The Faculty
AN ACCOUNT OF the life and work of Wil. liam H. Wilmer, who, as director of "aviation medicine" at Issoudon, France, reduced the fatalities among American aviators 50 per cent, is being written by Professor Donald Bartlett of the Department of Biography. With a vast amount of material, including 75,000 documents, of which 10,000 are microfilms, Professor Bartlett will require at least four years more before this work is completed. William H. Wilmer was a noted ophthalmologist who, when he took charge of the aviation base, found that approximately 90 per cent of the fatalities in war aviation were caused by defects on the part of the flyers, arid only 10 per cent by faulty planes and enemy attack. Therefore he made a study of the aviators' health, their fitness for flying, their conditions at time of flying, even taking flights with them in order to make a thorough study. By eliminating men not conditioned to fly he cut the defect fatalities from 90 per cent to 40 per cent (rough figures). After the War, his patients raised a fund of $>2,000,000, with which to continue his work, to which the Rockefeller Foundation gave $2,000,000 more, and the result was the ophthalmological wing of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Wilmer died in 1936, but the training of men in medical ophthalmology had reached a very high degree of efficiency. When this work is finished Professor Bartlett will begin work on the Life of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, a biography commissioned by a nephew, Robert M. Hughes of Norfolk.
A three-year Junior Prize Fellowship of the Society of Fellows at Harvard has been granted to Donald Bernard King, Dartmouth '35, at present instructor in Greek and Latin at Dartmouth. The election to this rank of Fellow is one of the most distinct honors that can come to any American scholar, and is made by the Society on a non-application basis. By its terms, the scholar spends three years at Harvard with all the facilities of the University at his disposal, and the election carries also a stipend of approximately $2200 a year in addition. The total number of these scholars is never more than 24. Mr. King will work at Harvard on the History of the Hellespont (the modern Dardanelles) between the years 600 B.C. and 400 A.D. He is also interested in Greek-Roman Bilingual Inscriptions on ancient monuments in this same part of the world, and recently read a paper on his work in this field before the American Philological Association at their Providence meeting. The work on the History of the Hellespont forms the sub ject of his thesis for a doctor's degree at Princeton. Mr. King, while in college, majored in Latin and Greek, and was the winner of the Atherton Prize as an undergraduate. He returned from Princeton in the fall of 1938 to become an instructor at Dartmouth in Greek and Latin. The Harvard award is on the basis of "notable contributions to knowledge and thought."
Despite the amount of information available concerning the amount of work and research that goes in single volume to be used, say, in one college class, few people really realize the painstaking effort, the careful checking, and the long years of preparation necessary before such course material is presented. A case in point is An Anthology of English Litera-ture of the 19th Century, being prepared by Assistant Professor A. E. Jensen of Dartmouth and Professor Sharon Brown, of Brown University. With preliminaries arranged, with the slant to show Main Currents of Thought, it will take three or four years to assemble and edit the material which has a direct contribution to the idea of the book.
Professor William K. Stewart, chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature, is recovering from a rather serious throat infection. He went to Dick's House in April where his condition necessitated a stay of several weeks. At the present he is reported on the way to a full recovery and will be back with his classes in the fall.
Professors Henry S. Odbert, Theodore F. Karwoski, and A. B. Eckerson have been working on the theory that the mood evoked by a musical selection is related to the colors which the music brings to mind. For example, the Giant Motif from Wagner's Ring Cycle brings to the mind color sensations of black or purple or color blends. The Rienzi Overture by the same composer brings a direct response of red. As the theory shows, the colors are really "mood tones." So when a person speaks of "seeing red," of being "black with rage," of "green-eyed with jealousy," or hears "blue music," or has a "dark brown" taste he may not be far from the truth. Red is exciting, pink is quiet, yellow is gay, purple is majestic, white is spiritual, and so on through the rainbow. Brown is described as "doleful." Green and blue are dreamy and romantic.
Hanover's observance of Richard Hovey's 7gth birthday was an extremely fitting one. Professor Francis Lane Childs who recently edited "Dartmouth Lyrics" read selections from Hovey's poems in the Tower Room of Baker Library before a capacity gathering. Immediately following certain selections, the Glee Club sang the same selections as they have been put to music. Mr. Childs' readings included: Spring (with the Stein Song); Comrades; Barney Mc Gee; At the Cross Roads; June Night in Washington; The Kavanagh; the Sea Gypsy. The Glee Club sang, besides ex- cerpts from these: Stein Song, Winter Song, the Negro Song (from June Night in Washington), Eleazar Wheelock, and Men of Dartmouth. [Note: A few of the"trade" editions of Dartmouth Lyrics arestill available.]
The Department of History is planning to offer a course in Canadian history in the near future, which will be under the direction of Professor Wayne E. Stevens, with other members of the staff cooperat ing. There has been a growing feeling that the geographical situation of Dartmouth College makes the setting up of such a course peculiarly appropriate, and this move is in line with a growing interest in Canadian-American relations, which has been recently manifested upon both sides of the international boundary. The library has been gradually building up its resources in this field and now has an excellent collection, including both secondary and source material. Professor Stevens has done special work in the history of Canada in the eighteenth century and this coming June he will attend the Conference on Canadian-American Affairs which is to be held at the St. Lawrence University at Canton, New York, under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
DONALD B. KING '35
