UNITED STATES CIVIL-SERVICE EXAMINATION The United States Civil-Senrice Commission announces an open competitive examination for Associate Agricultural Chemist. Applications must he on file a t Washington, D. C.,not later than February 21st. The examination is t o fill a vacancy in the office of Experiment Stations, Department of Agriculture, and vacancies occurring in positions requiring similar qualifications. The entrance salary is $3000 a year. A probationary period of six months is required; advancement after that depends upon individual efficiency,increased usefulness, and the occurrence of vacancies in higher positions. The major duties of the position are the preparation of technical abstracts for the Experiment Station Record of current scientific literature on soils, fertilizers, and agricultural and biological chemistry, and reviews of the progress in and special articles on research in these fields. Competitors will not be required to report for examination a t any place, but will be rated on their education, training, and experience; and writings to be filed with the application. Full information and application blanks may be obtained fram the United States Civil-Service Commission, Washington, D. C., or the secretary of the board of U. S. civil-service examiners a t the post-officeor customhouse in any city. Metric System Convenient for Big and Little. How the metric system may be conveniently used for measurements from the infinitely small confines of the atoms of which all matter is made up to the inconceivably great distances separating the stars from each other, was explained a t the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting by Dr. ,Nexander McAdie, of Harvard University. Using the meter, t o equal 39.37 inches, as the unit, Dr. McAdie explained that the total range of measurements in the universe as we know it ranges from a thousand millidn million million meters for stellar distances down t o a thousand million million millionth of a meter for the distances separating the electrons which make up the atoms.-Science Service Student's Viewpoint Should Be Considered. The value of viewing curricula from the pupil's standpoint was pointed out by Dr. Jesse E. A d a m of the University of Kentucky who addressed the American Association for the Advancement of Science. " It has begun to dawn upon us that the attitudes and ideals built up when pupils must take subjects they do not like may be far more detrimental than all the subjectmatter they get," he said. "It would seem that those who are responsible for making our curricula should be fully cognizant of how deadening failures are and to what extent forced interests burn the candle a t both ends. I believe Otis Caldwell was quite right when he said: 'Pupils develop fastest when engaged most of their time upon things in which they succeed and not fail.' " Dr. Adams' interest in the viewpoint of the students led him to make a survey of hieh-school pupils in Kentucky. Rve thousand . pupils anmeTed such mestions as: w h a t were thesubjects in which you failed? What subjects would you like out of the curriculum and what subjects would you like to take that you cannot get? It was found that mathematics and Latin were responsible for by far the greatestpercentage of the failures. The difficulty and lack of practical application of these subiects matle~themvery unpopular. Algebra, geometry, and Latin were wanted out of the curriculum. Of the subjects which the pupils wanted to take and could not get, the girls agreed upon domestic science, French, Spanish, typewriting and bookkeeping, and the boys upon manual training, chemistry, typewriting and bookkeeping.-Science Service ~
