Observatory

The Perkin Fund last month donated the $1.5 million needed for the construction of a new building at the Harvard College Observatory, the University News Service announced yesterday.

The gift, which was made through the Program for Science, will provide nearly half of the funds needed to construct the $32 million building.

The fund is named after the late Richard S. Perkin a member for over 30 years of the Board of Overseers' Committee to Visit the Observatory, and a founder and Chairman of the Board of the Perkin Elmar Corporation. Perkin provided for the fund in his will.

Previous grants. including $1 million from the National Science Foundation, will supply the rest of the required funds. Construction of the building, which will be named after Perkin, should begin in January and be completed by the fall of 1971.

Eclipse

A team of Harvard Observatory scientists is now preparing for a trip south this spring to study a three and a half minute solar eclipse from a base near Oaxaca, Mexico.

Jay M. Pasachoff. a research fellow in Astronomy helping to organize Harvard's team, said that there would be two openings on the expedition staff for interested graduate students or seniors. A National Geographic Society grant will cover all travel and lodging expenses for the team-students included.

Those interested in joining the expedition should apply in writing to Pasachoff as soon as possible. Scientific preparation in Mexico will begin about a month before the eclipse takes place on March 7.

Paschoff said that the Harvard team will be mainly concerned with observations of the solar corona-the vast outer atmosphere of the sun-with a spectrograph which he is building with Donald H. Menzel, professor of Astrophysies.

The eclipse will also be visible from Nantucket and along a band south to Mexico Scientists from all over the world will meet at Oaxaca. however. because the chance of cloud cover is smaller there than elsewhere along the band.

Marijuana

According to a Harvard professor. "very little attention has been given to the possibility that marijuana might protect some people from psychosis."

In the current issue of Scientific America, Lester Grinspoon. associate professor of Clinical Psychology, calls the public attitude toward marijuana "charged with a hyperemotional bias."

Grinspoon attributes the popular prejudices against grass to the propaganda campaign waged by the Federal Burean of Narcoties during the 1930's and to America's puritanical attitude toward the pursuit of pleasure.

"Marijuana's effect in producing a state of introspection and bodily passivity is repellent to a cultural tradition that prizes activity, aggressiveness and advancement." Grinspoon says in his article.

Grinspoon also attacks popular conceptions about the effect of grass on its users. Research. he agrees, has not yet produced any proof that smoking pot leads to violent behavior, sexual debauchery, or even to harder drugs. and there have been studies that give evidence to the contrary.

Grinspoon feels that the greatest charge against the popular drug has been that it may lead to depression or psychosis. However. he says, most of the studies conducted have been conducted on persous with a history of mental illness.

Bomb Scare

University police and Cambridge firemen searched Holyoke Center for more than an hour yesterday afternoon, looking for a bomb that an anonymous caller said would go off at 3 p.m.

The call-received at 12:15 p.m.-was the fourth bomb threat to a Harvard building this fall. No bombs have actually been found or exploded.

University police did not order persons to leave Holyoke Center while they conducted their search yesterday, although last month Holyoke Center was cleared twice and 1737 Cambridge Street once during similar bomb scarces.

"We're not going to ask anybody to leave unless they want to. "Robert Tonis, Chief of University Police said after the search-which he described as "superficial"-yesterday afternoon.

"It's getting ridiculous." Tonis added. "It would take two weeks to search the building thoroughly."

Prof. to Washington

Another Harvard faculty member will soon follow Henry A. Kissinger, professor of Government, to Washington to aid in American foreign-policy making.

The State Department announced this week the appointment of Louis B. Sohn, Bemis Professor of International Law, as Connselor on International Law-a newly established State Department Post.

Sohn will assist the Legal Advisor in advising the Secretary of State on the international legality of foreign policy questions.

Sohn is the "country's leading expert on all legal problems connected with the United Nations and with other multinational organizations," Derek Bok, dean of the Law School, said last night.

The new appointee will have responsibility for examining the implications-for international law and world order-of prospective programs and policies. He will also be expected to propose alternative policies.

In his planning capacity, Sohn will assist in creating new legal principles for America's relations with other countries and with international organizations.

Sohn's appointment will take him away from Harvard for only a year. He now teaches a course on "United Nations Law." and a seminar on "Problems of World Order."

Sohn was a participant in the 1945 San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations, and later served in a variety of consulting and legal positions in the U.N. In 1965. he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights of the President's National Citizens Commission for International Cooperation.

Sohn has "a very profound background in the area of disarmament as well," according to Abram Chayes, professor of Law.

Chaves said Sohn created the idea of "raudom selection inspection" that "cracked open the inspection impasse" in disarmament negotiations.

National Lampoon

In the wake of nationwide success for the Lampoon Time parody, a number of former Poon editors have banded together to publish a monthly. New York based national humor magazine.

"You've got to get a laugh fast," said Robert Hoffman '69, managing editor, in explaining the editorial policy of The National Lampoon.

Richard Armour, Max Schulman, Thomas Meehan, Dick Cavett's staff writers, and Woody Allen have already been solicited, and are expected to join former Lampoon editors in contributing to the magazine's content.

Hoffman said serious discussion of the national magazine, "an idea that we'd been kicking around the Castle for a number of years," began some 15 months ago. and that fund-raising commenced last Spring.

A campaign for "selected markets" through mail promotionals, magazine advertising, and radio and TV spots will begin early next year, he said. The magzine aims at "an average reader 26 years old, male, with a high median income of $18,000 a year."

The National Lampoon, Incorporated will publish 400,000 copies a month.

Each issue of the Time-sized monthly will be "heavy in visual humor." Hoffman explained, and will feature a "theme." "Big Business, Money, and Greed" will be the theme of the second issue, due in April.