed programs of research in various branches of science will appear early in 1921.

DR. CHARLES MACFIE CAMPBELL, assistant director of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, has resigned to become professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Dr. Campbell will assume his new work on October 1.

DR. OLIVER KAMM, of the chemistry department of the University of Illinois, has been appointed director of the Chemical Research Department of Parke, Davis & Co.

DR. C. D. SHERBAKOFF, hitherto truck pathologist at the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville, has accepted the position of station pathologist at the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Knoxville.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

NEWS

DR. HARRY BEAL TORREY has resigned from the faculty of Reed College to become professor of zoology and director of fundamental education in medical science in the University of Oregon. He will divide his time between

head of the department of physics in the Georgia Institute of Technology, professor of physics; Dr. S. A. Mahood, chemist of the Forest Products Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Herbert E. Buchanan, professor of mathematics in the University of Tennessee, professor of mathematics.

DR. LANE has been appointed clinical professor of dermatology in the Yale Medical School and Dr. Alfred G. Nadler has accepted a similar position These two physicians will divide between them the work heretofore carried on by Dr. Ralph A. McDonnell, resigned.

DR. C. MCLEAN FREASER has been appointed professor of zoology in the University of British Columbia, at Vancouver.

THE chair of chemistry in Berlin University, rendered vacant by the death of Emil Fischer, will be filled by Professor Fritz Haber, who will retain also his present position of director of the Emperor William Institute for Physical and Electro-Chemistry.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

MIRAGES?

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have frequently observed the phenomenon described by F. W. McNair in SCIENCE for August 27. Contrary to the assumption of Mr. McNair, however, it may be observed under any conditions of weather and temperature. I have seen it ahead many times while driving an automobile over concrete and tar-surfaced roads. There can be little doubt that it is a phenomenon of simple reflection and is therefore entirely independent of atmospheric conditions. Any compara

tively rough surface seems to act as a polished mirror toward light striking it at a very small angle of incidence. The mirage on the plains, being a phenomenon of refraction, is of an entirely different nature.

H. H. PLATT

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In his communication to the issue of August 27, Mr. F. W. McNair touches upon a matter which seems to me worthy of further consideration.

In the course of numerous trips about the country by automobile, I have had repeated occasion to note the sort of mirage mentioned, particularly on stretches of surfaced road. The phenomenon commonly takes the form of an apparent small pool of water, which appears suddenly a little way ahead, and disappears with equal suddenness.

In most cases the reflecting air-surface would appear to be only a few inches above the road: the effect is that of a shallow pool, and one involuntarily dodges the apparent depression. On one or two occasions, however, I have noted a reflecting surface high enough to cut off the wheels of a vehicle driven through the lower stratum of air.

It occurs to me that the condition suggested may serve in part to account for ideas of temporary disappearance, or dematerialization, of solid objects, and for occasional accounts of apparent hallucination.

This matter would seem to be interesting and important enough to warrant fuller discussion. FREEMAN F. BURR

RATTLESNAKE ISLAND, past which Perry sailed his fleet to the battle of Lake Erie in 1813, lies two miles northwest of Put-in-Bay and occupies about eighteen degrees of the

horizon.

On Sunday, July 18, at about one o'clock, while watching a thunderstorm approach over Rattlesnake, a second island was seen, somewhat higher than the real one and shifted to the westward approximately one third the apparent length of the island.

At first this was thought to be a mirage of Middle Sister which lies some miles to the

northwest. Two small islets, the Rattles, which lie off shore from the western end of Rattlesnake and which were projected to the left of the phantom island, indicated, however, that we were looking at an image of Rattlesnake.

The apparition was seen from a cottage three hundred yards to the southwest as well as from the laboratory cottage. It persisted for some time, possibly as long as fifteen minutes, disappearing just before the sheets of rain from the storm blotted out Rattlesnake entirely. The outline of the real island was at all times more distinct than that of the image, which was-or seemed to be-slightly behind it as well as above.

LAKE LABORATORY,

STEPHEN R. WILLIAMS

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO

FAMILY AND SUBFAMILY NAMES IN ZOOLOGY

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have read with much interest Oberholser's thirteen rules for family and subfamily names appearing in the issue of SCIENCE of August 13, 1920, which he says have the approval, in part at least, of thirteen named persons well known for their work in systematic zoology. If Dr. Oberholser had stopped with number 12 his rules would appear to be quite ideal.

Why rule 13? Two family or subfamily names having the same spelling are comparatively rare. They are for the most part going to be used by persons who know what the type genera are. It is quite inconceivable that there would ever be any real confusion because of identical spellings. If it is desirable to distinguish between two families or subfamilies that would be spelled alike by following rules 1 and 2, a prefixed Pro seems to me to be the least desirable method. Any one not familiar with the case would naturally think the type genus of Propicida to be either Propicus or Propica. In Palmer's "Index Generum Mammalium" there are over 100 generic or subgeneric names beginning with the prefix Pro and at least half a dozen of these names are used in forming family or subfamily names.

The simplest method to distinguish between two family or subfamily names that would otherwise be spelled alike, would seem to be to add ide or ina to the full generic names in the few cases in which duplication would occur, as Picaida and Picusida. Other expedients would be to write 2d after the later name, or the year in which the name was published, or the Greek letter B. To make a prefix as Pro a part of the family or subfamily name and so cause the name to appear in alphabetic lists far away from its logical place and to lead the uninitiated into thinking of a Pro genus which does not exist seems as absurd as it is unnecessary.

M. W. LYON, JR.

THE NEEDS OF MEN OF SCIENCE IN RUMANIA

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Please publish in SCIENCE the following extract from a letter of Professor Marinesco, a leading scientist and physician in Rumania.

I believe that our American colleagues, whose country made such a noble contribution to victory, ought to take notice of the unhappy state of the Rumanian men of science which is due to the occupation of our country by the enemy. It is probably unknown that after the occupation we were in extreme distress, because all our instruments were then taken away or destroyed. A part of our libraries has been destroyed. Furthermore, since Rumania has no chemical industries, we do not possess the chemical reagents, etc., indispensable for scientific research. Allied European countries which would aid us, France for instance, have been equally devastated.

Perhaps the United States which has contributed so largely to the restoration of Europe would make a grand gesture and help the investigators of our country by sending some instruments and a certain amount of reagents as far as they are able to do so. They can not be accepted gratuitously; but we believe that we will be able to repay the debt later when the unfavorable exchange no longer weighs so heavily upon our laboratory budgets.

Hoping that my prayer will find a favorable response among my American colleagues, we would like you to be our spokesman.

S. J. MELTZER ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE, NEW York, September 1, 1920

QUOTATIONS

SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC

THIS is the heading of a leaderette in the Daily Mail, which states that "Light is to be 'caught bending' next week at Cardiff." It goes on to say that "We have in Britain today as original a group of scientific men as any country in the world; and they are beginning at last to see the wisdom of coming out of their caves and laboratories and applying their brains to practical affairs; to the laws that govern heredity, to wireless apparatus, to the uses of alcohol, to the migration of fish, to medicinal thought-reading, to the possibilities of intensive cultivation-which bulks largely this year-indeed to scores of practical themes to which their more abstract studies are leading.

"In any case, it is time most profitably spent if for one week in the year our men of science bend their united energies to the work of interesting the public in the advance of science. It is as much the duty of the public to appreciate the men of science as of men of science to come to meet the public."

our

Now, what does the Daily Mail think men of science had been doing during the period before they began to see the wisdom of coming out of their caves and applying their brains to practical affairs? Does it really think that they have suddenly awakened and hurriedly worked up papers on the laws of heredity, on wireless apparatus, etc., just for the purpose of interesting the public during this British Association week?

The Mail speaks of " our men of science" with a patronizing air, a kindly condescension which implies that they are rather weird uncanny folk, not quite normal, who dwell in