Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/524

520 business and society, not unnatural under rapid material exploitation in the childhood of a democracy. The danger is that great men may be lacking in our universities when the time comes for them to assume the place they should hold in the community.

Of our thousand leading scientific men, 739 are in educational institutions, 110 in government work, 59 in applied science, 38 in museums and gardens, 36 in research institutions, 18 are amateurs or in other professions. The conditions in the government service are somewhat similar to those in the universities. There are men and money in abundance, but mediocrity is favored rather than genius. In the establishment of endowed research institutions the United States has taken a forward step which may give to us the world's leadership in scientific research. In our research establishments, in our universities, in government, state and municipal service, in discovery through the application of science, we have possibilities never before presented to any nation. It will be well for us and for the world if these are realized in performance.

regret to record the deaths of Professor Robert Woodworth Prentiss, who had held the chair of mathematics and astronomy in Rutgers College since 1891; of Dr. George McClellan, a Philadelphia surgeon, known for his researches in anatomy, and of Dr. Adolf Slaby, professor of electrotechnics in the Berlin Technical School and the University of Berlin, known for his work in wireless telegraphy.

is announced that Dr. H. B. Fine, professor of mathematics in Princeton University, has been offered by President Wilson the ambassadorship to Germany.—Dr. David F. Houston, secretary of agriculture, will retain the chancellorship of Washington University on leave of absence.—Professor Willis Luther Moore, who has been chief of the United States Weather Bureau since 1895, has been retired from this office.

Bruce medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has been awarded to Professor J. C. Kapteyn, of Groningen, for his work on the proper motions of the stars.—The Harris lecture committee of Northwestern University has announced that the Norman Waite Harris lectures for 1913-14 will be delivered by Dr. Edwin Grant Conklin, professor of zoology at Princeton University. The general subject of his lectures will be heredity and eugenics.

university faculty of Cornell University passed on March 14 the following resolution:

Professor Willard C. Fisher, a distinguished alumnus and former fellow of the university, has been dismissed from the chair of economics and social science at Wesleyan University on grounds stated in the letters of January 27, 1913, exchanged between the president of Wesleyan University and Professor Fisher; therefore,