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Psychologists. It was at the 36th annual meeting of the American Psychology Association and Dr. Karl Spencer Lashley of the Chicago Institute of Juvenile Research was speaking. After he had taught rats to work out certain problems, he said, he cut away portions of their brains. Although he removed from 1% to 81% of a brain the rats still were able to solve problems, only with the greater loss of brain they thought more slowly. Dr. Lashley reasoned that no one section of the brain controls mental functions, such as ability to learn or retain knowledge. He did not controvert the fact that different portions of the brain do control muscular action in different parts of the body.
Professor Edwin Garrigues Boring of Harvard was elected president of the American Psychology Association.
Organic Chemists. At Columbus also met the National Organic Chemistry Symposium and discussed the year's developments in the field of chemistry.
AT CINCINNATI, OHIO
Philologists. Every year the American Philological Association ceases its technical discussions of words to hear a pert comment on slang. Last week Professor Edward Howard Sturtevant of Yale was the commentator. Said he: "My complaint about slang is that it wears out too soon and therefore can have no meaning in the future. I can imagine nothing more shocking than to hear someone use a slang expression current ten years ago, such as '23 skidoo' or 'you're off your base.' But at first coining of such an expression, an idea is conveyed quickly and in a more satisfying manner than in the king's own English."
Archeologists. It was pleasant for the Archeological Institute of America to hear that the University of Cincinnati digging expedition to Nemea* in Greece, had successfully completed its excavation work. Prize discoveries were an adyton or secret underground chamber to which only priests had been privy, and the most complete Greek gymnasium & bath heretofore seen. Director John Garstang of the Palestine Government department of antiquities described the translating of 600 (of 20,000) baked brick records made by Hittites. The records interlock prettily with those of Greece, Babylon and Egypt.
Also in Cincinnati met the College Art Association of America, the Linguistic Society of America, the National Association of Teachers of Speech, the American Association of University Professors.
AT NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Moon &Clocks. The American Astronomical Association at New Haven examined a classification of the spectra of 225,000 stars and heard expounded a hypothesis of stellar atmosphere. Dr. Herbert Rollo Morgan of the Naval Observatory in Washington contributed some nice observations he had made on how clocks run during different phases of the moon. When the moon is in the west clocks run slower and one part of the day is a trifle longer than another—one five hundredth of a second longer.
Sun & Rabbits. Nor was there levity in the observation of Dr. Ralph Emerson De Lury of Ottawa—that in years when the sun spots were few, rabbits bred more plentifully. Trapping records of the Hudson's Bay Company supported his contention.
AND ELSEWHERE
At Cleveland met the Geological Society of America, the Paleontological Society, the Mineralogical Society of America and the Society of Economic Geologists.