Brown and White Vol. 9 no. 41

              the attention of the students is called to the following faculty ac tion which takes effect at once honors and prizes 1 there shall be no change re garding the prizes now given in the freshman year except that those taking prizes shall be designated as honor men 2 in the sophomore year there shall be a first and second honor in each of the following subjects these to be accompanied with prizes if possible in mathematics in physics and in english in case the wilbur scholar shall be first or second honor man in any of these subjects there shall be an additional honor and prize the wilbur scholar shall receive only the wilbur scholarship 3 in the junior year there shall be a first and second honor in each course of study leading to a degree these to be accompanied by prizes if possible these honors are to be determined from the man of the marks in all the subjects of the jun ior year said mean to be at least 8 4 the present honor roll of the senior class is abolished and a sys tem of honors and prizes for sen iors shall be adopted identical with that above given for juniors 5 no honor or prize shall be awarded to a student who has a condition in any subject gymnasium resolved 1 that inasmuch as gymnasium 4 term hours is a re quired subject in the freshman year that hereafter it shall be charged against each student who fails to pass it as a condition 2 that no student shall be ex empted from taking this subject or its equivalent as provided in 3 for any reason whatever 3 a student who fails to pass gymnasium or who is physically de barred from it must with the ap proval of the head of his depart ment and of the faculty elect 4 term hours of college work to take its place in his course 4 this resoltuion shall take ef fect immediately from its adoption by the faculty adopted march 17th 1902 c l ti-iornburg secretary the decline in the surface of great salt lake is causing appre hension among the people of utah this interesting body of water has been steadily sinking for a num ber of years but the causes of its decline are not well understood it is thought by some that the lake is subject to cycles of change which correspond to like cycles of years of heavy and light rainfall and that it is now undergoing one of its low water periods from which it will soon revive the movements in the waters have also been thought to be related to the development of agri cultural and grazing interests which divert large quantities of water from the streams which feed the lake for use upon the land dur ing the past years the cutting of the timber on the neighboring moun tains has been unusually heavy practically destroying the forest protection of the head waters of a number of streams whose waters flow into the lake the cutting of these forests is supposed to have injured the flow of the streams and thus to have affected the lake level great salt lake is the means of con siderable resource to utah and the value of property near the lake and certain lines of business are said to be unfavorably affected by its de cline the matter is there consid ered of so much importance that the united states geological sur vey has been asked to make an in vestigation into it wesley h beck 90 is resident engineer n y c & h r r his address is 5 vanderbilt avenue new york city third of mathemati cal series on tuesday afternoon another lecture in the course on mathemat icians of the nineteenth century was delivered by dr macfarlane in the lecture room of the chemical laboratory the room was filled with professors and undergraduates and all were rewarded by an in structive and profitable lecture the subject of which was william john macquarn rankin it was in part as follows : william john macquarn rankin was born in edinburgh july 5 1820 his father was david ran kin who traced his ancestors back to robert bruce in rankin's youth his father was lieutenant in the army but later entered engineering and became secretary of a railroad company during his early years he wrote poems and in them he de cribed the scenes and pastimes of his early years he was educated at home then sent to a public school in ayr and later sent to glasgow here his health broke down and he was obliged to discontinue his stud ies he is indebted to his father for instruction in mathematics and physics when fourteen years of age he reviewed newton's principia and to that book he is indebted for most of his skill in mathematics when sixteen years old he en tered the university of edinburgh and there took a course in chem istry zoology and botany but it seems that he never studied mathe matics in college for the reason that he was further advanced in the sub ject than was taught there but he did study aristotle locke hume and other philosophers and soon afterward he began his practical ex perience by helping his father his first work was a peculiar one and it was on the occasion of vic toria's visit to scotland in order to fittingly welcome her a great bonfire was to be made and ran kin was chosen to superintend the work and by applying his knowl edge of chemistry he made a fire that was more than satisfactory he also advanced an idea to sup ply glasgow with a supply of good water but he was never permitted to try the plan and to this day glas gow is supplied with impure water he wrote numerous pamphlets and lield many offices among the engi continued on fourth page base ball practice is being held every afternoon and the prospects for the team are apparently good thirty-seven candidates are work ing at present and they are very evenly distributed among the posi tions everything possible is be ing done to ascertain the ability of each candidate but on account of the limited indoor facilities and cold weather this has been difficult a new arrangement will be made as to the work of candidates this year after the first has been tem porarily chosen a scrub team will be thoroughly organized and an ef fort will be made to arrange a game for the scrub either at home or away for every saturday after noon there are enough country clubs preparatory schools and ath letic clubs within reach to make a good schedule possible in this way a player playing strongly on the scrub team will have a chance to make the varsity at any time during the year tt is intended if possible to make the scrub organi zation permanent so that the vacan cies in the varsity may be filled from it instead of from the college at large in the few outdoor prac tices that have been held the candi dates have played well while per haps butler kinney brush heck ler schuler and sinn showed up best l farabaugh is one of the strongest candidates for pitcher next saturday the first game of the season will be played with ur sinus and it is probable that a large number of the candidates will be given a trial during the game last wednesday a practice was held on the base ball field at which a few innings were played an effort is being made to perfect the team play rather than to develop individ ual players and a uniform style of batting is being introduced the complete list of candidates which has been approved by the faculty is as follows : catchers — lilley pocock pitchers — taylor sellers l farabaugh kinne serf ass waters first base — stull lewis snyder butler lyon a farabaugh second base — reese chamber lain schmidt becker third base — reigart sholly kinne pulford landefeld short stop — eisenhart pentz fielders — heckler barley brush smith de schweinitz hurst schuler burchsted brownell simp son and sinn the brown and white lehigh university south bethlehem pa thursday march 20 1902 base ball faculty action action taken by the faculty the prospects of the team are good calendar no 41 university lecture vol ix thursday march 22 — at 4 p m gymnasium team practice at 5 p m base ball practice at 7.30 p m debate with mo ravian seminary in christmas hall friday march 21 — at 2.02 p m juniors leave for new york on shop visits at 5 p m university lecture saturday march 22 — at 2 p m basket ball for class teams at 3 p m dumb bell drill for lacrosse and track teams sunday march 23 at 9.15 a m bible study in christmas hall at 6.15 y m c a meeting in christmas hall monday march 17 — at 3 p m gymnasium team practice at 4.45 tuesday march 18 — at 5 p m dumb bell drill for lacrosse and track team great salt lake sink ing