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SCIENCE
NEW SERIES. VOLUME LI.
JANUARY-JUNE, 1920
SAME ET
NEW YORK
THE SCIENCE PRESS
1920
WS
i Ke
THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY,
41 NORTH QUEEN STREET,
LANCASTER, PA.
CONTENTS, AND) TPN DEOXe
NEW SERIES. VOL. L.—JANUARY TO JUNE, 1920
THE NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS ARE PRINTED IN SMALL CAPITALS
Aerostatie Pressure and Gravity, A. McApin, 144
Acceleration, Centripetal, and Weight, B. L. NEw-
KIRK, 321
Agriculture, N. Y. State College, 317, 431
ALEXANDER, J., Blue in Snow, 465
ALLEE, W. C., Amer, Soe. of Zoologists, 214
Allegheny Observatory, 458
ALLEN, W. E., Micro-plankton, 487
Autrr, D., Sunspots and Earthquakes, 486
American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence: A Ticket to St. Louis, ScHoonmaster, 16;
St. Louis Meeting, G. T. Moors, 48; Grants, 83;
Dues and Salaries, 115; Financial Report, 194;
Minutes of the Executive Committee, B. EH. Liv-
INGSTON, 470; WVice-presidential Address, Public
Health, C.-E, A. Wrnstow, 23; Advances in
Dynamies, G. D. Birkuorr, 51; Biologist, Mes-
sage of, W. ParrTEeNn, 93; Anthropology and Psy-
chology, A. HrpLIGKA, 199; Physics in War and
Peace, G. F. Hun, 221; Sexuality in Mucors, A.
¥, BLAKESLEE, 375, 403; Section A—Mathe-
matics and Astronomy, F. R. Mouuton, 220;
Section B—Physies, G. W. Srrwart, 352; See-
tion E—Geology and Geography, R. T. CHam-
BERLIN, 491, 518; Section F—Zoology, H. V.
NeEax, 147; Section H—Anthropology and Psy-
chology, E. K. Srrone, 418, 441; Pacific Coast
Division, 457, 532; Southwestern Division, 509;
Research after the ‘War, R. A. HARPER, 473
Ames, J. S., Hinstein’s Law, 253
Anesthetics, Loeal, H. G. BArgour, 497
Anglo-American Library, 480
Anopheles, F. E. Cumrstmr, 244
Anthropological Soc. of Washington, 39
Anthropology and Psychology, W. V. BINGHAM, 353
Ants and Scientists, A. Mann, 87
Aquarium, Steinhart, 136
Arctic Expedition, Canadian, 167
Aristotle and Galileo on Falling Bodies, F. Cazort,
615
Armsby, H, P., Organization of Research, 33
ArtHuR, J. C. . Rusts, 246
Ash Dune Plants, W. D. RicHarpson, 546
Atmosphere, High Levels in, A, McApim, 287, 438;
J. G, Corrin, 366
Atmospheric Moisture, C.F. PEEOOKS) 440
Auroras, C. F. BrooKs, 392; JOEL STEBBINS, 485;
E. D. Roz, Jr., 486
Aviation, Psychology of, H. M. Jounson, 449
Baker, F. C., Fish Food, C. Jupay, 273
Baker, H. P., Resignation of, 136
Ballisties, A. G. WrBstER, 368
Barsour, H. G., Local Anesthetics, 497
Barker, H. C., Siphon, 489
Base Maps of the U. 8., 213
Bauer, UL, A., Solar Eclipse, 201, 581
BENEDICT, F. Gy Professor Pawlow, 243
BERRY, E, W., Seward’s Fossil Plants, 47; F. H.
Knowlton, Fossil Plants, 369
BincHAM, W. V., Anthropology and Psychology,
353
Biochemist in Hospitals, F. S. Hammerr, 131
Biological Surveys, 40
Biology, Course in, Y. Hmrnprrson, 64; L. L, Bur-
LINGAME and H. G, Martin, 452
Bird, Banding, 456; Stomachs, Echinoderms in, H.
L. CuarK, 594
BirkuHorr, G. D., Advances in Dynamics, 51
BLACKWELDER, E., U. S. Geological Survey, 346
BLAKESLEE, A. F., Sexuality in Mucors, 375, 403
Blood Serum of Limulus, L. Lors, 17
Botanic School in Regents Park, 58
Botanical, Research, J. M. Counter, 1; Achieve-
ment, W. TRELEASE, 121; Station, Cinchona, D.
S. JOHNSON, 235
Bovarp, J. F., Western Soe. of Naturalists, 299
Bowir, W., Board of Surveys, 233
Boyp, P. P., State Academies of Science, 575
Boyle Medal, 266
Brachiopod Fauna, Pocono, W. A. Pricz, 146
Brain Workers, Federations of, 272
Breep, RK. 8., Legume Nodules, 391
British, Research Associations, 38; Natural His-
tory Museum, 88; Association, 627
Brooks, C. F., American Meteorol. Soe., 275; Rain-
fall of the U. S., 324; West Indian Hurricane,
369; Auroras, 392; Rainfall Interception, 439;
Atmospherie Moisture, 440; Irregularities in
Temperature, 488
Brown, HE. W., Motion of the Moon, 481
Burcuss, E. 8., Raymond B. Earle, 340
BURLINGAME, L. L., General Biology, 452
Che ws we A Splendid Service, 44
Cazort, F , Falling Bodies, 615
Caleulus, Tae of, PAUSE HATHAWAY, 166
California, Acad, of Sci., 161; Inst. of Tech., 181
Catvert, P. P., Bust of E. D. "Cope, 264
Cambridge Nat. Sci. Club, 238
Carbon Dioxide, B. Harrow, 465; and Crop Pro-
duetion, M. W. Srenstius, 614; Monoxide, W.
M., 437
Cats, Killing, H. GONE ORES, 87
Cerebellar Localization, F. Mier, 413
CHAMBERLIN, R. T., Sead E—Geology and Geog-
raphy, 491, 618
Chemical Soc., Amer., C. L. Parsons, 20, 69, 209,
342, 350, 373, 397, 444; Laboratory Supplies, W.
L, Esvtasrooxe, 155; Engineers, Inst. of, 410;
Industries, 628
Chemistry and Commerce, W. Haynes, 188
Chick Embryos, EH. R. Cuarx, 371
CuIpEsTER, F, H., Anopheles, 244
Chlorine, Separation of, W. D. Harxins, 289
Chromosomes and Linkage, C. W. Merz, 417
Chumley on Fauna of Clyde Sea, C. A. ‘Koro, 65
Cuark, E. R., Chick Embryos, 371
CLARK, H. me Echinoderms in Bird’s Stomachs, 594
Coast and Geodetic Survey, 10, 608
1V SCIENCE
Cops, N. A., Nematodes, 640
CocKERELL, T DA AS Science and Polities, 115;
Darwin, 296; Government Pensions, 392
CorFIN, Bp G., High Levels in Atmosphere, 366
COLE, F, N., ‘Amer. Math. Soe., 91, 300, 523
CouE, R., University Dept. of Medicine, 339
COLTON, A. S. , Zoology Course, 382
CoMPToN, K. P., Todine Vapors, 571
Conn, H. J., Legume Nodules, 391
Constants, Physical ‘and Chemical, 432
Cooxs, H. L., Triangulation, 211
Cope, E. D., Bust of, Pie CatvErt, 264
CouLTER, J. M., Botanical Research, 1
Crampton, C. E, Evolution of Partula, tds (Gig Wile,
142
Crop Inspection, F. A. Spraee, 113
Dapourian, H. N., Ionization and Radiation, 296
Dartmoor, Water Power and, 107
Darwin, T. D. A. CocKERELL, 296
Davidson, Mackenzie, Memorial, 360
Davis, B. M., Amer. Soc. of Naturalists, 169
Dehydrated Meat, M. H. Givens and H. B. Mc-
CLUGAGE, 273
Differentials, E. V. HUNTINGTON, 320, 593; A. 8.
HatuHaway, 464
Dissection, H. GunTHoRP, 543
Dolomieu, G. F. Kunz, 359
Doremus, C. A., Atmospheric Nitrogen, 635
Drinker, Pres., ‘and Lehigh University, 510
Drosophila, Intersexes i in, A. H. STURTEVANT, 325;
Chromosomes and Linkage my (CL Wo Merz, 417
Duane, W., Spectrum Series, 505
Karle, Raymond B., E. 8S. Buresss, 340
Hast, E. M., and D. F. Jones, Inbreeding and Out-
breeding, R. Pear, 415
Eclipse, Solar, L. A. Baurr, 301, 581
Ecologie Investigations, W. ’p, Tavuor, 283
Ecological Society, H. Moors, 66
Ecology, Journal of, 161
HIGENMANN, C, H., Vandellia and Urinophilus, 441
EINSTEIN, A., Time Space and Gravitation, 8
Einstein’s Law of Gravitation, J. 8. AMEs, 253
Electrochemical Soce., 387.
Elliot Medal, H. F. ‘OszoRN, 629
Embryos, Chick, E. R. CharK, 371
Engineering School, Harvard, 361
Entomological Expedition, Cornell, 342
Entomology in the U. S. Nat. Museum, 236
Equator, Weight of Body moving along,
Huntineron, 45
ESTABROOKEE, WwW. L., Chemical Laboratory Supplies,
155
Ethylene and Sulphuryl Chloride, W. FostEr, 641
Eucalyptus, Drought and, J. McMurpuy and G. J.
Prirce, 118
Eugenics Congres, 363
Evolution, of Pigeons, C. O. Whitman, T, H.
Morean, 73; of Partula, C. E. Crampton, A.G.M.,
142; Forerunner of, M. SHIPLEY, 315
1 We
F., H., Physical Chemistry of Metals, Schenck, R.,
190
Faircuinp, H. L., Musical Sands, 62
Fairchild, H. 1b}, and Univ. of Rochester, 536
Farlow, William Gibson, 82
Ferry, E. S., Physics Measurements, A. DEF. P., 348
ConrENTS AND
INDEX.
Ferzer, L. W., Herbert Spencer Woods, 159
Fippin, E. O. ? Singing Sands, 64
Fisheries, Deep-sea, 627
Fixation ‘of Nitrogen, F. B. Wann, 247
Forest, Service, U. S., 343 ; Club, 362; Product
Laboratory, 534
Formule for Dates, W. J. SPILLMAN, 513, 568
Foster, W., Ethylene and Sulphuryl Chloride, 641
GarDNER, M. W., Colored Photographs of Speci-
mens, 556
GarRISON, F. H., Sir William Osler, 55
Gas, Natural, 59, 135
Genus, Use and Abuse of, W. Stonn, 427
Geological Survey, F. L. Ransomn, 173, 201, 535;
es BLACKWELDER, 346; Society, Southwestern,
387
Geologists, Amer. State, Assoc. of, T. L. Warson,
19
Geophysical Union, Amer.,
German Physicians, 58
Gibbs, Willard, Medal, 536
Givens, M. H., Dehydrated Meat, 273
GopDARD, R. H., High Altitude Research, 141
GoopsPEED, A., Amer. Philos. Soe., 572, 595, 618, 642
Goring, Charles Buckman, J. A. Harris, 133
Gravitation, Time, Space and, A. EINSTEIN, 8; Hin-
stein’s Law of, Ge AMES, 253
GREELY, A. W., E. Shaekleton’s South, 543
GREENE, C. W.. Amer, Physiol. Soe., 248
Grizr, N. M., Mounting for Jellyfishes, 297
GuNTHORP, H., Killing Cats, 87; Dissection, 543
H. O. Woop, 297, 495
H., W. A., David S. Pratt, 207
Haun, G, H., Cooperation in Research, 149
Hammett, F. 8., Biochemist in Hospital Staff, 131;
Journals for Prague, 488
Hamor, W. a Mellon Institute, 625
Harxins, W. D., Separation of Chlorine, 289
HARPER, R. A, Research after the War, 473
Harris, J. A. Charles Buckman Goring, 133
Harrow, B., Carbon Dioxide, 465
Haskell, "A. (ol Graphie Charts, R. von Huun, 466
HATHAWAY, A. S., History of Caleulus, 166; Dif-
ferentials, 464
Hawaii, Scientific Work in, H. F. Osgorn, 613
Hawk, P. B. , Unpalatable Food, 299
HayrorD, J. F., G. L. Hosmer’s Geodesy, 88
HAYNES, W. , Chemistry and Commerce, 188
HEADLEY, FE B., Alkali Salts, 140
Health, Public, CE. A. WINSLOW, 23
Heener, R. W., Blood-inhabiting Protozoa, 187
Helium "Atom, it LANGMUIR, 605
HENDERSON, ¥, Course in Biology, 64
Hering, C., "A Problem in Mechanics, 46
Herrick, i, J., Orthogenesis, 621
High, Altitude Research, R. H. Gopparp, 141;
A. ‘McApig, 287, 438; Levels in the ‘Atmosphere,
J. G. Corrin, 366
History of Science, L. THORNDIKE, 193
Howper, R. C., Unpalatable Food, 299
Hosmer, G., Geodesy, J. F. Hayrorp, 88
Hows, J. L., Conditions in Hungary, 487
HirgDLICKA, A., Anthropology and Psychology, 199
HUBBARD, B., Tertiary Formations of Porto Rico,
395
Huan, R. von, Graphie Charts, A. C. Haskell, 466
Hutt, A. E., Radiation, 507
New |
Voz. LI.
Huu, G, F., Physies in War and Peace, 221
Human Foot-prints, C. Stock, 514
Hungary, Conditions in, J. L, "Hows, 487
HuNTINGTON, EH. V., Weight of Body moving along
Kquator, 45; Differentials, 320, 593
Hurricane, West Indian, C. B. Brooks, 369
Ippines, J. P., Louis Valentine Pirsson, 530
Illinois ‘Acad. of SO, NOs di, Ie PRICER, 327
India, Scientific Work in, 292
Influenza and Pneumonia, 162
Intersexes in Drosophila, A. H. STURTEVANT, 325
Inventions and Patents, A. Strwart, 421
Iodine Vapors, K. T. Compron and H. D. Smy7n,
571
Jellyfishes, Mounting for, N. M. Grigr, 297
Jounson, C. E., Journal of Mammalogy, 570
Jounson, D. 8., Cinchona Botan, Sta., 235
JOHNSON, HN, , Psychology of ‘Aviation, 449
JONES, D. i, Paraffine Ruler, 245; and E. M.
East, Inbreeding and Outbreeding, R. PEart,
415
Jupay, C., Horizontal Rainbows, 188; Fish Food,
F, C. Baker, 273
Keriny, W. E., William Dixon Weaver, 558
Keuty, W., Meteor, 568
KINGSBURY, B. F. , Origin of Notochord, 190
KLOPSTEG, P. K. , Physical Methods, 384
Knowlton, F. H. Fossil Plants, H. W. Berry, 369
Koro, C. A. , Chumley on Fauna of Clyde Sea, 65
Kunz, G. F. , Dolomieu, 359; Platinum, 399
Lapp-FRANKLIN, C., Logie Test, 414
LAMBERT, W. D, Problem in Mechanics, 271
Lanemurr, I, Helium Atom, 605
LEDOUX, A. R. , Singing Sands, 462
Legume Nodules, H. J. Conn and R. S. Brezp, 391
Lester, O. C., Oscar A. Randolph, 429
LEVENE, P. Nes Learned Societies, 261
LILLIE, R. Don ” Physies, Physiology and Medicine,
525
Link, G. K., Colored Photographs of Specimens,
556
Litre, C. C., Transplantable Sarcoma, 467
Livineston, B. E., Scientific Research by Coopera-
tion, 277; Executive Committee of the Council
of the Amer. Assoc., 470
Lore, L., Blood Serum Tissue of Limulus, 17
Logic Test C. Lapp-FRANKLIN, 414
Louisiana Entomological Soce., "386
M., A. G., Evolution of Partula, C. E. Crampton,
142
M., W., Carbon Monoxide, 437
McAopig, A., Aerostatic Pressure and Gravity, 144;
High Levels in the Atmosphere, 287, 438
McCuueace, H. B., Dehydrated Meat, 273
McCoy, H. N., and E. M. Terry, Chemistry, J. F.
Norris, 438
McEwen, G. F., Statistical Methods, 349
Mazeloskie, George, W. M. Ranxin, 180
Macoun, James M,, H. I. Surra, 478
McMurray, J. , Eucalyptus, 118
Mammalogy, Journal of, C. EK. Jonnson, 570
Manganese, 237
SCIENCE Vv
Mann, A., Ants and Scientists, 87
Martin, E. G., General Biology, 452
Mathematical, ” Soc., Amer., F, N. Cour, 91, 300,
523; Assoc. of Amer., 120; Meetings, 509; Re-
quirements, 317, 629
Mayo Brothers, 569
Mechanies, Problem in,
LAMBERT, 27
Medical, Strike in Spain, 38; Education, 108; Dis-
coveries, State Rewards for, 145; Assoe., Amer,
Journal’ of 563,
Meu., M. “*Petroliferous Provinees,’’ 541
MurIsINGER, "2. LER., Snow and Winter Wheat, 639
Mellon Institute, W. A. Hamor, 625; Death of
Members, 340
Metals, Fatigue Phenomena in, 293
Meteor, W. Kenny, 568
Meteorological Soc., C. F. Brooks, 275
Metron, R. Prarn, 515
METz, C. W., Chromosomes and Linkage in Droso-
phila, 417°
MIcHAEL, HK. L., Asymmetrical Frequency Curves,
89; Statistical Methods, 349
Micropipette, OA TAYLOR, 617
Micro-plankton, W. E, ALLEN, 487
Miner, D. C., Amer. Physical Soe., 171
Miuuer, F, R., Cerebellar Localization, 413
Minuikan, R. A., Quantum Emission Phenomena,
505
Mineralogical Soc. of Amer., H. P. Wurrnock, 219
Mines, Bureau of, 83, 457, 482
Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Inst. of, 184
Moonig, R. L., Thread Moulds, 14
Moon, Brown’s Tables of the Motion of, 481
Moor, B., Ecological Soc., 66
Moors, @ Me St. Louis’ Meeting of the Amer.
Assoc., 48
Morgan, T. H., Whitman’s Evolution of Pigeons,
73
Moses, Alfred J., H. P. W., 429
Mou.ron, F. R., "Section A-—Mathematics and As-
tronomy, 220”
Muecors, Sexuality in, A. F. Buaxesienr, 375, 403
Museum of Nat. Hist., 182; H. F. OszorN, 636
C. Herine, 46; W. D.
National, Academy of Sciences, Gift to, 110; Meet-
ing, 495; Publications and Membership, 508;
Henry Draper Fund, 587; Museum, 587; Re-
search Council, 110, 353, 409, 589
Natural Conditions, Preservation of, 316
Naturalists, Am. Soe. of, B. M. Davis, 169; West.
Soe. of J. F. Bovarp, ’299
Navy, Vacancies in, 615
Neral, H. V., Section F—Zoology, 147
Nematodes, NL A, Coss, 640
Neotropical Research Sta., H. F. Oszorn, 585
NEwWEIRE, B. L. , Centripetal Acceleration, 321
Newton, A. J. , Photography, 514
New Zealand Institute, 239
Nichols, E. F., Resignation of, 458
Nipher’s ‘‘Gravitational’’ Hxperiment,
Very, 102
Nitrogen, Fixation of Atmospheric, C. A. Dorrmus,
635; from the Air, 323
Nobel Prize, 208; J. ALEXANDER, 348
Norris, J. F., General Chemistry, H. N. McCoy
and EK. M, Terry, 438
Notochord, Origin, B. F. Kryessury, 190
KF. W.
vi SCIENCE
Novzs, W. A., System of the Sciences, W. OswALD,
116
Ohio College and Exp. Sta., 386
Orthogenesis, C. J. Herrick, 621
OsEBORN, 18h, 10h, Neotropical Research Sta., 585;
Scientifie Work in Hawaii, 613; Elliot Medal,
629; Scientific Men in Europe, 667
Oscillations, Small, W. WrAver, 614
Osler, Sir William, F. H. GARRISON, 55, 184, 341
Ostwald, W., System of the Sciences, W. A.
Noyes, 116
P., A. DEF., Physics Measurements, H. S. Ferry,
348
P., G. J., Wilhelm Pfeffer, 291
Paleontological Soc. of Amer., 148
Paleontology at Yale, C. ScHuCHERT, 80
Pan-Pacifie Scientific Congress, 431
Paraffine Ruler, D. F. JonsEs, 245
Paris Acad. of Sci., 208
Parsons, C. L., Amer, Chem. Soc., 20, 69, 209,
342, 350, 373, ’397, 444
PATTEN, W. , Message of the Biologist, 93
Pawlow, Professor, F, G. BENEDICT, 243
PEarRL, R., Inbreeding and Outbreeding, BE. M. East
and D, F. Jones, “415; Metron, 515; War and
Population, 553
Prince, G. J., Drought and Eucalyptus, 118
Pensions, Government, T. D. A. CocKERELL, 392;
Civil Service, 392
Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Medicine, 588
Petroleum Geologists, 468
“¢ Petroliferous Provinces, »? M. G. Ment, 541
Pfeffer, Wilhelm, G. J. P., 291
Phenolphthalein and Methyl Orange, F, M. ScALEs,
214
Phillips, Francis C., A. SILVERMAN, 455
Philosophical Soc., A. GOODSPEED, 572, 595, 618,
642
Phipps, Henry, Institute, 265
Photographs Colored, of Specimens, M. W. Garp-
NER, and G. K. LINK, 556
Photography, A. J. Newton, 514
Physical, Soc., D. C. Minurr, 171; Methods and
Measurements, P. E. Kuopstsec, 384; Investi-
gations in Physiology and Medicine, R. A.
LInuig, 525
Physicist, Polydogmata of the, G. W. Stewart, 85
Physiological Soc., C. W. GREENE, 248
Pirsson, Louis Valentine, J. P. Ippines, 530
Platinum, G. F. Kunz, 399
Polynesia, Investigations in, 430
Population, War and, R, PEARL, 553
Portland Cement, 293
Porto Rico, Tertiary Formations, B. HupBarD, 395
Prague, Journals for, F. S. HAMMETT, 488
Pratt, David S., W. A. H., 207
Preservation of Natural Conditions, 316
Price, W. A., Pocono Brachiopod Fauna, 146
Pricer, J. L., Illinois State Acad. of Sci., 327
Probable Error, E. L. Micuazt, 89
Problem in Mechanies, C. Hrrine, 46; W. D. Lam-
BERT, 271
Protozoa, Blood-inhabiting, R. W. HEGNER, 187
Psychology of Aviation, H. M. JoHnson, 449
Publications for Europe, 481
ContTENTS AND
INDEX.
Radiation, A. EK. Hunn, 507; Ionization and, H. N.
DADOURIAN, 296
Rainbows, Horizontal, C. Jupay, 188
Rainfall Interception, Cc. F. Brooks, 439
Randolph, Oscar A., O. C. LustEr, 429
RankIN, W. M., George Maeloskie, 180
RANSOME, F, hi National Geol. Survey, 175, 201
Rattlesnake, Vibration Rate of Tail of, "M. ©.
WILLIAMS, 15
Research, Botanical, J. M. Counter, 1; Organiza-
tion of, 18h et ARMSBY, 335 Associations, Con-
ference of British, 38; in Great Britain, 134;
High Altitude, R. H. GopparD, 141; Cooperation
in, G. KE. HAL, 149; Scientific, by Cooperation,
B. E. LIVINGSTON, O77; 5; and the Universities,
415; Competition in, 515; Grants for England,
559) ns Amer. Assoe., 563; Station, Neotropical,
. OsBorN, 585; Council, National, Gift to,
105 “Meeting, 494; Anthropology and Psychol-
ogy, W. V~. BINGHAM, 353; Division of States
Relations, 409; Officers of, 589
RICHARDSON, W. ADs Ash of Dune Plants, 546
Rockefeller ‘Gifts, 11; to London, 609; to Uni-
versities and Colleges, 610; to Rochester, 610
Rog, E. D., Jr. , Auroras, 486
Royal Society, Royal Medals of, 11
Rubber Cultivation, 82
RusseELL, H. N., Triangulation, 213
Russia, Scientific Men in, 8. Moreutis, 322; H. C.
WELLS, 414
Rusts, J. C. ArtHur, 246
St. Louis, A Ticket to, ScHootmastErR, 16
Sands, Singing, H. L. Farrcui, 62; HE. O. Firrin,
64; “ASR! LEDovux, 462
Sarcoma Transplantable, C. C. Lirriz, 467
Sauropod Barosaurus, G. R. WIELAND, 528
Scaugs, F. M. , Phenolphthalein and Methyl Orange,
214
Schenck, R., Physical Chemistry of Metals, H. F.,
190
ScHooLmMAstrr, A Ticket to St. Louis, 16
Scuucuert, C., Paleontology at Yale, ’s0
Science and the New Era Printing "Company, 46
Science, and Polities, T. D. A. COCKERELL, 115;
History of, L. THORNDIKE, 193; State Acad. of,
de det Bovn, 575
Scientific, Notes and News, 13, 40, 60, 85, 110, 136,
163, 185, 209, 239, 267, 294, 318, 344, 363, 388,
410, 433, 459, 483, 510, 537, 565, 589, 611, 630;
Lectures, 60; Men in Russia, Ss. Morcuus, 322:
iL, (Ge WELLS, 414; in Europe, H. F. OSBORN,
667; Workers, English Union of, 361; Congress,
Pan-Pacifie, 431; “Apparatus Makers, Assoc. of,
588; Literature, Popular, J. L. WHEELER, 593
Srenstius, M. W., Carbon Dioxide and Crop Pro-
duction, 614
Service, A Splendid, J. M. C., 44
Shackleton, E., South, A, W. GREELY, 543
SuHrp.ey, M., Forerunner of Evolution, 315
SHuLL, A. F., Zoology Course, 312
SILVERMAN, A, Francis C. Phillips, 455
Siugiie: Sands, H. L. Farrcuin, 62, E. O. Fiepin,
64; A. R. LEDOUX, 462
See H. C. BARKER, 489
Societies, Learned, P. A. LEVENE, 261
Sirsa, C, A., Unpalatable Food, 299
SMITH, C ine Utah Acad. of Sei, 551
New |
Vou. LI.
Surru, H. I., Totem Poles, 86; James M. Macoun,
478
SmytH, H. D., Iodine Vapors, 571
Snow, Blue in, J. ALEXANDER, 465; and Winter
Wheat, C. LER. MrIstnerr, 639
Soil Acidity, O. B, WinTER, 18
Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919, L. A. Baurr, 301,
581
Speetrum, Ultra-violet, D. L. Wersster, R. A.
Mimuikan, W. Duans, A. E. Hunn, 504
Spitman, W. J., Formule for Dates, 513, 568
Spraae, F. A. , Crop Inspection, 113
Squier, G. Oy, Multiplex Telephony and Teleg-
raphy, 445
Standards, Bureau of, 10
Statistical Methods, G. F. McEwen and E, L.
MicHarL, 349
STEBBINS, J; Auroras, 485
Steinhart Aquarium, 136
Srevens, F. L., Foot-rot of Wheat, 517
Stewart, A., Inventions and Patents, 421
Stewart, G. W., Polydogmata of the Physicist, 85;
Section B—Physies, 352
Strives, C., Rules for Zoological Nomenclature, 594
Srocr, C., Human Foot-prints, 514
Stone, W., Genus, Use and Abuse of the, 427
Strasbourg, Mathematics at, E. B. Winson, 243,
534
Strike, Medical, in Spain, 38
Strone, E. K., Section H—Anthropology, Amer.
Assoe., 418, 441
Sturtevant, A. H., Intersexes in Drosophila, 325
Sunspots and Earthquakes, D. AuTErR, 486
Surveys, Board of, W. Bowrn, 233
Survival of the Unlike, W. TRELEASE, 599
Symbols, Unification of, W. P. WuirTE, 436
Synthetic Ammonia, 562
Tayuor, C. V., Micropipette, 617
Taytor, W. P., Ecologic Investigations, 283
Technology Plan, W. H. WALKER, 357:
Telephony and Telegraphy, G. O. Squtimr, 445
Temperature, Irregularities, C. F. Brooxs, 488
Terry, E. M. and H. N, MeCoy, General Chemistry,
J. F. Norris, 438
THORNDIKE, L., History of Science, 193
Thread Moulds and Bacteria, R. L, Moopig, 14
Time, Space and Gravitation, A. EINSTEIN, 8
Totem Poles, H. I. Suir, 86
Toxicity of ‘Alkali Salts, FB. HEADLEY, 140
TRELEASE, W., Botanical Achievement, 121; Sur-
vival of the Unlike, 599
SCIENCE
Vii
Triangulation, H. L, Cooks, and H. N. RusseEwt,
211
Universities, Handwriting on the Walls of, 245
University and Edueational News, 14, 43, 62, 84,
112, 139, 165, 187, 211, 242, 270, 295, 319, 346,
365, 390, 413, 435, 462, 484, 512, 540, 566, 592,
613, 633
Utah Acad. of Sei., C. A. Smirx, 551
Vandellia and Urinophilus, C. H. EigznMANN, 441
Verner, Alfred, 607
VERY, B, W., ’Nipher’ s ‘‘Gravitational’’ Experi-
ment, 102
W., H. P., Alfred J. Moses, 429
Waker, W. H., Technology Plan, 357
Wann, F. B., Fixation of Free Nitrogen, 247
Watson, T. L., Assoe. of Amer. State Geologists,
19
Weaver, W., Small Oscillations, 614
Weaver, William Dixon, W. EB. Krmy, 558
Weesrer, A. G., Ballistics, 368
WesstEr, 1D). iby, Quantum Emission Phenomena-
Electrons, 504"
Welch, William H., In Honor of, 266
WELLS, H. G., Scientific Men in Russia, 414
Wheat, Foot- rot of, F. L. STEVENS, 517
WHEELER, Vo We, Popular Scientific Literature, 593
WHITE, W. Re Unification of Symbols, 436
WuurLock, H. P., Mineralogical Soc. of Amer., 219
Whitman, Frank Perkins, 105
Whitman’s Evolution in Pigeons, T. H. Morean,
73
WIELAND, G. R., Sauropod Barosaurus, 528
WiuiAMs, M. C., Vibration Rate of Tail of Rattle-
snake, 15
Wiuson, E. B., Mathematics at Strasbourg, 243,
534
Winstow, C.-E. A., Public Health, 23
Winter, O. B., Soil Acidity, 18
Wisconsin Academy, 388
Wood, Horatio C., 106
Woop, H. O., Amer. Geophys. Union, 297, 495
Woods, Herbert Spencer, L. W. Frrzrr, 159
Zoological Nomenclature, R. C. Stmuus, 594
Zoologists, Amer. Soc., W. C. ALLEE, 214
Zoology Course, A. F, SHuLL, 312; H. S. Couron,
382
Zuntz, Library of the Late Professor, Y. HENDER-
SON, 569
si Giteteaeh ss
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SCIENCE
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SCIENCE
Fray, JANUARY 2, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
The Evolution of Botanical Research: Pro-
FESSOR JOHN M. COULTER .............-.. 1
Time, Space and Gravitation: Dr. ALBERT
EINSTEIN
Scientific Events :—
The Annual Report of the Director of the
Bureau of Standards; Needs of the Coast
and Geodetic Survey; The Royal Medals of
the Royal Society; Mr. Rockefeller’s Gifts. 10
Scientific Notes and News ................ 13
University and Educational News .......... 14
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Thread Moulds and Bacteria in the Devon-
tan: PRorressor Roy L. Moopiz. Vibration
Rate of the Tail of a Rattlesnake: MaBeEt C.
Wiuuiams. A Ticket to St. Louis: ScHOOoL-
IMA STUER rep aishcnc teva cle ten tMeber ay SesPotaln, slottsyesle ls, sielldvera 14
Special Articles :—
The Protective Influence of Blood Serum on
the Experimental Cell Fibrin Tissue of
Limulus: Dr. Lro Lozs. <A Preliminary
Note on Soil Acidity: O. B. WINTER....... 17
Alabama Meeting of the Association of Ameri-
can State Geologists: Prorsssor THOMAS
AS WIATSOND co )ctejorsicpctesaoape seyresssnayetey abe a's ee 19
The American Chemical Society: Dr. CHARLES
SVPARSONG (a ctafent ache leheis eels els cia cho) ee tyaheis 20
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
THE EVOLUTION OF BOTANICAL
RESEARCH!
A MEETING of the American Association in
St. Louis is of special interest to botanists.
When this city was little more than a frontier
town, Dr. George Englemann became one of
its citizens. In spite of his duties as a suc-
cessful physician, he became one of our great-
est botanists. In fact, in the days when tax-
onomy was practically the whole of botany,
and our virgin flora was being explored, the
great American trio of botanists was Asa
Gray, of Cambridge, John Torrey, of New
York, and George Englemann, of St. Louis.
Englemann’s distinction was that he published
no general botanical works, but selected a
series of the most difficult problems in taxon-
omy, and in a masterly way organized for us
many perplexing groups. With these groups
his name will always be associated. To a
botanist, therefore, St. Louis means the home
of George Englemann.
There is another association also for the
botanist. St Louis is the home of one of our
great botanical gardens, identified for those
of us who are older with the name of Henry
Shaw; but we are becoming accustomed to its
later name, the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Its plans and activities represent a fitting
continuation of the spirit of Englemann and
Shaw, adapted to the progress of botanical
science.
In consequence of these associations, St.
Louis may be said to have a botanical atmos-
phere, of which botanists are very conscious.
We have the feeling, therefore, not of a visit,
but of a home-coming.
A presidential address, delivered to a group
composed of investigators representing all the
sciences, and including also those interested
1 Address of the president of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis,
December, 1919.
2 SCIENCE =
in science should deal with some interest
common to all. In my judgment our common
bond is interest in research; in fact, the
major purpose of this association is to stim-
ulate research by the personal contact of in-
vestigators. In selecting as my subject, there-
fore, the evolution of botanical research, I am
assuming that the situation developed may
apply in a general way to all scientific
research.
My purpose is not to outline the history of
botanical research, but rather to call attention
to certain evolutionary tendencies and to pro-
ject them into the future. We are all famil-
jar with the gradual historical development
of different phases of botany, until botanists
became segregated into many distinct groups,
the only common bond being the use of plants
for investigation. This segregation was for a
time very complete, so that the interests of
one group would not have been affected if
none of the other groups had existed. This
monastic phase of botany has subsided some-
what, not for all individuals, but for the sub-
ject in general. The different groups are
coming into contact and even interlocking,
so that the science of botany bids fair to be
recognized as an increasing synthesis, rather
than an increasing disintegration. In con-
nection with these gradual evolutionary
changes, I wish to emphasize three tendencies
which seem to me to be significant. As in all
evolutionary progress, the tendencies may
seem numerous, but the three I have selected
seem to me to be especially prophetic of a new
era of botanical research.
1. One of the growing tendencies of botan-—
jeal research is to attack problems that are
fundamental in connéction with some impor-
tant practise. The outstanding illustration,
of course, is the increasing attention given to
the problems that underlie agriculture; but
there are many other practises also which are
bedded in botanical investigation. We all
realize that this tendency was stimulated by
the war; in fact, this has been the experience
of all the sciences, more notable perhaps in
the case of physics and chemistry than in the
other sciences, but a very obvious general re-
sult. This tendency is so strong at present,
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
that I do not believe it will ever subside, but
it should be understood. There is no evidence
that it is tending to diminish research whose
sole purpose is to extend the boundaries of
knowledge, which all of us must agree is the
great objective of research. It merely means
that experience developed in connection with
an important practise has suggested funda-
mental problems, whose solution is just as
important in extending the boundaries of
knowledge as in illuminating some practise.
In fact, among our most fundamental prob-
lems are those that have been suggested by
experience. The injection of such problems
among those not related to general experience
is not to the detriment of the latter, but
simply extends the range of research.
I have no sympathy with the artificial
segregation of science into pure and applied
science. All science is one. Pure science is
often immensely practical; applied science is
often very pure science; and between the two
there is no dividing line. They are like the
end members of a long and intergrading
series; very distinct in their isolated and ex-
treme expression, but completely connected.
If distinction must be expressed in terms
where no sharp distinction exists, it may be
expressed by the terms fundamental and
superficial. They are terms of comparison
and admit of every intergrade. The series
may move in either direction, but its end
members must always hold the same relative
positions. The first stimulus may be our
need, and a superficial science meets it, but
in so doing it may put us on the trail that
leads to the fundamental things of science.
On the other hand, the fundamentals may be,
gripped first, and only later find some super-
ficial expression. ‘The series is often attacked
first in some intermediate region, and prob-
ably most of the research in pure science
may be so placed; that is, it is relatively fun-
damental, but it is also relatively superficial.
The real progress of science is away from the
superficial, toward the fundamental, and the
more fundamental are the results, the more
extensive may be their superficial expression.
Not only are practical problems not a
detriment to botanical science, but inciden-
wooo NCE ©
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tally they strengthen its claim on public
interest as a science that must be promoted.
As an incidental result, I look with confidence
to a future of far greater opportunity for
research than has been possible heretofore, re-
search which must be increasingly funda-
mental and varied. Even if this were not
true, my creed for science is that while its
first great mission is to extend the boundaries
of knowledge, that man may live in an ever-
widening horizon, its second mission is to
apply this knowledge to the service of man,
that his life may be fuller of opportunity.
From the standpoint of science, the second
may be regarded as incidental to the first, but
it is a very important incident, and really
stimulates research. In short, I regard this
so-called practical tendency in research as
being entirely in the interest of research in
general, in increasing the range of funda-
mental problems, in contributing a powerful
stimulus, and in securing general recognition
of the importance of research.
2. A second tendency, which I regard as
more important, is an increasing realization
of the fact that botanical problems are
synthetic. Until recently a problem would be
attacked from a single point of view, with a
single technique, and conclusions reached that
seemed as rigid as laws from which there is
no escape. In plant morphology, for example,
and I speak from personal experience, we de-
seribed structures, with no adequate concep-
tion of their functions. Plant physiologists, on
the other hand, would describe functions,
with no adequate knowledge of the structures
involved; while ecologists often described re-
sponses, with no adequate knowledge of either
structure or function. The same condition
obtained in the other segregates of botany.
We all recall the time when plant pathologists
described and named pathogenic organisms
and paid no attention to the disease, which of
course is the physiological condition of the
plant. In short, not only taxonomists, but all
of us, were simply cataloguing facts in a kind
of card index, unconsciously waiting for their
coordination. This coordination has now be-
gun, and is one of the strong tendencies which
is certain to continue. The morphologist is
SCIENCE 3
beginning to think of the significance of the
structure he is describing; the physiologist is
beginning to examine the structures involved
in the functions he is considering; and the
ecologist realizes now that responses to en-
vironment which he has been cataloguing are
to be interpreted only in terms of structure
and function. In other words, around each
bit of investigation, with its single point of
view and single method of attack, there is
developing a perspective of other points of
view and other methods of attack.
This: does not mean a multiple attack on
each problem by each investigator. We must
remain morphologists, physiologists, and ecol-
ogists, each group with its special technique
and special kind of data. But it does mean a
better estimation of the results, a watchful
interest in the possibilities of other methods
of attack, a general toning down of positive-
ness in conclusions. We all realize now that
plants are synthetic, and that is quite a
notable advance from that distant time when
we thought of them only as objects subservient
to laws of nomenclature. This increasing
synthetic view is resulting in a proper esti-
mate of problems. The data secured by each
investigation constitute an invitation to fur-
ther investigation. We have in mind the
whole problem and not scraps of information.
In short, the synthetic view has developed
about our problems the atmosphere in which
they actually exist.
3. A third tendency, which seems to me to
be the most significant one, is the growing
recognition of the fact that structures are not
static, that is, inevitable to their last detail.
As a morphologist, I may recall to your
memory the old method of recording the facts
in reference to the development of such a
structure as the embryo of seed plants. Not
only every cell division in the ontogeny was
recorded, but also the planes of every cell
division. The conception back of such
records was that the program of ontogeny was
fixed to its minutest detail. It is probably
true that such a structure is about as uniform
in its development as any structure can be;
but it has become evident now that many of
the details recorded were not significant. In-
4 SCIENCE
stead of cataloguing them as of equal value,
we must learn to distinguish those that are
relatively fixed from those that are variables.
In the same way, much of the older work in
anatomy must be regarded as records of de-
tails whose relative values were unknown.
Even the structures involved in vascular
anatomy are not static, but many a phylo-
genetic connection has been formulated on the
conception of the absolute rigidity of such
structures in their minutest detail. This con-
ception has made it possible, of course, to
develop as many static opinions as there are
variables in structure.
Perhaps the greatest mass of details has
been accumulated by the cytologists, in con-
nection with their examination of the machin-
ery of nuclear division and nuclear fusion.
In no other field has the conception of the
rigidity of the structures involved become
more fixed, even to the minutest variation in
form and position. Of course we all realize
that any field of investigation must be opened
up by recording all the facts obtained; but we
must realize that this is only the preliminary
stage. The time has come when even the
recorded facts of cytology are being estimated
on the basis of relative values; that is, the in-
evitable things are being differentiated from
the variables.
The same situation is developing in the field
of genetics. We all recall the original rigid-
ity of the so-called laws of inheritance. It
was natural to begin the cultivation of this
field with the conception that the program of
heredity is immutable, and that definite struc-
tures are inevitable, no matter what the con-
ditions may be. There was probably more
justification for this conception in this field,
on the basis of the early investigations,
than in any other, but experience has begun
to enlarge the perspective wonderfully. The
rapidly accumulating facts are becoming so
various that consistent explanations require a
high degree of mental agility. More funda-
mental, however, is the recognition of the
fact that the problem of heredity involves not
only germinal constitution, which gives such
rigidity as there is, but also the numerous
factors of environment. In other words, such
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1305
problems have become synthetic in the high-
est degree, making possible results that are
anything but static.
In considering these illustrations of the
tendeney to recognize that facts are not all
pigeon-holed and of equal value, it is be-
coming more and more obvious that our botan-
ical problems are in general the application of
physics and chemistry to plants; that laws,
when we really discover them, are by definition
static, but that their operation results in any-
thing but statie structures. In other words,
structure must respond to law, but the partic-
ular law that is gripping the situation may be
one of many.
With such evolutionary tendencies in mind,
what is the forecast for botanical research? I
wish to eall attention to three important
features that seem certain to characterize it.
1. It will be necessary for the investigator
who wishes to have a share in the progress
of the science, rather than merely to continue
the card catalogue assembling of random data,
to have a broader botanical training than has
seemed necessary heretofore. Our danger has
been that the cultivation of a special tech-
nique, which of course is necessary, is apt to
limit the horizon to the boundary of that tech-
nique. In some cases the result to the in-
vestigator has been more serious than limiting
his horizon; it has led him to discredit other
methods of attack as of little importance. In
case this attitude is associated with the train-
ing of students, it is continued and multiplied
by pedigree culture. The product of certain
laboratories is recognized as of this type, and
it is out of line with the evident direction of
progress.
This demand of the future does not mean
that one must specialize less than formerly.
It is obvious that with the increasing in-
tricacy of problems, and the inevitable devel-
opment of technique, we must specialize miore
than ever. What the new demand means is
not to specialize less, but to see to it that
every specialty has developed about it a botan-
ical perspective. In other words, instead of
an investigator digging himself into a pit, he
must do his work on a mountain top. This
secures some understanding and appreciation
JANUARY 2, 1920]
of other special fields under cultivation, some
of which will certainly interlock with his own
field. To meet this situation will demand
more careful attention to the training of in-
vestigators than it has received. Interested
and even submerged in our own work, as
we must be, still we must realize that the
would-be investigator must develop his atmos-
phere as well as his technique, or he will
remain medieval.
To be more conerete, the morphologist in
the coming days must appreciate the relation
that physiology and ecology hold to his own
field. This is far from meaning that he must
be trained in physiological and ecological in-
vestigation; but he must know its possibilities.
The same statement applies in turn to the
physiologist and ecologist, and so on through
the whole list of specialties.
This first forecast of the future applies to
‘the necessary training of investigators rather
than to investigation itself.
2. A second important feature that is sure
to be included in the botanical investigation
of the future is cooperation in research.
During the last few years the desirability of
cooperation has been somewhat stressed, and
perhaps the claims for it have been urged
somewhat unduly. This was natural when we
were desiring to secure important practical
results as rapidly as possible. It opened up,
however, the possibilities of the future. No
one questions but that individual research, to
contrast it with cooperative research, must
continue to break the paths of our progress.
Men of ideas and of initiative must continue
to express themselves in their own way, or the
science would come to resemble field eultiva-
tion rather than exploration. It is in this
way that all our previous progress has been
made. The new feature is that individual re-
search will be increasingly supplemented by
cooperative research. There are two situa-
tions in which cooperative research will play
an important réle. f
The more important situation is the case
of a problem whose solution obviously re-
quires two or more kinds of special technique.
There are many problems, for example, which
a morphologist and a physiologist should at-
SCIENCE 5
tack in cooperation, because neither one of
them alone could solve it. Two detached and
unrelated papers would not meet the situ-
ation. Our literature is burdened with too
many such contributions now. The one tech-
nique must be a continual check on the other
during the progress of the investigation.
This is a very simple illustration of what may
be called team work. It is simply a practical
application of our increasing realization of
the fact that problems are often synthetic, and
therefore involve a synthetic attack.
Another simple illustration may be sug-
gested. If taxonomists and geneticists should
work now and then in cooperation, the result
might be either fewer species or more species;
but in any event they would be better species.
The experience of botanists can suggest many
other useful couplings in the interest of better
results. In the old days some of you will re-
call that we had investigations of soil bacteria
unchecked by any work in chemistry; and side
by side with this were investigations in soil
chemistry unchecked by any work with soil
bacteria.
Perhaps the most conspicuous illustration of
discordant conclusions through lack of co-
operation, so extreme that it may be called
lack of coordination, may be found in the
fascinating and baffling field of phylogeny.
To assemble the whole plant kingdom, or at
least a part of it, in evolutionary sequence has
been the attempt of a considerable number of
botanists, and no one of them, as yet, has
taken into consideration even all the known
facts. There is the paleobotanist who rightly
stresses historical succession, with which of
course any evolutionary sequence must be con-
sistent, but who can not be sure of his identi-
fications, and still less sure of the essential
structures involved. History is desirable, but
some real knowledge of the actors who make
history is even more desirable.
Then there is the morphologist, who stresses
similarity of structures, especially reproduc-
tive structures, and leaves out of sight not
only accompanying structures but also his-
torical succession.
Latest in the field is the anatomist, espe-
cially the vascular anatomist, who compares
6 SCIENCE
the vascular structures in their minutest de-
tail, and loses sight of other important factors
in any evolutionary succession.
Apparently no one, as yet, has taken all the
results from all fields of investigation, and
given us the result of the combination. In
other words, in phylogeny, we have had single
track minds. This has been necessary for the
accumulation of facts, but unfortunate in
reaching conclusions.
This is but a picture of botanical investi-
gations in general as formerly conducted; and
it seems obvious that cooperative research will
become increasingly common as cooperation
is found to be of advantage.
The second situation in which cooperative
research will play an important role is less
important than the first, but none the less
real.
It must be obvious to most of us that our
literature is crowded with the records of in-
competent investigations. Not all who de-
velop a technique are able to be independent
investigators. They belong to the card cata-
logue class. They are not even able to select
a suitable problem. We are too familiar with
the dreary rehearsal of facts that have been
told many times, the only new thing, perhaps,
being the material used; and even then the
result might have been foretold. It is un-
fortunate to waste technique and energy in
this way; and the only way to utilize them is
through cooperative research, for which there
has been a competent initiative, and in the
prosecution of which there has been a suitable
assignment of parts. In my judgment this is
the only way in which we can conserve the
technique we are developing, and make it
count for something. I grant that the prod-
uct of such research is much like the product
_of a factory, but we may need the product.
In one way or another, cooperative research
will supplement individual research. Individ-
uals, as a rule, will be the pioneers; but all
can not be pioneers. After exploration there
comes cultivation, and much cultivation will
be accomplished by cooperation.
3. The most important feature that will be
developed in the botanical investigation of the
future is experimental control. Having rec-
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
ognized that structures are not static, that
programs of development are not fixed, that
responses are innumerable, we are no longer
satisfied with the. statement that all sorts of
variations in results occur. We must know
just what condition produces a given result.
This question as to causes of variable results
first took the form of deduction. We tried to
reason the thing out.
A conspicuous illustration of this situation
may be obtained from the history of ecology.
Concerned with the relation of plants to their
environment, deductions became almost as
numerous as investigators. Even when ex-
perimental work was begun, the results were
still vague because of environment. Finally,
it became evident that all the factors of en-
vironment must be subjected to rigid experi-
mental control before definite conclusions
could be reached.
What is true of ecology is true also of
every phase of botanical research. For ex-
ample, I happen to be concerned with mate-
rials that showed an ‘occasional monocotyle-
donous embryo with two cotyledons, while
most of the embryos were normal. The fact
of course was important, for it connected up
Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons in a very
suggestive way, and also opened up the whole
question of cotyledony. Important as the
faet was, much more important was the cause
of the fact. We could only infer that certain
conditions might have resulted in a dicotyle-
donous embryo in a monocotyledon; but it was
a very unsubstantial inference. That problem
will never be solved until we learn to control
the conditions and produce dicotyledonous em-
bryos from Monocotyledons at will, or the re-
verse. Comparison and inference must be re-
placed by experimental control; just as in the
history of organic evolution, the method
shifted from comparison and inference to ex-
perimental control. It will be a slow evolu-
tion, and most of our conclusions will con-
tinue to be inferences, but these inferences
will eventually be the basis of experiment.
In fact, most of our conclusions are as yet
marking time until a new technique enables
us to move forward.
These illustrations from ecology and morph-
JANUARY 2, 1920]
ology represent simple situations as compared
with the demands of cytology or genetics, but
the same need of experimental control is a
pressing one in those fields. The behavior of
the complex mechanism of the cell is a matter
of sight, followed by inference, when we know
that invisible factors enter into the perform-
ance. How the cell program can ever be
brought under experimental control remains
to be seen, but we must realize that in the
meantime we are seeing actors without under-
standing their action. In fact, we are not
sure that we see the actors; the visible things
may be simply a result of their action. The
important thing is to keep in mind the nec-
essary limitations of our knowledge, and not
mistake inference for demonstration.
Even more baffling is the problem of ade-
quate experimental control in genetics. We
define genetics as breeding under rigid con-
trol, the inference being that by our methods
we know just what is happening. The con-
trol is rigid enough in mating individuals,
but the numerous events between the mating
and the appearance of the progeny are as yet
beyond the reach of control. We start a
machine and leave it to its own guidance.
The results of this performance, spoken of as
under control, are so various, that many kinds
of hypothetical factors are introduced as ten-
tative explanations. There is no question but
that this is the best that can be done at
present; but it ought to be realized that as yet
no real experimental control of the perform-
ance has been devised. The initial control,
followed by inferences, has developed a won-
derful perspective, but a method of continuous
control is yet to come.
Having considered the conspicuous evolu-
tionary tendencies of botanical research and
their projection into the future, it remains to
consider the possible means of stimulating
progress. It will not be accomplished by
increasing publication. It is probably our
unanimous judgment that there is too much
publication at the present time. What we
need is not an increasing number of papers,
but a larger percentage of significant papers.
This goes back to the selection of problems,
assuming that training is sufficient. A leader
SCIENCE 7
is expected to select his own problems, but we
are training an increasing army of inyesti-
gators, and the percentage of leaders is grow-
ing noticeably less. There ought to be some
method by which botanists shall agree upon
the significant problems at any given time,
in the various fields of activity, so that such
advice might be available. It is certainly
needed.
I realize that our impulse has been to treat
a desirable problem as private property, upon
which no trespassing is allowed. Of course,
common courtesy allows an investigator to
work without competition; but the desirable
problems are still more numerous than the in-
vestigators; and we must use all of our in-
vestigative training and energy in doing the
most desirable things. There need be no fear
of exhausting problems, for every good prob-
lem solved is usually the progenitor of a brood
of problems. We will never multiply investi-
gators as fast as our investigations multiply
problems. In the interest of science, there-
fore, we should pool our judgment, and in-
dicate to those who need it the hopeful
directions of progress.
Not only is there dissipation of time and
energy in the random selection of problems,
but there is also wastage in investigative
ability. Every competent investigator should
have the opportunity to investigate. The
pressure of duties that too often submerge
those trained to investigate is a tremendous
brake upon our progress. JI am not prepared
to suggest a method of meeting this situation,
but the scientific fraternity, in some way,
should press the point that one who is able
to investigate should have both time and
opportunity. A university regulation, with
which we are all too familiar, which requires
approximately the same hours of all of its
staff, whether they are investigators or not,
should be regarded as medieval.
In conclusion, speaking not merely for
botanical research, but for all scientific re-
search, it has now advanced to a stage which
promises unusually rapid development. The
experience of the recent years has brought
science into the foreground as a great na-
tional asset. It should be one of the func-
8 SCIENCE :
tions of this great association to see to it
that full advantage is taken of the opportunity
offered by the present evolutionary stage of
research and public esteem. We must choose
between inertia and some display of aggressive
energy.
Joun M. Counter
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
TIME, SPACE, AND GRAVITATION!
Arter the lamentable breach in the former
international relations existing among men of
science, it is with joy and gratefulness that I
accept this opportunity of communication with
English astronomers and physicists. It was in
accordance with the high and proud tradition
of English science that English scientific men
should have given their time and labor, and
that English institutions should have provided
the material means, to test a theory that had
been completed and published in the country
of their enemies in the midst of war. Al-
though investigation of the influence of the
solar. gravitational field on rays of light is a
purely objective matter, I am none the less
very glad to express my personal thanks to my
English colleagues in this branch of science;
for without their aid I should not have ob-
tained proof of the most vital deduction from
my theory.
There are several kinds of theory in physics.
Most of them are constructive. These attempt
to build a picture of complex phenomena out
of some relatively simple proposition. The
kinetic theory of gases, for instance, attempts
to refer to molecular movement the mechan-
ical thermal, and diffusional properties of
gases. When we say that we understand a
group of natural phenomena, we mean that we
have found a constructive theory which em-
braces them.
THEORIES OF PRINCIPLE
But in addition to this most weighty group
of theories, there is another group consisting
of what I call theories of principle. These
employ the analytic, not the synthetic method.
Their starting-point and foundation are not
1From the London Times.
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
hypothetical constituents, but empirically ob-
served general properties of phenomena, prin-
ciples from which mathematical formule are
deduced of such a kind that they apply to
every case which presents itself. Thermody-
namics, for instance, starting from the fact
that perpetual motion never occurs in ordi-
nary experience, attempts to deduce from this,
by analytic processes, a theory which will
apply in every case. The merit of construc-
tive theories is their comprehensiveness, adapt-
ability, and clarity, that of the theories of
principle, their logical perfection, and the
security of their foundation.
The theory of relativity is a theory of prin-
ciple. To.understand it, the principles on
which it rests must be grasped. But before
stating these it is necessary to point out that
the theory of relativity is like a house with
two separate stories, the special relativity
theory and the general theory of relativity.
Since the time of the ancient Greeks it has
been well known that in describing the motion
of a body we must refer to another body.
The motion of a railway train is described
with reference to the ground, of a planet with
reference to the total assemblage of visible
fixed stars. In physics the bodies to which
motions are spatially referred are termed sys-
tems of coordinates. The laws of mechanics
of Galileo and Newton can be formulated only
by using a system of coordinates.
The state of motion of a system of co-
ordinates can not be chosen arbitrarily if the
laws of mechanics are to hold good (it must
be free from twisting and from acceleration).
The system of coordinates employed in
mechanics is called an inertia-system. The
state of motion of an inertia-system, so far as
mechanics are concerned, is not restricted by
nature to one condition. The condition in
the following proposition suffices: a system of
coordinates moving in the same direction and
at the same rate as a system of inertia is itself
a system of inertia. The special relativity
theory is therefore the application of the fol-
lowing proposition to any natural process:
“ Every law of nature which holds good with
respect to a coordinate system K must also
hold good for any other system K’ provided
~
JANUARY 2, 1920]
that K and K’ are in uniform movement of
translation.”
The second principle on which the special
relativity theory rests is that of the constancy
of the velocity of light in a vacuum. Light
in a vacuum has a definite and constant
velocity, independent of the velocity of its
source. Physicists owe their confidence in
this proposition to the Maxwell-Lorentz theory
of electro-dynamics.
The two principles which I have mentioned
have received strong experimental confirma-
tion, but do not seem to be logically com-
patible. The special relativity theory achieved
their logical reconciliation by making a
change in kinematics, that is to say, in the
doctrine of the physical laws of space and
time. It became evident that a statement of
the coincidence of two events could have a
meaning only in connection with a system of
coordinates, that the mass of bodies and the
rate of movement of clocks must depend on
their state of motion with regard to the
coordinates.
THE OLDER PHYSICS
But the older physics, including the laws of
motion of Galileo and Newton, clashed with
the relativistic kinematics that I have indi-
cated. The latter gave origin to certain gen-
eralized mathematical conditions with which
the laws of nature would have to conform if
the two fundamental principles were com-
patible. Physics had to be modified. The
most notable change was a new law of motion
for (very rapidly) moving mass-points, and
this soon came to be verified in the case of
electrically-laden particles. The most im-
portant result of the special relativity system
concerned the inert mass of a material
system. It became evident that the inertia
of such a system must depend on its energy-
content, so that we were driven to the con-
ception that inert mass was nothing else than
latent energy. The doctrine of the conserva-
tion of mass lost its independence and became
merged in the doctrine of conservation of
energy.
The. special relativity theory which was
simply a systematic extension of the electro-
SCIENCE 9
dynamics of Maxwell and Lorentz, had conse-
quences which reached beyond itself. Must
the independence of physical laws with regard
to a system of coordinates be limited to sys-
tems of coordinates in uniform movement of
translation with regard to one another? What
has nature to do with the coordinate systems
that we propose and with their motions? Al-
though it may be necessary for our descrip-
tions of nature to employ systems of coordi-
nates that we have selected arbitrarily, the
choice should not be limited in any way so far
as their state of motion is concerned. (Gen-
eral theory of relativity.) The application of
this general theory of relativity was found to
be in conflict with a well-known experiment,.
according to which it appeared that the
weight and the inertia of a body depended on
the same constants (identity of inert and
heavy masses). Consider the case of a system
of coordinates which is conceived as being in
stable rotation relative to a system of inertia
in the Newtonian sense. The forces which,
relatively to this system, are centrifugal must,
in the Newtonian sense, be attributed to in-
ertia. But these centrifugal forces are, like
gravitation, proportional to the mass of the
bodies. It is not, then, possible to regard the
system of coordinates as at rest, and the
centrifugal forces of gravitational? The in-
terpretation seemed obvious, but classical
mechanics forbade it.
This slight sketch indicates how a general-
ized theory of relativity must include the laws
of gravitation, and actual pursuit of the con-
ception has justified the hope. But the way
was harder than was expected, because it con-
tradicted Euclidian geometry. In other words,
the laws according to which material bodies
are arranged in space do not exactly agree
with the laws of space prescribed by the
Euclidian geometry of solids. This is what is
meant by the phrase “a warp in space.” The
fundamental concepts “straight,” “ plane ,”
etc., accordingly lose their exact meaning in
physics.
In the generalized theory of relativity, the
doctrine of space and time, kinematics, is no
longer one of the absolute foundations of gen-
eral physics. The geometrical states of bodies
10 SCIENCE
and the rates of clocks depend in the first
place on their gravitational fields, which again
are produced by the material systems con-
cerned.
Thus the new theory of gravitation diverges
widely from that of Newton with respect to
its basal principle. But in practical applica-
tion the two agree so closely that it has been
dificult to find eases in which the actual
differences could be subjected to observation.
As yet only the following have been sug-
gested:
1. The distortion of the oval orbits of
planets round the sun (confirmed in the case
of the planet Mercury).
2. The deviation of light-rays in a gravita-
tional field (confirmed by the English Solar
Eclipse expedition).
3. The shifting of spectral lines towards
the red end of the spectrum in the case of
light coming to us from stars of appreciable
mass (not yet confirmed).
The great attraction of the theory is its
logical consistency. If any deduction from
it should prove untenable, it must be given up.
A modification of it seems impossible with-
out destruction of the whole.
No one must think that Newton’s great
creation can be overthrown in any real sense
by this or by any other theory. His clear and
wide ideas will for ever retain their signifi-
eance as the foundation on which our modern
conceptions of physics have been built.
: ALBERT EINSTEIN
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF
THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS
A review of the work of the National Bu-
reau of Standards for the year ending June
30, 1919, is given in the alumni report of the
director of the Bureau of Standards at Wash-
ington. The report describes the functions of
the bureau in connection with standards and
standardization, and contains a chart and
description of the several classes of standards
dealt with. The director also gives a clear
idea of the relation of the bureau’s work to
the general public, to the industries, and to the
government, and includes a special statement
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1305
ot the military work of the year. Brief state-
ments are made upon practically all of the
special researches and lines of testing com-
pleted or under way at the bureau. The list
of these topics occupies 12 pages in the table
of contents.
The bureau is organized in 64 scientific and
technical sections and 20 clerical, construction
and operative sections. During the year the
bureau has issued 51 publications, not inclu-
ding reprintings, 36 of which were new and 15
revisions of previous publications. In the
several laboratories of the Bureau more than
131,000 tests were made during the year.
The appropriations for the year, including
special funds for war investigations, were ap-
proximately $3,000,000. A noteworthy event
of the year included the completion of the
industrial laboratory in which will be housed
the divisions having to do with researches and
tests of structural materials. The building
also includes a commodious kiln house for
use, among other purposes, of the ceramics
division in the experimental production of new
clay products and for general experimental
purposes. \
The report comprises 293 pages and may be
obtained as long as free copies are available
by addressing the Bureau of Standards, Wash-
ington, D. C.
NEEDS OF THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY
Decrarinc that the work of the United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which pro-
vides the navigating charts which are the
direct means of protecting from loss the
vessels of our navy, Coast Guard, and mer-
chant marine, is seriously hampered by lack
of funds, the superintendent of the survey
makes an appeal for an adequate appropria-
tion to remedy this situation, in his annual
report to the secretary of commerce.
In order to make and put these naviga-
tional charts into the hands of all who de-
mand them both the field and office forces
must be kept up to the highest standards of
efficiency, and this can not be done without
sufficient funds to maintain and operate
modern surveying vessels and obtain able
officers and crews to man them. In addition
: JANuARY 2, 1920]
to the funds needed for the field work of the
bureau, larger funds than are now available
are required for carrying on the office work,
for it is necessary to have highly trained men
to prepare and care for the data used in
making up these charts.
Lack of money prevents the bureau from
obtaining a sufficient number of such men,
and many of those at present in the service
are leaving for better salaried positions else-
where. There have been large numbers of
resignations from the commissioned personnel
and other scientific arms of the bureau, in
fact, from all classes of the service, and it is
expected that these conditions will continue
until something is done to meet the situation.
The superintendent points out that the con-
dition is so serious that it threatens to jeop-
ardize public welfare, for, he says:
The commissioned officers are the lowest paid
men of their training in the federal service. Their
salaries, compared to those paid in the army and
the navy for similar qualifications, are 30 to 50
per cent. less. Much of their work is more hazar-
dous, requires special training, and takes them into
all our country’s possessions as the pioneer workers
or navigators—surveyors who ‘‘blaze the trail’’ on
land and sea. And no army or navy officer has
greater qualifications, nor do they sacrifice more
than the officer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey,
yet the latter works for much the lowest salary,
gets no longevity pay, no emoluments, and after he
has given his best years to the service of his coun-
try he must retire without pay.
Too few persons realize the sacrifices a man of
ability is making at the present time by remaining
in the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Before this
country entered the war conditions had grown to
a serious stage, but since the signing of the armis-
tice steady disintegration has gone on, and the
situation has reached a point where the quality of
the Survey’s employees is declining principally
under the stress of present economic conditions.
Unless proper relief is forthcoming at once, and
the present salaries are materially advanced, this
important branch of the federal government, which
has so much to do with the protecting of human
lives, will, in a measure at least, be stripped of its
best brains.
THE ROYAL MEDALS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
As has been noted in Science these medals
were awarded to Professor John Bretland
SCIENCE 11
Farmer and Mr. James Haywood Jeans. In
conferring them on November 30 Sir Joseph
Thomson, the president of the society, said:
Professor Farmer’s work is characterized by the
fundamental importance of the problems worked
upon; thus his memoirs on the meiotic phase (re-
duction division) in animals and plants are of as
great value to zoologists as to botanists, and his
conclusions and interpretations of the complex
nuclear changes which precede the differentiation
of the sexual cells have stood the test of criticism,
and remain the clearest and most logical account
of these very important phenomena. His papers,
in collaboration with his pupil, Miss Digby, on the
eytology of those ferns in which the normal alterna-
tion of generations is departed from has thrown
new light on problems of the greatest biological
interest, and especially on the nature of sexuality.
In his cytological work on cancerous growths Pro-
fessor Farmer has established the close similarity
between the cells of malignant growths and those
of normal reproductive tissue.
Mr. Jeans has successfully attacked some of the
most difficult problems in mathematical physics and
astronomy. In the kinetie theory of gases he has
improved the theory of viscosity, and, using gen-
eralized coordinates, has given the best proof yet
devised of the equipartition of energy and of Max-
well’s law of the distribution of molecular veloci-
ties, assuming the validity of the laws of Newton-
ian dynamics. In dynamical astronomy he took up
the difficult problem of the stability of the pear-
shaped form of rotating, incompressible, gravita-
ting fluid at a point where Darwin, Poincaré and
Liapounoff had left it, and obtained discordant re-
sults. By proceeding to a third order of approxi-
mation, for which very great mathematical skill
was required, he showed that this form was un-
stable. He fiollowed this up by the discussion of
the similar problem when the fluid is compressible,
and concluded that for a density greater than a
eritical value of about one quarter that of water
the behavior is generally similar to that of an in-
compressible fluid. For lower densities the be-
havior resembles that of a perfectly compressible
fluid, and with increasing rotation matter will
take a lenticular shape and later be ejected from
the edge.
MR. ROCKEFELLER’S GIFTS
THERE were announced on Christmas day
two large gifts by Mr. John D. Rockefeller,
$50,000,000 to the Rockefeller Foundation and
$50,000,000 to the General Education Board,
the money to be available for immediate use.
12 SCIENCE
In transmitting the gift to the General
Education Board Mr. Rockefeller forwarded
this memorandum:
The attention of the American public has re-
cently ‘been drawn to the urgent and immediate
necessity of providing more adequate salaries to
members of the teaching profession. It is of the
highest importance that those intrusted with the
education of youth and the increase of knowledge
should not be led to abandon their calling by rea-
son of financial pressure or to cling to it amid dis-
couragements due to financial limitations.
It is of equal importance to our future welfare
and progress that able and aspiring young men and
women should not for similar reasons be deterred
from devoting their lives to teaching.
While this gift is made for the general corporate
purposes of the board, I should cordially indorse a
decision to use the principal, as well as the income,
as promptly and largely as may seem wise for the
purpose of cooperating with the higher institutions
of learning in raising sums specifically devoted to
the increase of teachers’ salaries.
In reference to this gift, Dr. Wallace
Buttrick, president of the General Education
Board, makes the following statement:
The general public is well aware that the salaries
of instructors in colleges and universities have not
thus far, in general, been sufficiently increased to
meet the increased cost of living. The General
Education Board thas since the close of the war re-
ceived applications for aid from colleges and uni-
versities the sum total of which would practically
exhaust the working capital of the board.
An emergency exists. It is urgently necessary
to take steps to increase salaries in order that men
in the teaching profession may be able and happy
to remain there, in order that young men and young
women who incline to teaching as a career may not
be deterred from entering the teaching profession,
and, finally, in order that it may not be necessary
to raise tuition fees and thereby cut off from aca-
demic opportunity those who can not afford to
pay increased tuition.
As Mr. Rockefeller’s memorandum shows, he rec-
ognizes the urgency of the present situation, and
has given this large sum to the General Education
Board to be used in cooperation with the institu-
tions for the purpose of promptly increasing the
funds available for the payment of salaries. It has
been the policy of the board to make contributions
to endowments, conditioned upon the raising of
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
additional supplementary sums by the institutions
aided.
The gifts of Mr. Rockefeller to the General
Education Board since its establishment’ in
1902 have been as follows:
LOD! ase Pte eet eee eta $1,000,000
ESAS a i ert liad be 10,000,000
LOOT. Mate SM Bente 11,000,000
HOG! eSeeiveany 1h Hac 10,000,000
Dotalv ae tee een $32,000,000
The board distributes the interest on the
above funds currently and is empowered to
distribute the principal in its discretion.
Recently Mr. Rockefeller gave the board the
sum of $20,000,000 for the improvement of
medical education, the interest to be distri-
buted currently and the principal to be dis-
tributed within fifty years.
In transmitting the gift to the Rockefeller
Foundation Mr. Rockefeller specifically au-
thorizes the trustees to utilize both principal
and income for any of the corporate purposes
of the foundation which, as stated in the
charter, are “to promote the well-being of
mankind throughout the world.” “ While im-
posing no restriction upon the discretion of
the trustees Mr. Rockefeller in his letter. of
transmittal expresses special interest “in the
work being done throughout the world in
combating disease through improvement of
medical education, public health administra-
tion and scientific research.” Mr. Rocke-
feller also alludes to the recent gift of $20,-
000,000 to the General Education Board to
promote general education in the United
States, and then adds:
My attention has been called to the needs of some
of the medical schools in Canada, but as the activi-
ties of the General Education Board are by its
charter limited to the United States I understand
that gift may not be used for Canadian schools.
The Canadian people are our near neighbors:
They are closely bound to us by ties of race, lan-
guage and international friendship; and they have
without stint sacrificed themselves, their youth and
their resources to the end that democracy might be
saved and extended. For these reasons if your
board should see fit to use any part of this new
gift in promoting medical education in Canada
such action would meet with my cordial approval.
JaNuARY 2, 1920]
This last gift makes the total received by
the foundation from Mr. Rockefeller $182,-
000,000, of which both income and principal
were made available for appropriations. In
1917-18 $5,000,000 from the principal was
appropriated for war work.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Jacques Lozs, of the Rockefeller Insti-
tute for Medical Research, Dr. Robert An-
drews Millikan, of the University of Chicago,
Dr. Arthur Gordon Webster, of Clark Uni-
versity, and Dr. W. W. Campbell, of Lick Ob-
servatory, have been elected honorary mem-
bers of the Royal Institution of Great Britain’
and Ireland.
Dr. Otto Kuorz, director of the Dominion
Observatory, Ottawa, has been appointed the
representative of Canada on the “ Committee
on Magnetic Surveys, Charts and Secular
Variation” of the International Geodetic
and Geophysical Union, recently formed at
Brussels.
Dr. C. O. Matttoux, who was elected presi-
dent of the International Electrotechnical
Commission for the next period of two years
at the plenary meeting in London on October
24, was the president of the American com-
mittee. He is the second American to hold
that honor. Previous presidents have been
Lord Kelvin, Dr. Elihu Thomson, Professor
E. Budde and Maurice Leblane. He is a
past-president of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, and was the first editor
of The Electrical World serving in that capa-
city in 1883.
Dr. Herrick E. Witson, having resigned his
position as assistant to Mr. Frank Springer,
of the U. S. National Museum, will continue
research work upon, fossil crinoids at his home
in Oberlin, Ohio.
Tuer American Institute of Baking, founded
by the American Association of the Baking
Industry, has begun work in Minneapolis
under the direction of Dr. H. F. Barnard as-
sisted by an advisory committee of the Na-
tional Research Council and in cooperation
with the Dunwoody Institute. Dr. Barnard
SCIENCE 13
has been connected with the State Board of
Health of Indiana for nearly nineteen years
and was federal food administrator of that
state during the war.
Dr. Paut G. Woouney, who recently re-
signed from the chair of pathology at the Uni-
versity of Cincinnati, is reported to have
accepted the direction of a laboratory for
medical diagnosis at Detroit.
Proressor A. E. GranrHam, for twelve
years head of the department of agronomy in
Delaware College and agronomist to the Dela-
ware Agricultural Experiment Station, has
resigned, his resignation to become effective
on February 1, to become manager of the
Agricultural Service Bureau of the Virginia-
Carolina Chemical Company, with headquar-
ters at Richmond, Va.
Dr. L. W. StepHEeNson, of the Geological
Survey, has been granted a six months’ leave
of absence in the early part of 1920, in order
to do stratigraphic work for one of the oil com-
panies in the Tampico oil field.
Proressor J. C. McLennan, F.R.S., has re-
signed as scientific adviser to the British
Board of Admiralty, to return to his duties as
professor of physics in the University of To-
ronto.
Dr. WIcKLIFFE Ross, general director of the
International Health Board of the Rockefeller
Foundation, and Dr. Richard M. Pearce, re-
cently appointed director of a new division of
medical education, sailed on December 11 for
Europe to secure information about public
health administration and methods of medical
education in England and on the Continent.
Dr. THEopore C. Lyster, former colonel of
the U. S. Army, is now in Mexico representing
the yellow fever commission of the Rockefeller
Foundation of which General Gorgas is the
head.
Dr. O. Hotrepaut is organizing a Norweg-
ian exploring expedition to Novaya Zemlya,
and expects to sailin June. A botanist, a zool-
ogist and a meteorologist will accompany the
expedition. Dr. Holtedahl will devote his time
to geological and geophysical problems.
14
At the dedication of the new pathological
laboratory of the Philadelphia General Hos-
pital the principal address was delivered by Dr.
William H. Welch, of The Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, who spoke of the important part played
by morbid anatomy in the advancement of
medicine. Drs. Arthur Dean Bevan, Chicago,
and Louis B. Wilson, Rochester, Minn., also
spoke.
Nature records the death on November 25 of
Frederick Webb Headley, at the age of sixty-
three years. Mr. Headley spent nearly forty
years of his life as an assistant master at
Haileybury College, where he succeeded in
maintaining a body of active boy-naturalists in
the college. He was the author of “ The Struc-
ture and Life of Birds” and “ Life and Evolu-
tion.”
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Mr. Joun Marx ez has agreed to provide the
sum of five thousand dollars a year for five
years beginning January 1, 1920, for the con-
tinuation of the mining engineering course at
Lafayette College, which was suspended dur-
ing the war.
Ir is planned to establish a school of engi-
neering under the joint direction of the Car-
negie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, the
U. S. Bureau of Mines and the coal operators
of the Pittsburgh District.
DELEGATES from French and Swiss universi-
ties met recently at Geneva and made arrange-
ments for interchange of students and pro-
fessors with credits for corresponding work.
Dr. Meyer G. Gaba, who was an instructor
in mathematics at Cornell from 1915 to 1918,
has been appointed associate professor of
mathematics at the University of Nebraska.
Dr. James PrayrarR McMurricn, professor
of anatomy in the University of Toronto, has
been elected dean of the faculty of arts.
Dr. T. Harvey Jounston has been appointed
to the new professorship of biology at the
Queensland University. Dr. Johnston was one
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von. LI. No. 1305
of the traveling commissioners sent abroad by
the Queensland government to investigate the
Prickly Pear problem.
At the University of Cambridge Dr. F. H. A.
Marshall, fellow of Christ’s College, has been
appointed reader in agricultural physiology,
and Mr. P. Lake, of St. John’s College, reader
in geography.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THREAD MOULDS AND BACTERIA IN THE
DEVONIAN *
WHILE making a comprehensive survey of
the comparative histology of the skeletal paxts
of ancient vertebrates, in conjunction with the
study of paleopathology, my attention was at-
tracted to the enlarged and distorted shapes of
many lacunae in the carapace of Borthriolepis
and Coccosteus. Closer examination under the
oil immersion revealed the occurrence of thread
moulds and bacteria in the almost disrupted
lacunar spaces, and since these organisms have
never ‘before been noted in the osseous elements
of such ancient vertebrates, a brief description
will be given of them here. There is.a great
gap in our knowledge of ancient bacteria espe-
cially between the Pre-Cambrian bacteria de-
seribed by Walcott and the Carboniferous
forms described by Renault, so that we know
nothing of the occurrence of bacteria especially
in bony material during the early and middle
Paleozoic.
The occurrence of thread moulds (Mycelites
ossifragus) in the hard parts of invertebrates
and vertebrates, from molluscs to man, has been.
noted for more than eighty years and the liter-
ature is very extensive. The canals made by
the penetrating moulds, known as the canals of
Roux or Wedl, have been noted by Kolliker in
the hard parts of invertebrates, fossil and re-
cent, by Triepel in recent human bones, by
Shaffer in ancient human teeth, by Sonders in
a Neolithic skull, by Roux in the skeletal parts
of vertebrates, Carboniferous to recent. They
have been recently seen in the bony parts
of Devonian vertebrates, doubtless they have
a very wide distribution and may be regarded
as one of the most ancient types of organisms
in existence There is nothing peculiar in
JANUARY 2, 1920]
their occurrence in the ancient vertebrates
except that their course of growth is modified
by the histology of ancient bone. In the
absence of definite lamelle the mycelia often
seek out a lacuna, enter it and growing out
along the direction of the brief canaliculi,
expand both the lacuna and canaliculi until
the entire structure is disrupted and the
canals meet other canals growing out from
adjoining lacunz. In modern human bone
the mycelia very often follow the inter-
lamellar spaces, but ancient bone has seldom
any definite spaces of this kind and more
often is to be regarded as an osteoid sub-
stance. That the appearances described for
the enlarged lacunz are not normal is easily
checked by a study of normal lacune in the
adjacent material. A single microscopic field
will show both normal and invaded lacune.
The canals, from 2-4 micra in diameter have
an undulating course and offer easy channels
of entrance to invading bacteria.
The presence of these thread moulds would
seem to indicate that the piece of bone show-
ing them was preserved in a moist sandy or
muddy place close to the shore, thus agree-
ing with our previous conceptions of the pres-
ervation of fossil material. It is difficult to
see how the moulds would find entrance if the
material were embedded under sand or silt in
deep water. The ancient Egyptian mummies,
buried for thousands of years in the dry sand
of Nubian deserts do not show such canals,
nor do the Cretaceous vertebrates from Kansas
show them. Seitz has figured them, though
apparently did not recognize their nature, in
the bones of Labyrinthodonts and dinosaurs,
and I have seen evidences of them in sections
from the vertebra of an American sauroped
dinosaur.
The bacteria doubtless have entered the
bone along the course of the Canals of Roux
and may be detected at first by the beady,
nodular appearance of the canal. Often the
bacteria, in Bothriolepis, for instance, have
invaded a canaliculus which the Mycelites
did not find. The small clumps, or nodes,
may clearly be regarded as colonies of bac-
teria and doubtless as a form of the: Micro-
coccus, described by Renault in the canaliculi
SCIENCE 15
of Permian fish bone. The beady appearance
of an invaded canal of Roux or canaliculus
recalls exactly the picture of the invaded
dentinal tubules in cases of human dental
caries. We are, of course, in this case, as in
the case of other ancient phenomena, arguing
from the known to the unknown. Here is an
ancient situation which parallels a similar
modern situation and the argument is sound
because on it for over one hundred years we
have built the science of paleontology.
These conditions can not be regarded as
disease in any sense, but are rather to be
regarded as the agents of decay in ancient
times. They are the agents of decay and dis-
ruption at the present time and from present
evidences the same agents of decay have been
at work for many millions of years, at least
since Devonian times. Roy L. Moopir
DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY,
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS,
CHICAGO
VIBRATION RATE OF THE TAIL OF A
RATTLESNAKE
TurouGH the courtesy of Professor H. R.
Dill, curator of the natural history museum,
opportunity was offered to make a brief study
of the rate of vibration of the tail of a dia-
mond back rattlesnake, Crotalus Adamanteus.
This specimen came from Texas on September
15, 1918, but had been in captivity for some
time previously. Its age is not known, as
that can not be accurately determined from
the number of rattles, some of which are
known to have been broken off, and two of the
nine or ten remaining are in poor condition.
A new rattle is formed with each moulting, a
process which has occurred twice during the
nine months that the animal has been in the
laboratory; the second moulting occurred six
months after the first. The snake is about
five feet four inches in length and rather
thin, since it refuses food. It accepts water,
howeyer, and in the latter part of March two
sparrows were forcibly fed to it. It is exceed-
ingly alert and vigorous, and frequently strikes
at any object that is near its wire cage. It
has learned some discretion, and does not risk
the resultant bump against the wire unless
16 SCIENCE
rather strongly provoked. Its fangs are in-
tact.
With the aid of two assistants, Mr. Ledieu,
who kept the head out of mischief, and Mr.
Bunch, who manipulated the apparatus, it was
possible to secure a fairly accurate short time
record. A Deprez marker, together with a
suitable time indicator, was adjusted to trace
upon a smoked drum. With one method of
recording a small mesh cap of copper wire was
fitted over the rattles and connected with a
flexible wire through a battery, the marker,
and a curved brass plate. Touching the wire
cap to the brass plate completed the circuit.
With slight provocation vigorous movement
resulted and the writer would hold as far back
from the tip of the tail as possible and still
be able to direct the tip so that it would strike
the plate with each complete vibration. Fear-
ing that the cap might be heavy enough to re-
tard the motion, we tried again using a double
strand of very fine copper wire wrapped twice
around the rattles bringing this wire in con-
tact with the plate as before. The average
time of fifty-three consecutive vibrations,
with the first method, was 30c (1c.001 sec.)
with a mean variation of 10¢. The corre-
sponding result for twenty-five vibrations by
the second method, was 28c, with a mean va-
riation of 3.50.
To the writer two surprises are contained in
this record, the first being the relatively great
variability in rate of movement, the extremes
ranging from about 10¢ to 50c. After at-
tention was directed to the variations in speed,
they become marked even to the unaided ear,
although no distinct rhythm can be detected.
The second unexpected result is that the
pitch of the tone produced does not depend
upon the speed nor upon the constancy of the
tail vibration but upon the natural resonance
of the rattles themselves. The pitch of this
tone, as determined by two musicians with a
very keen sense of pitch, and checked with
accurately tuned forks, is between © and C#;
the tone is expressed, therefore, by about 128
to 135 vibrations per second. Wery marked
changes in rate of tail, from the fastest that
could be produced by marked provocation, to
the almost quiescent state, did not cause a
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1305
fluctuation of the pitch beyond this approxi-
mate half-tone. The tone itself is exceedingly
complex however, and it might conceivably
vary with the number and size of the rattles.
It was possible to detect, but not to identify,
certain overtones.
The popular impression that the rattler uses
his rattles as a warning that he is about to
strike is regarded by Mr. Dill as quite erro-
neous. This snake, when striking normally
does so first and rattles afterward, if at all.
It will, for instance, strike at a bird placed in
the cage, rattle, then strike again. It appears
that the rattle is rather to terrify than to
warn. It is also used as a defensive mech-
anism. The instinct to vibrate the tail is not
peculiar to the rattlesnake, but is common to
many other species, as, for instance, to the
non-venomous king snake and the blue racer.
Maset C. WILLIAMS
Strate UNIVERSITY or Iowa
A TICKET TO ST. LOUIS
I am a schoolmaster. I am not earning a
living for myself and family, though my
position is counted a good one. [I shall be a
schoolmaster till I die: I have chosen teach-
ing as my service, and am too old to change.
My three sons will not be schoolmasters.
Before the war I was able to make ends
meet. I could then devote all my time and
energies to the duties of my position. ‘Then
came increase of passenger rates, and a war
tax added, and I and my family have since
stayed home. I even bought several liberty
bonds and my children bought war savings
stamps at the beginning.
Then came also increased freight rates and
of cost of food, and I and my boys began
gardening. Then came also increase of wages
and decrease of competence in artisans, and I
and my boys began doing our own repair work
—carpentry, plastering, roofing, ditch-digging,
ete. But, staying always home, and raising
beans, and fixing spouts is not what I am paid
for doing, nor does it get the best results from
the long training I have had. And ever since
the close of the war I have been vainly hoping
to be allowed to devote my time again to my
JANUARY 2, 1920]
teaching and research; for I am first and last
a schoolmaster.
The war having ended more than a year
ago, I thought I should like to go to the
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science at St. Louis, to meet
my colleagues from the other universities and
to talk over plans for the future. Now at the
last the poor old decrepit U. S. Railroad Ad-
ministration, which, I verily believe, has done
more than any other single agency to increase
the cost of living, decides that this association
is not educational! Therefore, its members
are not entitled to the reduced fare previously
granted to those attending “meetings of
religious, charitable, educational, fraternal, or
military character.” This, the equivalent of
2 cents per mile, which was full fare before
the war, may be granted for truly educational
gatherings, such as those of public kinder-
gartners; but it is not for such as we are: we
pay 8 cents per mile with a war tax added, or
we help the railroads by staying at home.
Such is the judgment of a high official in
that administration (Mr. Gerrit Fort, assist-
ant director), who is doubtless provided with a
salary adequate to support him and his family
while he renders such decisions. Hear him:
“The term ‘educational’ taken in its broad
sense could be construed to cover a very large
number of conventions. It was necessary,
therefore, to restrict its definition, and this
was done by confining it to those conventions
haying to do with elementary education, such
as meetings of school-teachers.”
This is the last straw!
ScHOOLMASTER
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE PROTECTIVE INFLUENCE OF BLOOD
SERUM ON THE EXPERIMENTAL CELL-
FIBRIN TISSUE OF LIMULUS!
In the preceding communication we showed
that the solutions of different salts, which are
constituents of blood serum or seawater,
differ in their effect on the cellfibrin tissue
and that the amount of regenerative out-
1From the Department of Comparative Pathol-
ogy, Washington University School of Medicine,
St. Louis, Mo.
SCIENCE eh
growth of the tissue is different in different
solutions. If we cover a wound with 5/8 m
NaCl healing may take place; a small piece
of excised placed on a cover-glass and sur-
rounded by a drop of NaCl solution may show
a good outgrowth under the conditions of our
experiment in which usually a small amount
of blood serum was adherent to the piece.
However, all of these solutions are inferior to
the blood serum of Limulus. It was of inter-
est to determine which constituent or combi-
nation of substances in the blood serum was
responsible for the superiority of the serum,
whether it was caused by the balancing action
of salts or by another constituent.
Addition of calcium chloride in various
quantities to the sodium chloride solution did
not improve the latter and usually made it
less favorable for the tissue. The addition of
seawater in which the inorganic constituents
are present in proportions similar to those
found in blood serum, prevented an active
outgrowth altogether. Inasmuch as it was
possible that the alkalinity of the seawater
was injurious to the tissue, we used seawater
with a hydrogen ion concentration which cor-
responded to an approximately neutral solu-
tion. This did not improve the effect of sea-
water. The Van’t Hoff solution mixture of
salts was likewise much inferior to an isotonic
NaCl solution. These results made it im-
probable that the beneficial effect of blood
serum was due to inorganic constituents.
This conclusion was corroborated by the
effect of the heating of blood serum. Heat-
ing the blood serum to 85° for a short time
sufficient to coagulate a certain amount of
its proteid destroyed the greater part of the
beneficial effect of blood serum. Heating
this filtered fraction still further to 100° for
a short time, and thus producing an addi-
tional coagulation, made the blood serum as
unfavorable as seawater; such heated and
filtered blood serum had still the blue color of
normal oxygenated Limulus blood. However,
how far a proportionality exists between the
intensity of heating and of loss of beneficial
properties of the serum needs further investi-
gation.
18
At present we may conclude that the speci-
fically protective effect of blood serum is due
not to the combination or inorganic constitu-
ents but to the proteid constituents of the
blood. This may perhaps explain the fact
that different blood sera may differ in their
beneficial effect. We even found that the
blood sera of diseased, anemic Limult may
become as ineffective or as injurious as sea-
water. Whether the action of microorgan-
isms enters as a factor in the case of blood
sera of anemic Zimulti remains still to be
determined.
Leo Lors
A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON SOIL ACIDITY
WHATEVER may be the cause and nature of
soil acidity, apparently part of this acidity is
due to some of the materials which constitute
the soil itself. This gives rise to the question
as to whether the minerals from which the
soils are derived are acid; and if not, what
changes occur in these minerals to make them
acid and what factors cause these changes.
Therefore in some work on soil acidity that
has recently been done in this laboratory, the
problem was attacked along a line somewhat
different from that usually followed. Instead
of working with acid soils entirely, neutral
and basie soils were also chosen and the one
factor which probably, more than any other,
has to do with the natural changes produced
in the soil forming minerals—namely, water
leaching through the soil—was investigated.
After working with a few soils, it seemed
advisable to experiment with the more abun-
dant minerals which constitute certain types
of soils, and with a few of their decomposition
products.
Such materials as the following were taken
for the experiments: soils, rocks, miscella-
neous gravel, pure minerals such as quartz,
hornblende, microcline and garnet, and some
of the decomposition products of the above
mentioned minerals and rocks such as silicic
acid, kaolin, silica, ete. Nearly all of the
rocks, gravel and pure minerals were found
to be either neutral or slightly basic. The
materials were leached with water containing
.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
carbon dioxide, and analyses were made to
determine what changes had occurred, both
in the samples and in the percolated water.
The results from this work show that of all
the samples that were leached, no matter
whether the original material was basie or
acid, the resulting material was acid; and
that with the exception of the decomposition
products such as silicic acid, kaolin, etce.,
nearly all of the samples became more acid.
The fact should be emphasized here that all
of the materials, with the exception of the
soils themselves, were minerals or rocks which
contained no organic matter. Hence the acid-
ity was not due to organic matter.
From the above statements, the conclusion
may be drawn that the compounds formed
from some of the soil-forming minerals due to
leaching, are an important factor in making
soils acid.
Having shown then that some of the mate-
rials of which soils are composed, on being
leached with water containing carbon dioxide,
make soils acid, the next logical step in this
research was to try to determine how these
compounds give rise to this acidity.
This problem was attacked by determining
the hydrogen ion concentration of neutral
water extracts of the materials in question;
and by determining the hydrogen ion concen-
tration of similar extracts after different
known quantities of standard calcium hydrox-
ide had been added. A curve plotted from
the results of these determinations should
show (1) any excess of hydrogen ions in the
solution; (2) the presence of any compound
that is capable of taking up calcium hydroxide
as a result of adsorption, by the formation of
addition products, or by true chemical action;
and (8) any excess of free hydroxyl ions. To
illustrate, let the followimg figure represent
the relation between the hydrogen ion con-
centration (expressed as P;,) in a solution and
the amount of calcium hydroxide that has
been added. Then line ab shows a decreasing
excess of hydrogen ions in the solution; be
that the hydroxyl ions are being removed from
the field of action as fast as they are added;
and cd, an increasing excess of hydroxy] ions.
~
JANUARY 2, 1920]
The curves plotted from the results of the
determinations made on acid soils and on the
decomposition products of the soil-forming
minerals are similar to the one described
above, while those made on neutral or alkaline
soils are similar to lines be and cd of that
curve. This apparently indicates that there
are some dissociated acids or acid salts pres-
ent in the solutions of acid soils, and of the
decomposition products; and that with all of
the materials some of the calcium hydroxide
is entirely removed from the field of action.
These statements are interesting, especially
when compared with the conclusions drawn in
regard to soil acidity from results obtained by
the freezing! point method. The conclusions
a
Neutral Line.
ee CaQH)z
Fig. 1.
by that method are contrary to the former of
the above statements, but agree with the latter.
Some other interesting facts concerning
these curves are that where they first reach
the neutral line, they show a lime requirement
as determined by the so-called Jones? method;
and that where they leave the neutral line,
they may indicate what Sharp? and Hoagland
term “potential acidity” or what Bouyoucos*
terms “maximum lime requirement.” It is
also interesting to note that the curves vary
somewhat when bases other than calcium hy-
droxide are added to soils. Barium hydroxide
gives rise to curves similar to calcium hy-
droxide, while sodium and ammonium hydrox-
ides gives curves represented by lines ab and
cd in the above figure.
1Mich. Agric. Col. Exp. Sta. Technical Bul.,
No. 27.
2Jour. A. O. A. C., Vol. I., p. 43.
3 Jour. Agric. Research, Vol. VII., p. 123.
4 Mich. Agric. Col. Exp. Sta. Technical Bul. No.
27, p. 37.
SCIENCE 19
This work is being continued with the hope
that within a short time sufficient data will
be obtained to warrant a more complete dis-
cussion of the subject. O. B. WINTER
MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE,
EXPERIMENT STATION
ALABAMA MEETING OF THE ASSOCIA-
TION OF AMERICAN STATE
GEOLOGISTS
ONE of the most successful and profitable annual
field meetings of the Association of American
State Geologists was held in Alabama, September
1 to 6, 1919, on invitation and under the able
guidance of the state geologist, Dr. Eugene A.
Smith. Headquarters were at the Tutwiler Hotel,
Birmingham,
An instructive printed guide of 14 pages briefly
summarizing the essential geologic features to be
observed at each place visited in the state was
prepared by Dr. Smith and associates. As orig-
inally planned, the program called for a division
of the party into two sections (Highland and
Coastal Plain), to be together only on the first
and last days. This plan was later modified to
exclude the Coastal Plain section, but was closely
adhered to for the Highland section, which closed
with a visit to the University of Alabama, so long
and well known to geologists as the home of the
distinguished host, Dr. Smith.
Much of the Highland region of the state, long
known for its varied and complex geology, was
covered by excursions, and many of the interesting
features of physiography, structure, stratigraphy
and economic geology, were reviewed. Among
some of the more important localities visited were
the famous Birmingham district, where oppor-
tunity was afforded for observing some of its more
important geologic features, including visits to
iron and coal mines, limestone quarries and indus-
trial plants; the extensive productive graphite area
between Lineville and Goodwater, the largest do-
mestic producer of graphite; the marble quar-
ries near Sylacauga; and Sheffield and Florence
where are located the government nitrate plant and
prospective water-power developments at Mussel
Shoals on Tennessee River.
The geologists participating in a part or all of
the excursions were: Eugene A. Smith and W. F.
Prouty (Alabama), J. A. Bownocker (Ohio), G.
F. Kay (Iowa), H. B. Kiimmel (New Jersey), I. C.
White (West Virginia), W. N. Logan (Indiana),
S. W. McCallie and J. P. D, Hull (Georgia), W.
20
O. Hotchkiss (Wisconsin), Collier Cobb (North
Carolina), H. F. Cleland (Massachusetts), Her-
man Gunter (Florida), W. A. Nelson (Tennessee),
George Otis Smith, E. O. Ulrich and Charles Butts
(Washington, D. C.).
THomas L. WATSON,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
VII
DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
I. K. Phelps, Chairman
R. A. Gortner, Vice-chairman and Secretary
Chemotherapy of organic arsenicals: C. N.
Meyers. A discussion of the transitions of arsenic
therapy leading up to the production of salvarsan.
A chart showing tthe methods of approaching the
mother substance is presented. The reduction
process is briefly discussed, followed by a consid-
eration of the chemical and physical properties, the
toxicology, the impurities, and the preservation of
salvarsan. The chemical and physical factors as
related to the administration of the drug are dis-
cussed based upon clinical observations as a result
of an extensive investigation of the methods used
by leading dermatologists. Standard methods are
recommended in order to eliminate reactions which
unnecessarily result from faulty technique and im-
proper use of chemical laws when salvarsan is used
in organotherapy.
The chemical composition of arsphenamine (sal-
varsan) : G. W. Raiziss.
A comparative study of the trypanocidal activity
of arsphenamine and neo-arsphenamine: J. F.
SoHAMBERG, J. A. KoLMER AND G. W. Raiziss.
Chemotherapeutic studies with ethylhydrocup-
rein and mercurophen in experimental pneumococ-
cus meningitis of rabbits: J. A. KoLuMER AND
Goro IpzuMI.
Coordination of the principles of chemo-therapy
with the laws of immunity and the successful appli-
cation in the treatment of tuberculosis: BENJAMIN
S. PascHauu. The tubercle bacillus is protected
by waxy substances consisting chiefly of unsatu-
rated highly complex aleohols and equal quantities
of phosphatides with which they form a colloidal
eomplex and which in turn exists in close union,
possibly physical, more probably chemical, with the
protoplasmic substances of the tubercle bacillus,
both proteid and carbohydrate in nature. Saponifi-
cation breaks up this complex without destruction
of the important immunizing substances and makes
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
possible separation by solvents. By this means
toxie and caseating substances of the Cholin Mus-
carin group are eliminated as well as the ordinary
poisons elaborated by the tubercle bacillus pro-
teins and protein derivatives. Esterification of the
fatty acids with ethyl alcohol forms-a valuable im-
munizing substance as these fatty acids have so far
been found not to conform to those found in our
common food products. Hsterification of the higher
alcohols with salicylic benzoic, acetic or other suit-
able acids establishes a new side chain or anchoring
group which greatly enhances the reactivity be-
tween the antigens themselves and the receptors of
the tissue cells so that absorption of these alcoholic
esters takes place in the tissues in a few days
without producing caseation and tissue necrosis
even when given in doses of from 3 to 5 ¢.c., and
following these injections of the mixed esters spe-
cific wax digesting ferments form in sufficient con-
centration to split the protective waxes from the
tubercle bacillus living within the host whereby
disorganization and destruction of the organism
ensues and the patient absolutely recovers and re-
mains well. Thus combining the principles of
chemico-therapy with the laws of immunity, a new
substance was found for the treatment of all forms
of tuberculosis which was successfully used in our
own practise and named by us Mycoleum.
The chlorinated antiseptics: Chloramine-T and
dichloramine-T:; Isaac F. Harris, Ph.D., Research
Laboratories, E. R. Squibb & Sons, New York.
Toluene-p-sodium-sulfonchloramine (chloramine-T)
when prepared in state of high chemical purity is
an extremely stable compound, both in crystalline
form and in solution. Toluene-p-sulfondichloramine
(dichloramine-T) is quite stable when prepared in
very high purity chemically dry and protected from
dust, organic matter and sunlight. Pure dichlora-
mine-T can be kept in pure, anhydrous chlorcosane,
without appreciable decomposition, for several
months, if protected from continuous action of
direct sunlight. In the reactions between the pro-
teins of the tissues and Dakin’s solution, chlora-
mines of the proteins and free sodium hydroxide
are formed. The latter furnishes the solvent power
attributed to Dakin’s solution. When the chlora-
mines react with bacteria and necrotic protein mat-
ter, chloramines of the proteins are formed and
toluene-p-sulfonamide is set free. The latter is
inert and innocuous. The chloramines can be em-
ployed with more precision and in greater concen-
tration than Dakin’s solution.
An agent for the destruction of vermin-method
of application: ALBERT A. EPSTEIN. (By title.)
JANUARY 2, 1920]
The purpose of the communication is to put on
record the composition of an active vermicide and
a suitable method of its application, which was
primarily intended for the army. The vermicide is
a solution, the base of which is kerosene. The odor
and irritating properties of kerosene are disposed
of by a special process. To this as a base are
added heavy oils and demulcents which promote the
retention of the vermicide and repellent properties,
by the objects to which the solution is applied.
The solution destroys lice within one minute, and
nits fail to develop after about eight minutes con-
tact with the solution. As proven by various tests
the solution is destructive not only to lice, but to a
large variety of insect-parasites affecting man,
animals and plants. The solution is applied by
means of a spraying device.
An iodine preparation for intravenous and intra-
spinous use: AuBErt A. EPSTEIN. (By title). It
is possible by means of heat under pressure to dis-
solve native iodine in solutions of dextrine without
the aid of the usual solvents. The amount of iodine
thus brought into solution bears the approximate
relation of 1: 35 to the quantity of dextrine present.
The solution thus obtained is homogeneous and
fairly permanent. It is strongly bactericidal, its
potency ranging from 2% to 25 times that of the
better known antiseptics. Its action is rapid. It
is relatively non-toxic when given intravenously and
jntraspinously. Animals rendered septic by ex-
perimental means have been freed of bacteria by
intravenous injection of the solution. Clinical ap-
plication has been made in cases of bacterial endo-
carditis and typhoid; the clinical course of the
disease having been modified by its use. One of
the constant effects of intravenous injection is a
febrile reaction followed by a very marked leuco-
eytosis. Intraspinous injection has been attempted
in tuberculous meningitis. Although the ultimate
course of the disease has not been modified by this
procedure the solution itself proved to be innocuous.
The subject is undergoing further investigation.
The local anesthetic actions of saligenin and other
phenolic alcohols: A. D. HirscHreLDER, A, LuND-
HOLM, H. NorrGaRD AND J. HuurKraNs. Since
Macht had shown that benzyl alcohol has local an-
esthetic properties, other members of the phenolic
aleohol series, phenylethylalcohol C,H,CH.CH.OH,
phenylglycol C,H,CHOHCH,OH, cinnamie alcohol
C,H,CH = CHCH,OH, saligenin C,H,OHCH,.OH
(salicylic aleohol), methyl saligenin C,H,OCH,-
CH,OH, ethyl saligenin C,H,OC,H,CH,OH, pipero-
oO
nylic aleohol C.H;< >CH,CH,OH, and homosa-
oO
SCIENCE 21
ligenin C,H,OHCH.OHCH, (1: 2: 4) were investi-
gated. Lengthening of the side chain diminishes
the local anesthetic power. Saligenin is the best
of the series. It is the least irritating to the tis-
sues, much less so than benzyl alcohol. It is only
half as toxic as the latter, longer and in half the
concentration. It is a practical surgical anesthetic,
and in six tonsillectomies and one tumor removal
in man proved to be as good as procaine. Lethal
dose for man would be more than a liter of 4 per
cent. solution. Covering the phenolic hydroxyl di-
minishes the local anesthetic power. Homosaligenin
is a good local anesthetic, but more irritating.
The effects of drugs which inhibit the para-
sympathetic nerve endings upon the irritability of
intestinal loops: A. D. HinScHFELDER, A. LUND-
HotM H. NorRGARD AND J. HULTKRANS. Drugs
which inhibit the parasympathetic nerve endings,
such as atropin, amyl nitrite, benzyl alcohol, benzyl
benzoate and saligenin cause a definite elevation
of the threshold of irritability of loops of intes-
tine to intermittent electrical stimuli. The nor-
mal rabbit’s intestine responds with an annular
contraction to a stimulus from a Harvard induc-
tion coil at 10 to 12 em. After painting the mes-
enteric border of the intestine with any of the
above-mentioned drugs in 2 per cent. solution or
emulsion the stimulus must be raised to one with
the coil at 4 em. ‘This rise in the threshold, or
decrease in the irritability, is probably due to the
transition from response by the nerve to response
by the muscle after the nerve impulse has been
blocked. The same strength of impulse was re-
quired after all the paralyzing drugs.
The effect of fever upon the action and toxicity
of digitalis: A. D. HirscH¥reLDER, J. Bicrxk, F. J.
Kucera AND W. Hanson. The action of the drug
was studied in cats and frogs whose body tem-
perature had been raised by immersion in a
water-bath. Increasing the body temperature in
both cats and frogs diminished the size of the dose
necessary to cause death. This is less marked at
the lower ranges of temperature than in the higher
temperatures, and it is most marked within one or
two degrees of the thermal death-point of the
animal. At 41° the lethal dose for cats is not re-
duced, at 42° it is one half to two thirds the nor-
mal, at 48° it is only one third to one half the
lethal dose in normal animals. This proves the
necessity of caution in the administration of large
doses of digitalis to patients with high fever.
. The toxicity of tobacco smoke from cigars, ciga-
rettes and pipe tobdcco: A. D. HIRSCHFELDER, A.
22
E. LANGE AND A. C. FEAMAN. Previous investiga-
tors had shown that the amount of nicotine in the
smoke from a cigar or a cigarette or from smok-
ing pipe tobacco bears no relation to the nicotine
in the tobacco itself. ‘‘Light’’ tobacco may give
smoke rich in nicotine, ‘‘strong’’ tobacco may
give smoke poor in nicotine. Storm van Leuven in
Holland showed that smoke from the so-called
nicotine-free cigars gives a smoke that contains a
good deal of nicotine. Since nicotine is not the
only poisonous constituent of smoke, Hirschfelder
and his collaborators studied the poisonous action
of the smoke itself, or rather the poisonous action
of extracts made from passing the smoke through
salt solution and through ether. The amount nec-
essary to kill a frog was determined. Using several
popular-priced brands of cigar, cigarette and pipe
tobacco, it was found that the smoke coming from
a given weight of tobacco varied somewhat, but
not very greatly in its poisonous action on frogs.
When the same weight of the same sample of to-
baeceo was smoked in the form of a cigarette and
jn a pipe and as a cigar there was sometimes very
little difference in the poisonous quality of the
smoke, but usually that which was smoked as a
cigarette was somewhat less poisonous. Neverthe-
less, cigars and pipes seem much stronger than
cigarettes. This is because since the burning
oceurs chiefly along the surface of the tobacco, so
much more tobacco is being converted into smoke
at each instant in these than in the cigarettes. It
is largely a question of cross section. Cigars have
about four times the cross section of cigarettes,
pipes nine or ten times. If all three were smoked
equally fast, the smoker would get an overwhelm-
ing dose of nicotine from cigar and pipe. There-
fore, these must be smoked more slowly than the
cigarette and can not be inhaled. If the smoker
did not inhale the smoke, the cigarette would be
the lightest form of tobacco.
Some applications of protein chemistry to medi-
cine and pharmacy: I. F. Harris.
Action of trichlorotertiary butyl alcohol (chlore-
tone) on animal tissue: T. B. ALDRICH AND H, C.
Warp. The action of chloretone on animal tissue
has not been studied, although glands of various
kinds have been preserved in a sterile condition in
chloretone water for a number of years, without
any apparent injury to the active principles they
contain. In order to test the action of a saturated
aqueous solution of chloretone on animal tissue
pieces of various organs were removed from the
animal (dog) as quickly as possible after death,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1305
eut into small pieces and distributed among several
sets of bottles containing water saturated with
chloretone. One set was kept at 37°, one at 15°,
while others at summer room temperature. One
set at room temperature was inoculated with B.
Proteus. Control tissue with only distilled water
showed a high degree of putrefaction in two days.
Every few days the tissues were examined and the
general appearance, color, odor, ete., noted. In
weneral the tissues became soft and spongy and
lost much of their normal color. There was at no
time a suggestion of putrefaction. In fact, eul-
tures made every few days from all the bottles
showed their contents to be sterile. Histological
studies show that while there is no evidence of
bacteria, there is evidence of autolytic changes,
since some normal cell constituents are entirely
lacking. It would seem that chloretone is one of
the few substances (in weak dilution) that will
allow autolysis to proceed under sterile conditions.
) Conclusions. (1) Chloretone in saturated aque-
ous solution exerts a definite bactericdal action at
all temperatures. (2) Chloretone in saturated
aqueous solution prevents the development of the
common molds. (3) Chloretone solution is not
suitable as a fixative for histological materials.
(4) Chloretone solution while acting as a bacteri-
cide, does not inhibit autolytic action as evidenced
iby our histological findings. (5) Chloretone solu-
tion is a desirable agent for preserving glands and
gland extracts from which the active principles are
to be obtained.
| The outlook for chemotherapy in the chemical
industry of America: C. L. AusBERG. (By title.)
Blue eyes: W. D. BANCROFT.
CHARLES L. PARSONS,
Secretary
(Lo be continued)
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class matter
SCIENCE |
Fray, JANUARY 9, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
The Untilled Fields of Public Health: Pro-
FESSOR C.-E. A. WINSLOW ..............-.. 23
TELMP ARMSBY aptsteine cismieher eeu caine cles 33
Scientific Events :—
Conference of British Research Associations ;
The Medical Strike in Spain; Resolutions of
the Anthropological Society of Washington ;
Biological Surveys of States by the United
States Department of Agriculture ........ 38
Scientific Notes and News ...............-. 40
Unwersity and Educational News .......... 43
Discussion and Correspondence :—
A Splendid Service: J. M. C. Weight of
Body moving along Equator: PRorEssor Ep-
WARD V. HUNTINGTON. An Odd Problem in
Mechanics: Dr. Cart HERING ............ 44
Quotations :—
Science and The New Era Printing Com-
DON Y areraperayaeleyoraycioy nate tutalotakeeietskevey ace lotela ane 46
Scientific Books :—
Seward’s Fossil Plants: PRoresson EDWARD
RWIS ER RV me tha spices eka aside Me II i 47
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Keport of the St. Lowis Meeting: PRoressor
George T. Moore
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
THE UNTILLED FIELDS OF PUBLIC
HEALTH?
A sHorT time ago two Yale undergraduates
came to my laboratory to consult me in regard
to the choice of a career. One of them was a
son ef a public health administrator of the
highest eminence; and they particularly
wanted to know something about the field
of public health, what it included, what was
the nature of the work involved, what were
the qualifications required, and what the
financial rewards and the more intangible
emoluments to be expected by those who
might enter upon this career. I told them
what I could of the current tendencies which
to me seem to make public health one of the
most stimulating and attractive openings
lying before the college student of the present
day; but I found that the answer to their
question was by no means a simple one to
formulate. The public health movement has
been expanding so rapidly that what was “the
New Public Health” fifteen years ago in-
cludes only the more conventional interests of
the present day.
It seemed to me as I[ talked with these young
men that we needed a formulation of current
tendencies in the protean field of public
health and an outline of the lines of future
development so far as they can safely be fore-
east. It is essential that the worker in this
domain of applied science should see clearly
the goal toward which he is aiming, however
far ahead of the immediate possibilities of the
moment it may appear to be. Above all, it
is desirable that we should have a definite and
inspiring program to lay before the young
men and women of the country who hesitate
in the choice of a career. On every hand we
hear the question, put by an eager young
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section K—Physiology and Experimental Medi-
cine—St. Louis, January 2, 1920.
24
woman to the brilliant head of the instructive
District Nursing Association of Boston, “ Miss
Beard, I want to go into public health. What
it it?” It behooves us to answer this question;
for the greatest of all needs in this field is
undoubtedly the need of a personnel, larger in
quantity, and better in quality, than that
which has been available in the past.
For these reasons I have determined to de-
vote my address as retiring chairman of the
Section on Physiology and Experimental
Medicine to a tentative, if necessarily im-
perfect, formulation of the scope and tend-
encies of the modern public health campaign.
I spoke of the public health movement as
protean, and it is indeed true that the em-
phasis in this field has shifted with a rapidity
almost phantasmagoric.
To a large section of the public, I fear that
the health authorities are still best known as
the people to whom one complains of un-
pleasant accumulations of rubbish in the back
yard of a neighbor—accumulations which
possess those offensive characteristics which
somehow can only originate in a neighbor’s
yard and never in one’s own. Sanitation, the
maintenance of cleanly and healthful environ-
mental conditions, does indeed represent the
first stage in public health. When Sir John
Simon initiated the modern public health
movement in London three quarters of a
century ago his primary task was the elimina-
tion of the masses of accumulated filth which
kept alive the pestilences of the Middle Ages.
When General Gorgas undertook the task of
making safe and feasible the building of the
Panama Canal he was in the same way con-
fronted with problems that were primarily
those of environmental sanitation. The re-
moval of excretal wastes, the purification of
sewage, the protection of water supplies and
the elimination of conditions which permit
the breeding of insect carriers of disease—
these are always and everywhere the first tasks
for the public health expert; and in the early
phases of the public health movement in any
country it is natural to visualize public health,
primarily in terms of sanitation.
There is still much to do in this most funda-
mental branch of public health. That terrible
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1306
scourge of the Middle Ages, typhus fever,
was only held in control during the war by a
systematic and organized attempt to destroy
the louse which carries the parasite of this
disease; while the infection of bubonic plague,
the black death of the Middle Ages, has been
spread broadcast throughout the world during
the past twenty-five years, and is held in check
only by a vigorous campaign against the rats,
ground squirrels, and other rodents which
harbor the germ of this peculiar pestilence.
The control of malaria, which takes a heavy
toll of strength and vitality from the popula-
tions of our southern states and is estimated
to cost the nation over $100,000,000 a year,
is one of the mightiest tasks which confronts
the sanitarian, but a task which, as the dem-
onstrations conducted by the International
Health Board have made clear, is easily within
the range of practical accomplishment, by
systematic drainage and other measures taken
against the mosquitoes which carry the germs
of this disease. Malaria is with us always,
but there are many maladies which like yellow
fever arise from endemic foci in certain par-
ticular regions of the globe, and thence spread
wherever the steamship and the railroad train
can carry their inciting causes. Of recent
years the bold idea has suggested itself of
undertaking an offensive against these pri-
mary endemic foci of disease without wait-
ing until the invaders cross our own national
boundaries. In this way General Gorgas has
carried the war against yellow fever into the
enemy’s own country at Guayaquil, and an
organized campaign against such disease on a
basis of world cooperation, perhaps through
the agency of the International Red Cross, is
full of promise of achievement in the future.
There is much then to be done in the field
of environmental sanitation, yet as the public
health movement progresses the tasks of sani-
tation in the narrow sense are gradually ac-
complished and therefore become relatively
less important. Constant attention is of
course required to maintain the environment
in a healthful condition, but in most civilized
communities, in temperate climates, environ-
mental sanitation has become a matter of
routine, and the pestilences spread by polluted
JANUARY 9, 1920]
water and by insect carriers have ceased to
figure as important factors in the death rate.
As the aims of sanitation are approximately
realized in a given community, the attention
of the health official turns from the water-
borne and insect-borne diseases to the more
subtle and more bafiling maladies that are
spread by direct contact from one individual
to another. As typhoid, cholera, plague and
typhus fever approach the vanishing point,
measles, pneumonia and influenza become
relatively more and more important. The
control of community infections tends to re-
place the sanitation of the environment in the
first rank of public health problems. The pre-
dominating tasks in this phase are tasks for
the bacteriologist rather than for the engineer.
The leaders of the public health movement
in the United States fifteen years ago were
concerned primarily with problems of this
sort. Their interest lay in the detection of
incipient cases and of well carriers—those in-
dividuals who while in normal health them-
selves are cultivating and distributing from
their bodies the germs of specific commu-
nicable diseases—in isolation, in bedside dis-
infection, in the breaking by any possible
means of the vicious circle which transfers
the discharges of the infected individual to
the mouth or nose of the susceptible victim.
In the case of certain of the acute com-
municable infections we are fortunately able
to invoke another weapon against our mi-
crobic enemies, by the prophylactic or thera-
peutic use of vaccines and immune sera,
and so far the production of artificial im-
munity against attacks of the microbes of dis-
ease has proved on the whole more effective
than our attempts at breaking the chain of
contagion by isolation and _ disinfection.
Smallpox, for example, has dwindled from the
position of the chief pestilence menacing the
human race to almost the condition of a med-
ical curiosity, solely and directly as a result
of the use of vaccine. Typhoid fever has been
practically eliminated from the army by an
analogous procedure. Antitoxie serum has
placed the control of diphtheria within our
grasp and diphtheria persists as a cause of
death simply because of the failure to recog-
SCIENCE 25
nize the disease with sufficient promptness
and to apply the protective measures at our
disposal.
In general this second or bacteriological
phase of the public health movement, while
it can boast such remarkable achievements as
those to which reference has just been made,
is still far from the complete success which
has attended the applications of environmental
sanitation. It may be stated with some con-
fidence that there is not one of the diseases
originating in the non-living environment
which we do not know how to control and
which it is not entirely practical to control,
given adequate funds and personnel. Before
some of the contact-borne diseases on the
other hand we still stand almost helpless. We
may be able to reduce the death rate from
pneumonia by the use of protective vaccines,
but there has been as yet no actual victory won
sufficiently clear to admit of statistical dem-
onstration. We can do much to mitigate the
after effects of infant paralysis, but we have
no effective method of controlling its spread.
Before the ravages of a pandemic of influenza,
such as swept the world in 1918, we are still
practically without defense. Sanitarians have
been accustomed to quote with horror the fact
that bubonic plague killed 6,000,000 people in
India during a period of ten years. Influenza
earried off more than this number of persons
in India in the four autumn months of 1918,
and if this should happen again next year we
should still be powerless to help.
There is much then to be done in the field
of the community infections, many problems
yet to be solved by the bacteriologist and
serologist, before this group of diseases will
pass under our control. Yet the suppression
of community infections, like the sanitation of
the environment, is but a part of the broad
public health movement of the present day.
The task of the health officer is to save lives,
and to save as many lives as possible, by the
intelligent application of the resources placed
at his disposal. If he be wise he will direct
his energies and his appropriations according
to the indications derived from a study of
vital statistics. He will apply his resources
at a point where the greatest number of lives
26
can be saved with the least expenditure of
effort. From this standpoint there are two
aspects of the public health program which
tend, and rightly tend, to overshadow all the
rest, the campaigns against infant mortality
and tuberculosis. These are the two lines of
endeavor which promise the largest results in
actual life saving; and in both these fields of
effort the part played by sanitation and
bacteriology in the narrow sense is a relatively
small one. We can reduce infant mortality
by the pasteurization of milk, by the elimina-
tion of flies, and by protecting the baby from
contact with infected persons; but these are
after all incidents in a broad program which
involves the education of the mother in the
whole technique of infant care, feeding, cloth-
ing, airing and bathing. What we are really
aiming at is a reform in personal hygiene.
The campaign against tuberculosis offers
another illustration of the same general prin-
ciple. We can do something by providing a
sanitary environment in which the worker is
protected against vitiated air and harmful in-
dustrial dusts. We can do something by con-
trol of the careless consumptive and the con-
sequent reduction of the menace of specific in-
fection. Our main weapon against tuberculo-
sis is, however, again, the weapon of personal
hygiene. The principal machinery upon which
we rely is designed to detect the early case
and to impose upon the individual in the
home or in the sanatorium a regimen of daily
living that will make it possible for his own
tissues to wage a winning fight against the
invading microorganisms. Once more the
problem is primarily a problem in the personal
conduct of the individual life, and we see
the teacher of personal hygiene emerging as
a supremely important factor in the present-
day compaign for public health.
According to the Director of the Census the
five principal causes of death in the Registra-
tion Area of the United States for 1916, with
the number of deaths caused by each were as
follows:
Heart diseases ...........- 114,000
Tuberculosis .............- 101,000
TE TEAO MEY CoS cqsanooaoses 98,000
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1306
Cancers aceite
Of these five causes of death there are two,
pneumonia and tuberculosis, in which the sani-
tation of living and work places, the isolation
of the infected individual, and in the case of
pneumonia, the use of sera and vaccines do
play an important part. Even with tubercu-
losis and pneumonia, however, education in
personal hygiene fills a large place in the mod-
erm preventive campaign. Heart disease and
nephritis may of course often be the end re-
sults of bacterial infections, but the immediate
problem of their control is not to be sought
along conventional sanitary and bacteriolog-
ical lines. In the past they have indeed been
considered as beyond the range of control
measures of any kind. With these diseases too
it seems clear, however, that education in per-
sonal hygiene offers large possibilities of effec-
tive results. If the weakness of the heart or
arteries be known in time the adoption of
proper rules for daily living can at least post-
pone the fatal result, if it can not effect or-
ganic cure.
It is for these reasons that the public health
campaign of the present day has become pre-
eminently an educational campaign. There are
those who maintain that because the public
health authority alone possesses the power to
enforce regulations with the strong arm of the
law such authorities should confine themselves
to the exercise of police power, leaving educa-
tional activities to develop under the hands of
private agencies. The actual amount of life-
saving that can ibe accomplished by purely re-
strictive methods is, however, small, and such
exercise of police power as may be necessary
can only gain in effectiveness if it forms an
integral part of a general campaign of leader-
ship in hygienic living.
We have now added to the function of the
sanitarian and the bacteriologist that of a
new figure in the public health campaign, the
teacher of personal hygiene; but we can not
stop here if we are prepared to follow the
courageous public health official in his determi-
nation to adopt whatever machinery may prove
JANUARY 9, 1920]
necessary for the saving of a maximum number
of lives at a minimum cost.
, Education in personal hygiene is in part a
general propaganda applicable to all alike.
There are certain fundamental principles as to
food, fresh air, exercise and rest, which every
one should know in order to manage wisely the
delicate physical machine entrusted to his
charge. Unfortunately, however, each living
machine is in some respects different from
every other living machine, and in many cases
deviations from the normal are so marked that
they demand fundamental modifications in the
regimen of daily life. The man with the weak
heart needs less exercise, the man with weak
lungs more air and more rest, the man with
diabetes a special kind of food. In addition to
the hygiene for the normal, which we may
teach to all, there is a hygiene for the abnormal
which requires an adaptation to each specific
case. But it is obvious that the teaching of
this kind of hygiene demands first of all an
individual diagnosis. We are here face to face
with ithe problem of the relation of the physi-
cian to the modern public health campaign.
In the past a sharp line was drawn between
the measures taken by public health authori-
ties to check the spread of epidemic disease
and the daily routine of the practitioner in the
treatment of the individual case. The first was
public health, the second private medicine.
With the passing of every year it becomes
harder to draw such a sharp line, more difficult
to say where public health should end and pri-
vate medicine begin. The history of medical
school inspection offers an excellent example of
the tendency to obliterate such arbitrary lines.
The physician was first sent into the schools in
Boston in 1894 to perform a definite police
function, to detect cases of communicable dis-
ease and by so doing to protect one child
against the danger from another. If it had
been proposed at that time to organize clinics
for free treatment of disease among school
children, the proposal would probably have
been denounced as socialism of the most dan-
gerous kind. Just so soon, however, as the
physicians began actual work in the classroom
they found that acute infections passing from
SCIENCE
27
one individual to another played but a small
part in the total burden of preventable disease
borne by the children in the schools. They
found defects of teeth, defects of vision, defects
of hearing, enlarged glands. Nine tenths of
the time of the school inspector of to-day is
devoted to problems of this kind. He is no
longer protecting one child against another.
He is helping each child to attain its maxi-
mum possibilities of health and efficiency.
The discovery of non-contagious physical
defects was the first step in bringing the pub-
lic health movement into intimate contact with
the individual child. Very soon, however, it
became evident that the detection of remedi-
able defects was of little value unless some-
thing was done to remedy them, and the school
nurse was drafted into service to follow the
child into the home and to persuade the par-
ents to take the measures indicated by the med-
ical examiner’s report. The development of a
school nursing service as an educational
agency of this sort resulted in New York City
in increasing the proportion of defects actu-
ally treated from 6 to 80 per cent. In a cer-
tain number of cases, however, a new difficulty
arose. Remediable defects were present and
the parents were willing and anxious to have
them treated, but they were without funds to
pay for the special medical care that was
needed. The next step was as logical as the
preceding ones. It involved the establishment
of school clinics for the treatment of children
unable to obtain the necessary care in any
other way. So, with the establishment of nose
and throat clinics, eye and ear clinics, dental
clinies, for the school child the obliteration of
the line between public health and private
medicine was well-nigh complete.
If it is good public policy ito provide for the
school child whatever machinery is necessary
to make possible the attainment of a reasonable
standard of physical health, it is difficult to see
why the same arguments do not apply to the
adult as well. As a matter of fact exactly the
same tendencies to provide (a) diagnosis, (b)
hygienic advice, (c) treatment when necessary,
are already manifest in our tuberculosis clin-
ics and our venereal disease clinics, and are
28 SCIENCE .
beginning to develop in connection even with
diseases of the heart and arteries and cancer.
If it is sound economy to provide for the early
diagnosis and sanatorium treatment of tuber-
culosis, it is just as sound to provide for the
early diagnosis and surgical treatment of
cancer. The two diseases are equally danger-
ous, and equally burdensome to the commun-
ity; they are equally preventable, if the right
‘educational and clinical procedures are organ-
ized for their control.
From both sides of the artificial boundary
line between public health and private medi-
cine comes the appeal for a closer correlation.
The public health worker needs the physician
because in so many diseases education depends
on diagnosis and demands the application of
medical skill. The far-sighted physician is
equally eager to link up his science with the
public health program, because on his side he
realizes that medicine can never attain its full
potentialities of service unless it is made really
preventive through some type of effective pro-
fessional and social coordination. It is a
striking fact that in spite of the great advances
in medical science diseases like heart disease
and nephritis and cancer, which have been
handled in the past along strictly medical lines,
have shown no decrease comparable to that
which has been manifested in the group of
maladies with which the sanitarian has dealt.
This is not because medical science is helpless
but it is because medical knowledge has gen-
erally been applied only when disease has gone
so far that the damage is irremediable. Med-
ical knowledge will be highly effective only
when applied in the incipient stages of disease.
When this comes to pass “preventive medi-
cine” will become a reality and not merely a
catch word.
It is not for us to say to-day in just what
fashion the reorganization of medical service
which will make it effective for prevention can
best be brought about. In the working out of
such a schente there must be first of all, within
the profession itself, effective coordination of
specialties in clinical and laboratory lines to
provide the type of expert service which is fur-
nished by our best hospitals and which no in-
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1306
dividual private practitioner can possibly
supply. In the second place such organized
medical care must be made available not
merely for the very poor and very rich but for
the entire community, for those who can afford
to pay the whole or a part of the cost of the
service they require, and for those who can
not pay at all. Finally, if medical care is to
be made really preventive in its application
its cost must be so distributed as to encour-
age systematic recourse to the physician as an
agent for the detection and control of incip-
ientt disease, rather than as a last resort when
illness has become too grievous to be borne.
There are those who believe that these ends
may be attained through group medicine and
it is interesting to notice that very similar ends
have actually been reached in the nursing field
through private initiative as manifested in our
best visiting nurse organizations. There are
others who claim that medical and nursing
service can best be provided in connection with
a plan for sickness insurance and there are
still others who urge that the insurance prob-
lem should be handled as a distinct and sepa-
rate one, and that the early diagnosis and pre-
ventive care of incipient disease should be at-
tained through a definite system of state medi-
cine.
The working out of the best plan for secur-
ing such ends as these is a fascinating task for
the publicist of the future, and it is quite pos-
sible that the problem may le solved in true
Anglo-Saxon fashion by no single logical pro-
cedure but by diverse methods, suited to local
ends and local circumstances. The remarkable
developments during the past ten years in the
field of industrial medicine may have a wide
bearing on the general solution of our problem
as a whole. Some 900 different industrial es-
tablishments employ at this time 1,500 indus-
trial physicians, and the plant hospitals under
their charge, from first-aid dressing stations,
are developing into educational centers and
diagnostic clinics and laboratories for the
study of industrial physiology and vocational
guidance and rehabilitation.
We have seen the emphasis of the public-
health campaign move steadily inward from
JANUARY 9, 1920]
the environment to the individual. The pri-
mary interest of the health officer has been
transferred from the swamp and the dung heap
to the control of infections and thence to the
detection of non-contagious physical defects
and the hygienic guidance of the individual
living machine.
In the development of the public health cam-
paign to the realization of its fullest oppor-
tunities there is taking place to-day a swing of
the pendulum backward to a new interest in
the environment, but an environment of a na-
ture very different from the simple environ-
ment with which Simon dealt. General
Gorgas at Panama fully grasped the signifi-
cance of the wider and more subtle environ-
ment which most of us are just beginning to
glimpse as an essential problem in the public
health campaign. He eliminated yellow fever
and malaria by the drainage of marsh lands,
but he attempted to deal with pneumonia by
raising the wages of the employees upon the
Isthmus, for he realized that in the case of this
and many other diseases the most effective
weapon at our disposal is the building up of
general vital resistance, which depends upon
the maintenance of a satisfactory social and
economic level.
Dr. Emmett Holt has said that there are two
causes of infant mortality—poverty and ig-
norance. Jn the infant welfare movement, the
anti-tuberculosis campaign and every other
field of public health, we come sooner or later
to a realization of the fact that education and
medical and nursing service, while they can ac-
complish much, can not cope successfully with
the evil effects of standards of living too low
to permit the maintenance of normal physical
health.
As I have elsewhere pointed out, in the
Johnstown survey, Miss Duke tells us that the
infant mortality in one ward was 271 deaths
per 1,000 births against 134 for the city as a
whole and 50 for the ward which showed the
lowest rate and the explanation is that “ this
is where the poorest, most lowly persons of the
community live—families of men employed to
do the unskilled work in the steel mills and the
mines.” Dr. Sydenstricker and his associates
SCIENCE
29
in the U. S. Public Health Service in a report
on the relation between disabling sickness and
family income among cotton mill operatives in
South Carolina find that a monthly income
equivalent to less than $12 per person (on an
adult male unit basis) the sick rate was 70.1
per 1,000; with an income between $12 and $14
it was 48.2 per 1,000; with an income between
$16 and $20 it was 34.4, and with an income of
$20 and over it was 18.5.
We can conclude from these figures and from
many similar investigations that poverty and
sickness are closely correlated. We can not
conclude that the poverty is responsible for
the excess of sickness. In some instances the
relation of cause and effect may be reversed.
In other cases both poverty and disease may be
due to underlying inheritance. People do not
usually live in the poorest quarters of a city
or work at its underpaid employments by
choice or by accident. In general, and on the
average, we shall find in such districts and
such employments a concentration of tubercu-
lous stock, of alcoholic stock, of feeble-minded
stock—poor protoplasm and a bad environment
supplementing each other in a vicious circle.
No one can perhaps tell just how far
poverty in such eases is the real and effective
cause of the failure to achieve and maintain
a normal standard of physical health. It is
clear, however, that there is a certain standard
of income below which the maintenance of
health is impossible; and it seems reasonably
sure from the studies of Royal Meeker, of the
U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, that a cer-
tain not inconsiderable proportion of the
population of the United States has to-day a
family income below that figure.
If an initially normal family can not gain
a livelihood adequate for its minimum phys-
ical needs, there is evidently a problem of
social readjustments which our nation must
face as a fundamental of post-war reconstruc-
tion; but what shall we say of the family
which on account of inherent physical or
mental defects is unable to reach a minimum
level under a wholly fair and equable basis of
compensation? There are but two alterna-
tives as I can see it; since the moral sense
30 SCIENCE
of mankind repudiates the rigorous applica-
tion of the principle of unhindered natural
selection. We can let the combination of de-
fective protoplasm and crippling environment
accomplish the major portion of its work and
then salvage what we can from the wreck by
some form of institutional relief. Or we can
apply our social energy and our community
funds to make good the deficiencies in the
beginning. JI have little doubt as to which
will be found in the long run the cheaper way,
and I am quite certain that the preventive
method will prove more conducive to a high
national morale.
If the foregoing outline of the problems of
public health be accepted as correct, it will be
obvious that the field as thus visualized is no
small and restricted one. The claim to so
large a province will be denied by many,
within, as well as without, the public health
profession. The logic of the situation and
the tendencies of social development are, how-
ever, sweeping the public health movement
forward to a future of wider possibilities than
those dreamed of by its own protagonists. If
we are looking to the future we must conceive
our subject in terms no smaller than those of
the following definition:
Public health is the science and the art of
preventing disease, prolonging life, and pro-
moting physical health and efficiency through
organized community efforts for the sanita-
tion of the environment, the control of com-
munity infections, the education of the indi-
vidual in principles of personal hygiene, the
organization of medical and nursing service
for the early diagnosis and preventive treat-
ment of disease, and the development of the
social machinery which will ensure to every
individual in the community a standard of
living adequate for the maintenance of health.
Public health conceived in these terms will
be something vastly different from the exer-
cise of the purely police power which has been
its principal manifestation in the past.
Even to-day it is still possible to make an
effective argument for increasing health de-
partment budgets by showing that appropria-
tions for the protection of health are in most
cities far less than those which are made for
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1306
police and fire protection, matters of far less
moment in actual possibilities of community
service. As a matter of fact the police de-
partment and the fire department furnish
criteria much too modest for the public health
department of the future. It is rather to edu-
cation that the possibilities of public health
should be compared. I look to see our health
departments in the coming years organizing
diverse forms of sanitary and medical and
nursing and social service in such fashion as
to enable every citizen to realize his birthright
of health and longevity. I look to see health
centers, local district foci for the coordination
of every form of health activity, scattered
through our cities, as numerous as the school
houses of today and as lavishly equipped;
while the public health services of the city
and state will constitute a corps of experts
comparable in size and influence to the great
educational organizations of the present day.
In the development of the public health
campaign of the future along such lines as
these it is obvious that many different experts,
of fundamentally distinct training, must con-
tribute their special resources to the common
task. Ignoring all minor specialties there
must be at least the following seven types of
highly qualified persons in this field:
The physician The epidemiologist
The nurse The engineer
The bacteriologist The statistician
The social worker
In addition there must be inspectors to
supervise sanitary conditions, housing condi-
tions, food stores and the like, for whom no
special training is provided anywhere in this
country, but who should be offered brief prac-
tical courses to fit them for the relatively
modest duties which their task entails.
Finally there is the administrator who organ-
izes and develops the work of all the rest.
The physician in the public health field
practises medicine but with a difference, in
that the goal before his eyes is prevention as
well as cure, and that he has always in view
not merely the individual but the community
as well. In the infant welfare station and
the school clinic and the tuberculosis dispen-
sary he visualizes not merely the individual
JANUARY 9, 1920]
ease but its family environment and its phys-
ical background. He is constantly striving to
find the incipient causes of disease and to
deal with those causes before they reach their
deadly fruition. He must be much more than
a physician in order to fulfil this task; for he
must have a knowledge of bacteriology and
sanitation, of health administration and sta-
tisties, above all of social relationships and
social machinery which the curriculum of
even the best medical schools can not attempt
to supply.
So the public health nurse must be a
trained nurse skilled in the relief of suffering
and the bedside care of the sick, but she must
be much more. Her work is primarily that of
the health teacher, the messenger who carries
into the home and interprets to the individual
mother the gospel of good health. She must
work largely alone, not under the immediate
direction of a physician. She must know her
bacteriology and her physiology, her sanita-
tion and hygiene, well enough to teach their
principles to others; and she too must deal
with the individual, not merely as an in-
dividual, but as an element in a complex social
group.
The bacteriologist in the laboratory and the
epidemiologist in the field are two more of the
specialists needed, whose work is concerned
primarily with the war against the com-
munity infections. The former offers aids in
early diagnosis and prepares sera and vaccines
for the prophylactic and therapeutic treat-
ment of these diseases; the latter by his
detective work makes it possible to trace out
the subtle pathways of infection by which
they spread from one person to another
through the complex web of community life.
The public health or sanitary engineer is
again an engineer plus. He must have
mastered the underlying sciences of physics
and chemistry, of structures and hydraulics,
and he must also be familiar with the tech-
nical applications of his art to the particular
problems of sewage disposal and water supply,
ventilation, illumination and the like.
The statistician correlates and analyzes the
records of births, deaths and illnesses, keep-
ing an expert finger as it were on the pulse of
SCIENCE 31
the nation’s health. His work is the book-
keeping of public health, indicating the lines
of profitable expansion and furnishing us with
the credit balance of lives saved to the com-
munity as a result of various public health
endeavors.
In the case of each of these experts, and in
the case of the social worker who is operating
in the field of public health, there is required
sound elementary education in some funda-
mental branch of science with the addition of
specific training in its applications to the
field of public health. For the nurse who
desires to become a public health nurse there
are offered four-month and _ eight-month
courses of special training in public health
nursing. The physician who desires to be-
come a public health physician, the engineer
who desires to become a sanitarian, the bac-
teriologist who desires to become a public
health bacteriologist, the social worker who
desires to apply a fundamental knowledge of
the principles of social readjustment within
the field of public health, must similarly
undergo a special training, if their services
are to be made promptly and fully available.
It is for this purpose that our leading univer-
sities and technical schools offer the Certifi-
eate in Public Health, which like the Master’s
degree is the equivalent of a year’s graduate
study. The O.P.H. course gives to the med-
ical graduate the special training needed to
equip him for the application of medicine in
the field of public health, and in the same way
enables men and women who have had college
training in the fundamentals of bacteriology,
engineering, sociology or statistics to fit into
their special places in the general scheme of
health protection.
To turn from these special phases of the
public health campaign to the organization of
the movement as a whole, it seems probable
that the ideal public health administrator of
the future will be the man or woman who has
been first medically trained and has then
specialized in a school of public health. If
IT am right in my belief that the public health
movement of the future will go far in the
direction of including medical and nursing
service within its ample bounds, it is clear
32 SCIENCE
that a man who has both a medical and a
public health training will possess peculiar ad-
vantages as an administrator. It is for this
reason that the principal eastern universities
offer the highest degree in this field, the
Doctor of Public Health, only to medical
graduates and require that it be earned by
a rigorous course of two years of academic
study.
It will be long, however, before the supply
of doctors of public health is nearly adequate
to the demand, and for some time to come ad-
ministrative positions, as well as laboratory
and statistical positions, and those concerned
with social reorganization, will be open to the
eollege man or woman of marked ability who
devotes a single graduate year to study for
the Certificate in Public Health.
It can be said with very literal truth of the
field of public health to-day that the harvest is
ready and that the laborers are few. On all
hands there comes to us the call for bacteriol-
ogists and statisticians, for industrial physi-
cians and school physicians, for public health
nurses, and for health officers. The American
Red Cross is inaugurating a nation-wide cam-
paign for the development of health centers
throughout the country. Each one of the thou-
sands of health centers to be started under this
plan will call for an expert personnel which
does not exist at present. The state of Ohio
has just conducted a civil service examination
for a list of candidates for 110 positions as
full-time health officers within that state, at
salaries ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 a year,
with permanent appointment under the civil
service law; and it was necessary for the state
to organize a special course of instruction in
order to have anything like the number of
fairly qualified candidates for the responsible
positions within its gift.
The science and the art of public health
have progressed to a point where they can
render to the public a service to be measured
in the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives
in this country every year. Public authorities
and private agencies from one end of the land
to another are realizing these possibilities of
service and are ready to provide the necessary
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1306
funds and to give the necessary powers to
properly qualified experts. The lack in the
whole scheme of things at the present moment
is the lack of personnel. As a prominent offi-
cial of the Rockefeller Foundation said to me
the other night, “ The way they are appropri-
ating money for public health in the southern
states frightens me, because we haven’t the men
to send to them to help them spend it wisely.”
We stand, I believe, at the beginning of a new
phase of human history, a phase in which the
physical and mental health and efficiency of
the human being will be transformed by sci-
ence as the physical background of civiliza-
tion has been transformed in the past half cen-
tury. In the name of the need that confronts
us for the personnel to carry on this work I
believe we have the right to say boldly to the
college men and women of America that we
need them in this great business. We can
promise to the college graduate, whether his
leanings be toward work in the laboratory,
toward sanitation in the field, toward the tasks
of social propaganda and social reconstruction
—we can promise to the medical student, and
we can promise to the graduate nurse—that
each and all of them will find in the public
health movement of the future careers which
will compare favorably in security and in ma-
terial rewards with the average return which
is won by the college and medical graduate in
other fields. Above all we can promise the op-
portunity of a kind of service which brings a
satisfaction deeper than any material reward.
There are great unsolved problems waiting
for the Pasteurs of the future. Influenza,
pneumonia, cancer and the rest of the uncon-
quered plagues will some day yield to the pa-
tient assault of science, and it may well fall to
the lot of young men who are entering our
laboratories to-day to write the obituary of
these diseases as Walter Reed did that of yel-
low fever in 1900. Two of Reed’s letters to his
wife after he and his associates had made the
great discovery that ensured the conquest of
yellow fever in the ensuing year, are so full
of the solemn dignity of such a victory that I
will quote them.
JANUARY 9, 1920]
Six months ago, when we landed on this island,
absolutely nothing was known concerning the prop-
agation and spread of yellow fever—it was all an
unfathomable mystery—but to-day the curtain has
been drawn.
And later on New Year’s Eve, he wrote:
Only ten minutes of the old century remain.
Here have I been sitting, reading that most won-
derful book, ‘‘lia Roche on Yellow TFever,’’
written in 1853. Forty-seven years later it has
been permitted to me and my assistants to lift the
impenetrable veil that has surrounded the causa-
tion of this most wonderful, dreadful pest of hu-
manity and to put it on a rational and scientific
basis. I thank God that this has been accom-
plished during the latter days of the old century.
May its cure be brought out in the early days of
the new.
Yet we need not wait for any of the great
discoveries of the future to make the public
health campaign of the present day bear fruit.
We want sanitary statesmen as much as in-
vestigators. We need organizers and propa-
gandists for the cause of health, capable of
building wisely the great scheme of health
protection of the future and of enlisting in its
support the enthusiastic cooperation of the
peoples of the earth To the administrator, as
much as to the investigator comes the con-
sciousness of a reward for his labors, fuller
and more immediate than that which can be
earned in many walks of life, for he can know
that in a given city in a given year so many
hundreds or thousands of men and women and
children are alive and well who would have
been in their graves except for him. What
old Sir John Simon said of industrial diseases
is true of every kind of preventable malady
which afflicts mankind.
_ The canker of ... disease gnaws at the very root
of our national strength. The sufferers are not few
or insignificant. They are the bread winners for at
least a third part of our population. ... That
they have causes of disease indolently left to
blight them amid their toil... is surely an in-
tolerable wrong. And to be able to redress that
wrong is perhaps among the greatest opportunities
for good which human institutions can afford.
C.-E. A. WinsLow
YALE ScHOOL oF MEDICINE
SCLENCE
30
THE ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH}?
THis is an age of organization. Almost
within the lifetime of some of us the in-
dustries, with the exception of agriculture,
have passed in large degree from the individ-
ualistic to the corporate form. Combinations
not merely of national but of international
scope exercise a large measure of control
over manufacturing and commercial activities,
while associations of the greatest variety—
commercial, charitable, reformatory, labor—
have multiplied until their name is “legion.”
Almost every conceivable calling, from the
midwife’s to the undertaker’s, is organized.
Since science is a product of human
activity its methods must necessarily be in-
fluenced by the spirit of the time. In partic-
ular, the successes of groups of scientific men
in making important contributions to the solu-
tion of the technical problems raised by the
entry of the United States into the world war
has led to an emphasis upon the advantages
of organization and cooperation in research
which was very much in evidence at the last
meeting of this association. This was partic-
ularly evident, perhaps among the biologists
where it was, in the words of another, “the
dominant note,” but the same note has been
sounded by various prominent writers both
before and since that meeting. It seems
desirable, therefore, in view of this apparently
strong trend of both public and scientific
opinion, to inquire somewhat carefully into
the extent to which it is justified and as to
the probability that a more complete organi-
zation of research will enable it to render
more efficient public service. In attempting
to do so I shall, of course, have reference
particularly to agricultural research—im-
plicitly if not explicitly.
In the early history of science, research was
necessarily upon an almost purely individual-
istic basis. Men of genius here and there
were laying the foundations of the present
amazing superstructure not only without
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section M—Agriculture, American Association for
the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, December,
1919,
34
public support but subject’ sometimes to scorn
and even persecution but more often to an
indifference not reaching the level of con-
tempt. By slow degrees, however, it began
to dawn upon the public that the investiga-
tions of these dreamers really had some sig-
nificance for the practical conduct of life.
Very gradually at first, but with an accele-
rated velocity as time went on, the scientist
came to be recognized as a useful member of
society although even yet he seems too often
regarded in the light of a sort of “ medicine
man” who ean be called upon to work
magical ineantations in times of need or peril
or as a magician who, by some sort of leger-
demain, can accomplish the seemingly im-
possible.
Along with this growing recognition of the
economic and commercial value of its results,
-scientifie research began in time to be re-
-garded more and more as a public function
and to be more or less adequately supported,
‘either by private endowment or notably by
-governmental action. The latter has been
‘especially the case with agricultural research.
I need not rehearse to this audience the
familiar story, beginning with the foundation
of the first public experiment station at
Moeckern in 1852, the growth of the Eu-
ropean experiment stations, the founding of
the early American stations by state action,
the enactment of the Hatch and Adams Acts,
the increasing appropriations by the states
and the enormous growth of the United States
Department of Agriculture. For agricultural
research it has been a period of expansion and
organization upon an unprecedented scale
and it is scarcely to be wondered at that the
real nature of the end aimed at was some-
times lost sight of in the consideration of the
means by which it was to be reached nor that
the proper freedom of research should have
been in some degree menaced, on the one
hand by bureaucratic administration and on
the other by the pressure for immediately use-
ful results.
Tt is unnecessary to remind you that this
tendency gave rise to a wholesome reaction.
For several years it appeared necessary to
stress the fundamental significance of the in-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI, No. 1306
itiative and independence of the individual
investigator but by the time the United States
entered the war it may be said that this view
had received fairly general recognition and
there was perhaps a tendency to excessive
individualism and a certain lack of coordina-
tion and cooperation in agricultural research.
With our entry into the war began a new era
in scientific activity as well as in world poli-
ties. Urgent war needs led to a concentration
of scientific effort upon special problems of the
most varied character and to a degree of co-
operation and coordination until then un-
known. The results were almost spectacular
and as a natural consequence there has come
a revival of interest in cooperative work and
the demand for better organization of re-
search which has already been referred to.
Probably the most conspicuous as well as the
most familiar example of this is found in the
statement made by The Hon. Elihu Root be-
fore the Advisory Committee on Industrial
Research of the National Research Council.?
He says:
Scientific men are only recently realizing that the
principles which apply to success on a large scale
in transportation and manufacture and general
staff work apply to them; that the difference be-
tween a mob and an army does not depend upon
occupation or purpose but upon human nature;
that the effective power of a great number of sci-
entific men may be increased by organization just
as the effective power of a great number of labor-
ers may be increased by military discipline.
All other (than very great) minds need to be
guided away from the useless and towards the use-
ful. That can be done only by the application of
scientific method to science itself through the
purely scientific process of organizing effort.
It remains to be seen whether peoples thoroughly
imbued with the ideas and accustomed to the tra-
ditions of separate private initiative are capable of
organizing scientific research for practical ends as
effectively as an autocratic government giving di-
rection to a docile and submissive people.
Similarly Whetzel? writes:
2Screnor, November 29, 1919.
8 ScIENCE, July 18, 1919.
January 9, 1920]
The fact remains that while the rest of man-
kind has gone far along the way which we (the
scientific men) have discovered and pointed out we
still remain largely isolated and intrenched in the
feudal towers of our individualism. Here behind
moat and wall we shape and fashion those intel-
lectual darts with which at our annual tourneys we
hope to pierce the haughty pride of some brother
baron. Yet common sense, the common good, the
very progress of our profession demands that we
abandon this ancient outworn attitude.
And Coulter‘ says:
Our isolated, more or less competitive investiga-
tions have resulted in a certain amount of progress;
but it has been very slow compared with what co-
operation would have secured.
Nor do the advocates of organization lack
apparently convincing examples of success in
scientific cooperation. Not to speak of the
striking wartime achievements in the applica-
tions of chemistry, physics and engineering,
one may name such typical illustrations in
the field of agriculture as those cited by
Shear,® namely, the cooperative work of sev-
eral bureaus of the Department of Agricul-
ture upon the chestnut blight problem and
upon the spoilage of fruits and vegetables in
transit and especially the work of the War
Board of the American Society of Phyto-
pathologists, while in a related field the work
of the Interallied Scientific Food Commission,
although cut short by the German collapse,
may also be cited. Shear speaks of this trend
cooperation as a “tide in the affairs of men.”
But not withstanding all these emphatic
dicta, may it not be well to call a moment’s
halt to consider whither this tide is carrying
us and whether it really “leads on to for-
tune.” May there not be a certain danger of
overlooking the significance of the individual ?
We must beware of being stampeded by the
brilliant successes of the war time into an
undue exaltation of the virtues of cooperation
and organization. Both are doubtless very
valuable but many of their ardent advocates
seem to overlook the fact that the recent highly
successful essays in cooperation which they
emphasize were chiefly directed to the solu-
4 Sciencz, April 18, 1919.
5 Scientific Monthly, October, 1919, p. 342.
SCIENCE
30
tion of immediate technical problems by the
application of knowledge acquired largely by
individual research. The striking results of
war-time cooperation were very largely of the
nature of inventions rather than of discover-
ies. The achievements in sound-ranging, in
ballistics, in submarine detection, in aviation,
in gas warfare, in the control of plant dis-
eases and the like were possible only as the
fruition of long and patient researches into
the fundamental laws of physics, chemistry,
and biology conducted quietly by individuals
or by little groups without public notice or
applause. It is just as true to-day as it ever
was that the permanent and significant ad-
vances of science depend in the last analysis
on the initiative and originality of individ-
uals. Nothing can alter this fundamental
fact.
But on the other hand the fullest recogni-
tion of the paramount importance of the in-
dividual investigator should not blind us to
the great significance of the experiences of
the last few years. Let us first consider what
they teach us as to the sort of problems best
suited for cooperative effort. What is the
field of cooperation as contrasted with in-
dividualism ?
As just noted, the problems of war-time co-
operation were largely the problems of prac-
tise and it is these practical problems which
seem to offer the greatest opportunity for co-
operation. Such problems, however, consti-
tute one extreme of an intergrading series
whose other extreme is the problems of so-
called “pure” science. Using Coulter’s®
terminology and speaking of the former as
superficial and of the latter as fundamental
problems, it may be said that in general as
we pass from the superficial toward the funda-
mental, cooperation becomes a less and less
promising method for research. Usually the
best thing that can be done for the man of
scientific vision, who is capable of the most
fundamental kind of research, is to supply
him with the necessary equipment and facili-
ties and then let him alone. Committees and
cooperators are in danger of being hindrances
rather than helps. Comparatively few of us
6 Science, April 18, 1919, p. 365.
36
can be ranked in that class, however. The
majority of investigators must be content to
be journeymen rather than master builders
on the edifice of science and the rate of prog-
ress of the structure depends very largely on
the persistent, conscientious work of the ordi-
nary investigator. The advance of science as
a whole is, after all, a rather prosaic affair,
including a vast amount of drudgery and
requiring patient “plugging” rather than
genius.
Furthermore, the problems of more imme-
diate importance to mankind are often the
less fundamental ones or those near the
middle of the series. It is for the more super-
ficial or practical problems and for the ordi-
nary investigator that organized cooperation
seems most promising. It is investigators of
this type, possessing varying degrees of initia-
tive and inspiration, who can profit most
largely by mutual association, particularly in
connection with the more superficial prob-
lems, while it is in this type of investigation
that the initiative and inspiration of the in-
dividual is at once most significant and most
in danger of being suppressed. They, more
than the genius, need the inspiration and
stimulus to initiative which comes from close
contact with their fellow workers.
Another class of problems in which co-
operation seems especially called for are those
requiring the application of diverse branches
of science. Such was notably true of many
war problems and is perhaps particularly the
ease with the larger agricultural problems of
a more or less practical nature—especially
regional problems such as the development of
farming in the semi-arid regions, the study
of plant diseases or, in a different field, such
questions as sewage disposal.
In brief the teaching of our war experi-
ences, as I see it, is that our rate of future
scientific progress will depend, not exclusively
upon cooperation on the one hand nor upon
individualism on the other but upon a wise
combination and adjustment of the two in
varying proportion according to the nature of
the problem attacked and the abilities of the
investigators concerned.
Granting the truth of this view, a second
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1306
fundamental question is, “ How can coopera-
tive effort, where desirable, be most efficiently
organized?”
Substantially three things are to be effected.
First, that effort shall be directed to really
significant and fundamental problems. The
issues of civilization are too vast for us to
lapse into dilettanteism. Second, that the
methods employed shall be sound, so that
effort may not be frittered away in empirical
experiments leading nowhere. Third, to
secure that stimulus to zeal and persistence
which comes from association in a common
cause.
How can these objects be realized? How
can we gain the advantages of association
and cooperation without sacrificing that init-
iative of the individual upon which, in the
last analysis, the efficiency of even practical
research depends. I think we should all agree
that this ean not be effected by any such
bureaucratic or even military organization as
would seem to be contemplated by the words
of some writers—notably by Mr. Root in the
passages which I have quoted. Let me re-
peat a single phrase:
That the effective power of a great number of
scientific men may be increased by organization just
as the effective power of a great number of laborers
may be increased by military discipline.
Such expressions as these, like a certain
notorious report on academic efficiency, if
taken at their face value, betray an almost
ludicrous misconception of the conditions of
productive scientific activity and are partic-
ularly surprising in a man of Mr. Root’s
breadth of view, who in the same statement
has shown so clear an appreciation of the
value of abstract research. Organization of
this sort may serve for a works laboratory
doing routine control work or perhaps for the
law offices of a great firm but we can not
stimulate scientific investigation by stran-
gling personal initiative. The question is
how investigation can be coordinated without
destroying the individuality of the investi-
gator. This can not be done by laying down
hard and fast plans involving any sort of
factory system of division of labor.
JANUARY 9, 1920]
And yet, as I have tried to make clear,
reasonable cooperation and coordination in re-
search offer possibilities for greatly increasing
the rate of scientific progress. Individualism
and cooperation must not be antagonists but
yokefellows in the chariot of science. What
then shall be the binding force which shall
fuse these two ideas? Precisely the same that
held together the various groups of scientific
men during the war, viz.; the tie of a common
interest and a common purpose. I have com-
pared the great body of investigators to jour-
neymen but this does not mean that they
are merely “hands.” They are self-directed
workers and therefore any organization of
them must be democratic. They are all
partners in the enterprise and sharers in its
profits. The men who worked together almost
night and day to devise efficient gas masks
or means of submarine detection or methods
of sound ranging were not workmen under the
orders of a superior, but free associations of
scientists with training in common or related
fields of research and under the inspiration of
a common patriotism. Precisely this is what
is needed to achieve the victories of peace.
Effective cooperation can not be imposed from
above by administrative authority but can
only come by free democratic action of in-
vestigators themselves. In saying this I am
not charging administrators with either in-
difference or incompetency. The difficulty lies
in the nature of things. There must be the
will to cooperate.
We may, I think, distinguish two distinct
forms of cooperative organization which we
may call for convenience institutional organi-
zation and subject-matter organization.
In the agricultural field, at least, much em-
phasis has been laid in the past upon insti-
tutional cooperation as between different ex-
periment stations, between the stations and
the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and to
some extent at least between some of the
bureaus of the latter department. Much
anxiety has been expressed over the real or
supposed duplication of work by the state
stations and Section 3 of the Hatch Act seems
to contemplate more or less coordination of
experiments. It is within the memory of
SCIENCE 37
some present, too, that the first conception of
the Office of Experiment Stations was that of
a central directing agency. While this idea
was early abandoned, numerous voluntary
efforts toward the coordination of projects
have been attempted through committees of
the Association of Colleges and Experiment
Stations, one recent suggestion, that of a sort
of Agricultural Research Council, constitu-
ting more or less of a reversion to the early
conception of the Office of Experiment
Stations.
On the whole, however, it may be doubted
whether the results reached in this way have
been commensurate with the conscientious
and praiseworthy efforts put forth by the ex-
periment stations and the Department of
Agriculture. These institutions and to a
large degree the individual bureaus largely go
their own way, with the exception in the case
of the stations of the restrictions involved in
the approval of projects by the Office of Ex-
periment Stations, and this condition seems
likely to continue.
Meantime the various forms of war work
have afforded striking illustrations of the
success of the second type of cooperative
effort, iz., cooperation by subject-matter.
The significant lesson of war-time organiza-
tion is the efficiency with which scientific men
in the same field have got together, largely
independent of institutional or administrative
subdivisions. I believe that this same prin-
ciple can be applied to the more fundamental
research problems—that scientific men may to
advantage organize in this way, forming
group or regional conferences which might
be especially profitable for those living in
somewhat isolated localities and not in such
ready contact with their fellows as is the case
with those situated on the Atlantic seaboard.
Such free conferences, formulating the com-
mon judgment of workers in identical or re-
lated fields can scarcely fail to furnish both
guidance and inspiration for the progress of
research. In brief, I believe we can very
effectively promote research by consultation
and conference of those interested in partic-
ular subjects or groups of subjects. We
should thus have a loose organization at right
38
angles, so to speak, to the administrative
organization, which would bring the collective
judgment of experts to bear upon the choice
of scientific problems and upon the adoption
of adequate methods for their solution and
which would not be in any sense antagonistic
to the official organization.
Much progress has already been made in
this direction. For example The American
Society of Animal Production has formulated
a valuable set of standard methods for the
conduct of feeding experiments, while the
very effective work of the War Board of the
American Society of Phytopathologists is
familiar to us all and still another illustration
is the Association of Southern Agricultural
Workers. But the most significant and com-
prehensive achievement in the organization of
American research is one which has been
prominently before the scientific public and
with which we are all familiar, viz; the Na-
tional Research Council. From the point of
view advocated in this paper its organization
is peculiarly significant because it was effected
by the voluntary initiative of the investiga-
tors themselves and because, therefore, it 1s
thoroughly democratic in form and has been
eareful both in its initiation and development
to conserve the individuality of the research
men. The past successes of this wise combi-
nation of organization and individualism
demonstrate its essential soundness and con-
stitute the best guarantee of its future
achievements.
Henry Prentiss ARMSBY
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
CONFERENCE OF BRITISH RESEARCH
ASSOCIATIONS
A CONFERENCE of research associations—the
second of a series—organized by the British
Department of Scientific and Industrial Re-
search, was held according to Nature on
December 12 in the lecture-theater of the
Institution of Civil Engineers. The Right
Hon. A. J. Balfour, Lord President of the
Council, appropriately presided, the Depart-
ment of Scientific and Industrial Research
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1306
being a committee of the Privy Council. Mr.
Balfour, who was warmly greeted on his first
public appearance in his capacity of head of
the department, delivered a short introductory
address on the national need for scientific
research, especially in its application to in-
dustry. Three points emphasized by Mr. Bal-
four were that, though man does not live by
bread alone, the amelioration of the material
lot of mankind can come only through prog-
ress in scientific knowledge; that we must not
imitate, but follow the example of the Ger-
mans in realizing a helpful and close alliance
between science and industry; and that in
the prosecution of this aim the paramount
interests of pure science must not be over-
looked. Papers were afterwards read by
Major H. J. W. Bliss, director of the British
Research Association for the Woollen and
Worsted Industries, on “ Research Associa-
tions and Consulting Work and the Collection
and Indexing of Information,” and by Dr. W.
Lawrence Balls on “The Equipment of Re-
search Laboratories.” There was a general
discussion on the subject-matter of the two
papers, from which it was clear that, although
there is a large common measure of agree-
ment among the different associations, there
is also enough variety of circumstance and
character to make it desirable for each asso-
ciation to work out its own salvation in many
problems of organization and method. It is
the intention of the Department of Scientific
and Industrial Research to continue period-
ically these conferences of research associa-
tions. As the department, in fostering the as-
sociations, is engaged in a novel adventure in
government enterprise, the research associa-
tions have to set sail on uncharted seas, with-
out maps or precedent experience to guide
them, and these periodical conferences must
‘be of great help to them in mapping out their
courses and taking their soundings.
THE MEDICAL STRIKE IN SPAIN
THE Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation states that the town of Jerez de la
Frontera, which has a world reputation on ac-
count of its famous wines, has just witnessed
the first general strike of physicians. This
JANUARY 9, 1920]
strike originated because the municipal au-
thorities, disregarding all statutory provisions
and trusting to political influence, failed to
keep their pledges, and the salaries due the
employees finally amounted to 1,000,000 pese-
tas (about $200,000). When the physicians be-
came tired of seeing that, in this period of
better compensation for labor, they were the
only ones who could bring home the wages
they had earned, they unanimously decided to
go out on strike. The mayor and the members
of the town council were very indignant at
this action, their arguments running somewhat
as follows: “It is very strange that the physi-
cians should be so rebellious, and especially
now, when the town council has just spent sev-
eral thousand dollars for celebrations and bull
fights, thus showing our desire to please the
people and attract foreigners.
do not bear in mind the fact that we can not
pay their salaries, since to do so would be to
show partiality in their favor; in a place where
no one is paid, it is an imposition to ask for
money. If we have spent so much for festivals
it has been only because the bull fighters and
actors would not have come otherwise; but
every one understands that if we could have got
out of paying them, we would not have paid
them either.” These reasons did not influence
the physicians, who suspended all official rela-
tions with the municipal authorities, and who,
while continuing their care of the poor, refused
to submit any reports, would not sign any offi-
cial certificates, or attend the municipal dis-
pensaries, and let public opinion and the gov-
ernment decide the matter. At first the local
authorities threatened the physicians, at whose
head was Dr. Aranda, one of the most promi-
nent surgeons of Andalusia. The physicians
proved adamant against all kinds of pressure
that was brought to bear on them for over a
month. At last the government decided to en-
force the law; it dismissed the municipal coun-
cil and appointed new counselors so as to help
solve the situation. The result has been that
the physicians will immediately receive one
half of the amount due them, and the balance
very shortly. This is the first medical strike
that ever took place in Spain. It has received
SCIENCE
The physicians:
39
support not only in the country in general, but
also at the hands of the government.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
THE attention of the Anthropological So-
ciety of Washington haying been called to an
open letter published in The Nation of De-
cember 20 by Dr. Franz Boas under the title
“Scientists as Spies,” and after said article
was read and duly considered, the following
resolution was adopted and ordered to be sub-
mitted to the American Anthropological As-
sociation at its meeting in Boston; to Section
H of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science meeting in St. Louis;
and to the Archeological Institute of America
at its meeting in Pittsburgh, with a request
that suitable action be taken by these associa-
tions. Also, that a copy of this resolution be
sent to The Nation and Science, with a re-
quest for its publication.
Resolved: That the article in question unjustly
criticizes the President of the United States and
attacks the fundamental principles of American
democracy; A
That the reflections contained in the article fall
on all American anthropologists who have been
anywhere outside the limits of the United States
during the last five years;
That the information thus given is liable to have
future serious effects on the work of all anthropol-
ogists outside the boundaries of the United States;
and
That the accusation, given such prominent pub-
licity and issuing from such a source, will doubtless
receive wide attention and is liable to prejudice
foreign governments against all scientific men com-
ing from this country to their respective territories,
particularly if under government auspices; there-
fore
Be it resolved, that in the opinion of the council
of the Anthropological Society of Washington, the
publication of the article in question was unwar-
ranted and will prove decidedly injurious to the
interests of American scientists in general; that
the author has shown himself inconsiderate to ‘the
best interests of his American colleagues who may
be obliged to carry on research in foreign coun-
tries; and that his action, therefore, deserves our
emphatic disapproval.
40
BIOLOGICAL SURVEYS OF STATES BY THE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRI-
CULTURE DURING 1919
Work in biological investigations of birds
and mammals by the Bureau of Biological
Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and
cooperating institutions, while somewhat in-
terrupted by the war, is rapidly getting back
to normal. The work falls into three prin-
cipal divisions, namely, investigations of
habits, distribution, migration, and systematic
studies of birds, investigation of the habits
and relationships of mammals, and natural
history surveys of the states. This note deals
with work under the latter head only.
In Wisconsin the State Geological and Nat-
ural History Survey is cooperating with the
United States Department of Agriculture in
the work, which is in charge of Dr. Hartley
H. T. Jackson for the Department of Agri-
culture, and Professor George Wagner of the
University of Wisconsin for the State of Wis-
consin. Work was begun May 15 and con-
tinued until September 20. The principal
field of cooperation was the northwestern part
of the state, special attention being devoted
to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. Mr.
Harry H. Sheldon for the Biological Survey,
and Mr. Arthur J. Poole for the Wisconsin
Survey assisted throughout the season.
In Montana, Mr. Marcus A. Hanna, as-
sisted by Mr. Harry Malleis, worked the valley
of the Missouri and the bordering plains and
mountains from the mouth of Milk River
westward, under the general direction of Mr.
Edward A. Preble. The Little Rockies, Moc-
casin Mountains, Big and Little Belt Moun-
tains and Castle Mountains were visited dur-
ing the latter part of the summer. Victor
N. Householder was a member of the party
during the early part of the season.
The biological survey of Florida was con-
tinued by Mr. Arthur H. Howell. Field
studies were carried on during March and
April over a large part of Lee County and in
the region around Lake Okeechobee. The
collections in the Florida State Museum were
examined and the specimens carefully identi-
fied. A collection of bird records from
Florida, both published and unpublished,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1306
shows approximately 3890 species and sub-
species recorded from the state.
Cooperating at different times with the Bio-
logical Survey in field work in the state of
Washington were the following: Professor
William T. Shaw, State College of Washing-
ton, Pullman; Professor H. S. Brode, Whit-
man College, Walla Walla; Professor J. W.
Hungate, State Normal School, Cheny; Pro-
fessor J. B. Flett, National Park Service,
Longmire; Mr. William L. Finley and Mrs.
Finley, Portland, Oregon; and Stanton War-
burton, Jr., of Tacoma. The Biological Sur-
vey was represented for a part of the time
by Mr. Stanley G. Jewett, Pendleton, Oregon;
and throughout the season by Mr. George G.
Cantwell, Puyallup, Washington, and Dr.
Walter P. Taylor, of the Biological Survey,
the last named in charge of the work. In-
vestigations were made in the Blue Moun-
tains area of extreme southeastern Washing-
ton, in which occurs an unusual mixture of
Rocky Mountain and Cascade Mountain
types; and in Mount Rainier National Park,
in connection with which the cireuit of
Mount Rainier was made for the first time,
so far as known, by any vertebrate zoological
expedition.
In North Dakota Mr. Vernon Bailey worked
through September and October to get data
on the hibernation of mammals and on the
stores of food laid up for winter by non-
hibernating species. He has returned with
many valuable notes to be added to his report
on the mammals of the state, and with an
interesting collection of live rodents for study
of habits in captivity.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Sir Witi1aM Oster, regius professor of medi-
cine at Oxford University, died on December
29, aged seventy years.
Dr. L. O. Howarp, chief of the Bureau of
Entomology of the United States Department
of Agriculture and for twenty-two years per-
manent secretary of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, was elected
president of the association at the St. Louis
meeting. Dr. Edward L. Nichols, who last
JANUARY 9, 1920]
June retired from the chair of physics at Cor-
nell University, was elected general secretary
of the association. The other officers elected
and a report of the meeting are given elsewhere
in this issue.
Dr. SHEPHERD Ivory FRANz was elected presi-
dent of the American Psychological Associa-
tion at the meeting held in Cambridge last
week.
Proressor RatpH B. Perry, of Harvard
University, was elected president of the Ameri-
ean Philosophical Association at the meeting in
Ithaca last week. Professor Alfred H. Jones,
of Brown University, was elected secretary.
At the Boston meeting of the Paleontological
Society, officers were elected as follows: Prest-
dent, F. B. Loomis, Amherst; Vice-presidents,
C. C. Case, Ann Arbor; Ralph Arnold, Los
Angeles; E. M. Kindle, Ottawa; Secretary, R.
S. Bassler, Washington, D. C.; Treasurer,
Richard S. Lull, New Haven; Hditor, W. D.
Matthew, New York.
At the Society of American Bacteriologists,
also meeting in Boston, the following officers
were elected: Dr. Charles Krumweide, of the
research laboratory of the New York Health
Department, president; Dr. F. C. Harrison,
president of the MacDonald College in Mon-
treal, vice-president; Dr. A. Parker Hitchens,
of Indianapolis, was reelected secretary-treas-
urer, and Dr. J. W. M. Bunker was chosen
assistant secretary, a new position in the or-
ganization. New members of the council are
Dr. F. P. Gay, professor of pathology and bac-
teriology at the University of California, and
Dr. C. G Bull, professor of immunology at the
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene in Balti-
more. A committee on national research was
created, consisting of all the past presidents,
with Dr. Bunker as executive secretary, and
Dr. S. C. Prescott, of Boston, as chairman.
Tue William H. Nichols medal of the Ameri-
can Chemical Society will be conferred on Dr.
Irving Langmuir for his work on “ the arrange-
ment of electrons in atoms and molecules,” at
the March meeting of the New York Section of
the society.
SCIENCE 41
THE Perkin medal for 1919 has been awarded
by the American Section of the Society of
Chemical Industry to Dr. Chas. F. Chandler,
for his work on the standardization of kero-
sene. The committee in making the award
called especial attention also to the work Pro-
fessor Chandler, as head of the chemistry de-
partment of the school of mines at Columbia
University, has done in training men for the
chemical industry. The medal will be pre-
sented to Dr. Chandler, “dean of American
chemists,” at the regular meeting of the So-
ciety of Chemical Industry, American Section,
at the Chemists’ Club, New York City, on Jan-
uary 16.
Dr. Louis A. Bauer will repeat his illus-
trated lecture on “The Solar Eclipse of May
29, 1919, and the Einstein Effect” at the
Johns Hopkins University, Monday after-
noon, January 12; at Yale University, under
the auspices of the Society of Sigma Xi on
the evening of January 13; and at Brown
University on the evening of January 16. At
the stated meeting of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences at Boston on January
14, he will give an illustrated address on “ Ob-
servations of the Solar Eclipse at Cape
Palmas, Liberia, and other Stations.”
Ar the meeting of the Philosophical So-
ciety of Washington on January 3 the follow-
ing papers were read: Enoch Karrer: I.
“Diffusion of light in a searchlight beam.”
II. “ The contrast sensibility of the eye at low
illumination.” F. E. Wright: “The contrast
sensibility of the eye as a factor in the re-
solving power of the microscope.” L. A.
Bauer: “Further results of observations of
the solar eclipse of May 29. 1919.
Sm Outver Lopce delivered the Trueman-
Wood lecture on “Some Possible Sources of
Energy,” at the Royal Society of Arts on
December 10.
WE learn from Nature that on December
10, a memorial tablet with a medallion por-
trait and a suitable inscription was unveiled
in memory of Sir Ramsay in the presence of
Lady Ramsay and a large number of friends
and members of the University of Glasgow.
42
The address of presentation was delivered by
Professor G. G. Henderson, of the Regius
chair of chemistry, and the custody of the
memorial was accepted on behalf of the Uni-
versity Court by the vice-chancellor. The
medallion is the work of Mr. Paulin, and is an
excellent likeness; the design of the memorial
is due to Sir John J. Burnet. The mural
tablet is placed at the head of the great stair-
ease leading to the Bute Hall and the Hun-
terian Museum. It is set in an arched recess
lined with grey marble, and bears reliefs illus-
trating Sir William Ramsay’s numerous dec-
orations and honors.
Tue trustees of the American Medical As-
sociation have made an appropriation of
money to further meritorious research in sub-
jects relating to scientific medicine and of
practical interest to the medical profession,
which otherwise could not be carried on to
completion. Applications for grants should
be sent to the Committee on Scientific Re-
search, American Medical Association, 535
North Dearborn Street Chicago, before Feb-
ruary 1, 1920, when action will be taken on
the applications at hand.
WE learn from the Journal of the American
Medical Association that on the initiative of
Professors Forssner, Forssell, Holmgren and
Dr. Key, of Stockholm, and Professors Quensel
and Petrén, of Upsala, and Lund, a meeting
was held recently to organize the Svenska
Sallskapet for medicinsk forskning to promote
scientific research in Sweden. Already 169
members are enrolled and the officers elected.
They include a number of prominent laymen,
directors of banks, consuls and others besides
leading professors in the medical sciences.
Professor Quensel in the opening address em-
phasized that the rapidly changing world has
brought the necessity for new orientations and
the blocking out of new routes, and he cited the
saying, “If the human race can be perfected,
it is in the medical sciences that the means
for this must be sought.” The aim of the new
society is to provide funds for medical research,
and the treasury starts with a donation of
5,000 crowns from a legacy.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI, No. 1306
THE next annual congress of the Royal In-
stitute of Public Health, which suspended
these meetings during the war, is to be held at
Brussels from May 20 to 24, inclusive, by invi-
tation of the Burgomaster, M. Adolphe Max.
Delegates will be invited from all the universi-
ties, municipalities and other public bodies in
due course. Meanwhile, all wishing to take
part should communicate with the Hon. Sec-
retaries, the Royal Institute of Public Health,
37 Russell-square, London, W.O. 1.
THE magnetic-survey vessel Carnegie left
Washington on October 9, on a two year
cruise of 64,000 nautical miles. She arrived
at her first port of call, Daker, Senegal, West
Coast of Africa, on November 23, but owing
to bubonic plague sailed a few days later and
is now en-route to Buenos Aires, Argentina,
arriving there about the end of January. Mr.
J. A. Fleming, Chief of the Magnetic Survey
Division of the Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism, has been designated to represent
the direetor of the department in the in-
spection of the work and vessel at Buenos
Aires, and he accordingly sailed from New
York on December 31. The scientific person-
nel of the present cruise consists of the follow-
ing: J. P. Ault, in command; H. F. Johnston,
magnetician, second in command; Russell
Pemberton, surgeon and observer; A. Thomas,
H. R. Grummann and R. R. Mills, observers.
Accorpine to the Journal of the American
Medical Association during a recess in ses-
sions of the International Conference of
Women Physicians in New York, thirty-five
distinguished women physicians from foreign
countries visited the Johns Hopkins Hospital
recently and studied facilities at the institu-
tion. The general program for the day was
arranged by Dr. Florence R. Sabin, Balti-
more, who received the delegates. The first
inspection was of the gynecologic department,
where Drs. Howard A. Kelley, Guy Hunner
and Thomas S. Cullen acted as pilots. At
the Harriet Lane Home, an exhibition of
children’s diseases was prepared. Dr. John J.
Abel, gave a short address on the general sub-
ject of physiology, followed by a talk on
dietetics by E.V. McCollum. Dr. George L.
JANUARY 9, 1920]
Streeter gave a talk on embryology. Lunch-
eon was served at 1 o’clock, after which Dr.
Adolf Meyer, head of the Henry Phipps Psy-
chiatric Clinic, lectured on the work of his
department. ‘The remainder of the afternoon
was devoted to a study of the obstetric de-
partments.
Proressor Grorce OC. WHIPPLE, of Harvard
University, as has been noted in Screncg, has
been appointed director of the division of
sanitation in the Bureau of Hygiene and
Public Health of the League of Red Cross
Societies. He has been granted leave of
absence from Harvard University for the
second half year and will go to Geneva in
February, returning to Cambridge in Sep-
tember, 1920. The organization referred to
will be virtually the Health Department of
the League of Nations, and it will offer ex-
ceptional opportunities for sanitary engineers.
Heretofore the Red Cross has chiefly engaged
in relief work. It is now to add to this work
that of preventing disease by improving sani-
tary conditions. Professor Whipple is a
member of the engineering firm of Hazen,
Whipple & Fuller, New York City. Another
member of this firm, Colonel Francis F. Long-
ley, has been appointed associate director of
the division and will go to Geneva about the
first of December in order to be ready to
undertake emergency work in the Balkans
should typhus fever break out there.
TuE fall meeting of the Bureau of Personnel
Research, which was recently held at the Car-
negie Institute of Technology, was attended by
representatives of the following cooperative
concerns: 'the American Multigraph Sales Com-
pany, the American Rolling Mill Company, the
Burroughs Adding Machine Company, the
Carnegie Steel Company, the Commonwealth
Edison Company, Crutchfield and Woolfolk,
Equitable Life Insurance Company, B. F.
Goodrich Company, John Hancock Mutual
Life Insurance Company, H. J. Heinz Com-
pany, Kaufmann Department Stores, Miller
Saw-Trimmer Company, Packard Motor Car
Company, Philadelphia Company, Phenix Mu-
tual Life Insurance Company E. W. Woods
Company, and The Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company. Dr. Bingham, the
SCIENCE
43
head of the division of applied psychology of
the Carnegie Institute of Technology, was one
of the speakers at the meeting.
A BILL recently has been passed by the
Canadian House of Commons creating a fed-
eral department of health and providing for a
minister of health and advisory committee.
The authority of the department will extend
to all matters affecting health within the
jurisdiction of the Dominion of Canada.
At the recent Bournemouth meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of
Science a meeting was held with the object of
eliciting opinions as to whether the recently
formed Scientific Research Association should
be continued or wound up. Professor A. Gray
presided over a small attendance. It was ex-
plained by Mr. A. C. Tansley, the acting sec-
retary, that the functions of the new associa-
tion were the establishment of adequate means
of communication and coordination in science,
the organization of the endowment for re-
search, and publicity and propaganda. Cir-
culars sent out last spring to 2,000 scientific
people had elicited only 230 replies. There
appeared to be a certain amount of hostility to
the association on the part of leading scientific
men, and there was apathy on the part of the
general mass of scientific workers. No de-
cision was arrived at, but Professor Gray said
that they must press upon already existing
bodies the desirability of conserving to the
very utmost the interests of pure science.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
A scHoon of public hygiene has been estab-
lished as a separate department of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. This department, which
has been under the supervision of the medical
school, and which was the first school of public
hygiene in America, will continue under the
direction of Dr. Alexander C. Abbott as di-
rector.
A new $150,000 chemistry building has been
completed at the State College of the Univer-
sity of Montana, Bozeman. Appropriate dedi-
eatory exercises will be held on January 14.
Professor W. F. Coover, head of the chemistry
department of the Iowa State College, will de-
44
liver the principal address. The occasion of
the dedication marks the completion of twenty-
five years of service in the institution by Pro-
fessor W. M. Cobleigh, head of the department
of chemistry.
Dr. Harotp Hissert has been appointed as-
sistant professor of chemistry in the research
department of organic chemistry, Yale Uni-
versity, New Haven, Conn.
Dr. Louis E. Wis has severed his connection
with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company,
where he held a research position at their
Jackson Laboratory, Wilmington, Del., and has
accepted the position of professor of forest
chemistry at the New York State College of
Forestry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y.
Dr. Hartan H. York, head of the botanical
department at Brown University, has resigned
to take charge of similar work ‘at the University
of West Virginia, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Mr. G. H. Harpy, fellow and mathematical
lecturer of Trinity College, Cambridge, has
been appointed to the Savilian professorship of
geometry at Oxford University.
Dr. JOHN CRUICKSHANK, pathologist to the
Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, has been
appointed Georgina M’Robert lecturer in
pathology in the University of Aberdeen.
Proressor C. H. Drsou has been appointed
professor of metallurgy at the University of
Sheffield, in succession to Professor J. O. Ar-
nold. Since September, 1918, Professor Desch
has been professor of metallurgy in the Royal
Technical College, Glasgow.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
A SPLENDID SERVICE
Apart from the eminent contribution
rendered to science and the Pan-American
spirit by Dr. Branner in the publication of
his fine geological map and monograph, it is
a particularly distinguished and generous
service to common American interests made
by the Geological Society of America at the
1‘“Qutlines of the Geology of Brazil; to accom-
pany the Geologic Map of Brazil,’’? by John Cas-
par Branner, Bulletin Geological Society of Amer-
ica, Vol. 30, No. 2, June, 1919.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1306
expense of its own treasury. For the first
time the Geological Society has ventured so
far afield and freely invested its resources in
what might seem at passing glance purely the
scientific welfare of an alien country; but it
is not to be denied that the claim of fratern-
ity had no little to do with the attitude of the
Geological Society toward this enterprise.
The bond of geological brotherhood between
the United States and Brazil has been a long
and strong one. Out of the little village of
Aurora on Cayuga Lake, New York, came the
first impulse toward the establishment of this
tie, when the generosity of the late E. B.
Morgan enabled a Cornell professor and some
of his students in 1871 to begin the systematic
study of the rock geology of the Amazonas
valley.
Thus started the Brazilian careers of Pro-
fessor Charles Fred Hartt and his young
associates, Orville A. Derby, Herbert H.
Smith and John C. Branner who joined the
work in 1874, and their labors are now a
historical part of the development of geology
on the South American continent. So per-
haps it is eminently appropriate that an
American Geological Society should now come
to the help of one of these pioneers in Brazil-
ian geology and enable him to summarize and
commemorate the results of his own and his
associates’ life-long work in that country.
Dr. Derby became a Brazilian subject; Dr.
Smith, after a life of rich experience as a
scientific collector, recently met a tragic end.
Upon Dr. Branner has fallen the mantle, for
during his active years he has been a frequent
visitor to Brazil and an unremitting student
of her geology. To him thus comes the
privilege of preparing the first geological map
of the whole area of that vast country so far
as exploration has gone, and of setting forth
the conclusions drawn by himself and by
many colleagues and collaborators in this
great field.
This note is not intended to be a review or
critique of Dr. Branner’s map. It is a most
illuminating production, of necessity drawn
on broad lines and with a few simple explana-
tory devices, thus intimating at a glance how
much remains for future students of the
JANUARY 9, 1920]
science in this fertile land. We applaud the
author on his achievement; others may ex-
press this appreciation more analytically; but
in this paragraph we acclaim the high-minded
attitude of the Geological Society of America
in making so wise a use of its money and
so excellent a contribution to the common
good of the Pan-American States and to geo-
logical science.
J. M. C.
WEIGHT OF BODY MOVING ALONG EQUATOR
To THE Epiror oF ScrmnceE: A prominent
engineer, Dr. Carl Herring, recently proposed
to me the following question: “ Does a body
in motion along the earth’s equator weigh
less (or more) than the same body at rest?”
Since this question, in some form or other,
has come up several times in recent dis-
cussions, the following solution, although en-
tirely elementary, may be not without interest.
Let us picture the body as supported by a
string from the roof of a train running west-
ward at speed v along the equator, and let
SS =the tension in the string.
The question then is: What is the relation
between S and v?
Let V (=1,038 miles per hour) be the ab-
solute velocity of a point on the earth’s
equator (neglecting the motion of the earth
in its orbit and the motion of the solar
system in space). Then V-v is the absolute
velocity of the train (eastward) in a circular
path of radius R (—3,963 miles).
Hence, by a well-known formula of kine-
matics, (V-v)?/R =the absolute acceleration
of the body toward the center of the earth.t
Further, let W—the ordinary weight of the
body (that is, the value of the supporting
force S when the train is at rest on the earth’s
1Dr. Hering’s surprising statement in ScIENcE
for October 24, 1919, implying that engineers do
not generally recognize the idea of ‘‘accelera-
tion’’ in a direction perpendicular to the path, is
not borne out by an exaniination of engineering
text-books, all of which (fortunately) define ac-
celeration in the standard way as the rate of
change of vector velocity. For further comment
on Dr. Hering’s paper, see Professor C. M. Spar-
row’s letter in Science for November 21.
SCIENCE
45
surface), and g— the ordinary falling ac-
celeration (that is, the acceleration, with re-
spect to the earth’s surface, with which the
body would begin to fall, from rest, if the
supporting string were cut); and let # = the
force with which the earth pulls the body
toward the center of the earth. Then H-S =
the net force acting on the body in the direc-
tion toward the center.
Hence, by the fundamental principle that
forces are proportional to the accelerations
they produce,? we have
H-S Me (V —v)/R f a)
W g
whence
ee Ww (V —v)?
S=£H 7 maT (2)
To determine EH, we note that if »—0O then
S=W, so that
B=W+t ue = (1.00345). (3)
Hence finally,
s=w{i1+¥[1-(1-7) |}. (4)
From these equations we see that as v, the
westward train-speed, increases from 0 to V,
the supporting force § will increase from W
to (1.00845) W, which is its maximum value;
as v increases from V to 2V, S will decrease
again from its maximum value to W; and if
» igs increased further to about 18 V, S will
become zero.
For reasonable train-speeds, therefore (up
to one or two thousand miles per hour!), a
body moving westward will require an in-
creased force to support tt against falling.
For example, let v—=60 miles per hour.
Then if W=—1 lb., we find S—1.000387 Ib.,
an increase of about 1/25 of one per cent.
2 Reasons for preferring the form F/F’ =a/a’
to the form F=ma as the fundamental equation
of mechanics may be found in two articles by EH.
V. Huntington: ‘‘The Logical Skeleton of Elemen-
tary Dynamics,’’ American Mathematical Monthly,
Vol. 24 (1917), pp. 1-16; ‘‘ Bibliographical Note
on the Use of the Word Mass in Current Text-
Books,’? ibid., Vol. 25 (1918), pp. 1-15; also in
controversial papers in ScmmncEe from December,
1914, to October, 1917.
46 SCIENCE
Of course if the train runs eastward, the
required supporting force will be less than if
the train were at rest. In particular, if the
eastward train-speed is about 16 V, S will be
Zero.
There are thus two speeds, one westward of
about 18,700 miles per hour, and one eastward
of about 16,700 miles per hour, at which the
“weight” of the body as measured by an ob-
server on the train (that is, the tension in
the supporting string S) would be zero.
Epwarp V. Huntineron
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
November 22, 1919
AN ODD PROBLEM IN MECHANICS
To THE EprTor or Science: In a recent dis-
cussion the writer offered the following prob-
lem which seems to be new and of interest,
judging from the answers and lack of answers.
Assuming the earth to be a perfect sphere,
the net weight of a body on this earth is G—C,
in which G is the force due to gravity and C
the centrifugal force due to the rotation of
the earth. Hence the net weight of a body at
the equator when moving east at a velocity
(relatively to the earth) equal to that of the
surface of the earth, about 1,000 miles per
hour would be G—4C, that is, less than when
at rest, while when moving west at the same
velocity it would be G, that is, greater than
when at rest.
If therefore a flywheel were revolved at the
equator with that circumferential speed and
in a horizontal plane, the northern part
moving east, it would seem to follow that it
will tilt to the south, as the southern half
should be heavier than the northern half.
Due to a time lag the tilting might be to the
southwest. It is here assumed that its gyro-
scopic tendency to get into a vertical plane
has been duly counteracted and may be
neglected.
Or stated in a different form, suppose a
light dise be revolved at this speed in a
vertical plane at the equator, and to have two
equal symmetrically placed, heavy masses on
its rim. When the plane of rotation is north
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1306
and south it would be dynamically balanced,
but when that plane is east and west it would
seem to follow that the masses at the moment
they are at the bottom would be heavier than
when at the top and if so the disk would be
unbalanced dynamically, vibrating with a
period double that of the period of revolution.
Its center of gravity would oscillate below its
center of rotation.
It is acknowledged to be possible, theoret-
ically at least, to move a mass so rapidly over
the earth that G—O hence the net weight
then is zero; it would then go on encircling the
earth, if the air friction were eliminated; the
moon is an illustration. At lower speeds
therefore there should be a part of this loss
in effective weight.
The two cases cited, if the results are as
described, would afford a basis, theoretically
at least, for a mechanical compass, like the
gyroscope compass.
Cart Herne
PHILADELPHIA,
October 27, 1919
QUOTATIONS
SCIENCE AND THE NEW ERA PRINTING
COMPANY
Old wood to burn,
Old books to read,
Old wine to drink,
Old friends to cling to.
Ir takes a near-millionaire to burn “old
wood” on his hearth these days; “old books”
are the delight of the bibliophile, but are poor
stuff in producing the wherewithal of a print-
ing establishment; “old wine” will soon be
only a hollow mockery—
But “old friends to cling to!” Ah! there is
the kernel, the gem that glitters from the quad-
ruplet! j
All of which is just by way of introduction
to an acknowledgment of one of the most
gracious compliments ever paid to The New
Era Printing Company.
As the year fast nears its close, it marks the
twenty-fifth anniversary of The New Era
Printing Company’s production of ScrENCcE, a
magazine whose contributors embrace the
JaNuaRY 9, 1920]
ablest men in all scientific lines in the world,
and weekly finds its way through the mails to
all parts of the Eastern and Western hemis-
pheres.
From its distinguished editor, J. McK. Cat-
tell, this morning a magnificent silver vase was
received as a token of appreciation for The
New Era Printing Company’s efforts. With it
came this letter:
SCIENCE,
Editorial Department.
GARRISON-ON-Hupson, N. Y., Dec. 28, 1919.
THe NEw ERA PRINTING COMPANY,
Laneaster, Pa.
Dear Mr. Hershey: In order to express recogni-
tion of the admirable manner in which The New
Era Printing Company has printed Science for
twenty-five years, and of our friendly relations dur-
ing this long period, I am sending a token of ap-
preciation.
Sincerely yours,
J. McK. Carrenn
From base tto top the sterling silver vase
measures twenty and one-half inches, and is
modeled and embellished along exquisitely
chaste lines. It is a Lebolt production, hand-
hammered, of uncommon weight, and bears this
inscription :
SCIENCE,
1894-1919.
To The New Hra Printing Company.
In Grateful Appreciation.
The New Era Printing Company is con-
strained to a public appreciation of Editor
Catitell’s handsome remembrance. “Old friends
to cling to! ”—what more apt response or hope
for the years to be?—The Lancaster Daily
New Era.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
Fossil Plants. By A. C. Szewarp. Vol. IV.
Pp. 548. Cambridge, University Press.
This, the concluding volume of the Cam-
bridge text on fossil plants, is devoted to a
consideration of the Ginkgoales, Coniferales
and Gnetales. The final proofs were passed
in the spring of 1918, but the printing was
held up because of war conditions so that a
number of recent contributions could not be
SCIENCE
47
considered. The method of treatment in the
present volume is consistent with that of the
preceding volumes and the same lack of bal-
anced treatment is shown in the present work.
To cite but a single instance of this, six lines
are devoted to the remains of Ginkgo from
North America although Ginkgo is exceedingly
well represented in the Mesozoic and early
Eocene on this continent.
As regards the subject matter, a chapter is
devoted to the Ginkgoales, recent and fossil.
The second chapter considers Ginkgoidium,
Czekanowskia, Feildenia, Phoenicopsis and
Desmophyllum—genera that are believed to be-
long to the Ginkgoales. The third chapter in-
cludes supposed Ginkgoalan genera of still
more doubtful allegiance. The nine following
chapters are devoted to the Coniferales. There
is a rather full and excellent account of recent
Conifers. These are grouped in the following
nine families: Araucarinee Cupressinex, Cal-
litrinee, Sequoiines, Sciadopitinee, Abietines,
Podoearpiner, Phyllocladinee and Taxinex.
They are considered as probably monophyletic,
the Araucarinee being regarded as the most
ancient and the Abietinee as the most
modern. There are some illuminating discus-
sions of vascular anatomy and the view is
expressed that the cone scales in the Araucari-
nee are morphologically simple ovuliferous
leaves, the double cone scales of the Abietinez
being derivatives of a simple form of sporo-
phyll. Mesembrioxylon is proposed for the
fossil woods formerly referred to Podocarp-
oxylon and Phyllocladoxylon. The final chap-
ter is devoted to the Gnetales and is without
noteworthy features.
Opinion will differ as to the necessity or
desirability for some of the new generic terms
that are proposed, e. g., Ginkgoites for Ginkgo
leaves, on the ground that even in the
Tertiary forms the confirmatory evidence of
flowers and fruits is lacking: Cupressinocladus
for vegetative shoots of conifers of a cupres-
soid habit: and Pityites for abietineous fossils
of uncertain generic relationship. There is
but slight profit in compounding confusion
and although a conservative attitude is war-
ranted in dealing with the vegetative remains
48
of conifers there is but slight evidence in the
more recent history of the study of fossil
conifers to show that stem anatomy or
strobilar morphology furnish any easier read
or more definite criteria than vegetative habit,
and from the nature of the remains we can
not hope to have all of the criteria in in-
dividual cases. Even the older students in
dealing with foliar impressions were not
guilty of more pretentious absurdities than
have been put forward under the banner of
anatomy during the past decade.
The present volume contains 190 illustra-
tions which on the whole appear rather uni-
formly better than those of volume III. al-
though it is difficult for the reviewer to under-
stand why paper and presswork were wasted
on such illustrations as that forming the
frontispiece of the present volume. The bib-
liography which has a certain air of complete-
ness really contains not more than about
twenty per cent. of the literature, but perhaps
this should not be criticized since it avowedly
contains only “papers and works referred to
in the text.”
On the whole it seems to the reviewer that
Professor Seward has performed a difficult
task about as well as could be expected, and
despite their obvious shortcomings, which have
been freely criticized, these four volumes are
a mine of information for the student inter-
ested in the floras of the past.
Epwarp W. Berry
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
REPORT OF THE ST. LOUIS MEETING
THE seventy-second meeting of the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of
Science and the affiliated national scientific
societies was held in St. Louis, December 29,
1919, to January 3, 1920, under the presidency
of Dr. Simon Flexner.
In spite of the adverse ruling of the United
States Railroad Administration on the grant-
ing of reduced fares and other difficulties at-
tending travel, the attendance was most satis-
factory. All sections held sessions except
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1306
Section C, and twenty-two affiliated societies
presented attractive programs. The experi-
ment of holding all meetings under one roof,
namely the Soldan High School, is believed to
have been a success, for the advantages of this
coneentration, including registration head-
quarter and luncheon facilities, more than off-
set certain minor difficulties.
The formal opening of the meetings of the
association took place in the spacious audi-
torium of the Soldan High School on Monday
evening, December 29, Chancellor Hall of
Washington University delivering the address
of welcome. President Flexner responded
fittingly, after which he introduced the re-
tiring president, Professor John M, Coulter
who then delivered the address on “ The
Evolution of Botanical Research,’ which was
printed in the issue of Scmnoz for January 2.
At the conclusion of his address the re-
vised constitution was read and unanimously
adopted. The following changes were made
in the copy of the revised constitution as it
appeared in the November 21 issue of ScrENCcE.
Article II. Increasing the annual dues from $4
to $5 and the fee for life membership from $75 to
$100.
Article V. Changing the title of Section H from
Anthropology and Archeology to Anthropology and
that of Section I from Psychology and Philosophy
to Psychology. That the proposed Section J be
designated as Section K and that the letters as-
signed to sections following be dropped back one
letter alphabetically in the order given.
The Committee on Policy submitted an
amendment to the Constitution to be acted
upon at the next meeting providing for a
section R, Conservation of National Re-
sources.
The new constitution was declared in effect
at the end of the present Convocation.
A reception was tendered to the members of
the association at the close of this meeting.
On Tuesday evening at the Soldan High
School an address complimentary to the mem-
bers of the association and affiliated societies
and the citizens of St. Louis was delivered
by President Flexner. His subject was
“Present Problems in Medical Research.”
JANUARY 9, 1920]
Throughout the meetings the usual number
of vice-presidential and other addresses were
delivered covering a wide range of subjects.
Many of these dealt with scientific problems
of present day interest and attracted wide
attention. Since the names of the speakers
and their subjects have already appeared in
the preliminary announcement printed in
ScrmNcE and on the final program there is no
need of repeating the list here.
Smokers and dinners provided by the va-
rious aftiliated societies were held and enter-
tainment for visiting ladies in numerous
private functions contributed to the social
success of the meetings.
Matters of general interest to members
eminating chiefly from the committee on
policy acted upon favorably by the council
were:
1. That the amount to be paid per member
to the management of ScIENcE be $3 and that
it be requested to fix the subscription price of
Science for non-members at $6.
2. That approval be given of certain meas-
ures under consideration with the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace as set
forth in a letter addressed to Dr. North,
but embodying substantially the following
recommendation; that the British, French
and Italian equivalents of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science be
invited to send delegates to the meeting to be
held a year hence in Chicago.
3. That the American Meteorological So-
ciety be admitted as an affiliated society and
that entrance fees be remitted in the case of
those of its members who join the association
during the coming year. The council further
declared itself as looking with favor on the
affiliation of any national society which is
interested primarily in scientific research.
4. That the president be authorized to ap-
point a committee on international auxiliary
languages to cooperate with a corresponding
committee of the International Research
Council.
5. That Dr. George H. Perkins and Dr. C.
J. S. Bethune be made emeritus life members
under the Jane N. Smith fund.
SCIENCE
49
6. That pursuant to certain resolutions ad-
vocated by the National Physical Education
Service, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science will be pleased to
cooperate with the National Physical Edu-
cation Service in promoting physical educa-
tion.
7. That the general adoption of the metric
system by national and state governments be
approved.
5. That the executive committee be re-
quested to consider the possibility of paying
the mileage of secretaries of sections to and
from annual meetings.
9. That sectional officers avoid placing on
their programs papers relating to acute polit-
ical questions on which public opinion is
divided.
10. That the association will look with
fayor on any plan approved by the men of
science in the country for the encouragement
of research in engineering under the auspices
of the government.
11. That the association endorses and “ com-
mends the general purposes of The Save the
Redwoods League” in its effort to preserve
some of the oldest trees in the world.
12. That the Southern Educational Society
be admitted to affiliation and that the ad-
mission fee be remitted in the case of those
members of the Southern Educational Society
who join the association during the coming
year.
18. That there be authorized the organiza-
tion of members of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in New Mex-
ico, all or part of Texas and such other terri-
tory as may seem advisable into a Southwest-
ern Division of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science and that Dr. D.
T. MacDougal be the representative of the
executive committee for such an organization.
14, That the sum of $4,500 be made available
to the committee as grants for the ensuing
year.
15. That the by-laws as printed in ScrENcE,
November 21, be adopted, with the following
amendment to be added at the end of Article 6,
50
Section 1. “State and city academies affiliated
with the association may also be allowed for
their expenses, the entrance fees collected
through their efforts and an amount for their
expenses not to exceed $1 for each member in
good standing.”
Under tthe head of new business Professor
John M. Coulter and Professor H. B. Ward
presented a verbal report for the committee on
affiliation of state and local academies. The
report dealt with preliminary steps looking
towards the affiliation of state academies in
accordance with the following general plan:
- 1, That state and local academies may be afiili-
ated with the association on a financial basis that
will yield the associaton $4 net per member.
2. Any state or local academy which concludes
arrangements for affiliation within the first six
months of 1920.may be accepted for the entire
year 1920, fees paid to the association before that
date to be adjusted in accordance with the detailed
plan.
3. Two alternative plans are considered with re-
spect to membership in the academies, namely:
(a) All members of the academies to become
members of the association.
(b) To establish two grades of membership, of
which one will be national, involving mem-
bership in both academy and association,
the other local, consisting of academy
members only.
4, The academies will collect joint dues and
transmit the association’s share to the treasurer.
Tt was voted that this report of the commit-
tee on aftiliation of state and local academies
be received and approved.
Tn accordance with the provision of the new
constitution which calls for an executive com-
mittee of eight elected members to replace the
old council, the following gentlemen were duly
elected members of this committee: J. McK.
Cattell, H. L. Fairchild, Simon Flexner, W. J.
Humphreys, D. T. MacDougal, A. A. Noyes,
Herbert Osborn, H. B. Ward.
Under the terms of the revised constitution
Dr. H. L. Fairchild and Dr. Franz Boas were
duly elected members of the council.
Dr. R. M. Yerkes and Dr. G. T. Moore were
elected members of the committee on grants.
The seventy-third meeting of the association
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1306
and of the affiliated societies will be held at
Chicago, beginning on Monday, December 27,
with the first general session on Tuesday even-
ing. It was recommended that the four suc-
ceeding meetings be held in Toronto or Buffalo,
Boston, Cincinnati and Washington.
Officers were elected as follows:
President: Dr, L. O. Howard, Bureau of Ento-
mology, Washington, D. C.
General Secretary: Professor EH, L. Nichols, Cor-
nell University.
Vice-presidents:
Section A, Mathematics: D. R. Curtis, North-
western University, Evanston, Ill.
Section B, Physics: J. C. McLennan, University
of Toronto.
Section C, Chemistry: S. W. Parr, University of
Illinois.
Section D, Astronomy: Joel Stebbins, University
of Illinois.
Section E, Geology and Geography: Charles
Schuchert, Yale University.
Section F, Zoological Sciences: J. S. Kingsley,
University of Illinois.
Section G, Botanical Sciences: R. H. True, Bu-
reau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C.
Section H, Anthropology: G. R. Gordon, Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, New York.
Section I, Psychology: E. K. Strong, Jr., Car-
negie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh.
Section M, Engineering: C. L. Mees, Rose Poly-
technic Institute, Terre Haute, Ind.
Section N, Medicine: J. Erlanger, Washington
University, St. Louis.
Section Q, Education: C. H. Judd, University of
Chicago, | als
Gerorce T. Moore,
General Secretary
SCIENCE |
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
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SCIENCE
——————————SS
Frmpay, JANUARY 16, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Recent Advances in Dynamics: PROFESSOR
GrorGE D. BIRKHOFF ................-055 51
Sir William Osler: LinuTENANT COLONEL F.
IAN GARRISONviapobey eve ss ielato coool eteioereasiousie ys 55
Scientific Events :-—
A Botanic School in Regent’s Park; The
Attitude of German Physicians towards In-
human Actions; Conference on Waste of
Natural Gas; Scientific Lectures ......... 58
Scientific Notes and News ................ 60
University and Educational News »......... 62
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Musical Sands: Proressor H. L. FarrcHinp.
More on Singing Sands: EH. O. Fierin. The
Initial Course in Biology: PRoressor YAN-
DELL HENDERSON
Scientific Books :—
Chumley on the Fauna of the Clyde Sea
Area: PRoFESSOR CHARLES A. Korom...... 65
The Ecological Society and its Opportunity:
Dr. BARRINGTON MOORE ...............-. 66
The Canadian Branch of the American Phyto-
logical Association ..............2+.++..- 68
The American Chemical Society: Dr. CHARLES
EVAR SONS Eatustaratecscarsyeleneksisiare sa tenlc aie (aiene esas 69
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
RECENT ADVANCES IN DYNAMICS!
A HIGHLY important chapter in theoretical
dynamics began to unfold with the appear-
ance in 1878 of G. W. Hill’s researches in the
lunar theory.
To understand the new direction taken
since that date it is necessary to recall the
main previous developments. In doing this,
and throughout, we shall refer freely for
illustration to the problem of three bodies.
The concept of a dynamical system did not
exist prior to Newton’s time. By use of his
law of gravitation Newton was able to deal
with the Earth, Sun, and Moon as essentially
three mutually attracting particles, and by the
aid of his fluxional calculus he was in a posi-
tion to formulate their law of motion by means
of differential equations. Here the independ-
ent variable is the time and the dependent
variables are the nine coordinates of the three
bodies. Such a set of ordinary differential
equations form the characteristic mathemat-
ical embodiment of a dynamical system, and
can be constructed without especial difficulty.
The aim of Newton and his successors was
to find explicit expressions for the coordinates
in terms of the time for various dynamical
systems, just as Newton was able to do in the
problem of two bodies. Despite notable suc-
cesses, the differential equations of the prob-
lem of three bodies and of other analogous
problems continued to defy “ integration.”
Notwithstanding the lack of explicit ex-
pressions for the coordinates, Newton was
able to treat the lunar theory from a geo-
metrical point of view. Euler, Laplace, and
others invented more precise analytical meth-
ods based upon series. In both cases the
bodies which are disturbing the motion of the
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section A—Mathematics and Astronomy—Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of Science,
St. Louis, December, 1919.
52
Moon are assumed first to move in certain
periodic orbits, and the perturbations of the
Moon are assumed to be the same as if the
other bodies did move in such hypothetical
orbits. The principle of successive approxi-
mations characterizes these methods.
The chief other advance made was based on
the following principle: if a function is a
maximum or minimum when expressed in
terms of one set of variables it igs also a
maximum or minimum for any other set;
hence, if the differential equations of dy-
namics can be looked upon as the equations
for a maximum or minimum problem, this
property will persist whatever variables be
employed. This principle, developed mainly
by Lagrange, W. R. Hamilton, and Jacobi,
enables one to make the successive changes
of variables required in the method of suc-
cessive approximations by merely doing so in
a single function.
Here too the results are chiefly of formal
and computational importance.
The last great figure of this period is Jacobi.
His “ Vorlesungen iiber Dynamik” published
in 1866 represents a highwater mark of
achievement in this direction.
Nearly all fields of mathematics progress
from a purely formal preliminary phase to a
second phase in which rigorous and qualita-
tive methods dominate. From this more ad-
vanced point of view, inaugurated in the
domain of functions of a complex variable by
Riemann, we may formulate the aim of dy-
namies as follows: to characterize completely
the totality of motions of dynamical systems
by their qualitative properties.
In Poinearé’s celebrated paper on the prob-
lem of three bodies, published in 1889, where
he develops much that is latent in Hill’s work,
Poincaré proceeds to a treatment of the sub-
ject from essentially this qualitative point of
view.
A first notion demanding reconsideration
was that of integrability, which had played so
great a part in earlier work. In 1887 Bruns
had proved that there were no further al-
gebraic integrals in the problem of three bod-
ies. Poincaré showed that in the so-called
restricted problem there were no further in-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1307
tegrals existing for all values of a certain
parameter and in the vicinity of a particular
periodic orbit. Later (1906) Levi-Civita has
pointed out that there are further integrals
of a similar type in the vicinity of part of
any orbit.
Thus it has become clear that the question
as to whether a given dynamical problem is
integrable or not depends on the kind of
definition adopted. However, the most nat-
ural definitions have reference to the vicinity
of a particular periodic motion. The intro-
duction of a parameter by Poincaré is to be
regarded as irrelevant to the essence of the
matter.
From the standpoint of pure mathematics,
a just estimate of the results found in in-
tegrable problems may be obtained by refer-
ence to the problem of two bodies, or, more
simply still, of the spherical pendulum. The
integration by means of elliptic functions
shows that the pendulum bob rotates about the
vertical axis of the sphere through a certain
angle in swinging between successive highest
and lowest points. But the form of the differ-
ential equation renders this principal qualita-
tive result self-evident, while the most ele-
mentary existence theorems for differential
equations assure one of the possibility of ex-
plicit computation. Hence the essential im-
portance of carrying out the explicit integra-'
tion lies in its advantages for purposes of
computation.
The series used in the calculations of the
lunar theory and other similar theories were
given their proper setting by Poincaré. He
showed that they were in general divergent,
but were suitable for calculation because they
represented the dynamical coordinates in an
asymptotic sense.
The fact that the first order perturbations
of the axes in the lunar theory can be
formally represented by such trigonometric
series had led astronomers to believe that the
perturbations remained small for all time.
But the fact of divergence made the argument
for stability inconclusive.
It is easy to see that this question of
stability, largely unsolved even to-day, is of
fundamental importance from the point of
JANUARY 16, 1920]
view formulated above. For, in a broad
sense, the question is that of determining the
general character of the limitations upon the
possible variations of the coordinates in dy-
namical problems.
We wish to mention briefly four important
steps in advance in this direction.
The first is due to Hill who showed in his
paper that, in the restricted problem of three
bodies, with constants so chosen as to give the
best approximation for the lunar theory, the
Moon remains within a certain region about
the Earth, not extending to the Sun. In fact
here there is an integral yielding the squared
relative velocity as a function of position, and
the velocity is imaginary outside of this
region.
In his turn, Poincaré showed that stability
exists in another sense, namely for arbitrary
values of the coordinates and velocities there
exist nearby possible orbits of the Moon
which take on infinitely often approximately
the same set of values. His reasoning is ex-
tremely simple, and is founded on a hydro-
dynamic interpretation in which the orbits
appear as the stream lines of a three-dimen-
sional incompressible fluid of finite volume in
steady motion. A moving molecule of such a
fluid must indefinitely often partially re-
occupy its original position with indefinite
lapse of time, and this fact yields the stated
conclusion.
In 1901 under the same conditions Levi-
Civita proved that, if the mean motions of
the Sun and Moon about the Earth are com-
mensurable, instability exists in the following
sense: orbits as near as desired to the funda-
mental periodic lunar orbit will vary from
that periodic orbit by an assignable amount
after sufficient lapse of time. This result,
which is to be anticipated from the physical
point of view, makes it highly probable that
instability exists in the incommensurable case
also.
These three results refer to the restricted
problem of three bodies.
Finally there is Sundman’s remarkable
work on the unrestricted problem contained
in his papers of 1912 and of earlier date.
Lagrange had proved that if a certain energy
SCIENCE 53
constant is negative, the sum of the mutual
distances of the three bodies becomes infinite.
Sundman showed that, even if this constant
is positive, the sum of the three mutual dis-
tances always exceeds a definite positive quan-
tity, at least if the motion is not essentially
in a single plane. Thus he incidentally veri-
fied a conjecture of Weierstrass that the
three bodies can never collide simultaneously.
These and other results seem to me to render
it probable that im general the sum of the
three distances increases indefinitely. Thus,
if this conjecture holds, in that approxima-
tion where the Harth, Sun and Moon are
taken as three particles, the Earth and Moon
remain near each other but recede from the
Sun indefinitely. The situation is worthy of
the attention of those interested in astronomy
and in atomic physics.
As we have formulated the concept of
stability, it is essentially that of a permanent
inequality restricting the coordinates. We
may call a dynamical system transitive in a
domain under consideration if motions can be
found arbitrarily near any one state of motion
of the domain at a particular time which pass
later arbitrarily near any other given state.
In such a domain there is instability. If we
employ the hydrodynamic interpretation used
above, the molecule of fluid will diffuse
throughout the corresponding volume in the
transitive case, and will diffuse only partially
or not at all in the intransitive case. The
geodesics on surfaces of negative curvature,
treated by Hadamard in 1898, furnish a
simple illustration of a transitive system,
while the integrable problem of two bodies
yields an intransitive system. Probably only
under very special conditions does intransi-
tivity arise.
It is an outstanding problem of dynamics
to determine the character of the domains
within which a given dynamical system is
transitive.
A less difficult subject than that of stability
is presented by the singularities of the
motions such as arise in the problem of three
bodies at collision. The work of Levi-Civita
and Sundman especially has shown that the
singularities can frequently be eliminated by
o4
means of appropriate changes of variables.
In consequence the coordinates of dynamical
systems admit of simple analytic representa-
tion for all values of the time. In particular
Sundman has proved that the coordinates and
the time in the problem of three bodies can
be expressed in terms of permanently con-
vergent power series, and thus he has “ solved”
the problem of three bodies in the highly arti-
ficial sense proposed by Painlevé in 1897.
Unfortunately these series are valueless either
as a means of obtaining qualitative informa-
tion or as a basis for numerical computation,
and thus are not of particular importance.
From early times the mind of man has
persistently endeavored to characterize the
properties of the motions of the stars by
means of periodicities. It seems doubtful
whether any other mode of satisfactory de-
scription is possible. The intuitive basis for
this is easily stated: any motion of a dy-
namical system must tend with lapse of time
towards a characteristic cyclic mode of be-
havior.
Thus, in characterizing the motions of a
dynamical system, those of periodic type are
of central importance and simplicity. Much
recent work has dealt with the existence of
periodic motions, mainly for dynamical sys-
tems with two degrees of freedom.
An early method of attack was that of
analytical continuation, due to Hill and Poin-
earé. A periodic motion maintains its ident-
ity under continuous variation of a parameter
in the dynamical problem, and may be fol-
lowed through the resultant changes. G.
Darwin, F. R. Moulton and others have ap-
plied this method to the restricted problem
of three bodies. Symmetrical motions can be
treated frequently by particularly simple
methods. Hill made use of this fact in his
work.
Another method is based on the geodesic in-
terpretation of dynamical problems. This has
been developed by Hadamard, Poincaré, Whit-
taker, myself, and others. The closed geodesics
correspond to the periodic motions, and the
fact that certain closed geodesics of minimum
length must exist forms the basis of the argu-
ment in many cases. As an example of an-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1307
other type, take any surface with the con-
nectivity of a sphere and imagine to lie in
it a string of the minimum length which can
be slipped over the surface. Clearly in being
slipped over the surface there will be an
intermediate position in which the string will
be taut and will coincide with a closed
geodesic.
Finally there is a less immediate method of
attack which Poincaré introduced in 1912,
and which I have tried to extend. By it the
existence of periodic motions is made to de-
pend on the existence of invariant points of
certain continua under one-to-one continuous
transformation. The successful application
of this method involves a preliminary knowl-
edge of certain of the simpler periodic
motions.
Periodic motions fall into two classes which
we may call hyperbolic and elliptic. In the
hyperbolic case analytic families of nearby
motions asymptotic to the given periodic
motion in either sense exist, while all other
nearby motions approach and then recede
from it with the passing of time. In the
elliptic case the motion is formally stable,
but the phenomenon of asymptotic families
not of analytic type arises unless the motion
is stable in the sense of Levi-Civita.
In a very deep sense the periodic motions
bear the same kind of relation to the totality
of motions that repeating doubly infinite
sequences of integers 1 to 9 such as
ee ZOZON ey ere
do to the totality of such sequences.
In trying to deal with the totality of
possible types motion it seems desirable to
generalize the concept of periodic motion to
recurrent motion as follows: any motion is
recurrent if, during any interval of time in
the past or future of sufficiently long dur-
ation 7’, it comes arbitrarily near to all of its
states of motion. With this definition I have
proved that every motion is either recurrent
or approaches with uniform frequency arbi-
trarily near a set of recurrent motions.
The recurrent motions correspond to those
double sequences specified above in which every
finite sequence which is present at all occurs
JANUARY 16, 1920]
at least once in every set of N successive in-
tegers of the sequence.
In any domain of transitivity the two ex-
treme types of motion are the recurrent
motions on the one hand and the motions
which pass arbitrarily near every state of
motion in the domain on the other. Both
types necessarily exist, as well as other inter-
mediate types.
The precise nature of such recurrent mo-
tions has yet to be determined, but Dr. H. C.
M. Morse in his 1918 dissertation at Harvard
has shown that there exists mnon-periodic
recurrent motions of entirely new type in
simple dynamical problems.
Such are a few of the steps in advance that
theoretical dynamics has taken in recent
years. I wish in conclusion to illustrate by
a very simple example the type of powerful
and general geometric method of attack first
used by Poincaré.
Consider a particle P of given mass in
rectilinear motion through a medium and
in a field of force such that the force act-
ing upon P is a function of its displace-
ment and velocity. In order to achieve sim-
plicity I will assume further that the law of
force is of such a nature that, whatever be the
initial conditions, the particle P will pass
through a fixed point O infinitely often.
_ If P passes O with velocity v it passes O
at a first later time with a velocity v, of
opposite sign. We have then a continuous
one-to-one functional relation 1, =f (v). If
» is taken as a one-dimensional coordinate in
a line, then the effect of the transformation
v,=f (2) is a species of qualitative “ reflec-
tion ” of the line about the point O.
If this “reflection” is repeated the result-
ant operation gives the velocity of P at the
second passage of O, and so on. But the
most elementary considerations show that
either (1) the reflection thus repeated brings
each point to its initial position, or (2) the
line is broken up into an infinite set of pairs
of intervals, one on each side of O, which are
reflected into themselves, or (8) there is a
finite set of such pairs of intervals, or (4) every
point tends toward O (or away from it) under
the double reflection.
Hence there are four corresponding types of
SCIENCE
5d
systems that may arise. Hither (1) every
motion is periodic and O is a position of
equilibrium, or (2) there is an infinite
discrete set of periodic motions of increas-
ing velocity and amplitude (counting the
equilibrium position at O as the first) such
that, in any other motion, P tends toward
one of these periodic motions as time in-
creases and toward an adjacent periodic mo-
tion in past time, or (8) there is a finite
set of periodic motions of similar type such
that, in any other motion, P behaves as just
stated, if there be added a last periodic mo-
tion with “infinite velocity and amplitude”
as a matter of convention, or (4) in every mo-
tion P oscillates with diminishing velocity and
amplitude about O as time changes in one
sense and with ever increasing velocity and
amplitude as time changes in the opposite
sense.
Here we have used the obvious fact that
there is a one-to-one correspondence between
velocity at O and maximum amplitude in the
immediately following quarter swing.
This example illustrates the central réle of
periodic motions in dynamical problems. It is
also easy to see in this particular example that
the totality of motions has been completely
characterized by these qualitative properties
in a certain sense which we shall not attempt
to elaborate.
_ What is the place of the developments re-
viewed above in theoretical dynamics?
The recent advances supplement in an im-
portant way the more physical, formal, and
computational aspects of the science by pro-
viding a rigorous and qualitative background.
_ To deny a position of great importance to
these results, because of a lack of emphasis
upon the older aspects of the science would be
as illogical as to deny the importance of the
concept of the continuous number system
merely because of the fact that in computa-
tion attention is confined to rational numbers.
Grorce D. BirkHOFF
SIR WILLIAM OSLER (1849-1919)
AFTER a tedious and painful illness, Sir
William Osler, Regius professor of medicine
at Oxford, died at his home in Norham Gar-
dens on December 9, 1919. In spite of in-
56 SCIENCE
termediate convalescence, a severe attack of
bronchitis, due to exposure through attending
a professional consultation, developed into a
pneumonia with pleurisy and empyema, neces-
sitating surgical drainage; and although he
had been cheerful three days before his death,
the end was gravely apprehended by those
around him. He is survived by his widow,
Lady Osler, and two brothers, his only son
having been killed in the war.
Sir William Osler, the son of Rev. F. L.
Osler of Falmouth, England, was born at
Bond Head, Province of Ontario, Canada, on
July 12, 1849. A medical graduate of Mc-
Gill University (1872) with the customary
post graduate study in the London clinies and
German universities, he became lecturer and
professor of the institutes of medicine at Mc-
Gill in 1874 and easily rose, without stress or
undue effort, to the top of his profession.
In succession, he was professor of medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania (18849)
and the Johns Hopkins University (1889-
1904), was appointed Regius professor of
medicine at the University of Oxford in 1904
and received his baronetey in 1911. On July
11, 1919, his seventieth birthday was honored
by the presentation of two anniversary vol-
umes made up of contributions by English
and American colleagues. Due to delays in
printing, the completed volumes reached him
only a few days before his death.
Of Osler’s scientific work, it may be said
that no great physician has been more firmly
grounded in the fundamental disciplines of
his calling. Of the arduous years of post-
mortem work at Montreal the Pathological
Reports of the Montreal General Hospital
(1876-80) are a permanent record, as also
the eight editions of the great text-book on
Practice of Medicine (1892), which has been
translated into French, German, Spanish and
Chinese. The disciple of Morgagni and Vir-
chow is equally apparent in the hundreds of
clinical papers, the larger monographs in
Osler’s “Modern Medicine” (1907-10), the
Gullstonian lectures on malignant endocar-
ditis (1885), and the separate treatises on
the cerebral palsies of children (41889),
chorea (1894), abdominal tumors (1895),
1 Scrence, September 12, 1919, p. 244.
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1307
angina pectoris (1897), and cancer of the
stomach (1900). From the start he did
much original investigation of high quality.
At the age of twenty-five (1874), he described
the blood platelets associated with the name
of Bizzozero, and defined their status as the
third corpuscle of the blood and their rela-
tion to the formation of thrombi. Such early
papers as those on the blood in pernicious
anemia (1877), overstrain of the heart (1878),
fusion of the semi-lunar valves (1880) reveal
the born clinical and pathological observer.
Osler was a profound student of all modes of
aneurism, of tuberculosis, of typhoid fever, of
disorders of the circulation. He was the first
to emphasize the relation between mycotic
aneurism and mycotie endocarditis, first de-
seribed the ball-valve thrombus at the mitral
orifice, the visceral complication of erythema
multiforme (1895), chronic cyanosis with
polycythemia, known as WVaquez’ disease
(1895), multiple telangiectasis (1901), the
erythematous spots in malignant endocarditis
(1908), and he discovered the parasite of
verminous bronchitis in dogs (filaria Osleri,
1877). But to sense the magnitude of Osler’s
clinical work, it must be taken by and large
in the 730 titles of the recently* published
Osler Bibliography (1919).
At the farewell banquet given him in New
York in 1904, Osler said that he desired to be
remembered in a single line: “He taught
clinical medicine in the wards.” He found
his great opportunity when he became phys-
ician to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dur-
ing the six years intervening between the
opening of the hospital (1889) and the begin-
ning of undergraduate instruction in medi-
eine (1893), Osler blocked out the arrange-
ments for a graded whole-time upper resident
staff of men of exceptional promise, a lower
resident staff of one year internes, careful
instruction in case-taking and clinical lab-
oratory work for third year students and the
appointment of fourth year students as “ clin-
ical clerks,” in actual charge of patients in
hospital, for three months each. The feeling
of confidence and of personal responsibility
acquired by these advantages was further
strengthened by assigning advanced pupils to
JANUARY 16, 1920]
teach extempore, to read and report on for-
eign literature, to cultivate the history of
their profession. In his Saturday night meet-
ings at his home in West Franklin Street, his
aim with young students was to make good
physicians of them, to make good men out
of them, to teach them to think for them-
selves and to be themselves. As Dr. H. M.
Thomas has said, Osler “put the students in
the wards, but he did not leave them there;
he stayed with them’; and he adds: “ What
good there is in me as a teacher and a phys-
ician I owe to him.” This is the common
sentiment, that he took his students with him
into the upper reaches of their profession and
the broad sunshine of actual life. Only
Astley Cooper or Carl Ludwig could have
produced such a train of loyal disciples; only
Pasteur could have inspired such universal
regard and affection.
Space permits but a passing reference to
Osler’s work on the history of medicine, to
which, through his personal interest and his
many unique contributions, he gave a greater
impetus than any other; to his civic activities,
his labors in behalf of medical libraries, his
splendid service to his country in wartime.
His great collection of original texts and
documents relating to discoveries and ad-
vanees in the science and art of medicine,
the hobby of his later years, was all but com-
pleted as to items, but the big human touch
which would have made its catalogue one of
the unique things in medical bibliography
could only have been given by Osler himself.
Hssentially English in character, Osler had,
through his forebears, Cornish and Spanish
elements in his composition, easily sensed in
the “hauntings of Celtism” in his ringing
eloquent voice, the suggestion of the hidalgo
in his slender, aristocratic figure, the clean-
cut features and the tropical brown eyes. His
was the longish head of the man of action,
the active practitioner against disease and
pain. Osler’s warm glance and utter friendli-
ness of manner told how naturally fond he
was of people. He had the gift of making
almost any one feel for the moment as if he
were set apart as a valued particular friend,
and so became, in effect, a kind of universal
SCIENCE 57
friend to patients, pupils and colleagues alike.
But there was nothing of the politician in
him. He rather paid with his person through
the demands made by importunate patients
and visitors upon his time. Such an effective
concentration of the “fluid, attaching char-
acter” has seldom been found in a single
personality, possessed, as it were, by the im-
partial, non-exclusive spirit of all pervading
Nature, “ which never was the friend of one,”
But lit for all its generous sun,
And lived itself, and made us live.
Many are the tales of the clever hoaxing
and practical joking put over by Osler on his
boon companions and professional fellows in
his salad days, but the chaffing was carried
on in'such a jolly spirit that it left no sting
behind. In his address on the male climac-
teric, delivered on the occasion of his retire-
ment from the Johns Hopkins faculty, he
found to his dismay that he had chaffed a
whole nation. The hazards incurred by his
chance reference to Trollope’s fable about
“ chloroforming at sixty” have been set forth
at undue length in the public press and even
on the stage. But Osler’s reasoning about the
comparative uselessness of men at sixty, in
the face of the imposing array of exceptions
in Longfellow’s “ Morituri Salutamus,” was
obviously an expression of his essential prefer-
ence for and innate sympathy with the on-
coming race of younger people, whose worth
he had sensed many times over in his be-
loved pupils.
The last two years of Sir William Osler’s
life were clouded by the death of his only son,
Lieutenant Revere Osler, an artillery officer
and a youth of great promise, who was killed
in the action about Ypres in 1917. This he
bore bravely, concealing his grief from his
friends and busying himself with his own
duties to the sick and wounded, but, the war
at an end, his loneliness increased in spite of
the companionship of his wife and his ever-
generous hospitality to American officers and
physicians. Toward the end, his intimates be-
gan to realize that he had “trod the upward
and the downward slope” and was done with
life. Up to that time he had remained cheer-
58 SCIENCE
ful, buoyant, resilient, as if, like the beloved
of the gods, he was predestined to die young.
Yet the supreme test was nobly borne, and
to many of his pupils and colleagues, who see
in the death of this great, benignant phys-
ician, the loss of their best friend, the ex-
pressions of ancient belief will not seem un-
availing: Requiem eternam dona ei, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat et.
F. H. Garrison
Army Mepicat MusrEuM
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
A BOTANIC SCHOOL IN REGENT’S PARK
THE report of the committee appointed last
April by Lord Ernle, the former president
of the British Board of Agriculture, to con-
sider what steps should be taken to improve
the usefulness of the Royal Botanic Society
in London, is now published and an abstract
is given in the London Times. The members
of the committee, all of whom sign the report,
were: Lieutenant-Colonel Sir David Prain,
F.R.S., director of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew (chairman); Sir W. H. Dunn; Surgeon-
General Sir A. Keogh, Imperial College of
Science and Technology; Sir Malcolm Morris;
Major R. C. Carr;Mr. Morton Evans, joint
secretary of the Office of Woods; Mr. H. J.
Greenwood, L.O.C.; and Professor F. W.
Keeble, F.R.S., Board of Agriculture and
Fisheries and Royal Horticultural Society;
with Mr. G. C. Gough, B.Sce., secretary.
The society was incorporated in 1839, and
was granted a lease of 18 acres in Regent’s
Park until 1870. This lease was renewed by
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in
1870, and in 1901 at an increased rental. The
present lease terminates in 1932.
The committee have formed the opinion
that the Royal Botanic Society could be made
more useful both from the scientific and edu-
cational point of view by the establishment
of: (1) A school of economic botany, at which
a knowledge of the economic plants and their
products including those of tropical regions,
might be obtained; (2) an institute which
might be made a center for research, more
especially in plant physiology where the living
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1307
plant is essential; (3) a center for teaching
in horticulture, the students of which could
receive their necessary training in pure
science at existing London colleges; (4)
courses in school gardening, at times suitable
for teachers in elementary, continuation, and
other schools. In addition, the committee
consider that the gardens might extend their
present utility as a center from which colleges
and botany schools could be supplied with
material for teaching and research, and in
which students could make use of the existing
facilities for the study of systematic botany.
In an appendix the committee deal with the
financial side of the scheme. They consider
that the suggestions need not entail, in their
initial stages, any very great expenditure.
Buildings should be of a temporary nature
and of not more than two stories, and might
be erected near the present greenhouses.
After giving details of the laboratories and
rooms required, the committee suggest that
the staff should consist of the following:
A director at a salary of £800 to £1,000, able
to cooperate with the teachers of botany in
London, and with a knowledge of economic
problems or of vegetable physiology. An as-
sistant director, salary £500 to £700, to be
appointed after the director. His knowledge
should supplement that of the director—e. g.,
if the former be an economic botanist the
latter should be a physiological botanist. An
assistant, salary £250 to £400, to act as curator
of the museum and librarian, with a general
knowledge of plant diseases. At least one of
the officers should have a practical knowledge
of the tropics, tropical plants, and their
products.
The committee estimate the total cost of
the staff, with attendants, etc., at £3,000 to
£3,500 per annum; the cost of the buildings,
£4,000; and the cost of equipment, including
books, plants, ete., £500.
THE ATTITUDE OF GERMAN PHYSICIANS
TOWARDS INHUMAN ACTION
Ir will be remembered that a protest signed
by M. Calmette and four other members of
scientific organizations who had remained at
Lille during the occupation by the Germans,
JANUARY 16, 1920]
charged acts of inhumanity, saying in conclu-
sion: “ The high command in Germany willed
the war, but the people in arms approved it,
and resolutely waged war with the most
ferociously cruel means, even the physicians
with the army doing the most odious acts
without a word of excuse, regret or pity.”
The Deutsche, medizinische Wochenschrift of
April 10, 1919, as quoted in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, related
that the matter was brought up in the Berlin
Medical Society, and Calmette’s protest and
the resolutions voted thereon by the Académie
de médecine at Paris were discussed. Dr.
Fuld offered a resolution that the society
should go on record as expressing its regret
at such happenings as were specified in the
Calmette protest, but his suggestion was op-
posed by Orth and others, the speakers saying
that there was no proof of the truth of the
statements made by Calmette, and no voting
should be done on a matter of which only one
side had been presented. Finally a committee
was appointed to report after obtaining an
official copy of the resolutions that had been
adopted by the Académie. The Wochenschrift
of November 6, 1919, relates that this com-
mittee recently presented its report. It was
in the form of a resolution which was adopted
without a dissenting voice. The members of
the committee were Fuld, Kraus, Krause,
Morgenroth and Schwalbe, the latter the
editor of the Wochenschrift. The resolution
in translation reads:
The Berlin Medical Society is not in a position to
pass judgment on the Manifesto of the Lille pro-
fessors and the Académie de Médicine and on the
published justification issued by the German au-
thorities, entitled ‘‘Lille under German Rule and
the Criticism of the Foe.’’ But the society does
not hesitate to declare openly that it condemns in
the most unqualified manner all inhuman actions,
wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever they may
be committed. This attitude corresponds to the
spirit of medicine always held high by the Ger-
man medical profession, that really international
spirit to which we are loyal and to which we as-
sume all other physicians are loyal wherever they
may be and to whatever nation they may belong.
SCIENCE
59
CONFERENCE ON WASTE OF NATURAL GAS
A pupiic conference of governors, public
utility commissioners, state geologists, home
economic experts, natural gas companies,
owners and officials, and appliance manufac-
turers has been called by Secretary of the
Interior Lane to meet under the auspices of
the Bureau of Mines at the Interior Depart-
ment Building, Washington on January 15,
to discuss the waste of natural gas in this
country both by consumers and gas companies.
As a result of the work of the experts of the
bureau on this question, it is declared that
in using natural gas the consumers through
faulty appliances obtain an efficiency of about
18 per cent. from a gas cook stove, 25 per
cent. from a house-heating furnace, and 10:
per cent. from a hot-water heater, although in
good practise these efficiencies can be trebled.
Dr. Van H. Manning, director of the Bureau
of Mines, writes in regard to the purposes of
the conference:
Domestic consumers waste more than 80 per
cent. of the gas received. The efficiency of most
cooking and heating appliances could be trebled.
By making natural gas worth saving the 2,400,000
domestic consumers in the United States could get
the same cooking and heating service with one
third the gas; that is, make one foot of gas do the
work of three and greatly delay the day when the
present supplies will be exhausted and consumers
must go back to more expensive manufactured
gas.
It is time for the public to take a new view-
point on the waste of natural gas. It is time for
the domestic consumer to realize that his duty is
not done when he eries out against the flagrant
wastes occurring in the gas fields and demands of
his government that such wastes be abated; he
must realize that he himself is likewise at fault
and that it is time for him to set his own house in.
order. Furthermore, the domestic consumer must
realize that these wastes do not concern him alone,
and consequently he has not the right, merely be-
cause he pays for the gas, to employ it in any
manner that pleases him, no matter how wasteful.
Natural gas is a natural resource in which every
inhabitant of this country has an equity. Those
who waste the gas do so at the expense of those
who would use it efficiently. Natural gas is not
replaced by nature, and in comparison with the life
60 SCIENCE
of the nation the duration of the supply will be
brief.
The public has a right, therefore, to demand that
this natural asset be used to the greatest advantage
of all and that no one be allowed to waste it. Nat-
ural gas in each ctiy is a community asset and
every consumer has a right to demand that waste-
ful use shall be prohibited in the interest of the
public service. This is particularly important dur-
ing cold spells in the winter when the supply is in-
sufficient and actual suffering may occur. Clearly,
it is not right that any consumer suffer at such
times because of the extravagance and waste of
other consumers, even though they are willing to
pay for the gas wasted. Nor can the citizens
justify demands for better service from the public
utilities without making provision to correct
abuses in their own homes. It must be recognized
that the publie has been and is to-day just as much
a party to the crime of wasting this natural re-
source as are the companies that produce and
market it.
SCIENTIFIC LECTURES
Unper the auspices of the division of geology
of Harvard University, Dr. James Mackintosh
Bell, former government geologist of New Zeal-
and, will give a series of nine lectures on topics
in economic geology. These lectures are
given in the Geological Lecture Room, Geolog-
ical Museum, at 4.30 o’clock, and will be open
to the public. The dates and titles are as fol-
lows:
January 5. ‘‘The Waihi goldfield, New Zea-
land.’’
January 7. ‘‘The Mount Morgan copper mine,
Queensland. ’’
January 9. ‘‘The Mount Bischoff tin mine, Tas-
mania,’’
January 12. ‘‘The Mount Lyell copper mine,
Tasmania. ’?
January 14. ‘‘The Spassky copper mines, Si-”
beria,’’
January 16. ‘‘The Atbasar copper mines, Si-
beria.”?”
January 19. ‘‘The Sadbury nickel-copper area,
Ontario. ’’
January 20. ‘‘The Cobalt Silver Camp, On-
tario.’’
January 21. ‘‘The Poreupine goldfields, On-
tario.’’
Tue following are among the lectures to be
given at the Royal Institution: Professor W.
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1307
H. Bragg, six lectures adapted to a juvenile
auditory on The World of Sound; Sir John
Cadman, two lectures on (1) Modern Develop-
ment of the Miner's Safety Lamp and (2)
Petroleum and the War; Professor G. Elliot
Smith, three lectures on The Evolution of
Man and the Early History of Civilization;
Professor Ernest Wilson, two lectures on
Magnetic Susceptibility; Professor Arthur
Keith, four lectures on British Ethnology:
The Invaders of England; Professor A. E.
Conrady, two lectures on Recent Progress in
Photography; Professor A. H. Smith, two lec-
tures on Illustrations of Ancient Greek and
Roman Life in the British Museum; Lieu-
tenant-Colonel E. Gold, two lectures on The
Upper Air; Sir F. W. Dyson, Astronomer
Royal, three lectures on The Astronomical
Evidence bearing on Einstein’s Theory of
Gravitation; and Sir J. J. Thomson, six lec-
tures on Positive Rays. The Friday evening
discourses will begin on Friday, January 16,
1920, at 9 o’cock, when Sir James Dewar will
deliver a discourse on Low-temperature Stud-
ies. Succeeding discourses will probably be
given by Sir C. A. Parsons, Mr. 8. G. Brown,
Professor W. M. Bayliss, Dr. E. J. Russell,
Mr. W. B. Hardy, the Hon. J. W. Fortescue,
Professor J. A. Fleming, Mr. E. McCurdy, Sir
J. J. Thomson, and others.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
At a meeting of the Société de Pathologie
exotique at the Institut Pasteur of Paris,
held on December 10, Dr Simon Flexner of
The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re-
search, in New York, was elected an associate
member. Dr. Flexner was also elected to as-
sociate membership in the Société Royale des
Sciences Médicales et Naturelles of Brussels,
at a meeting held on December 1, and to the
Société Belge de Biologie of Brussels, at its
meeting of December 6. On December 22,
Dr. Flexner was made a corresponding mem-
ber of the Bataafsch Genootschap der Proe-
fondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte of Rotterdam,
Holland.
OrriciaL notice has been issued by the
French Academy of Sciences of the award of
JANUARY 16, 1920]
the Bordin prize in mathematics to Dr. S.
Lefschetz, assistant professor of mathematics
in the University of Kansas, and of the La-
lande prize in astronomy to Dr. V. M. Slipher,
director of the Lowell Observatory at Flag-
staff.
Former assistants of Dr. Edwin R. Le
Count, professor of pathology in Rush Med-
ical College, tendered him a banquet on
December 17 and presented him with two
paintings as a recognition of esteem and
gratitude. The presentation address was made
by Dr. Frank R. Nuzum, Janesville, Wis., who
presided. Addresses were also made by Drs.
Herman A. Brennecke, Aurora; George E.
Clements, Crawfordsville, Ind.; Wiliiam H.
Burmeister, George H. Coleman, Arthur H.
Curtis, Morris Fishbein, Edward H. Hatton
and James P. Simonds, Chicago.
Surceon GeneraL Sim AtrrepD KerocH and
Sir Almroth E. Wright have had the honorary
degree of doctor of science conferred on them
by the University of Leeds.
Sm Donatp MacAnuister, superintendent
of the British Medical Council, has been in-
vested by President Poincaré, with the cross
of the commander of the Legion of Honor.
Dr. A. S. LorvenHART, professor of phar-
macology and toxicology at the University of
Wisconsin, was elected president of the Phar-
macological Society at the annual meeting
held in Cleveland last week.
Mr. Exmer H. Fincu, geologist of the U. S.
Geological Survey, has recently been ap-
pointed chairman of the Mineral Division
Land Classification Branch, U. S. Geological
Survey, succeeding Mr. A. R. Schultz, re-
signed.
Dr. Forest B. H. Brown, research fellow at
Yale University, has been appointed botanist
on the staff of the Bishop Museum at Hono-
lulu. Dr. Elizabeth Wuist Brown has been
appointed research associate in cryptogamic
botany in the same institution.
Dr. P. G. AcNnew, physicist in the Electrical
Division of the Bureau of Standards, has re-
signed to become secretary of the American
_ Engineering Standards Committee, with head-
SCIENCE 61
quarters at the Engineering Building, 29
West 39th Street, New York City.
Dr. ArtHur Lacuman, a well-known chem-
ist of San Francisco, formerly professor in the
University of Oregon, was last seen on the
street at noon on December 11, 1919. Since
then his family and friends have been unable
to obtain any clue or any trace of his where-
abouts. It seems probable that he had an
attack of amnesia with loss of identity and
wandered away. Dr. Lachman is known to
many readers of Scrmnce. Any one having in-
formation in regard to him is requested to
communicate with his family or with Dr.
Felix Langfeld, 272 Post St., San Francisco,
California.
Lancaster D. Buruine, invertebrate paleon-
tologist of the Geological Survey of Canada,
has accepted the position of geologist with
S. Pearsons and Sons, Limited, of London,
England. His first assignment is to work in
the old fields of Trinidad, for which he will
leave upon the first available sailing.
Captain W. E. Bropuy, C.E. (Columbia,
15), formerly of the Barrett Company and
later of the Chemical Warfare Service, U. S.
A., has joined the engineering staff of Arthur
D. Little, Inc., at Cambridge, Mass. In the
early part of the war, Captain Brophy had
charge of the construction and operation of
the plant at Astoria, Long Island, for the
manufacture of high absorbent carbon for use
in gas masks and later he designed, construc-
ted and operated an additional unit for the
purpose at San Francisco.
Dr. Hmryo Nogucui, of the Rockefeller In-
stitute for Medical Research, has landed at
the port of Progreso from which he will pro-
ceed to Merida in order to carry on confirma-
tory studies of his discovery of L. icteroides
and to try on a larger scale the curative prop-
erties of the specific serum prepared by him.
Mr. N. H. Darton, geologist of the U. S.
Geological Survey, will spend two months in
the Dominican Republic early in 1920 to in-
vestigate oil conditions for a New York com-
pany.
62 SCIENCE
At the thirty-sixth Annual Convention of
the Association of Official Agricultural Chem-
ists held at Washington beginning on Novem-
ber 17 the following officers were appointed
for the ensuing year: President H. C. Lyth-
goe, State Department of Health, Boston,
Mass.; Vice-president, W. F. Hand, Agricul-
tural College, Agricultural College, Miss.;
Secretary-Treasurer, C. L. Alsberg, Bureau of
Chemistry Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington, D. C. Additional members of the Ex-
ecutive Committee are O. H. Jones, Univer-
sity of Vermont, Burlington, Vt., and W. W.
Skinner, Bureau of Chemistry, Washington,
D. ©.
At the annual meeting of the Washington
Academy of Sciences, held on January 13,
Dr. F. L. Ransome, delivered the address of
the retiring president on “The Functions
and Ideals of a National Geological Survey.”
The sixth lecture of the series of The
Harvey Society will be by Dr. Carl Voegtlin,
professor of pharmacology, United States
Public Health Service, on “ Recent Work on
Pellagra ” at the New York Academy of Med-
icine on January 24 at 830.
Dr. Grorce Mactoskim, professor emeritus
of biology of Princeton University, died at
Princeton, on December 4 in his eighty-fifth
year.
Tue death is announced of Professor A.
Ricco, director of the Observatory of Catania
and vice-president of the International <As-
tronomical Union.
THE death is announced of. Professor E. H.
Bruns the director of the University Observa-
tory at Leipzig.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
AN anonymous gift of $1,000,000 has been
offered to Throop College of Technology, at
Pasadena, California, conditional upon an
equal amount being raised from other sources.
Mr. Gustavus F. Swirt, of Chicago, has
added $8,000 to the previous endowment of the
Gustavus F’. Swift Fellowship of the Univer-
sity of Chicago, making the income from that
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1307
fellowship amount to $925. This fellowship
is awarded for the encouragement of research,
and is given only to a student who has already
proved his capacity for investigation.
Dr. WitutiAM H. Waker, head of the Re-
search Library of Applied Chemistry at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has
been appointed head of the new division of
industrial cooperation and research.
Dr. M. G. SEELIG, has accepted the position
of professor of clinical surgery, at the School
of Medicine of Washington University at St.
Louis, Mo.
Dr. Water H. Eppy, of Teachers College,
Columbia University, associate in physiolog-
ical chemistry, has been appointed assistant
professor of physiological chemistry. Dr.
Eddy has recently returned from France,
where he served fifteen months with the
A. E. F., as major in the Sanitary Corps.
Harotp S. PauMeEr, instructor in geology in
Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., leaves on
February 1 for Honolulu to take charge of
the department of geology in the University
of Hawaii.
Sm RicHarp GLAzEBROOK, who recently re-
turned from the directorship of the British
National Physical Laboratory, has been ap-
pointed to the Zaharoff chair of aviation
tenable at the Imperial College of Science and
Technology, founded by Sir Basil Zaharoff,
who gave to the university the sum of £25,000
for this purpose.
Dr. G. M. Rosertson has been appointed to
a professorship of psychiatry and Dr. J. H.
Ashworth to a professorship of zoology in
the University of Edinburgh.
Dr. Fritz Panetu, director of the chemical
department of the German technical high
schools at Prague, has been appointed pro-
fessor of chemistry at the University. of
Hamburg.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
MUSICAL SANDS
Tue article on “Singing sands of Lake
Michigan” by W. D. Richardson, in ScmrENCE,
JANUARY 16, 1920]
November 28, gives suggestion for the present
writing.
The phenomenon of sonorous sands was
very thoroughly studied in the years 1882-
1889 by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton and Dr.
Alexis A. Julien, both of New York City.
The very interesting results of their enthu-
siastie research were published in several
short articles in the Proceedings of the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of
Science and in the Transactions of the New
York Academy of Sciences. A brief review
of their work may be worth the space.
The preliminary paper was read at the
Minneapolis meeting of the Association, 1883,
describing their study of the musical sands at
Manchester, Mass., and on the island of Higg
in the Hebrides; with reference to many other
localities. ‘This paper is printed in the Pro-
ceedings, volume 32, pages 251-252.
After a year of extensive travel and study
of the phenomenon, and with voluminous cor-
respondence, a second paper was read at the
Philadelphia meeting, 1884, and printed in
abstract in volume 33 of the Proceedings,
pages 408-415. In this article the sounds
emitted by the sands are indicated by musical
notation. Some search of old writings had
shown that allusions to the phenomenon were
found in the literature of the past one thou-
sand years; and that famous localities, like
Jebel Nagous, had been visited by many
travelers. A brief chronology of the study
and writings from the sixteenth century was
included.
In Volume 38 of the New York Academy
Transactions, pages 72-76 and 97-99, for
1884, Dr. Bolton described the phenomenon
on the Baltic coast, and in the sand-hill of
Arabia and Afghanistan, especially at Jabel
Nakous, or “ Mountain of the Bell” on the
Gulf of Suez. A paragraph at the close of
that article is worth quoting.
The localities in which sonorous sand is found
may be divided into three classes: first, sea- and
fresh-water beaches, where all the sand possesses
the sound-producing quality permanently, as at
Higg, Manchester, Plattsburg, ete.; secondly, sea-
beaches where small tracts of the sand possess
SCIENCE 63
acoustic properties transiently, as along the At-
lantie coast, in New Jersey, North Carolina, and
on the Baltic; thirdly, sand-hills in the interior or
otherwise, whose steep slopes give rise to acoustic
phenomena of great magnitude, as at Kauai, in
Nevada, and at Jebel Nakous and Reg Ruwan.
Volume 8 of the Academy Transactions,
1888, pages 9-10, prints a letter giving the
conclusion of the authors as to the cause of
the sounds. And on pages 181-184 is given a
very interesting letter of Dr. Bolton, from
Egypt, describing his visit to Jabel Nagous.
In Volume 9, 1889-1890, pages 21-25, Dr.
Bolton gives a fuller account of his visit to
Arabia Petraea, and also a summary of the
conclusions reached by Dr. Julien and him-
self, as follows:
Dr. Julien and I believe that the true cause of
sonorousness in the sands of singing beaches and
of deserts is connected with thin pellicles or films
of air, or of gases thence derived, deposited and
eondensed upon the surface of the sand-grains dur-
ing gradual evaporation after wetting by seas and
lakes or by rains. By virtue of these films, the
sand-grains become separated by elastie cushions
of condensed gases, capable of considerable vibra-
tion, and whose thickness we have approximately
determined. The extent of the vibration and the
volume and pitch of the sound thereby produced,
after any quick disturbance of the sand, we also
find to be largely dependent upon the forms, struc-
tures and surfaces of the sand-grains, and espe-
cially upon their purity or freedom from fine silt
or dust.
In Volume 8, page 10, of the New York
Academy Transactions, is described the open-
ing by Dr. Bolton of two packages of sea sand
collected at Rockaway Beach four and five
years previous, and which gave distinct high
notes when quickly rubbed or shaken.
The present writer has a large bottle of the
Rockaway Beach sand, collected with Dr.
Bolton on that summer day in 1884, when the
beach was singing clearly. The bottle has
been closed with a cork stopper, but was
opened, for a minute, a few years ago for re-
moving a sample. The bulk of the sand has
been in the bottle over thirty-five years. This
day, December 2, it has been poured into a
stocking, and when quickly compressed has
64
given clearly the characteristic high note,
audible at considerable distance. But since
it has been spread out in the warm dry room,
and received some handling, it has lost the
sonorous quality.
H. L. Famcuitp
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
MORE ON SINGING SANDS
To THE EpiTor oF Science: The comment
of Mr. Richardson in a recent number of
Science (November 28, 1919) on the singing
sands of Lake Michigan, calls to mind some
observations made a number of years ago that
should be considered in connection with the
hypothesis he advances to explain the singing
quality of the sand.
These sands were encountered by us in
connection with the soil survey of Allegan,
county, Michigan. The singing quality was
particularly well developed within four to six
rods of the lake shore. We collected a sample
of several hundred pounds which was for-
warded to the Bureau of Soils at Washington.
After the material was in the sack on the
beach, the singing quality could be developed
by merely running the fingers through the
sands.
The material was shipped by freight and
stored in the basement of the building then
occupied by the bureau. Some months later
the material was looked up and examined. It
had completely lost its singing quality. Of
course it had dried out. There was no leach-
ing and presumably no change in chemical
composition.
It has seemed to me that this quality is
associated with two primary factors namely:
(a) Very well rounded and smooth particles,
(b) A particular amount and condition of
moisture. Neither a very wet nor a very dry
condition suffices. We have noticed a slight
tendency to this singing quality in walking
over the sand dunes in that section of Mich-
igan, if the foot is jammed into the sand so
as to get below the very dry surface layer and
into contact with the somewhat moist sand
immediately below.
I am inclined to think the percentage of
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1307
moisture when coupled with the smooth,
rounded particles is the chief factor in devel- °
oping singing sand. That per cent. is some-
where in the region of the lento-capillary
point or the margin between hygroscopic and
free capillary moisture where, due to surface
attraction of the sand particle, film movement
is very sluggish. It might be defined as the
first stage of film solidification.
Eimer O. Fiepin
THE INITIAL COURSE IN BIOLOGY
THE botanists are more and more loudly
proclaiming their academic rights as against
the zoologists. In most American universi-
ties now there is a course in general biology,
and it is given, often entirely, by the depart-
ment of zoology. It is a very large course,
running scmetimes to several hundred stu-
dents a year. It involves a large staff, assist-
ant professors, instructors and assistants, and
thus provides places for graduate students
without fellowships. Sometimes it carries
more patronage than all the other courses in
zoology, botany and related subjects combined.
Naturally the botanists feel aggrieved, when
they compare the few students who reach their
courses, and the inadequacy of the assistant-
ships for their support in botany, with the
opulent conditions in the department of
zoology.
Professor George E. Nichols has presented
recently in Science data bearing on this
matter, and has discussed with fairness and
ability the question of the initial course in
biology. The initial course in any field is a
difficult subject: whether it should be designed
primarily as introductory for those who in-
tend to go further, or as broadly educational
for those who can not.
T take it as axiomatic that there is a certain
minimum of information regarding matters
biological which every educated man ought to
have, and that this would consist particularly
in some knowledge of the living human body.
In fact, however, a large number of students
are passing through our universities, many
are eyen taking courses in biology, who fail
JANUARY 16, 1920]
to obtain this minimum. I have known of
engineering students who believed that the
child is born through the umbilicus. I have
sat opposite to an astronomer who refused
to finish a glass of dark beer when he learned
that in passing from his mouth and stomach
to his kidneys the black and foaming fluid in
the glass in front of him would have to go
through his heart.
I am inclined to agree with Professor
Nichols that general biology, as given by zool-
ogists, is a course which is suited primarily to
introduce students to animal morphology.
But I doubt whether a course of this sort half
as long, followed in February by an exactly
similar course by botanists and introducing
students equally to plant morphology, would
be a better arrangement.
To my mind neither the zoologists nor the
botanists should give the initial course, for if
either or both have a hand in it, it will have
the emphasis of a specialist. It will deal
primarily with morphology plus a single funce-
tion, that of reproduction.
The initial course should be a course in
physiology. I may illustrate what I mean
by speaking of zoologists as specialists, by
quoting a distinction which I once heard a
physicist give of the difference, as he saw it
impartially, between zoology, or general biol-
ogy, on the one hand, and physiology on the
other. The former, he said, dealt with re-
production, the latter with all the other func-
tions of life.
Now it is nice to know about amebe and
frogs and the germination of seeds, but a
lawyer, or an engineer, or a journalist, or even
a doctor, can get along and yet know very
little of such matters. If, however, he has no
notion of his own insides—of what purpose
his food serves, and of why he keeps breath-
ing—well, he simply is not an educated man.
Eyen for the student who is going far in
zoology, or botany, I believe that the first
great lesson should be in function, with struc-
ture included along with, but not emphasized
above, chemical and physical basic facts.
The student should begin, therefore, in that
field in which knowledge of function has been
SCIENCE 65
most highly developed, a field which has the
most powerful appeal for a human being, the
field of “human,” that is, mammalian, phys-
iology as presented par excellence in that
marvelous little book, Huxley’s “Lessons in
Elementary Physiology.”
It seems—at least some of us hope—that to-
day we are about to see a displacement of the
academic college course in favor of a junior
college, which would give such general sub-
jects as the languages, American history, ele-
mentary chemistry and physics, and the one
or two other things that every one should
have; to be followed in the senior college by
groups of increasingly specialized studies,
each group aimed to a definite end. If this
is to come, neither the course in general biol-
ogy which Professor Nichols condemns, nor
the combined elementary zoology-botany which
he favors, is entitled to a place in the curricu-
lum of the junior college.
But a brief course in human physiology is.
At least, so thinks a physiologist.
YANDELL HENDERSON
YALE UNIVERSITY
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
The Fauna of the Clyde Sea Area, being an
attempt to record the zoological results ob-
tained by the late Sir John Murray and his
assistants on board §. Y. Medusa during the
years 1884 to 1892. By James CHUMLEY.
Glasgow. Printed at the University Press.
1918. Pages vi-+ 200, 1 map and 3 figures
in text. ‘
The former secretary of the Challenger
Office and of the Lake Survey of Scotland,
Mr. James Chumley, for many years asso-
ciated with the late oceanographer and marine
zoologist, Sir John Murray, has compiled the
data regarding the latter’s explorations of the
Clyde Sea Area in a “ Fauna” of that region.
The work has been financed by the Carnegie
trustees for the universities of Scotland. The
work contains brief account of the Scottish
biological stations at Granton and Millport,
which respectively preceded and succeeded the
explorations which are here summarized.
66 SCIENCE
The physiographic investigations made during
this survey were published in the Trans-
actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in
1892 and 1894 by Dr. H. R. Mill, but the
zoological results had never been assembled
for publication.
The region surveyed has an area of 1,160
square miles and includes the Arran Basin,
the Great Plateau at its mouth, the Estuary
of the Clyde, and a series of narrow locks or
fiords of which Loch Tyne is the largest.
These locks have about 95 per cent. of normal
sea water and receive a mean tidal increment
of about 4 per cent. of their total volume so
that the habitat is typically marine in most
essential particulars, but modified by restric-
tions on circulation and the resulting condi-
tions in temperature typical of fiords.
The seven typical regions are treated sep-
arately in the faunistic summaries in which
the species are arranged systematically from
Protozoa to Vertebrata, with notes on locali-
ties, depths and frequencies. All groups are
represented except parasitic ones and Protozoa
other than Foraminifera, but somewhat un-
evenly and in the older nomenclatures in some
instances. The records are based mainly
upon the catches of the dredge rather than
those of the plankton net. There are two
full bibliographies arranged chronologically
and systematically. A grand summary in-
cludes 806 species of which only 8 per cent.
are found in all of the seven subdivisions.
It is highly probable that further explorations
will greatly increase the elements of the fauna
common to the several subdivisions.
This faunistic study will be useful to
American investigators of the North Atlantic
fauna as well as to those who will frequent
the newly established Bute Marine Laboratory
at Rothesay in the Clyde Sea Area, which for
research purposes replaces the Scottish Ma-
rine Laboratory at Millport, Isle of Cumbrae,
which is now in the possession of amateur
interests and in the service of more popular
aspects of the biological sciences. It is to be
hoped that the unparalleled service to marine
zoology rendered by Sir John Murray may in
time be recognized by a memorial on the
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1307
shores of Scotland in the form of a marine
biological and oceanographical research sta-
tion whose equipment and work will be worthy
of the name it should bear.
Cuarues A. Korom
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND ITS
OPPORTUNITY
PrrHAPS no other scientific body in this
country has the opportunities for cooperation
possessed by the Ecological Society. Its mem-
bership is made up of workers in zoology,
botany and forestry; its field is no less than
the relation of all life to its environment.
Last summer five members of the Ecological
Society, representing zoology, botany and
forestry, camped together near the summit of
Mt. Marey in the Adirondack mountains of
New York for the purpose of doing a con-
erete piece of cooperative research on the
plants and animals at timber line, and to
bring together into a list some of the prob-
lems in ecology. The persons and institu-
tions cooperating were: Barrington Moore,
president of the Ecological Society, Norman
Taylor, for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
George P. Burns for the Vermont Agricul-
tural Experiment Station, Charles C. Adams
and T. L. Hankinson for the New York State
College of Forestry at Syracuse.
The results of the study at timber-line will
be published elsewhere. The list of problems
is given below. The list is by no means all
inclusive, nor does it attempt to be thor-
oughly logical. It states general problems,
with their subdivisions, and gives also a
number of specific problems which in reality
form parts of general problems. The pur-
pose of this list is threefold: (1) to show
gaps in our scientific knowledge, or subjects
in which the fundamental facts needed for
further human progress are lacking; (2) to
show subjects in which cooperation is es-
sential, subjects which a given science can
earry only to a certain point and which must
be taken up by one or more other sciences
for solution; (8) to suggest specific problems
for research workers and students.
JANUARY 16, 1920]
GENERAL PROBLEMS
I. Factors influencing the distribution of land
plants and animals.
(1) Geographic position.
(2) Altitude. How far does altitude per se
influence distribution?
(3) Topography.
(a) Aspect, steepness of slope, valleys,
benches and other land forms.
(b) Influence of size of land mass of
mountains, 7. €., isolated moun-
tains vs. mountain masses.
(ce) Influence of water masses.
(4) Historical factors.
(a) Physical (geology, past climate).
(b) Biotic.
(5) Climate.
(a) Moisture.
(b) Temperature.
(¢e) Solar radiation or insolation.
(d) Light.
(e) Wind.
(6) Soil.
(a) Physical properties.
1. Texture, desirability of a phys-
ical constant: is wilting co-
efficient such a constant?
2. Soil moisture.
3. Soil air.
4. Soil temperature.
5. Soil stratification or profile.
(b) Chemical properties.
1. Solutions.
(a) Aqueous extracts (cor-
relations with fertil-
ity.
(b) Acid extracts.
(¢c) Full analyses,
2. Gases. Chemical properties of
soil air.
(¢) Biotic properties. All hfe plant as
well as animal, influencing the
soil.
II. Factors influencing the distribution of aquatic
plants and animals.
A, Standing water.
(1) Geographic position.
(2) Altitude.
(3) Depth, and fluctuations of depth.
(4) Historical factors.
(a) Physical (geology, past cli-
mate).
(b) Biotic.
(5) Climate.
SCIENCE 67
(a) Temperature.
(b) Solar radiation or insolation.
(c) Light.
(d@) Wind. Important in aera-
tion of water.
(6) Water solution.
(a) Color and turbidity.
(b) Mineral and organic content.
(c) Gaseous content.
(7) Biotic factors.
(8) Bottom.
B. Running water.
(1) Geographic position.
(2) Altitude.
(3) Fluctuation.
(a) Whether it fluctuates at all
(streams on east slope of
Caseade Mts. of Oregon do
not fluctuate).
(b) Extent of fluctuation.
(c) Period of fluctuation (di-
urnal or irregular).
(4) Swiftness.
(5) Depth.
(6) Historical factors.
(7) Climate.
(a) Temperature.
(b) Solar radiation or in-
solation.
(c) Light.
(d) Wind.
(8) Water solution.
(a) Color and turbidity.
(b) Mineral and organic
content.
(9) Biotie factors.
(10) Bottom.
Til. Studies of factors influencing distribution.
(A suggested method of procedure).
A. Field survey of the problem.
(1) To determine significant associa-
tions of plants and animals.
(2) Determination of center and ex-
tremes (northern and southern,
or east and west, or upper and
lower in altitude).
(3) Instrumental readings at each of
the above points, and their in-
terpretation.
B. Laboratory studies.
(1) Growth under controlled condi-
tions (with recording instru-
ments if possible).
(2) Analysis of critical effects.
68 SCIENCE
(3) Determination of specific require-
ments.
C. Field interpretation of laboratory re-
sults. (In the ease of temperature
this will probably mean remeasure-
ments unless recording instruments
have been used.)
IV. Studies of plants and animals at the edges of
their ranges. Determination of the environ-
ment at the edge of the ranges of plants
and animals should help to give, for the dif-
ferent environmental factors, the limits
within which individual species of plants
and animals can grow. ;
V. Eeological differentiation in plants and ani-
mals, structural and functional.
(a) Heological differentiation in single spe-
cies.
(0) Growth forms and regional distribution.
Frequency of occurrence and abund-
ance, correlated with environmental
factors.
VI. Migration of plant and animals.
(1) Wind.
(2) Animals.
(3) Water.
(4) Free movement of organisms.
(5) Landslides and avalanches.
(6) Movement of environment.
VII. Relation of present plant and animal life to
past floras and faunas.
(1) In unglaciated regions.
(2) In glaciated regions.
(3) Post-glacial changes.
VIII. Origin and composition of organic soils.
Includes forest soils, humus, peat, muck,
ete.
IX. Studies of soil organisms. Bacteria, nema-
todes, fungi and other organisms.
SPECIAL PROBLEMS
X. Relation of osmotic pressure to elongation.
XI. Relation of temperature to root absorption.
XII. Seasonal rhythm in organism, e. g.:
(1) Resting period.
(2) Photosynthesis of
winter.
XIII. Relation of mycorrhiza to root hair devel-
opment. (Part of general problem of
symbiosis. )
XIV. Composition of light under forest canopies.
Is this diffused light or light of different
composition?
XV. Effect of shade on chlorophyll content.
XVI. Water requirement of forest trees.
evergreens in
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1307
XVII. Nutrition of forest trees.
ous kinds of soils.
XVIII. Minimum requirement of solar energy for
tree seedling growth or leaf development.
XIX. Factors controlling the natural pruning of
forest trees.
XX. Factors controlling the non-periodic shedding
of the leaves of forest trees.
XXI. Study of seed bed in forests under natural
conditions, in relation to germination and
establishment; comparison of seed bed in
forests with nursery seed beds.
XXII. Sensitiveness of roots of different species
to: (a) lack of oxygen, (b) soil acidity,
and (c) soil alkalinity.
XXIII. Studies of fungi in forest soils.
(1) With relation to rendering nutrients
(chiefly nitrogen) available to
plants.
(2) With relation to soil reaction (acid-
ity or alkalinity).
(38) Influence on ventilation.
(4) Effect on plant roots.
XXIV. Selective absorption of roots in soil.
(1) Under different soil moisture con-
ditions.
(2) Under different atmospheric con-
ditions.
XXV. Pull exerted by roots in withdrawing water
from soils under different moisture con-
ditions. Influence of atmospheric con-
ditions Barrincton Moore,
Chairman Committee on Cooperation
Influence of vari-
THE CANADIAN BRANCH OF THE
AMERICAN PHYTOPATHO-
LOGICAL SOCIETY
THE first annual meeting of the Canadian
Branch of the American Phytopathological Society
was held at the Ontario Agricultural College,
Guelph, Ontario, December 11 and 12.
Canadian phytopathologists were well repre-
sented at this meeting. Among those taking ac-
tive part in the proceedings were: Dr. A. H. R.
Buller, University of Manitoba; Dr. J. H. Faull,
Toronto University; Mr. P. A. Murphy, Dominion
Laboratory of Plant Pathology, Charlottetown, P.
BH. I.; Mr. W. H. Rankin, St. Catharines; Mr. W.
P. Fraser, Saskatoon, Sask.; R. J. Blair, Forest
Products Laboratories, Montreal; Mr. F. L. Dray-
ton, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa; Pro-
fessor L, Cesar, Professor J. E. Howitt and Dr. R.
E. Stone, Ontario Agricultural College.
JANUARY 16, 1920]
The president, Professor J. E. Howitt, in his
address dealt with what should be the aims of this
society. These, briefly summarized, are as follows:
First. To provide adequate facilities for the
training of research men in plant pathology in
Canada.
Second. To make provision for the publication
in Canada of the results of scientific investigations
in plant pathology not of interest to the general
public.
Third. To make available to the general pub-
lic the practical application of results obtained
from scientific research in plant pathology.
Fourth. The unification of recommendations
made by the various pathologists regarding the
control of the more common diseases.
Fifth. The carrying out of a plant disease sur-
vey to secure information concerning the financial
losses caused by disease to agriculture and for-
estry and the distribution of plant diseases through-
out Canada.
Sixth. The adoption of a standard of qualifica-
tions required of men entering the field of plant
pathology in Canada.
Seventh. The apppointment of an advisory
board to confer with the federal and provincial au-
thorities regarding plant quarantine and other re-
strictive legislation.
Eighth. The maintaining of a bibliography of
Canadian plant pathology.
Dr. E. C. Stakman, of the University of Min-
nesota, was a guest of the Canadian Branch and
dealt with the cereal rust problems in the United
States and Canada.
The papers on the following program were given
at this meeting:
President’s address, J. E. Howitt.
‘«Health and disease in plants,’’ F. L. Drayton.
“‘Decay in timber of pulp and paper mill roofs.’’
(Illustrated with lantern slides.) R. J. Blair.
‘Butt rots of the balsam fir in Quebee Prov-
ince,’’? W. H. Rankin.
“‘Leaf blight of the white pine,’’ J. H. Faull.
‘¢Pseudorhiza of certain saprophytic and para-
sitic agaricinae’’ (illustrated), A. H. R. Buller.
Address of Welcome, President G. C. Creelman.
Address, Dr. E. C. Stakman.
‘¢Edueation of plant pathologists.’’
led by Dr. J. H. Faull.
‘“Witches broom of the Canada Balsam and the
alternate hosts of the causal organism,’’ R. E.
Stone.
‘<Some comparative observations upon the shape
Discussion
SCIENCE 69
of Basidia and method of spore discharge in the
Uredinee and Hymenomycetes,’’ A. H. R. Buller.
(Illustrated with models and lantern slides.)
“¢Smut of western rye grass,’’ W. P. Fraser.
Address, E. C. Stakman,
“‘Some observations made in inspecting for leaf
roll and mosaie of potatoes,’’ J. EH. Howitt.
‘¢New or little-known diseases of potatoes which
cause the running out of seed,’’ P. A. Murphy.
‘‘Breeding beans for disease resistance,’’ G. P.
MeRoster.
‘Combination sprays for apple and potato,’’ G.
E. Sanders. (By title.)
‘Some data on peach yellows and little peach,’’
L. Cesar.
‘¢Fungi new to Ontario,’’? A. W. McCallum.
‘*Some fungi and plant diseases comparatively
new to Ontario,’’ R. E. Stone and J. H. Howitt.
The following officers were elected for 1920:
President—Dr. A. H. R. Buller.
Vice-president—Dr. J. H. Faull.
Secretary-Treasurer—Dr. R. E. Stone.
Additional Members of the Council—Professor
J. E. Howitt and Mr. F. L. Drayton.
THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
VI
Colloidal reactions fundamental to growth: D.
T. MacDovueau. (By title.) Living cell masses
from the growing parts of plants in which the
H-ion of the sap varies from PH, 3.9 to 7 may
show an unsatisfied hydration (absorption) capac-
ity which causes a swelling of 6 to 80 per cent. in
thickness in distilled water at 18 to 20 C. Dried
(dead) sections of the same materia] in which the
salts originally dissolved in the sap have been ad-
sorbed by solids at high concentrations during the
progress of desiccation, show (total absorption)
hydration capacities which causes enlargements as
high as 550 per cent. of the volume of the dried
material. The aspect of comparative swellings in
acid and basic solutions (tested between 0.5 M
and 0.000001 M) im the two cases are different,
probably due to changes in the colloids caused by
the adsorption of salts, ete. The actual volume
reached by such material in swelling includes some
osmotic action and is limited by the morphological
or mechanical features of the tissues. Artificial
mixtures of pentosans, agar, mucilage and gum,
and of plant albumins made up to simulate so far
as possible the composition of the plasmatie (liv-
ing) colloids, show comparative hydrations or total
swelling similar to cell masses, and of an equiva-
70 SCIENCE
lent or greater amplitude. Specially prepared and
purified agar and albumins prepared by E. R.
Squibb & Sons are used in these experiments.
Some of the results obtained are not explainable
on the basis of the simple action of the H or OH
ions, especially in the use of alkaline hydroxides,
ammonia and amino-compounds. The reactions
noted are fundamental or contributory to growth.
The antiscorbutic value of the banana: H. B.
Lewis. (By title.)
. A study of various culture media, especially with
reference to increasing their buffer effects and ad-
justing their Py values: M. R. Mracuam, J. J.
HopFIELD AND S. F. AcrEz. (By title.) Titration
or buffer curves of corn meal extract, malt extract
and bean extract, culture media and chestnut bark
extract, are shown. The desirability of adding
acids, bases and salts to these extracts to make
them more useful as culture media by increasing
their buffer effect is pointed out. The further ob-
ject of rendering, at the same time, the titration
curves as near straight lines as possible is sought.
Data and curves are given showing the practical
attainment of these objects for two of the media.
The preparation of the media is carefully de-
scribed, so as to make possible their reproduction
to within 0.25 to 0.50 of a Py unit.
The cause of and remedy for certain inaccuracies
in Hausmann’s nitrogen distribution method: S.
L. Jopmi1 anp S. C. Movtron. (By title.) The
proportion of acid amide nitrogen obtained by
Hausmann’s method, as modified by Osborne and
Harris, is constant and does not depend upon the
quantity of magnesium oxide applied to the dis-
tillation. The percentage of nitrogen contained in
the magnesium oxide precipitate is the higher, the
greater was the quantity of magnesium oxide em-
ployed in distillation, and vice versa. Conversely,
the proportion of monoamino and diamino nitrogen
is the smaller, the larger the amount of magnesium
oxide used in distillation. In order to obtain uni-
form results and a minimum of ‘‘humin’’ nitrogen
it is necessary to use the least possible amount of
magnesia which is sufficient to render the substance
to be distilled alkaline. In the case of plant and
animal materials the uniform application of one
gram of magnesium oxide seems to be satisfactory,
while in the case of proteins one half of one gram
suffices,
The antiscorbutic properties of raw lean beef:
R. ADAMS DutcHER, EpitH M. PIERSON AND ALICE
BigsTER. Guinea pigs weighing 250 to 300 grams
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1307
were divided into experimental groups containing
four pigs to the group. Cold water extracts of raw
beef (representing 5, 10, 15 and 20 grams of beef)
were fed daily to the individuals in each respec-
tive experimental unit. Other pigs received oats
impregnated with chopped raw beef, the consump-
tion of beef averaging 3 to 5 grams daily. In all
eases scurvy developed in the same length of time
as when the meat and meat extract were omitted
from the diet, indicating that raw beef does not
possess antiscorbutie properties so far as these
properties can be ascertained by the method de-
scribed.
Preliminary observations on the influence of the
diet of the cow on the antiscorbutic and growth
promoting properties of milk: R. ADAMS DUTCHER,
EpitH M. Pizrson AND ALICE BIESTER. Guinea
pigs receiving a daily diet of oats (ad lib.), water,
and 25 e.c. of autoclaved milk (from stall-fed
cows) developed scurvy in 15 to 18 days and died
in 25 to 30 days with great loss in body weight.
When 20 cc. of autoclaved milk (from cows fed
on grain and green grass) were substituted for the
‘stall fed’’ milk, scurvy developed 10 to 15 days
later and death did mot ensue for 40 to 60 days
and no great loss in body weight occurred. Raw,
pasteurized and separated milk (from cows on
green grass) has been fed, and the results indicate
that the nutritive value of these milks is higher
than milk from other sources.
Rhubarb as an antiscorbutic: EpitH M. PIERSON
AND R, ADAMS DuToHER. Guinea pigs which have
developed scurvy may be relieved and cured by in-
troducing into the diet solid rhubarb, raw rhubarb
juice, or rhubarb juice which has been boiled for
fifteen minutes.
1 The function of vitamin in the metabolism of
Sclerotinia cinerea: J. J. WILLAMAN. (By title.)
The brown-rot fungus will not grow normally on
purely synthetic media. When these media are
supplemented by additions of vitamin, normal
growth occurs. The vitamin has been prepared by
adsorption on fuller’s earth from a large variety
of materials, including peach and plumb juices,
young tomato leaves, sprouts of beans, wheat and
potato, the leaf buds of beans, fungus mycelia and
sporophores, yeast, corn pollen, milk and pan-
ereatin. Every material examined yielded the
vitamin. Those materials which are characterized
by high respiratory activity, either actual or po-
tential, such as yeast, pollen, fungus spores, gave
the most active vitamin preparations, both for
vegetative growth and for reproduction. It is be-
JANUARY 16, 1920]
lieved from these results that the vitamin in ques-
tion will be found universally distributed in plant
and animal tissues, and that it plays an essential
part in the respiratory process. The evidence
favors the view that this vitamin is the water-
soluble antineuritie B.
The preparation of a stable vitamine product
and its value in nutrition: H. E. Dupin. An aec-
tive stable vitamine product has been prepared
from corn, autolyzed yeast, and orange juice.
This vitamine product, containing the antineuritic,
antiscorbutie and antirachitic vitamines, has been
given the name ‘‘ Vitaphos.’’ A tentative analysis
shows 10 per cent. calcium oxide, 15 per cent.
phosphorus (mostly organic), 3 per cent. nitrogen,
and 2 per cent. fat. Experiments with pigeons,
guinea pigs and finally with children receiving
“¢Vitaphos’’ in the diet, gave results showing that
the product possessed marked growth promoting
properties and both preventive and curative prop-
erties as regards polyneuritis and scurvy. Cases
of rickets treated with ‘‘ Vitaphos’’ showed marked
improvements and considerable gain in weight.
Further experimentation is under way.
) Chemical isolation of vitamines: C. N. My3rrs
AND CaRL VOEGTLIN. Brief historical discussion of
previous chemical work with special reference to
the pioneer researches of Casimir Funk. Vita-
mines are classified as antineuritic, antirachitic and
antiscorbutic. Autolyzed yeast filtrate was used
in part of the experiments but was found unsatis-
factory on account of its complexity. Mastic
emulsion, Lloyd’s reagent, and ferric chloride
were used in removing the active material from the
filtrate. These purified fractions were tested for
activity on polyneuritic birds. Dried yeast was
finally used as the source of active material.
Purification by means of heavy metal precipitation
was carried out yielding a crystalline substance.
The vitamine content of wheat flour: C.O. JouNs,
A. J. Finks anp M. S, Paut.
The relation of plant carotinoids to growth, fe-
cundity and reproduction in fowls: Leroy S.
PALMER AND Harry L. Kempster. White Leg-
horn chicks were raised from hatching to matur-
ity on rations containing the merest traces, if not
entirely devoid, of carotinoids, The full grown
hens exhibited normal fecundity although the
yolks of the eggs were devoid of carotinoids. The
earotinoid-free eggs showed normal fertility. A
second generation of chicks, free from carotinoids
at hatching have been hatched from the carotinoid-
SCIENCE a
free eggs. Carotinoid-free egg yolks contain a
residual yellow pigment readily extracted by ace-
tone, which is not related to the normal axantho-
phyll of the yolk. This paper appeared in full in
the September issue of the Journal of Biological
Chemistry.
The physiological relation between fecundity and
the natural yellow pigmentation of certain breeds
of fowls: Leroy §S. PaumMerR AND Harry L.
Kempster. (By title.) The fading of the yellow
color from the ear lobes, beak, shanks, ete., of a
hen during fecundity is due to the fact that fe-
cundity deflects the normal path of excretion of
xanthophyll from these parts of the skin to the
egg yolk, with the resulting gradual disappearance
of pigment from the epidermis because of natural
physiological changes in the structure of the skin.
It is impossible to restore xanthophyll to the epi-
dermis or to color the adipose tissue of hens as
long as fecundity exists. The loss of pigment from
the ear lobes, beak, shanks, ete., as the result of
egg laying, is an index of continuous fecundity
only, not of heavy egg laying. This paper ap-
peared in full in the September issue of the Jour-
nal of Biological Chemistry.
i The influence of specific feeds and certain pig-
ments on the color of the egg yolk and body fat of
fowls: Lrroy S. PALMER AND Harry L. KEMPSTER.
(By title.) Carotin and annatto are without in-
fluence on the color of the visible skin parts and
adipose tissue of poultry. Sudan III. colors only
the adipose tissue of non-laying hens and is with-
out effect on the visible skin parts. With laying
hens the egg yolk is colored in addition to the
adipose tissue. Xanthophyll readily colors both
the adipose tissue and visible skin parts of fowls
of the type of the White Leghorn breed, as long
as fecundity does not exist. Yellow corn and
green feed are rich in xanthophyll. Hemp seed,
barley, gluten feed and red corn contain traces of
xanthophyll, while wheat, wheat bran, oats, cot-
tonseed meal, meat scrap and blood meal contain
negligible quantities of the pigment. This paper
appeared in full in the September issue of the
Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The relation of the natural enzymes of butter to
the production of ‘‘tallowiness’’ through the
agency of copper salts: Leroy S. PALMER AND W.
B. Comss. (By title.) ‘‘Tallowy’’ butter was
produced by the addition of 0.017 per cent. copper
lactate to both raw cream and cream which had
been pasteurized at 79°-80° C. In each of several
experiments typical tallowiness and bleaching oc-
(P SCIENCE
curred in the raw eream butter several weeks be-
fore it appeared in the butter from the pasteurized
cream. The oxidizing enzymes in raw-cream butter
apparently accelerate the catalytie activity of the
metallic salts which cause the production of typical
‘‘tallowy’’ butter. It was found that over-neu-
tralization of the cream failed to accelerate mate-
rially the production of tallowiness by copper lac-
tate. This paper will appear shortly in the Jour-
nal of Dairy Science.
The nutritive value of commercial corn gluten:
C. O. Jouns, A. J. Finks anp M. S. PAvt.
The effect of calcium on the composition of the
eggs and carcase of the laying hen: G. Davis
BUCKNER AND J. H. Martin. Authors have shown
that limiting the caleium supply of laying hens to
that naturally occurring in the foods fed, causes a
progressive thinning of the shell yet it does not
materially change the percentage composition of
the egg shells or their contents. The continued
laying of eggs under this condition causes a grad-
ual depletion of calcium in the carcase of the hen.
It would seem from the figures obtained that as
long as the economy of the hens permitted a forma-
tion of an egg shell that the contents of the shell
would remain constant, thereby permitting an
average supply of calcium for the proper develop-
ment of the embryo of the chick.
Protein requirement in the maintenance metabol-
ism of man: H. C. SHERMAN. (By title.)
The development of Tribolium confusum Duval
in certain foods: Royan N. CHAPMAN. This study
has shown that the confused flour beetle, Triboliwm
confusum, grows at about the same rate in the dif-
ferent grades of wheat flour and in some of the
so-called wheat flour substitutes, but in certain of
the low grade wheat flours and in some of the
‘¢substitutes’’? metamorphosis is retarded. The
rate of development in first middlings wheat flour
was adopted as the control. The instars were
plotted on the ordinate and the time in days on the
abscissa in such a way that the curve of develop-
ment would be a straight line bisecting the angle.
When the curves of development in other foods
were superimposed upon the controls they were
found to be very similar except for a prolongation
of the last larval instar. Since metamorphosis
takes place during the last instar, this prolongation
has been taken as a measure of the nutritive effect
upon metamorphosis. Certain low grade wheat
flours, rye flour and rice flour prolonged the last
instar while corn flour, steel cut oats and a syn-
thetic food prolonged all instars about equally.
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1307
The influence of quinine on uric acid excretion in
man: H. B. Lewis AND W. L. McCuure. (By
title.)
The uric acid content of normal human saliva:
H. B. Lewis anp W. S. GrirritH. (By title.)
Further studies on the chemical composition of
normal and ataxic pigeon brains: Matuinpe L.
KocH AnD Oscar Rippie. A second series of
analyses made on brains of pigeons affected with
hereditary lack of control of the voluntary move-
ments shows deviations from the normal brain in
size and chemical composition. The brains are
smaller. Hight analyses made on cerebrums and
cerebellums show more pronounced changes in the
cerebellums. Data for the chemical changes in the
brain which accompany age have been obtained for
a series of ages in the pigeon. The new and
earlier evidence warrants the conclusion that chem-
ical differentiation does not proceed as rapidly in
the brain of ataxic birds as in the brains of normal
birds,
A comparison of the distribution of various
chemical groups in parts of the human and pigeon
brain: Oscar RIDDLE AND Marninpe L. Kocu.
Separate analyses made of anterior and posterior
parts of the normal pigeon brain make it possible
to compare these with similar parts of the human
brain. It is found that the direction of the per-
centage differences in composition of the two parts
of the brain is the reverse of that of the human in
the case of every chemical fraction obtained. Also,
from a chemical standpoint the cerebellum of the
pigeon is an intermediate of the pigeon cerebrum
and the human brain (cerebrum and cerebellum).
The pigeon cerebrum is chemically least differen-
tiated, the human cerebrum most differentiated, of
the four organs compared.
CHARLES L, PARSONS,
SCIENCE
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Fray, JANUARY 23, 1920
CONL ENTS
Whitman’s Work on the Evolution of the
Group of Pigeons: Prorrssor T. H. Morgan. 73
A Paleontological Revival at Yale University:
PROFESSOR CHARLES SCHUCHERT .......... 80
William Gilson Farlow
Scientific Events :—
Research on Rubber Cultivation; Experi-
ment Stations of the Bureau of Mines;
Grants for Research of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science.... 82
Scientific Notes and News .............-..- 84
University and Educational News ......... 85
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Polydogmata of the Physicist: PROFESSOR
G. W. Stewart. Totem Poles for Museums:
Dr. Haruan I. Smite. To kill Cats for
Laboratory Use: Horack GuNtTHOoRP. Ants
and Scientists: Dr. ALBERT MANN ........ 85
Quotations :—
The British Natural History Museum ...... 88
Scientific Books :—
Hosmer’s Geodesy: Proressor JouHN F.
VAY MORD Seren siehctctrerstei site eoisierei test ote isia soenetats 88
Special Articles :—
Concerning Application of the Probable
Error in Cases of Hautremely Asymmetrical
Frequency Curves: Dr. Eutis L. MicHaEn. 89
The American Mathematical Society: Pro-
HESSORPH NEM COLE sya cil seperate ciao sles 91
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
—————SS==
WHITMAN’S WORK ON THE EVOLU-
TION OF THE GROUP OF PIGEONS
THE three volumes containing the work of
Professor Charles Otis Whitman on pigeons
published by the Carnegie Institution of
Washington is a fine memorial to one of the
leaders of zoological research in America.
In the course of the sixteen years devoted to
this work Whitman brought together birds
from all parts of the world, bred them, studied
their juvenile and adult plumages, and their
habits, and made many crosses between differ-
ent species. When he died in 1910, his ex-
tensive and valuable collection of living birds
was saved through the devotion and sacrifices,
both personal and financial, of Dr. Oscar
Riddle, the editor of these posthumous
volumes. After that first year of precarious
existence, the Carnegie Institution met during
the five years following the expenses of main-
tenance, and during this time the birds, under
Dr. Riddle’s care, were transferred to the lab-
oratory at Cold Spring Harbor where Whit-
man’s work is being carried forward. With--
out this support only a fragment of Whit-
man’s results could have been preserved or the
birds kept to complete many of the important
problems that were at the time of Whitman’s
death still unfinished. The editing of the
work has been admirably done by Dr. Riddle.
It is a fortunate circumstance that what was
left fell into the hands of one familiar with
Whitman’s ways of thinking, and thoroughly
conversant with the many problems that had
grown out of Whitman’s studies; for “not
more than one fifth of the matter” was in
shape for publication when Whitman died.
Volume I. gives Whitman’s views and his
evidence for orthogenetic evolution. The
editor says in the preface, Whitman “has
accumulated the most weighty evidence for
| 1Posthumous words of Charles Otis Whitman.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1919.
74
continuity as against discontinuity in the
phenomena of variation, inheritance and evo-
lution.” And with this verdict his reviewer
is not inclined to disagree, because as a care-
ful study of Whitman’s evidence and mean-
ing shows, there is not much difference be-
tween what he understood by continuity and
what is to-day called more often discontinuity.
In the introductory chapter from a manu-
script written in 1909 that formed part of a
lecture given at Clark University, the keynote
to Whitman’s antagonism to the mutation
theory of de Vries is struck—a note that
recurs throughout the first two volumes.
Weismann, he says, taught us to look to
germinal variation as the source of all varia-
tion that is hereditary. Then follows a para-
graph that takes us to the heart of the matter:
“Do we not have, then, in germinal variation,
a better criterion of what is specific than we
get in sudden appearance? Indeed, is it not
here that the seeming suddenness of first ap-
pearance finds its explanation, and likewise the
fact that so-called mutations involve the whole
organism? If we are to accept the physiolog-
ical conception of development, as is inevit-
able in my opinion, it is easy to see that a
change, however slight, in the primordial con-
stitution of the germ would tend to correlate
itself with every part of the whole germ-sys-
tem, so that the end stage of development
would present a new facies and appear as a
total modification, answering to what deVries
would call a mutation. That some thing of
this order does sometimes occur JI have in-
dubitable evidence, and in such form as to
dispel the idea of discontinuity and sudden
gaps in transformation.”
With a slight shift of wording and emphasis
the essential part of this statement is not very
different from what we think to-day, for who
will dispute now that a change (mutation) in
the germ-plasm may affect many parts of the
organism that develops out of such a changed
germ-plasm? Such a view has not been found
to dispel the idea of “discontinuity” of
characters; on the contrary it is in full accord
with it.
But the unit character is Whitman’s béte
noir. “The idea of unit-characters, however,
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1308
as distinct elements that can be removed or
introduced bodily into the germ does not
appeal to me as removing difficulties, but
rather as hiding them; in short, as a return
to the old pangenesis view of preformed char-
acters. In this theory, as is well known, we
have two miracles involved. The first con-
sisted in a centripetal migration of preformed
gemmules, and the second in the centrifugal
distribution of the same elements. DeVries
dismisses the first of these, but accepts the
second, and on it rears the superstructure of
his theory of mutable-immutable unit-char-
acters. With all due respect to the distin-
guished author of this theory, and with
abounding admiration for his great work and
model methods, which have aroused universal
interest and stimulated enormously experi-
mental bionomics, I am strongly persuaded
that his hypothesis of unit-character fails as
a guide to the interpretation of the species
and its characters.”
“Tt is true a great amount of work on
Mendelian heredity seems strongly to support
the unit-character hypothesis, and that cytol-
ogy offers some further support. Neverthe-
less, I have to confess a wholesale scepticism.
The germ, as I believe and have long main-
tained, stands for an organized whole. It is a
unit-organism, not an organism of units; all
the features that arise in the course of devel-
opment are within the sphere of the individ-
ual unity and integral parts of it, and what-
ever specificity they possess is completely
determined and not of independent origin.”
“The strongest suggestion of wunit-char-
acters is found in the phenomenon known as
segregation. I do not understand the im-
portance of this striking behavior of so-called
alternative unit-characters. I am familiar
with it and deeply interested; but I am un-
able to see in them the sum total of all we
know about heredity. What I have said in
regard to unit-character applies to the Men-
delian doctrine. Mendelism, like mutation,
neglects the natural history of the characters,
it, experiments with and is not primarily con-
cerned to know how characters have orig-
inated and multiplied.”
JANUARY 23, 1920]
It may be that the emphasis laid on unit-
character by some of the earlier enthusiastic
followers of Mendel and the frequent confu-
sion in their writings between the unit-char-
acter, so-called, and the change in the germ-
plasm that gave rise to it, may justify Whit-
man’s scepticism; but this charge can hardly
be brought against de Vries, who stated over
and over again that a single change in the
germ-plasm may be the cause of manifold
although slight changes in the characters
throughout the whole organism.
In contrast to change by mutation Whit-
man opposes orthogenesis. Evidence for the
latter he finds in his study of the group of
pigeons. The evidence is the familiar argu-
ment from comparative anatomy and from
the hypothesis of “recapitulation.”2 Before
taking up the evidence I can not refrain from
quoting a fine and characteristic statement of
Whitman’s in the same lecture:
“T take exception here only to the implica-
tion that a definite variation-tendency must
be considered teleological because it is not
“orderless.’ JI venture to assert that variation
is sometimes orderly and at other times
rather disorderly, and that the one is just as
free from teleology as the other. In our
aversion to the old teleology, so effectually
banished from science by Darwin, we should
not forget that the world is full of order, the
organic no less than the inorganic. Indeed
what is the whole development of an organism
if not strictly and marvelously orderly? Is
not every stage, from the primordial germ
onward, and the whole sequence of stages,
rigidly orthogenetic? If variations are devia-
tions in the directions of the developmental
processes what wonder is there if in some
directions there is less resistance to varia-
tion than in others? What wonder if the
2 Whitman uses the word ‘‘ recapitulation’? in the
sense for which the reviewer argued in 1903 (‘‘Hvo-
lution and Adaptation,’’ Chap. III.). As so used
it means something essentially different from the
word ‘‘recapitulation’’ in the original sense of
Darwin and Haeckel, unless the changes in the
germ-plasm add stages only to the end of ontogeny
as Whitman seems to think is the way in which
the process takes place. (See a later footnote.)
SCIENCE
75
organism is so balanced as to permit both
unifarious and multifarious variations? If a
developmental process may run on throughout
life (e. g., the lifelong multiplication of the
surface-pores of the lateral-line system in
Amia) what wonder if we find a whole species
gravitating slowly in one or a few directions?
And if we find large groups of species all
affected by a like variation, moving in the
same direction, are we compelled to regard
such ‘a definite variation-tendency’ as teleo-
logical, and hence out of the pale of science?
Tf a designer sets limits to variation in order
to reach a definite end, the direction of events
is teleological; but if organization and the
laws of development exclude some lines of
variation and favor others there is certainly
nothing supernatural in this, and nothing
which is incompatible with natural selection.
Natural selection may enter at any stage of
orthogenetie variation, preserve and modify
in various directions the results over which it
may have had no previous control.”
How far one is justified in extending the
orderly sequence of embryonic development to
the sequence shown in evolutionary advance
is a large question and will no doubt be
settled some day by fuller knowledge. At
present our speculations must rest on the
evidence at hand, and this evidence, Whitman
finds, as stated, in his comparative studies of
pigeon coloration, and in a most ingenious
experiment of feather plucking.
His studies of domesticated breeds and their
wild relatives led him to conclude that the blue
wing with two black bars is not the original
pattern as Darwin supposes, but rather the
checkered wing covered with black spots.
Both patterns are found to-day in wild birds,
hence these birds can not be appealed to for a
decision. But an examination of other spe-
cies of pigeons shows that the checkered type
is widespread and occurs in many varieties;
and the young in many groups show a more
checkered pattern than do the adults them-
selves. The Japanese turtle dove comes near-
est, in Whitman’s opinion, to the original type
of wing pattern. The elaborate consideration
that Whitman devotes to the subject indicates
how important the question appeared to him;
76
for, from it he derives the support of his
orthogenesis. Since the same kinds of ad-
vances are observed over and over again in
different groups, and since no plausible reason
can be given why such changes are of benefit
to the species, it follows, on Whitman’s view,
that some internal agency has brought about
these parallel advances.
The change at molting that transforms the
young plumage into that of the adult is often
abrupt, almost like a mutation, yet a simple
experiment shows that in the interval the con-
stitution of the bird has been progressively
advancing. If feathers are plucked in the
intervening stages, the new feathers show an
advance over the young feathers still present,
an advance in the direction of the feathers
that are to come at the next molt. And the
nearer to molting time the operation is per-
formed the nearer the approach to the newer
feathers. Here then what appears to be a
sudden change has in reality been led up to
by a continuous series of preparatory stages;
so, in Whitman’s view, what appear at times
to be sudden and great changes in evolution
(mutations) are in reality only end stages of
continuous advance. The development of the
bird repeating the history of the race shows
continuous change but the exegesis of molt-
ing gives us only the earlier and the later
picture. To discuss this theme would take us
too far afield, but it is a matter not unfamiliar
to the morphologist. It should be pointed out
that a change (mutation) in the germ-plasm
affecting principally the end stages would be
expected to give results that are in no sense
incompatible with this picture.
Whitman obtained a few “ mutations,” 2. e.,
new types of pattern that were transmitted.
The mutant change, he points out, is only an
extension of a character already faintly pres-
ent in the birds and present in certain wild
species. What is produced is not new but a
“eontinuous” extension of a character al-
ready present. Hence such mutations are not,
he contends, new unit-characters but exten-
sion or diminution of characters already in
existence. Such, in fact, are the majority of
mutations known to us to-day.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
Whitman thinks a very old idea reincar-
nated in Darwin’s theory of pangenesis (that
the body characters impress their influence on
the germ cells) while nominally rejected sur-
vives in more subtle guise in some more
modern theories such as de Vries’s theory of
pangenesis. In this theory the nucleus is
looked upon as the seat of the hereditary com-
plex. Its “vital” units are self-perpetuating
by division, so that the nucleus in every cell
remains the store house of all of the hereditary
materials. In the course of embryonic de-
velopment these vital elements, pangenes or
genes, are set free in the surrounding cyto-
plasm of the cell, where they multiply and
determine the fate of the cell. “The myth of
transmission was not eliminated; it was only
reduced in its field.” “Transmission thus be-
came more direct, but its mysteries remained
as unfathomable as before. The unit-char-
acters are assumed to preexist in the chromo-
somes and to stand in need of transportation
from the nucleus to the body of the cell in
order to develop.” But “if an innumerable
host of specifically distinct unit-characters are
let loose in the cell-plasm, how are they to
reach precisely predetermined points in the
organism, and at just the time when needed?
It is here that the theory breaks down, for
the difficulty is not one that further investi-
gation may hope to solve, but one that lands
us in hopeless speculation. So long as the
primary assumption is that of ready-made
unit-characters, specifically distinct and inde-
pendently variable, whether located in the
nucleus or in the cytoplasm, or in both, the
problem of development will remain in-
serutable.”
A perusal of de Vries’s pangenesis theory
will show that Whitman has put his finger on
a weak spot in the speculation, in so far as
this view pretends to explain how the specific
pangens of the nucleus are supposed to
migrate out of the nucleus of each cell at the
right time in particular regions of the em-
bryo, but de Vries laid no emphasis on this
and was familiar with the absence of evidence
for such an interpretation. The same diffi-
culty confronts us to-day, but if I understand
JANUARY 23, 1920]
the situation rightly no one would be bold
enough to claim any such time relations of
pangen migration nor does the theory of
nuclear influence call for such a hypothesis in
any sense. It is ony necessary that nuclear
influence should in some way affect the
chemical changes that go on in the surround-
ing cell to cover completely the situation. No
time relation is expected or called for, and
who to-day will deny, in the face of extensive
evidence, that the nucleus does have an im-
portant influence on the cell? With this
understanding one can agree cordially with
Whitman’s concluding thrust: “ The doctrine
of germs laden with independent unit-char-
acters, or pangens, each predestined, so to
speak, to flower in its own place and time
strikes me as teleological mythology, fine spun,
to the verge of absurdity. We have not yet
fathomed primordial organization, but it is
safe to assume that the germ sets out with a
biophysical constitution of a given specific
type, within which metabolic, generative and
differentiating processes under normal condi-
tions run on in a self-regulating way.”
The title of Volume II. epitomizes its con-
tents, “ Inheritance, Fertility and the Domi-
nance of Sex and Color in Hybrids of Wild
Species of Pigeons.” Seven manuscripts of
less than one hundred pages, nearly 2,000
pages of breeding records, and two hundred
illustrations comprised the original material
of this volume of two hundred twenty-three
pages. Only a few chapters, viz. I. (1904—
05), XII. (1897), XVI. (1898), and XVII.
(1906) were left complete. The remaining
chapters (containing fragments and sections
by Whitman, and his breeding records) con-
sist in large part of analyses and discussions
by the editor based on Whitman’s data to
which have been added many of the later ob-
servations and views of the editor. This work
of elucidation and summarization has been
well done, making the text readable, and
guiding the reader through a maze of not com-
pleted and intricate data.
One of the outstanding results of the hy-
bridization work, which constitutes the bulk
of this volume, is that offspring produced by
crossing species of generic or family rank are
SCIENCE UG
males. This fact is in conformity with re-
sults obtained in other species of birds (see
Guyer). The result is however complicated,
according to the editor, by a second result,
viz., “that, in many crosses of very distinct
genera and species, fertility (developmental
power) is shown to be highest in the spring
and lowest in the autumn, and that male off-
spring predominate in the season of highest
fertility, while females largely predominate in
the season of lowest fertility.” Several pages
attempting to explain the apparent contra-
diction follow this statement, but since “it
may be emphasized that Professor Whitman
was by no means inclined to dogmatize as to
the interpretation of this sex series,” the sub-
ject need not be further discussed here.
In certain crosses between checkered and
barred domesticated races the results show
that checkered birds may throw some barred
offspring. That the two may differ by a
single factor difference may seem probable,
especially in the light of other evidence (Bon-
hote and Smally, Staples-Browne) not re-
ferred to in the text. The relation is men-
tioned here because it elucidates a point not
fully understood by opponents of Mendelian
interpretation, viz., that such a relation is
not claimed by most Mendelians as showing
necessarily that the barred character must
have arisen by a single mutation, although it
may have done so. There may have been, as
Whitman thinks, a long line of more graded
intermediate steps between the two; still the
barred and the checkered types might be differ-
entiated to-day by a single factor difference
provided both contained all other genes in
common. In other words the modern check-
ered and barred birds, as compared with the
old checkered type, would be supposed to
carry an entire series of gradually acquired
factors, and the checkered birds one further
factor. Thus one change in the complex that
gave the barred type is supposed to have
sufficed to suppress all of the new stages.
The two checkered birds would differ then in
the entire series of gradually acquired factors,
and also in the single final factor that caused
the apparent back-throw. There are also
records, some of them too fragmentary to be
78
significant, bearing on the question of the
greater likelihood of the first egg being a male
in “pure” species—a question that goes back
to Aristotle and has as often been denied as
affirmed. A table on page 171 (Table 170)
appears to indicate that this is the case in the
Streptopelia senegalensis where twelve males
came from the first egg, and only two females
came from the first egg, while only two males
came from the second egg and nine females
from the second egg. The evidence that has
been advanced in refutation of this relation is
due, the editor suggests, to the use of “mon-
grels, collectively known as domesticated
pigeons.” More data must be obtained and
statistical treatment applied to settle this
question. The genetic evidence shows that
the female is heterozygous for the sex-chromo-
some, and if the method of disjunction of the
sex-chromosome in the egg is affected by the
conditions that prevail when the first egg is
set free from the ovary, we may possibly find
in this relation an excuse for such a result.
If this should turn out to be true, the cause
of the maleness of the generic hybrids must
be sought in some other direction.
The chapter (XIV.) on Heredity contains
mainly the more general points of view
reached by Whitman in 1907. Coming at a
time when Mendel’s discoveries had received
general notice and had been, even then, con-
firmed from many sources, the chapter con-
tains results of exceptional interest. The
grounds for Whitman’s objection to any
theory resting on the assumption of unit-
characters is contained in the following strik-
ing paragraph:
“Every theory founded upon the postulate
of unit-characters, or specific determinants
stored in the nucleus is necessarily committed
to some form of centrifugal distribution dur-
ing the course of development; and for each
element to be distributed it is necessary to as-
sume either that it is passively transported to
its destination or that it finds its own way
automatically. In either case it would be
nothing less than a miracle for a specific
pangen to reach a prescribed point in such a
complex mosaic field as the organism repre-
sents; and, for this to be fulfilled, not only at
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
the predetermined point, but also just at the
moment for harmonious development with its
immediate neighbors, with symmetrical and
correlated groups, with inter- and intra-lock-
ing systems constituting a microcosmic whole,
incomparably more difficult to grasp than the
stellar universe—for all this to be fulfilled is
utterly beyond the bounds of scientific credi-
bility. To try to conceive of normal develop-
ment as thus prepunctuated in all its time
and space relations—as proceeding from ready-
made elemental characters, automatically dis-
tributing themselves or guided by entelechies
—is to indulge in ultra-scientifie teleology.”
The statement imputes apparently, to Men-
delism in so far as it deals with unit-factors
and unit-characters an implication from de
Vries’s hypothesis of pangenesis; viz., the
migration from the nucleus of “organic
bodies ” which multiply in the cytoplasm and
determine the fate of the cell. There is the
further implication that the migration is so
timed that it takes place at each critical place
in development. With Whitman’s criticism
most students of heredity will agree, but it
should be noted, as I have pointed out above,
first that Mendelism makes no such appeal,
second that the relation of specific materials
in the nucleus need not be supposed to have
any such time relations as here stated, and
third a careful reading of de Vries’s “ pan-
genesis” shows that he does little more than
make a passing reference to such an interpre-
tation and to-day, at any rate, it is not an es-
sential part of the doctrine of nuclear action.
Whitman’s own view makes it evident that he
is not inclined to disregard the nucleus as one
of the elements in the “organization” that
supposedly has some action on “ the cell as a
unit.” Granting that differences may exist
in the nucleus of different species, different
end products are expected. The evidence that
such differences may be related to specific sub-
stances in the nucleus is no longer a specula-
tion but rests on the analytical evidence from
Mendelian heredity. In what way and at
what times the nuclear materials take part in
the determination of characters we do not
know. The essential point is that we are in
JANUARY 23, 1920]
no way committed to any interpretation.
Stated negatively we might add that there is
nothing known at present to preclude the
possibility that the influence is a purely chem-
ical process. We find ourselves, therefore,
practically in agreement with Whitman’s atti-
tude when he says:
“Now while ontogeny is so wonderfully ex-
act that we never cease to be amazed at its
performances, we must not forget that germ-
cells are subject to slow variation. In fact,
it is only germ-variation that has to be con-
sidered in phylogeny as in ontogeny. Conse-
quently, when the germ-cell takes a step for-
ward, ontogeny begins with an initial differ-
ence that sets the whole series of ontogenetic
stages on a diverging line that digresses so
little as to be undiscoverable until nearly at
the end of development.”
Whitman’s failure to find “ dominance and
recessiveness” of character in his pigeon
erosses led him to attack the supposed im-
portance of these relations. To-day we know
more cases where the hybrid shows in some
degree an intermediate development of the
contrasted characters than where dominance
is complete Obviously the distinction has no
importance since the law of segregation is
found to hold as well when blending occurs
as in cases where the somatic differences are
clearly evident. The hybrid pigeons fall,
therefore, in this respect into line with
familiar phenomena. The failure of “split-
ting” in subsequent generations is a point
that calls to-day for special consideration,
but will not be dwelt on here.
In this chapter, and in several that precede
it, Whitman and the editor speak rather
frequently of what is called “weak” and
“strong” germs as having an importance in
determining the “strength” to which a char-
3 The reviewer would add an important reserva-
tion, viz., that a ‘‘forward step’’ in the germ-
plasm might affect any stage in the course of de-
velopment, or in the extreme case every stage in
the development. This view is obviously consistent
with what Whitman states, but, if emphasized,
would to a large extent undermine the value of the
evidence from ontogeny in interpreting ancestral
stages. d
SCIENCE
79
acter develops, even causing a “reversal of
dominance.” Curiously enough their effects
are supposed to be transmitted so that fertility
in the offspring is also affected. Even the
occasional mutations found by Whitman are
ascribed to this source. Pigeons unquestion-
ably furnish unusual material for the study
of this appearance. It is perhaps too soon to
attempt to state how much or how little in
variation to ascribe to such an influence, aside
from the obvious effect in the immediate off-
spring. No doubt further work along these
lines will help us to define more sharply what
is to be understood by the somewhat vague
attributes “‘ weakness” and “strength.”
There are important discoveries recorded
in this volume that can only be referred
to briefly; the “ divisibility” of characters
(meaning intermediate conditions) as seen in
hybrids, the study of a “dominant” mutant
character; the discovery as early as 1896 of
sex-linked inheritance (of which a number of
eases in other birds are well understood to-
day), the cross between the last surviving
members of our wild passenger pigeon and the
ring dove, the relative influence of egg and
sperm on the time of hatching of the hybrid
young. Each of these results marks an ad-
vance in our understanding of heredity.
The third volume containing Whitman’s ob-
servations on the “Behavior of Pigeons” is
edited by Professor Harvey A. Carr. Thirty-
two short manuscripts were left. It appears
that Whitman’s first period of study in this
field was from 1895-98. In a few lectures at
Woods Hole in 1897-98 some of his conclu-
sions are given. After a period of five years
a renewed interest in these directions recurred
and many notes were made. The Woods
Hole lecture in 1906 gave an opportunity for
further consideration. Despite the very frag-
mentary remains of this work—fragmentary
only in comparison with the extensive obser-
vations that Whitman had made, this volume
contains many observations of great interest
and gives an insight into the character of
Whitman’s methods, where the most careful
and minute observations are interpreted with
a breadth of intelligence that is truly remark-
able. There are few if any groups of animals
80
so well suited to studies of this kind as are
the pigeons. The elaborate courtship, the
fidelity of the individuals to each other, the
mating and nesting habits, the part taken by
the female and the male in incubation, the
feeding instinct of old and young, the wean-
ing and the rythmic sequence of broods offer
a fascinating opportunity to the student of
animal behavior. Whitman obviously had in
view a large program toward the accomplish-
ment of which he had progressed much fur-
ther that these notes indicate. Some of the
lines of work opened up by him haye been
pursued successfully by his students Pro-
_ fessor Craig and Dr. Riddle, but according to
their statement his knowledge far outstripped
that of any other observer in this field.
The many observations here recorded are
clearly only the material out of which, in
time, he had expected to link up the evolution
of instincts with the study of the evolution of
structure and color. “If Professor Whitman
had completed his work, he would have pro-
duced an extensive treatise on the phylogney
of the pigeon group. . .. The voices and the
behavior of the various species would have
been used, like the color patterns, to throw
light on the relationships, derivation and
method of origin of pigeon species” (Craig
and Riddle). According to Carr, Whitman
developed “what one may term an ortho-
genetic conception of instinctive development.
Instincts are not novel and unique construc-
tions which spring, without ancestry, into be-
ing; rather each new instinct is but a slight
modification or organization of tendencies al-
ready in existence.” When one sees how vital
the instincts are for the existence of the
species it is probable that however the changes
originated the advances would most probably
be those involving only slight modifications of
intinets already in action.
The Carnegie Institution and equally Dr.
Riddle are to be sincerely congratulated on
having preserved for American zoologists the
last great work of Whitman. The wonderful
colored pictures, almost entirely the work of
the Japanese artist Hyashi, are marvels of
beauty and accuracy, and stand for the
minute attention that Whitman demanded at
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1808
every stage of his work. The same attention
to detail is shown in Whitman’s early work
on cell-lineage, on the leeches of Japan, and
on the embryology of fishes, and explains in
part his far reaching influence on American
zoologists. It is rare to find combined such
delicacy in treatment of detail with the sweep
of philosophical interpretation of which Whit-
man was equally master.
Whitman stood at the parting of the ways.
We may regret that he did not enter into the
new era that even at that time was opening
up its far reaching vistas, but this need not
blind us to the fine example he set—an ex-
ample of unworldly devotion and absorption
in his work, of self-criticism made possible by
simplicity and honesty of character, of fair-
ness that led him to appreciate and to state
accurately and kindly the opinions of others
with whom he disagreed heartily.
T. H. Morcan
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
A PALEONTOLOGIC REVIVAL AT
YALE UNIVERSITY
OrTHNIEL CHARLES Marsh was appointed pro-
fessor of paleontology at Yale in 1866, this be-
ing the first time such a chair was established
at any university He was unquestionably one
of America’s leading men of science, and in
vertebrate paleontology “he stood without a
peer.” He had collected fossils long before his
graduation from Yale in 1860, and after taking
the doctorate at Heidelberg, he became deeply
interested in the wonderful array of extinct
vertebrates that the U. S. Geological and Geo-
graphical Survey of the Territories was finding
in the “bad lands ” of Nebraska. In the mean-
time, his uncle, George Peabody, had founded
at Yale the Peabody Museum of Natural His-
tory, though the building was not erected until
1875. Marsh saw the great western wilderness
for the first time in 1868, going over the Union
Pacific into Nebraska and Wyoming. In 1870
he fitted out the first Yale College Scientific
Expedition, and took west with him twelve
enthusiastic students. From this time the
flood of boxes shipped to the university grew
annually greater and greater. In 1899 Pro-
JANUARY 23, 1920]
fessor Beecher said of these collections: Pro-
fessor Marsh “brought forth in such rapid
succession so many astonishing things that the
unexpected became the rule. The science of
vertebrate paleontology could not assimilate
new material so fast. . . . The constant stream
of vertebrate riches which, from 1868 to 1899,
flowed into the Peabody Museum from the
Rocky Mountain region had a similar bewilder-
ing effect upon Marsh, for it was impossible for
him to do more than seize upon what appealed
to him as the most salient. As a collector
Marsh was seen at his best, and the collections
he amassed during his forty-five years and
more of activity in this direction form a last-
ing monument to his perseverance and fore-
sight.”
In Marsh’s day, Peabody Museum was a very
busy place, with a large staff unearthing and
preparing the collections so that the master
mind might make the treasures known to sci-
ence. At least 400 new species and 185 new
genera were described in abbreviated form
previous to 1896, mainly in the American Jour-
nal of Science. In 1892 came the first check
to his activity, and Marsh had to let go a con-
siderable portion of his staff. He was then
sixty-one years of age, but he struggled on,
thinking that somehow he could describe the
great mass of still unknown animals assembled
in the museum, and make them fully known
in large monographs Seven years later the
Great Reaper took him, with his work still
undone.
Professor Charles E. Beecher took up the
work after Marsh’s death, but he had no one
to assist him in unearthing the collections
except two preparators. Even under these
conditions, however, the public were shown
for the first time the skeletons of some of the
wonderful animals of the past mounted as
they appeared in life. The exhibition collec-
tions grew apace, and long before Professor
Schuchert succeeded Beecher in 1904, they
had outgrown the building. Two years later
Professor Lull was added to the staff. Now
we have mounted or ready to mount so many
of our treasures that we are yearning for the
new Peabody Museum, to take the place of the
SCIENCE SI
original building which was destroyed in 1917
to make way for the Harkness dormitories.
Professor Marsh left $30,000 “to be ex-
pended by the trustees of said Peabody Mu-
seum in preparing for publication and pub-
lishing the results of my explorations in the
West.” The trustees have heretofore held
that only the income of this fund should be
used in this way. However, having only this
income to devote to the Marsh Collections, it
was but natural that progress should be slow.
We have now come to realize this fully, and
the recognition has brought use to a new turn
in the administration of the collections.
As it was evidently Professor Marsh’s wish
that both the income and the principal of the
“Marsh Publication Fund” should be used
in work on his collections, the trustees of the
museum have recently decided to spend as
much of the fund as will be required to make
known the collections. The study of the
Marsh material is therefore progressing far
more rapidly than it has at any time since the
donor’s death. We have now on the staff of
the museum, working under the guidance of
Professor Lull, besides the two preparators,
the following research associates: Dr. George
F. Eaton and Assistant Professor John P.
Buwalda, who give us half their time, and
Drs. Edward L. Troxell and Maleolm R.
Thorpe, who devote all their time to the
Marsh collections.
In unearthing the unknown in science, no
one can predict what the results will be, or
how quickly they will be forthcoming, but we
trust that in this case they will be abundant
and timely. In working out the new things,
however, we have also to consider the old ones,
which, viewed in the light of the knowledge
of to-day, were inadequately described. How
vast are the treasures that Professor Marsh
has left us is not even at this time fully
known to the curators, but if it should take
from ten to twenty years more to complete
the description of the fossil vertebrate mate-
rial assembled by Professor Marsh, Yale will
but be the richer scientifically.
CHARLES SCHUCHERT
YALE UNIVERSITY
82
WILLIAM GILSON FARLOW!}
Tuer Botanical Society of America records
its appreciation of the great loss sustained
by the society, by American science, and by
botanical science throughout the world, in
the death of Professor William Gilson
Farlow.
Educated as a physician, he yielded readily
to Asa Gray’s suggestion that he broaden
the scope of botany at Harvard University by
developing there an interest in flowerless
plants, which up to that time had scarcely
appeared above the horizon of professional
botanists in America. In preparation for
this he traveled extensively in northern Eu-
rope, at a time when extended travel was un-
common, meeting and forming personal rela-
tions with the’ leading authorities on ecryp-
togams; and he had the very unusual priv-
ilege of working in De Bary’s laboratory at
Strasbourg, where he associated intimately
with other young men who were to continue
the work of this great leader after his own
untimely death.
Never overburdened by large numbers of
half-interested students, Dr. Farlow com-
municated his own enthusiasm and indus-
trious habits through long years to a limited
number of men who have been counted for a
generation among the leaders in American
botany, and particularly in that branch of the
science which De Bary’s classical studies of
fungous parasitism laid as the foundation on
which the art of phytopathology has been
reared of late, particularly in America, with
much success and economic benefit.
Though familiar with ferns, and especially
with the marine alge of New England, of
which he published an early monograph, Pro-
fessor Farlow’s interest always centered in
the fungi, and the larger number of his pub-
lications have dealt with these plants.
He served his science particularly well in
securing for permanent reference preservation
the historic herbarium of Curtiss, one of the
pioneers in American mycology, and that of
Tuckerman, long the authority on American
1 Memorial adopted by the Botanical Society of
America.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
lichens; and since the death of Asa Gray, in
1887, he has been recognized at home and
abroad as the foremost of American botanists.
Among his unpublished manuscripts is the
completion of a compendious Bibliographic
Index of North American Fungi, one volume
of which was printed in 1905, and of which
the remainder should be brought to publica-
tion promptly now that his work on it is done.
A keen critic, an encouraging teacher, a
kindly and sympathetic friend, and a man of
the broadest international interest, Professor
Farlow is mourned by all who knew him.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
RESEARCH ON RUBBER CULTIVATION
A CORRESPONDENT writes from Sumatra:
During the last week of August and the first
week of September, 1919, Dr. J. J. van Hall, di-
rector of the Laboratory of Plant Diseases in
Buitenzorg, Java, and Dr. R. D. Rands, botanist in
the same laboratory; specially engaged on a study
of the brown bast disease of the Hevea rubber,
made a journey to Sumatra to study conditions
there.
On September 2, 1919, a conference on brown
bast disease was held at the A. V. R. O. S. (Alge-
meene-proefstation voor Rubber-Cultur, Oost-kust
van Sumatra) Proefstation. This was attended by
Acting Director F. C. yan Heurn, of the A. V. R.
O. S. Mr. J. C. Maas, and Dr. H. Heuser, also of
the A. V. R. O. S., Dr. J. J. van Hall and Dr.
R. D. Rands, both of the Laboratory of Plant Dis-
ease, Mr. Carl D. La Rue and Mr. P. E. Keuche-
nius, botanist and mycologist respectively, of the
Holland-American Plantations Company, and Dr.
J. G. Fol, director of the experiment station of the
Cultur Maatschappij Amsterdam.
The cause of the disease was first discussed, Dr.
Rands giving recent evidence secured by him
pointing to a physiological origin. Mr. Carl D. La
Rue stated that results obtained by Professor H.
H. Bartlett and himself in 1918, and later by him-
self alone, indicated that the same bacterium was
always present in bark affected with brown bark
disease. Mr. Keuchenius stated that he also found
bacteria to be constantly present in diseased tissue,
and that he had secured positive results from inoe-
ulations with these bacteria.
Conditions favorable to attack by the disease
were also discussed as well as methods of treat-
JANUARY 23, 1920]
ment. All present agreed that the disease is the
most serious one known to the rubber industry, that
treatment alone was too expensive, and that meth-
ods of prevention should be discovered if possible.
Later at a special meeting an experiment was
planned by Messrs. Rands, Maas, Keuchenius and
La Rue to. test more fully whether or not the dis-
ease may have a physiological cause.
ing a number of rubber estates on the east coast of
Sumatra and in Atjeh, Drs. van Hall and Rands
returned to Java.
The first technical meeting of the personnel of
the experiment stations for the rubber culture was
held in Buitenzorg, Java, on November 1, 1919.
Representatives of the Central Rubber Proefsta-
tion, the West-Java Proefstation, the Malang
Proefstation, the Besoeki Proefstation, the Labora-
torium voor Plantenziekten, and the research de-
partment of the Holland Plantations Company.
Among the subjects discussed were brown bast
disease, mildew-diseases of leaves, borers, thinning
out of trees on estates, and selection. The last
topic is only now beginning to be a matter of con-
cern to rubber planters, although experiment sta-
tion workers have been interested in it for several
years.
EXPERIMENT STATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF
MINES
Iy connection with the work of the Bureau
of Mines, Department of the Interior, the bu-
reau is now conducting eleven mining experi-
ment stations, located in the various mining
centers of the country, and bending their ener-
gies toward the special mining problems that
are local to their part of the country. So
great has been the demand for knowledge con-
cerning the character of the work undertaken
at these various mining stations and its
general relation to the mining industry, the
bureau has issued a bulletin describing the
work of the stations. Dr. Van H. Manning,
director of the bureau, sketches the work of
the different stations as follows:
The station at Columbus, Ohio, situated at a clay-
working center is employed mostly on ceramic prob-
lems. In this country there are about 4,000 firms
manufacturing clay products, including brick, tile,
sewer pipe, conduits, hollow blocks, architectural
terra cotta, porcelain, earthenware, china and art
pottery. The amount invested in these industries
is approximately $375,000,000 and the value of the
products exceeds $208,000,000 annually.
After visit-
SCIENCE 83
The station at Bartlesville, Okla., is investigating
problems that arise in the proper utilization of oil
and gas resources, such as elimination of waste of
oil and natural gas, improvements in drilling and
casing wells, prevention of water troubles at wells,
and of waste in storing and refining petroleum,
and the recovery of gasoline from natural gas.
What the Bureau of Mines has done for the great
coal-mining industry, chiefly through investiga-
tions at the experiment station at Pittsburgh, Pa.,
has been published in numerous reports issued by
the bureau. Some of the more important accom-
plishments have been the development and intro-
duction of permissible explosives for use in gaseous
mines, the training of thousands of coal miners in
mine-rescue and first-aid work, and the conducting
of combustion investigations, aimed at increased
efficiency in the burning of coal and the effective
utilization of our vast deposits of lignite and low-
grade coal.
The Salt Lake City station has devised novel
methods of treating certain low-grade and com-
plex ores of lead and zinc. These methods show a
large saving of metal over methods hitherto em-
ployed, and have made available ores that other
methods could not treat profitably.
The Seattle station is busy with the beneficia-
tion of the low-grade ores of the Northwest, and
the mining and utilization of the coals of the
Pacifie states; the Tucson station is working on
the beneficiation of low-grade copper ores; and the
Berkeley station has shown how losses may be re-
duced at quicksilver plants and how methods at
those plants can be improved.
In the conduct of these investigations the bu-
reau seeks and is obtaining the cooperation of the
mine operators. At more than a dozen mills in the
west engineers from the stations are working di-
rectly with the mill men on various problems, and
the results they already have obtained more than
warrant the existence of the stations. Success in
solving one problem may easily be worth millions
to the country. Mining men are using these sta-
tions more and more freely as they realize that the
government maintains these stations to help them,
and that tthe difficulties of the operators, both
jarge and small, will receive sympathetic consid-
eration and such aid as the stations can give.
GRANTS FOR RESEARCH OF THE AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF SCIENCE
At the St. Louis meeting of the association,
the council assigned the sum of $4,500 to be
expended by the Committee on Grants for
84
Research during the year 1920. The mem-
bers of the committe for the current year
are: Henry Crew, chairman; W. B. Cannon,
R. T. Chamberlin, G. N. Lewis, George T.
Moore, G. H. Parker, Robert M. Yerkes, and
Joel Stebbins, secretary.
The committee will hold a meeting in
Washington in the month of April, when the
distribution of the grants will be made. Ap-
plications for grants may be made under the
general rules given below, which were adopted.
in 1917; but the committee especially invites
suggestions from scientific men who may
happen to know of cases where young or
poorly supported investigators would be
greatly helped by small grants.
1. Applications for grants may be made to the
member of the committee representing the science
in which the work falls or to the chairman or sec-
retary of the committee. The committee will not
depend upon applications, but will make inquiry
as to the way in which research funds can be best
expended to promote the advancement of science.
In such inquiry the committee hopes to have the
cooperation of scientific men and especially of the
sectional committees of the association.
2. The committee will meet at the time of the
annual meeting of the association or on the call
of the chairman. Business may be transacted and
grants may be made by correspondence. In such
cases the rules of procedure formulated by the late
Professor Pickering and printed in the issue of
Science for May 23, 1913, will be followed.
3. Grants may be made to residents of any
country, but preference will be given to residents
of America.
4. Grants of sums of $500 or less are favored,
but larger appropriations may be made. In some
cases appropriations may be guaranteed for sey-
eral years in advance.
5. Grants, as a rule, will be made for work which
could not be done or would be very difficult to do
without the grant. A grant will not ordinarily be
made to defray living expenses.
6. The committee will not undertake to super-
vise in any way the work done by those who re-
ceive the grants. Unless otherwise provided, any
apparatus or materials purchased will be the prop-
erty of the individual receiving the grant.
7. No restriction is made as to publication, but
the recipient of the grant should in the publica-
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von. LI. No. 1308
tion of his work acknowledge the aid given by the
fund.
8. The recipient of the grant is expected to make
to the secretary of the committee a report in De-
cember of each year while the work 1s in progress
and a final report when the work is accomplished.
Hach report should be accompanied by a financial
statement of expenditures, with vouchers for the
larger items when these can be supplied without
difficulty.
9. The purposes for which grants are made and
the grounds for making them will be published.
JOEL STEBBINS,
Secretary
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
RicHarp C. Mactaurin, president of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology since
1909, died from pneumonia in Boston on
January 15. Dr. Maclaurin was born in
Seotland in 1870. He was educated at the
Universities of New Zealand and Cambridge,
and was appointed professor of mathematics
in the University of New Zealand in 1898.
In 1907 he was appointed professor in mathe-
maties and physics in Columbia University.
Dr. Jacques Logs, of the Rockefeller In-
stitute for Medical Research, was elected
president of the American Society of Nat-
uralists at the recent meeting held in
Princeton.
Proressor F. B. Loomis, of Amherst Col-
lege, has been elected president of the Paleon-
tological Society.
Dr. PHorsus A. T. LEVENE, of the Rocke-
feller Institute for Medical Research, in New
York, was elected associate member of the
Société Royale des Sciences Médicales et
Naturelles of Brussels, on December 1, 1919.
Mr. J. H. Jeans, of Cambridge, formerly
professor of mathematics in Princeton Uni-
versity, has been nominated as secretary of
the Royal Society.
Dr. Paut Sapatirer (Toulouse), and Dr.
Pierre Paul Emile Roux (Paris), have been
elected honorary members of the British
Royal Institution.
THE Swedish Medical Association has
awarded its jubilee prize this year to Dr.
JANUARY 23, 1920]
Hans Gertz of the physiological laboratory of
the Karolinska Institut for his work on the
functions of the labyrinth. It was published
in the Nordisk Medicinskt Arkiv in 1918.
THE president and fellows of Magdalen
College of Oxford University on the express
recommendation of the General Board of the
Faculties decided to award a pension of £450
per annum to Professor Sydney Howard
Vines, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., fellow of the
college, and honorary fellow of Christ’s Col-
lege, Cambridge, who is resigning the Sher-
ardian chair of botany with the fellowship on
December 31 next, after a tenure of thirty-
one years. This is the first occasion on
which the new system of pensions for pro-
fessors instituted by the college with the ap-
proval of the university has been brought
into operation.
Proressor Encar James Swirt, head of the
department of psychology of Washington
University, has been invited to give two lec-
tures before the officers and students of the
Post Graduate School of the United States
Naval Academy at Annapolis. The subjects
of these lectures are “ Thinking and Acting”
(February 14), and “The Psychology of
Handling Men” (April 10).
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
At the dinner of the alumni of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, held in Cam-
bridge on January 10, it was announced that
the endowment fund of four million dollars
had been obtained by the alumni, thus secur-
ing the gift of an equal sum from the hitherto
anonymous “ Mr. Smith.” It was revealed that
“Mr. Smith,” who has now given eleven mil-
lion dollars to the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, is Mr. George Eastman, president
of the Kastman Kodak Company.
THE trustees of Oberlin College have granted
imereases of salaries for all in the service of
the institution. Early in the fall the faculty
of the college appointed a committee under the
chairmanship of Professor ©. G. Rogers to
consider the salary needs of the members of
SCIENCE
85
the faculty. The report of the committee, ap-
proved by the faculty, was transmitted to the
trustees, and findings calling for a fifty per
cent. increase in the salaries of all teaching
and administrative officers of the college, dat-
ing from September 1, 1919, were approved.
This action adds about $175,000 to the annual
budget of the college.
_ ANNOUNCEMENT has been made at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania of a gift of $50,000
from the estate of William ©. Goodell for the
establishment of a chair of gynecology in the
medical school. The trustees have adopted a
resolution providing that as far as possible
rooms and facilities for the carrying on of re-
search work be extended to emeritus professors
in all departments.
THE pathological buildings of the Johns
Hopkins Hospital group, the professional work-
shop of Dr. William H. Welch, was wrecked
by fire, January 12. Iit is said that none of the
valuable specimens was lost, nor were any of
the records of research work damaged.
Proressor A. P. Coteman, geology, has been
elected dean of the faculty of arts of the Uni-
versity of Toronto. Professor J. Playfair Mc-
Murrich, anatomy, has been elected chairman
of the board of graduate studies, which corre-
sponds with the graduate faculty in many uni-
versities.
Dr. Harotp Prinets, lecturer on histology
and assistant in the department of physiology
in the University of Edinburgh, has been ap-
pointed professor of physiology in Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin, in the room of the late Sir Henry
Thompson.
Dr. F. W. KeeEste, assistant-secretary of the
British Board of Agriculture, has been elected
to the Sherardian professorship of botany of
Oxford University in succession to Professor
S. H. Vines.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE POLYDOGMATA OF THE PHYSICIST
Tue mind of the physicist may be said to
be somewhat in confusion. But there is no
reason to hope that it ever will enjoy the
86
logical perfection of a consistent set of
theories. He constructs the electromagnetic
theory of light and must needs adhere to it
on many occasions, yet with full knowledge
that it can not be correct. He rejoices in the
existence of the universal constant, h, and
the appearance of the quantum, h”, in reson-
anee and ionization potentials, in photoelec-
trie X-ray phenomena, and in the theory of
heat radiation, yet he can not be reconciled
to the existence of the quantum in the phe
nomenon of the passage of light through a
vacuum. He builds an atomic structure
which will not only provide a clear picture,
but will also furnish quantitative results in
striking agreement with experiment; and yet
he must, in his building, reject certain prin-
ciples which elsewhere he adopts without
hesitancy. He rejoices in the achievement of
the general theory of relativity, which, unless
proved untenable, gives a logical consistency
at present—and probably for many, many
years, unattainable by other means; yet in
his constructive thinking he sometimes uses
the ether which the general theory of rela-
tivity ignores, and he lives in his old Euclid-
ean world which the present developments
from this theory deny.
In short, the physicist can not be consist-
ent. Moreover, he can not progress unless
this inconsistency is a stimulus and not an
annoyance. He must live as if in several
compartments, enjoying in each one the con-
sistency possible therein, and being not dis-
tressed but rather interested and invigorated
by the failure to unite these compartments
into one consistent whole. If he “believes,”
he must be inconsistent. If he progresses, he
must adopt a set of dogmas in the small com-
partment in his immediate problem. If he
follows with full sympathy modern progress
in physics, he must have not one, but many
dogmas, and these not wholly consistent with
one another.
I refer not merely to the multiple-theory
method of attack upon a problem, for the
dogmas are not even altogether similar in
kind, but more especially to the ability to
appreciate thoroughly not only “ constructive
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1308
theories,” but also “theories of principle”
(quoting from Einstein) It is not merely
the approach from a different viewpoint in
the same universe, but it is the ability to live
in more than one universe.
All of this may be obvious, but yet, in
point of fact, now and again there appears
evidence that even physicists of note are
pained by this réle. They seem to resist by
objections which do not aid in the extension
of these compartments, or by a rebellion
against the obviously advantageous policy of
polydogmata.
G. W. Stewart
Stats UNIversity or Iowa
TOTEM POLES FOR MUSEUMS
Firty years ago some of the best totem
poles of the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte
Islands cost the Indians several thousand
dollars each. To-day many of these may be
purchased for a dollar and a half or two
dollars a foot. That is, an average totem pole
can be purchased, crated and put aboard a
steamer at Masset for about one hundred
dollars.
Many of the Haida totem poles have dis-
appeared. A few have been taken to mu-
seums where they are preserved; some have
been burned; many have decayed. Several,
seen during the past summer, at Yan opposite
Masset, have recently been blown over by the
wind. In a few years-all will have disap-
peared unless means are taken to save speci-
mens of this art for the future. However the
other tribes having totem poles may feel at
this date, the Haidas have come to the point
of neglecting the poles and being willing to
sell them. They are owned by families, and
negotiations as with an estate are necessary
for properly obtaining them.
This North Pacifie art is one of the treas-
ures of Canada and the United States. Ex-
amples of it should be preserved in each large
city of the continent. It may not be gen-
erally known how easily this can be done.
In the summer the Haidas of Masset are
busy fishing. In the spring they have less to
do and some are in need of money. Mr. Al-
fred Adams or Mr. Henry Edensaw are trust-
JANUARY 23, 1920]
worthy Haidas of Masset, B. C., who are
capable of corresponding and executing the
purchase of a pole or poles, and of engaging
other help and superintending the lowering
and creating of poles, their transportation
across the inlet from Yan to the wharf at
Masset and their shipment to destination.
The poles are very heavy and the cost of
handling will be perhaps equal to the price
of the poles. They are soft and their own
weight will crush parts of the carvings un-
less they are properly crated. Some of the
poles 50 to 60 feet in length may have to be
cut in sections for shipment.
Here is an opportunity. Examples of this
unique art now going to decay may be
rescued, loaded and started on their way to
safe-keeping in our museums at the rate of
about one hundred dollars per specimen.
Harian I. Smite
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
Orrawa, CANADA
TO KILL CATS FOR LABORATORY USE
A quick and humane method of killing a cat
or other small mammal in the laboratory is to
put the animal under an open topped bell jar,
2. €., a bell jar which has a small bottle-like
neck at the top through which there is an
opening. This mouth should be comparatively
small, not over a half inch in diameter, and the
neck should be at least an inch long. After the
animal has been placed under the bell jar, a
very small quantity of ether or chloroform is
poured through the opening in the top, and it
is then corked up. The liquid strikes the sides
of the neck and immediately runs down in a
thin film over the inner surface of the bell jar.
and evaporates into the chamber in two or
three seconds. The enclosed animal shows its
effects almost immediately, and dies in a very
short time.
While it is not necessary, it is better to seal
up the base of the bell jar because occasionally
the animal falls down after it becomes uncon-
scious, and its head comes in close proximity to
the crack between the jar and the object on
which it is placed, and it thus obtains suffi-
cient air to delay its death. This can be pre-
SCIENCE
87
vented by wrapping a damp towel around the
base so as to exclude the air. By placing the
bell jar on a glass plate and sealing with vase-
line, an airtight chamber can be made, but the
advantage thus gained does not make up for
the care necessary in order to avoid getting
one’s clothing in contact with the greased sur-
faces.
Horace GUNTHORP
WASHBURN COLLEGE,
TOPEKA, KANS.
ANTS AND SCIENTISTS
To tHe Epiror or Science: As a result of
watching a colony of ants and attending a
scientific meeting on the afternoon and eyen-
ing of the same day, it seemed to me the two
teeming hordes of excited workers—the in-
sects and the scientists—had some queer traits
in common, as:
1. How they work in ranks and cohorts,
mutually attracted by some exciting discovery
that a wandering member has stumbled upon,
and that awakens the most astounding and
intense interest.
2. How they immediately set to work to
pull opposite ways, fight valiantly over their
treasure, and heroically keep it up after they
have amputated some of each others’ legs and
other appendages.
3. How they take up one thing, drag it
about for a time, and then drop it for some
other thing.
4. How they often expend enormous labor
on something that isn’t worth a darn; and
here Mark Twain’s story of the two ants and
the grasshopper leg came to mind.
5. How their splendid industry is generally
circular in direction; so that after long
struggle, they get the thing back to the exact
spot from which it started.
6. How they firmly believe that “they are
the people” and refuse to admit or bother
over bigger intelligences that are their inter-
ested observers and that can and sometimes
do sweep them and their hills and runways
and stores into oblivion.
7. How, measured by final results, they are
nevertheless a wonderful body of workers;
88 SCIENCE
and in tireless energy, patience and talent,
stand out preeminent in their respective
groups. ALBERT Mann
QUOTATIONS
THE BRITISH NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
WE learn that there are at present vacancies
in the entomological, zoological and geolog-
ical departments of the Natural History Mu-
seum which have been open for several
months, and that more vacancies are expected
in the immediate future. The museum is
one of the great national instruments for the
collection, classification, and preservation of
specimens of the animal and plants, the rocks
and minerals, of the world. For the ade-
quate performance of its duties, it must have
a full staff of able and devoted specialists.
It should require no defense on utilitarian
grounds, for the advancement of natural
knowledge of the kind to which it is devoted
is recognized as a privilege by every civilized
state. But there are plenty of utilitarian
arguments. Take entomology alone: the
number of living species of insects is esti-
mated at over 2,000,000. The preserver of
insect life on human life is continuous. As
household pests, as carriers of disease, as
enemies of stores or crops, they are every day
being found to have an unexpected economic
importance. It is to the experts and the
collections of the Natural History Museum
that we have to turn for the requisite in-
formation, and unless the museum has an
adequate staff we turn in vain. The diffi-
culty in filling posts with suitable men is
partly financial. The present rate of pay for
assistants in the second class is from £150 to
£300, and in the first class from £300 to £500
a year, with a temporary war bonus. These
salaries—the “despair” of Professor Stanley
Gardiner, whose cogent letter we pubiish in
another column—are no longer suflicient to
attract or to retain men of the right attain-
ments, unless they happen to have private
means. The smallness of the staff and its
inevitable division into water-tight compart-
ments makes promotion slow and capricious.
These disadvantages are increased by an
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
antique privilege of the principal trustee, who
nominates candidates for vacancies instead
of advertising for them. It has frequently
happened in the past that middle-aged medio-
erities have been brought in and placed over
the heads of the existing staff because of
their acquaintance with a group in which
some of the trustees are interested. The fact
is that the mode of governance of the Natural
History Museum is medieval. It should be
separated from Bloomsbury and placed under
a body of trustees selected not because they
make a hobby of collecting bugs or butter-
flies, but because they have a wide knowledge
of the scientific purposes which it is the
business of the museum to subserve.—The
London Times.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
Geodesy, including Astronomic Observations,
Gravity Measurements and Method of Least
. Squares. By Gerorce L. Hosmer. John
Wiley and Sons. First edition, 1919, 377
pages, 6 X 9, 115 cuts.
This book is especially to be commended for
the skill shown in the selection of illustrations,
both photographs and drawings, and for the
excellence of arrangement and printing of the
text and tabular matter. These things con-
tribute substantially to the satisfaction and
comfort of the user.
Still more is the book to be commended for
its positive qualities, which make it a distinct
and valuable addition to that part of the litera-
ture of geodesy which serves to carry informa-
tion and understanding from the extreme spe-
cialists who are developing the methods and
extending the knowledge in these fields, to the
students and the practising engineers who de-
sire to get a well-balanced view of the whole
field of geodesy quickly. The old well-known
matters are restated well in effective grouping.
The ideas, formule and tables most needed by
the student and the practising engineer are
selected from the great mass of available ma-
terial with rare skill. The recent developments
in geodesy are shown in true perspective with
respect to old things, to a quite unusual extent
for a text-book.
JANUARY 23, 1920]
Among the comparative recent develop-
ments in geodesy that are especially well
stated in the book are (1) the importance of
determining the relative strength of different
proposed chains of triangulation as fixed by
the geometrical relations, and the methods
for quickly doing so; (2) the relation between
the average length of the lines in a triangula-
tion and the rapidity, economy, and accuracy
of that triangulation and its convenience to
the user; (3) the advantages of the light and
rapidly built towers such as are now used in
the Coast and Geodetic Survey; (4) the ad-
vantages of the transit micrometer on portable
instruments for determining time accurately ;
(5) the application of the interferometer to
determination of the flexure of the support of
a pendulum used to determine the relative
values of gravity at different points. These
things are stated forcefully and with good
judgment as to their relation to older ideas
and methods.
Though he has looked carefully for errors
of omission, the reviewer, who has a back-
ground of experience which naturally tends
to make him keenly critical, finds only three
that are, in his opinion, important.
1. On its best direction theodolites the
Coast and Geodetic Survey uses two sets of
double parallel lines in the micrometer micro-
scopes with which the horizontal circle is
read, the two sets being so placed that the
observer moves the micrometer screw only one
turn between a forward and the corresponding
backward reading, instead of five turns. This
is a time-saving convenience which also in-
ereases the accuracy, and surely should have
been mentioned in the book.
9. The necessity of tracing back the adopted
field length of a base measuring tape to the
standard meter and the methods of doing so
are inadequately treated in the book. The
developments of the past twenty years have
made it clear that one must concentrate much
more keenly on this part of the work than
the book indicates.
3. The area method of computing the figure
of the earth from geodetic and astronomic
observations is barely referred to on page 204
without explanation. In view of the fact that
SCIENCE 89
this method gives a much higher degree of
accuracy from the same observations than the
traditional are method, it certainly deserves a
page of general exposition in the book, even
if it is possibly too difficult for the student to
grasp in full. The student and the engineer
should know that the more accurate method
exists, should know its general character, and
in a general way why it is more accurate than
the are method.
The author of the book has shown such
ability to see with the eye of an expert, and to
exercise the judgment of a practicing geodetic
engineer, that one may confidently expect that
even these three omissions will not occur in a
second edition.
Joun F. Hayrorp
SPECIAL ARTICLES
CONCERNING APPLICATION OF THE PROB-
ABLE ERROR IN CASES OF EXTREMELY
ASYMMETRICAL FREQUENCY CURVES
In a study of the fecal pollution of shell-
fish, Dr. James Johnstone! raises an im-
portant question: that of determining the
most probable value of a measure from a
series whose frequency distribution is highly
asymmetrical. In such instances it is evi-
dent, although prevailing practise contradicts
the statement, that it is illegitimate to apply
the probable error in the usual manner. For
such application presupposes a symmetrical
(Gaussian) distribution, and, since a wide
range of biological measurements is char-
acterized by an asymmetrical distribution, the
matter merits consideration.
Dr. Johnstone lists the following counts of
colonies of bacteria growing on twenty plates,
each having been incubated a standard length
of time after being inoculated with 1 ce. of
an emulsion, in 250 ec. of water, of five
muscles collected at random from the polluted
area: 7, 24, 40, 15, 29, 20, 17, 9, 16, 29, 7, 9,
10, 26, 15, 11, 21, 17, 10, and 41. Dr. John-
stone assumes each count to be an estimate of
the number of bacteria per ec.c. of the emul-
1‘‘The Probable Error of a Bacteriological
Analysis,’’ Rept. Lance. Sea-Fish. Lab., 1919, No.
XXVII., p. 64-85.
90 SCIENCE
sion, the variation between the counts being
attributed to errors in sampling. He then
raises the question as to the most probable
number of bacteria present, and, after point-
ing out that, according to custom, the arith-
metic mean of the counts (18.3) would be
regarded as the most probable number, proves
this to be untrue by showing the frequency
distribution to be highly asymmetrical, as
follows:
Counts Frequency
Gal) soocaouccoopdoddo0gc0bdo05 6
UALS) cco ouodcoonb oom oOGOdOOuG 3
G2 ON seeps tichstavss ist syevelcleveyotheretekeerele 4
MIRO) srobaoogodsoanacopocodcods 3
AT-Bl) soccopeocgodooobodscodod cn 2
SUK) Gogaudocoocudgoadaa00000000 0
eA cocoa oooesoguacca0o0ba0d0 1
COL 15) cao odoooodeododand00OD0GCC 1
Although Dr. Johnstone discusses this dis-
tribution, and, by employing Galton’s graph-
ical method, determines certain constants, he
fails to answer the question he raises.
In cases of this kind it seems as though
the simplest procedure is to find some func-
tion of the measurements whose frequency
distribution is Gaussian, and apply the prob-
able error to that function. The reason is
that an asymmetrical distribution implies
that some influence other than “chance” is
operative, and substitution of a function
whose distribution is Gaussian enables their
separation. In the particular case at hand,
and it is typical of many within the province
of biology, this function is the logarithm.
This is easily demonstrated by grouping the
logarithms of the counts with respect to a
deviation of =-0.1 from their mean (1.2046)
as follows:
Logarithm Frequency
O!505=0: 704 ry eteretarcosterelerstenererorersiete 0
O37 05-029 OA errr nelelenchelsickelereioteletele 2
OEE Goacodoonddesachoon 5
IO GEARS LEN ab a ooodedousodcodcde 6
DES OSU G04 syniocystehererevennlekevsrbenchctene 5
EDO OTe O SW sieve lotc vere teueper crore eterorenstens 2
EC S— 19 04ers \ereley olevcloverctatereteters 0
The arithmetic mean of the logarithms
(1.2046) is the logarithm of the geometric
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
mean of the counts (—16.02), the geometric
mean, by definition, being the twentieth root
of the product of the twenty counts. Accord-
ingly, the Gaussian distribution of the
logarithms shows that the counts cluster in
approximately constant ratio about their geo-
metric mean, or, to express it otherwise, that
variations in the count are compensatory in
the geometric mean. This signifies that
variation in the count is not primarily
attributable to errors in sampling and that
each count is not an estimate of the number
of bacteria present per c.c. in a homogeneous
emulsion, but rather that conditions favor-
ing the propagation of bacteria fluctuated in
an “accidental ” way either during the period
in which the twenty samples were removed
from the emulsion, or from place to place
within the emulsion, or both. Whether or
not this interpretation be correct, the log-
arithmie frequency distribution demonstrates
that something of like nature occurred. In
any case the most probable number of
bacteria per e¢.c. corresponding to the most
typical condition of the emulsion is the geo-
metric mean of the counts (16.02); and, in
the same sense, 250 16.02 4,005 is, of
course, the most probable number of bacteria
in the whole emulsion.
The reliability of this estimate may be ap-
proximated by applying the probable error to
the logarithms. The standard deviation of
the logarithms, a, is 0.224, the probable error,
or, better, the “ probable departure ” from the
logarithm of a single count is 0.6745 o=
=+ 0.1511 and the probable departure from the
logarithmic mean is 0.1511/\/20 = 0.0387.
It follows from tabulated values of the prob-
ability integral that, had the entire 250 ce.
been examined, it is as likely that the
logarithmic mean would have been within
1.2046 + 0.0337 as that it would have been
outside these limits, while the odds are about
4.6 to 1 that it would have been within
1.2046 + 20.0387), about 22 to 1 that it
would have been within 1.2046 = 3(0.0337),
and nearly 142 to 1 that it would have been
within 1.2046 -_ 4(0.0337). The numbers cor-
responding to these logarithms are the limit-
JANUARY 25, 1920]
ing values of the estimated number of bac-
teria per c.c.; that is, the odds are even that
this number lay between 14.82 and 17.31,
about 4.6 to 1 that it lay between 13.72 and
18.72, about 22 to 1 that it lay between 12.69
and 20.22, and nearly 142 to 1 that it lay
between 11.74 and 21.86.
This, I believe, answers Dr. Johnstone’s
question in so far as the small series of counts
permit. The problem is typical of many that
have not received due consideration by either
biologist or statistician; and conclusions de-
parting widely from the truth are continually
being reached through failure to apply any
criterion of reliability on the one hand, and
through an erroneous application of the prob-
able error on the other hand. It is hoped this
brief presentation will stimulate discussion.
Exnuis L. Mica
Scriprs INSTITUTION,
La JOLLA
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL
~ SOCIETY
Tur twenty-sixth annual meeting of the society
was held at Columbia University on Tuesday and
Wednesday, December 30-31, with the usual morn-
jng and afternoon sessions on each day. The at-
tendance included 96 members. President Frank
Morley occupied the chair, being relieved at the
last session by Professor J. L. Coolidge. The fol-
lowing new members were elected: Dr. H. HE. Bray,
Rice Institute; Professor I. L. Miller, Carthage
College; Dr. Helen B. Owens, Cornell University ;
Professor H, W. Pehrson, University of Utah. Ten
applications for membership were received.
At the annual election the following officers and
other members of the council were chosen: vice-
presidents, C. N. Haskins and R. G. D. Richardson;
secretary, FE. N, Cole; treasurer, J. H. Tanner; li-
brarian, D. E. Smith; committee on publication,
F. N. Cole, Virgil Snyder, and J. W. Young; mem-
bers of the council to serve until December, 1922,
T. H. Hildebrandt, Edward Kasner, W. A. Man-
ning, H. H. Mitchell.
The total membership of the society is now 733,
including 80 life members. The total attendance of
members at all meetings, including sectional meet-
ings, during the past year was 393; the number of
papers read was 187. The number of members at-
tending at least one meeting during the year was
SCIENCE 91
252. At the annual election 156 votes were cast.
The treasurer’s report shows a balance of $10,-
692.23, including the life membership fund of
$7,168.87. Sales of the society’s publications dur-
ing the year amounted to $1,811.52. The library
now contains 5,690 volumes, excluding some 500
unbound dissertations,
It was decided to proceed with the incorpora-
tion of the society under the general law of the
state of New York. A committee was appointed to
consider plans for the organization and adminis-
tration of the society after the retirement of the
present secretary and librarian from their offices
at the close of the present year. A committee was
also appointed to consider the formation of an in-
ternational union of mathematicians. The com-
mittee on mathematical requirements presented a
report, which was laid over for consideration at
the February meeting.
The following resolutions, introduced by Pro-
fessor R. C. Archibald as chairman of the com-
mittee on ‘bibliography, were adopted by the coun-
ceil:
The council regards the preparation and publi-
cation, in America, of a dictionary of mathemat-
ical terms as not only most desirable but also en-
tirely feasible, provided that financial aid for the
preparation of the manuscript can be secured.
Impressed with possibilities for the more exten-
sive development of pure and applied mathematies
in America, and with the importance of such de-
velopment to the nation, the Council records its
conviction that there are undertakings whose ac-
tive consideration would be highly desirable if ade-
quate financial assistance might be regarded as
available. Among such undertakings are: 1. The
preparation and publication by societies or individ-
uals of surveys, introductory monographs, transla-
tions, memoirs, and treatises, in important fields, in-
eluding the history of mathematics. 2. The organi-
zation of research fellowships. 3. The preparation
and publication of an encyclopedia of mathematics
in English. 4. The preparation and publication of
an annual critical survey, in English, of the mathe-
matical literature of the world. 5. The prepara-
tion and publication of a biographical and biblio-
graphical dictionary of mathematicians.
The meeting of the society immediately preceded
that of the Mathematical Association of America
on January 1-2. A very pleasant occasion was the
joint dinner of the two organizations on New
Year’s eye with an attendance of 114 members and
friends.
The following papers were read at the annual
meeting:
The sum of the face angles of a polyhedron in
space of n dimensions: H. F. MacNrisH.
92 SCIENCE
A connected set of points which contains no con-
tinuous arc: G, A, PFEIFFER.
Fundamental types of groups of relations of an
infinite field: C. J. KEYSER.
The theorem of Thomson and Tait and its converse
in space of n dimensions: JOSEPH LIPKA.
Poncelet polygons in higher space: A. A. BENNETT.
Continuous matrices, algebraic correspondences, and
closure: A. A, BENNETT.
Concerning points of inflection on a rational plane
quartic: Li. A. HOWLAND.
Geodesics motion on a surface of negative curva-
ture: H. C. M. Morse.
The geometry of Hermitian forms: J. Li. CooLmes.
Rotations im space of even dimensions: H. B.
Puiuures and C. L. HE. Moors.
Note on geometric products: C. L. E. Moorr and
H. B. PHILLIPS.
A memoir upon formal invariancy with regard to
binary modular transformations: O. EH. GLENN.
The invariant problem of the relatiwity transfor-
mations of Lorentz appertaining to the mutual
attraction of two material points: O. E. GLENN.
(Preliminary report.)
The mean of a functional of arbitrary elements:
NorBert WIENER.
Bilinear operations generating all operations ra-
tional in the domain Q: NORBERT WIENER.
Fréchet’s calcul fonctionnel and analysis situs:
NorBeRT WIENER.
A set of postulates for fields: NoRBERT WIENER.
On the location of the roots of the jacobian of two
binary forms, and of the derivative of a ra-
tional function: J. L. WALSH.
On the proof of Cauchy’s integral formula by
means of Green’s formula: J. L. WALSH.
On the order of magnitude of the coefficients in
trigonometric interpolation: DUNHAM JACKSON.
A problem of electrical engineering: P. L. ALGER.
Properties of the solutions of certain functional
differential equations: W. B. FITs.
Determination of the pairs of ordered real points
representing a complex point: W. C. GRAUSTEIN.
Sheffer’s set of five postulates for Boolean algebras
in terms of the operation ‘‘rejection’’ made com-
pletely independent: J. S. TAYLOR.
nz, the magic wand of actuarial theory: C. H.
FORSYTH.
A formula for determining the mode of a fre-
quency distribution: C. H. ForsyTH.
Asymptotic orbits near the equilateral triangle
equilibrium points in the problem of three finite
bodies: DANIEL BUCHANAN.
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1308
The definition of birational transformations by
means of differential equations: C. L. Bouton.
Area-preserving, parallel maps in relation to trans-
lation surfaces: W. C. GRAUSTEIN.
Note on linear differential equations of the fourth
order whose solutions satisfy a homogeneous
quadratic identity: C. N. REYNOLDS, JR.
A practical problem of aerodynamics and thermo-
dynamics: J. H. ROWE.
A property of permutation groups analogous to
multiple transitivity: W. B. Carver and Mrs, E.
F. Kine.
Some pseudo-finiteness theorems in the general
theory of modular covariants: OuIveE C. HAz-
LETT.
Note on the rectifiability of a twisted cubic: Mary
F. Curtis.
The representation of fractions of periods on alge-
braic curves by means of virtual point sets:
TERESA COHEN.
Necessary and sufficient conditions that a linear
transformation be completely continuous: C. A.
FISCHER.
On the structure of finite continuous groups with a
single exceptional infinitesimal transformation:
S. D. ZELDIN.
On the location of the roots of the derivative of a
polynomial: J. L. WALSH.
Abstracts of the papers will appear in the March
issue of the society’s Bulletin.
The thirteenth western meeting of the society,
being a joint meeting of the Chicago and South-
western Sections, was held at St. Louis on the same
days as the meeting in New York. The next reg-
ular meeting of the society will be held in New
York on February 28.
F. N. Coz,
Secretary
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Asscciation for
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Published every Friday by
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Entered in the post-effice at Lancaster, Pa., as second class matter
—————
SCIENCE _
NEw SERIES FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920 SINGLE Copiss, J5 Ae
Vex, LI, No. 1309 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTI 6.00') a
fe Rey |
IDL |
Ne)
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Heineman
This work appeals to sanitarian, laboratory worker, physician, producer, economist,
and student. For instance the sazifarian will find chapters on adulteration and adul-
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will find complete details of technic for all tests. For the physician there are chapters
on such subjects as Metchnikoff’s theories on fermented milk and bacterial flora, milk-
borne infections, milk in infant feeding, etc. For the producer, in addition to sanitary
methods there are chapters on handling, distribution, the manufacture of condensed
and desiccated milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, with illustrations of new apparatus.
For the economist and student generally there is here presented a complete study of the
milk problems from every angle from production to consumption.
Octavo of 684 pages, illustrated. By Paur G. HEINEMAN, Ph-D., Director of the Laboratories of the
United States Standard Serum Company, Wisconsin. Cloth, $6.00 net.
Overton & Denno’s Health Officer
This book contains the information the average health officer must have in order to dis-
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are chapters on organization and powers of a health department, the health officer him-
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Octavo of 504 pages, illustrated. By FRANK OVERTON, M:D., D.P.H., Sanitary Supervisor, New York
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It will serve as a text-book in courses in industrial medicine and surgery; as a reference
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SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
INSTRUCTORS IN PHYSICS
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Your endeavor is to give your students training in the use of those instru-
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Fripay, JANUARY 30, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
The Message of the Biologist: PROFESSOR
ViWWARG IPAM Go so Goa oO sb D HAO ObODDED 93
On Nipher’s ‘‘Gravitational’’ Experiment
and the Anomalies of the Moon’s Motion:
Dr. F. W. VERY
Scientific Hvents :—
Water Power and Dartmoor; Medical Edu-
cation; Scientific Lectures; The Illinois
Academy of Sciences; Gift to the National
Academy of Sciences and the National Re-
search Council
Scientific Notes and News ................-
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Official Field Crop Inspection: FrRanNK A.
Sprage. Science and Politics: PROFESSOR
T. D. A. CocKERELL
Quotations :—
The Dues of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science and the Salaries
Of. Scientific) Men ya. = ee ae ieee
Scientific Books :—
Ostwald on the System of the Sciences:
PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. NOYES
Koodo ondcon
Special Articles :— f
Drought and the Root-system of Eucalyptus:
JAMES McMurPHY AND GrEorGE J. PEIRCE. 118
The Mathematical Association of America .. 120
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
————
THE MESSAGE OF THE BIOLOGIST?
Ir is eminently fitting that we biologists,
like virile swarm spores, should periodically
come together in a holiday spirit of mutual
exchange, and after giving and receiving our
messages, go back to our life work, reinvigor-
ated and reoriented, to prepare for another
brief period of social conjugation.
The messages we send to one another will
have little carrying power, and little influence
on the receiver, if they are not specific in con-
tent, limited in scope, and securely wrapped
up in the precise technical terms of our own
familiar code.
On the other hand, the biologist would be
wholly lacking in social instincts if he
failed to recognize that he also has a more
comprehensive message for the layman, who
is largely dependent on the biologist for his
working knowledge of the great domain of
nature-life, and by whom the biologist is pro-
vided with the necessary means of existence.
This larger message must have a different
vehicle. It must first be summarized, digested
and metabolized into the vernacular, before it
can circulate through the body of social life,
reach its terminals, and there accomplish its
strengthening and rectifying purpose.
We may well ask ourselves whether we have
such a message to give, and if so, what it is,
and who, or what, is our authority. And by
“we,” I now mean all of us, not merely the
biologist, but the astronomer, geologist, chem-
ist, physicist and psychologist, for we are
what we are to-day because of the underlying
community of our methods and purposes, and
because, in our concept of evolution, we ac-
knowledge the same mental sovereignty.
This concept, of which we are the trustees,
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section F, Zoology, American Association for the
Advancement of Science, St. Louis, January 31,
1919.
94
initiated in man a veritable intellectual muta-
tion, which is now rapidly expressing itself in
new phases of social action, and in the emerg-
ence, like the parts of a growing embryo, of
new types of social architecture. It is our
duty to interpret this concept, and to see to
it that its real significance is understood, and
rightly used in social growth.
The social metamorphosis which historians
call the renaissance was largely due to organic
improyements in the system of educational
circulation and the transmission of mental
possessions from man to man. Learning was
democratized by translating the bible and the
classics into the vernacular, and by this better-
ment in transmission across time and space,
the profits of a dead past were made to flow
more freely into a living future, making those
profits in some measure the mental heritage of
the common people, and their enduring germ-
inal possessions for self-constructive purposes.
In this accelerated social growth, the base
line for the orientation of human conduct,
and for the measurement of right and wrong,
good and evil, was the bible, the classics, and
the divine right of civic and religious leader-
ship. The power and stability of these ex-
ternal directive agencies was universally ac-
knowledged, the source of their authority un-
questioned, and like radiant beams, their
trophic influence was formally expressed in
the prevailing architectonics of social pro-
cedure.
We are now witnessing, incident to a new
birth of social vision, a new social convulsion,
much more significant than that of the middle
ages, in which science, and especially bio-
logical science, unconsciously played, and is
still playing, a very important part. For when
we recognized a new source of authority in
lawful nature-action and in evolution, the old
base line for the measurements of human con-
duct vanished, and many of the old bonds of
social allegiance were destroyed; and now we
are asked: What shall be the new compulsion
to constructive social action, and on what au-
thority can we stay the march of anarchy?
And you, as biologists and American men
of science, can not shirk the grave responsi-
bilities of social leadership now thrust upon
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1309
you, for it requires little gift of prophecy to
forsee that America is destined quickly to
become the world’s chief center of biological
learning, as she is to-day the center of the
broadest sympathy with human life and
nature.
Perhaps it may clarify our vision if we
first ask, not what biology is, but what science,
as a whole, does, and what she tries to do.
It will little help us to enumerate all the
sciences, or be told there is “pure” science
and applied science; science experimental,
and descriptive. Behind and beyond all these
varied aspects of science there must be com-
mon motives, and common purposes in the
scientists, if we are rightly to include them
as intelligent beings in the same class.
Let us therefore precipitate and remove
these adjective purities and impurities, and
you will then agree with me, I believe, that
there still remain in science several over-
lapping functions and purposes. First to ex-
plore and to chronicle. To that end, she aims
to discover what things are contained in
nature, where they are, what they do, what
the order is, step by step, of their coming in,
their growing up, their going out. And then to
memorize, to conserve her mental possessions,
to register, in convenient and enduring sym-
bols the result of her explorations, for future
usage. Second, to compare and explain. To
that end, she aims to discover why things are
as they are, in what respects they differ, in
what they agree, how one thing influences an-
other, constructively, or destructively, and to
distinguish the right ways of doing things
from wrong ways. Her third function is to
do things rightly. In that respect, she is
artistic, architectural. To that end, by con-
forming her ways of doing things to nature’s
ways, she aims to create, and to conserve, and
to use her records and her knowledge of right
and wrong profitably.
Thus three qualifying motives pervade sci-
ence: the acquisitive, the ethical and the
moral. She seeks knowledge through experi-
ence, wisdom through understanding, and
profit through obedience. One purpose is
self-constructive, or egotistic, the other, self-
JANUARY 30, 1920]
giving, or altruistic. Both are cooperative
functions; in action, continuous; in rightness,
cumulative; in effect, creative.
The renaissance of to-day has its chief
creative impulse in the consciousness of evo-
lution. This revelation of modern science,
which we all acknowledge as our guiding star,
has come to mean world-growth, or the pro-
gressive organization and architectural up-
building of nature. Nature is now the source
of our authority, and creative nature-action,
as expressed in nature-growth, is the stand-
ard of all our values. Science is therefore
compelled to express all her measurements in
positive and negative constructive terms,
which ultimately must be oriented in refer-
ence to this gradient base line of nature-
progress, called evolution.
In this nature-growth, we fail to discover
any gain or loss, either in basic constructive
matter, or in energy. But gain there must
be, if evolution is a reality. That gain is, in
reality, a moral and ethical gain, or a gain in
that creative action and constructive right-
ness which we call organization and directive
discipline. There are no better positive and
negative terms to express those gains, both
relatively and absolutely, than the familiar
terms, right and wrong, good and eyil.
On this point, therefore, there need be no
equivocation in our message. The profit in
evolution is in better constructive action.
By the conservation of these’ profits, nature
augments her capital in constructive right-
ness.
But how is this profit made and conserved?
That is the really vital question. Until it is
answered there can be no underlying intel-
lectual stability in human life, individually,
or socially; no basic unity of purpose in
human conduct. Here our vision is not so
clear. Many of us believe that on this point
we have no comprehensive message to give.
The most familiar attempts to explain how
evolution takes place are restricted to special
aspects of evolution, and are often epitomized
in personal names, such as Darwinism, La-
markism, Weismannism, Mendelism. Among
SCIENCE 95
us there are naturalists, morphologists, phys-
iologists, and psychologists; breeders, experi-
mentalists, and bio-chemists. And surround-
ing us on all sides are the physicists, chemists,
geologists, and astronomers, with whom we
must reckon, for their domains and their sub-
ject matter overlap ours in countless ways.
But unfortunately between all these workers
' there is little common understanding and
much petty criticism.
Are we building out of aimless contribu-
tions to science a new Babel’s tower of dis-
jointed, slippery words, with nothing to hold
them to constructive lines, and preserve the
unity of purpose in our social architecture?
Perhaps the most comprehensive terms, al-
though they have little meaning outside the
organic world, are “natural selection,” the
“ struggle for existence,” and the “survival of
the fittest.” But granting their validity within
the organie world, they have no definite moral
significance. They convey no implication as to
how man, or anything else, must act in order
to exist, to say nothing of surviving. What
is the fittest? Why is it fit? Why does it
survive? If right combinations happen pri-
marily by chance, why, or how, do they come
to happen regularly? How ean “right acci-
dents ” become cumulative, or lawful, or deter-
minate, unless there is a saving, or more
enduring, directive element in that something
we call rightness?
When the layman makes his holiday eall
on his biological menagerie and points his
umbrella at us, hoping to receive through that
safety-first device a brush discharge of in-
formation, we fail to “come across” with
illuminating answers to these very pertinent
questions. But to conceal our low potential,
and preserve our self-respect, we all resort to
certain unintelligible sounds, or warning sig-
nals, according to the particular pen in which
we have been bred and exercised, and which
are guaranteed to scare away, or charm into
inaction, the most intrepid questioner. One
mumbles something about “ environment ” and
“ecology,” and crawls back into the bushes.
Another wheezes something about “ enzymes ”
and “vitality” and goes on with his experi-
menting. Another climbs to the top of his
96
cage and yells “eugenics,” while his mate in
the corner faintly lisps “ euthenics.” Some
particularly active youngsters jump into a re-
volving wheel, and every time it makes a com-
plete revolution shout “ chromosomes, chromo-
somes, chromosomes.” A few old-moss-backs,
a rare variety, mournfully harp on “ morphol-
ogy.” And one majestic megatherium com-
prising all in one, coughs up an “ energy com-
plex,” followed by a prolonged roar, in several
volumes, in which one can distinguish the
words “action, reaction, and interaction.”
The clergymen, senators, and Bolsheviki, with
their retinues of lady friends, exclaim “ How
wonderful, and so true.” Life indeed is com-
plex, energetic, and full of actions, reactions,
and interactions! And all of them deeply
impressed, go back to their deadly work, and
act, and believe, if at all, just as they did
before.
After they are gone, all the animals agree
that no one has any right to bother real,
simon-pure scientists with such fool questions.
Let them go to—well, Where? To Germany?
To Nietsche, Bernhardi, and Treitsche? To
the militant philosophy of dominion, to a
half-witted selfishness, in politics, commerce,
and kultur, frankly upbuilt on the doctrine
of the survival of the fittest, the fittest uni-
versally acknowledged, by themselves, to be
the Germans and their system?
Or to the spiritualists, anthropomorphists,
and sentimentalists, who see nothing clearly
in the mirror of nature but a distorted image
of themselves?
Or to Huxley and his “I don’t know” fol-
lowers, who can discover no ethics or morality
in nature-action; neither warning nor invita-
tion, nor directive discipline, but merely a
drab, unoriented neutrality of “unmorality,”
leaving man nothing but himself with which
to orient himself; leaving him to create his
own system of ethics and morality out of his
own inner consciousness ?
The biologist has found no evidence for the
broad assumptions of these philosophers. In
nature, he sees no one-sided dominion of the
strong over the weak, or the weak over the
strong; no special privileges; and no freedom
from obligations. Neither does he see any
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1309
warrant for puling sentimentality, nor any
expectation of an unaggressive neutrality in
nature-action.
Nature, so far as we have been able to dis-
cover, is an enduring, self-constructive system,
gaining and preserving her gains, in a definite
way, according to her own system of ethics
and morality. In so far as nature-growth is
manifest in evolution, we can not deny that
at least to that extent her ethics are con-
structive and her morals saving.
Man’s constructive and saving principles
can not be otherwise, without severing all his
bonds with nature-action in a futile attempt,
like that suggested by Huxley, to set up an
anarchistic “imperium in imperio,” or a Bol-
sheyistie “microcosm within the macrocosm.”
I can not believe we have reached that
parting of the ways, for man’s highest activi-
ties are all too clearly but extensions of na-
ture’s ways and means of creating and pre-
serving her products, in which man uses
whatever intelligence he may have, and the
cultural implements he has constructed, as
special instruments to attain his ends.
The specific gravity of the western variety
of biologists will not let him float in a vacuum
of cosmic mysteries with the Hindoo; and he
does not care to wallow in a quagmire of
metaphysics with the Greek. He gladly
plants his substantial mental feet on the first
firm substratum he ean reach. And even
though that substratum be nothing more than
the molecular quicksands of physics and
chemistry, it safely leads him to the rising
shores of hard realities.
_ But now that we biologists, as evolutionists,
feel reasonably safe in our storm-proof
shelters of established facts, the spirit of ad-
venture again leads us forth to wider excur-
sions, and we ask ourselves whether it is
possible to reduce all the constructive proc-
esses of nature to a simple formula, which can
be expressed in familiar terms of universal
human significance? This is a venture
doomed apparently beforehand to defeat, for
it takes us back again to the most ancient
beaches of human controversy, strewn with
the wreckage of all man’s early and late
JANUARY 30, 1920]
attempts to launch a religion, or a philosophy,
that will stand the test of experience.
And all these mournful wrecks are jealously
guarded by marooned mariners of hope, and
their beach-combing followers, who show no
merey to intruders. But modern science,
which has wisely built on firmer, though drier
ground, must ultimately extend the founda-
tions of all of her out-housings down to the
low water mark of this old shore, and while
the attempt is fraught with dangor, it wil
ever be an inspiring task for those enguged
in the process of social reconstruction that
now lies before us. I know of no other engi-
neers whose occupation should better fit them
for leadership in this task than the biologists,
occupying, as they do, a central strategic
position in relation to chemistry and physics,
geology and astronomy, sociology and the
humanities.
When to this end, we examine, as best we
may, the attributes of these basic, chemical
elements of nature’s substance, we find in
them, as in human social atoms, a potential
constructive and creative power which becomes
clearly manifest in the familiar processes of
chemical action. In that process we are com-
pelled to assume, if we are willing to assume
anything, that some influence, or effect, we
know not what, or how, is exercised by one
element on another, the result of which may
be the formation of a new unit, or compounded
individuality, with a new style of architecture
of its own. Coincident with this construction,
the former attributes of the constituent parts
vanish, and in the new unit a different at-
tribute appears which was not there before.
We may profitably translate this construc-
tive process into the vernacular, without, I
trust, seriously offending the properties of the
purest scientist, even though the words may
savor of morality.
We may say, for example, that when the
right chemical elements are in the right rela-
tions to one another, or if they are moved into
them, or placed there or if these elements
themselves find the right relations by chance,
or otherwise, cooperative action between them
then takes place automatically, or under a
SCIENCE 97
compulsion neither can resist, and something
new is created. In this cooperative action,
each element evidently does something, or
gives something to the other, and receives
something from the other. It is in fact ap-
parently a clear case of creative action
through mutual subjection and mutual serv-
ice—not necessarily service for each other,
because for all we know these elements may
be the original anarchists and would much
prefer neither to give anything to anybody,
nor receive anything from anybody—but for
the molecule so created.
In this creative process, the essential
factors are, unity, mutual service, mutual
discipline, and some sort of constructive
rightness. When these conditions are ful-
filled, something new is created, and these
anarchistic elements then become, perforce, al-
truistic agents, or accessories, to some ulterior
creative act, in which they may or may not be
interested. In spite of themselves, by their
mere existence, they are compelled to act for
something beyond self, and in doing so they
cease to be anarchists and become more or less
orderly servants in a staid molecular society.
Mr. Molecule, therefore, is created by the
mutual services and directive discipline of his
constituent atoms, or elements, and by his
home surroundings, all acting cooperatively to
give him birth. In his creation, he becomes
endowed with a sovereign quality of his own,
subject to the sovereignty of his outer world.
He endures as long as those cooperative
services are rightly performed, and the dis-
cipline rightly maintained, and no longer.
His existence, therefore, is contingent on the
performance of these services, and on the ex-
istence of some degree of rightness within
himself, and outside himself; and that mole-
cule which does survive has preserved within
its makeup some measure of that rightness.
In that measure of cooperation and rightness
lies the fitness of his constituents, and the
selective agency in the evolution of the mole-
cule.
But the molecule thus peremptorily set up
in business for itself, and without being con-
sulted in any way as to his own wishes in the
matter, has his own work in the world to do,
98 SCIENCE
subject to his own specific attributes and ex-
ternal compulsions. This new anarchist, by
force of circumstances, may be compelled to
help in the construction of proteids to be used
by some future plant or animal life, even if
his anarchistic soul does rebel at the per-
formance of such useless altruistic labor, and
at such unwarrantable interference with his
freedom of action.
If we now make a momentary excursion
toward the other extreme of nature-action,
into the domain of the astronomer, we appar-
ently find the same constructive, selective, and
saving agencies at work that are manifest in
the upbuilding of the molecule, only the sys-
tem and its component parts are larger, the
time and space factors greater, and the un-
knowable movers have different names.
Here the cooperative agencies are the
sovereign cosmos, and the sovereign individ-
ualities it contains. These solar systems,
with their constituents suns, planets, and
satellites, and their subordinate elements, are
grouped in partially visible architectural en-
tities, suggesting the wholly invisible mole-
cular entities of physics and chemistry.
The gains in this cosmic action-system are
formulated in sidereal architecture, and the
continuity of its constructive services is mani-
fest in the stability of its organization. The
morphology of the heavens, like that of mole-
cules and living organisms, is not only an
index of past and present physiologic action,
but an assuring prophecy of future action.
Without this forward and backward aspect,
along a gradient line of progressive nature-
action, science itself could not exist, for there
would be no base line for the profitable orien-
tation of intelligent thought or action.
In each of these larger sidereal units, and
systems of units, is embodied the summed
up profits of past cooperative actions. In this
self-construction lies the egoistie phase of
these individualities. The ulterior altruistic
services to which they are accessories are in
some measure apparent in the terrestrial con-
ditions under which, without our consent or
approval, we now exist. So let us get back to
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1309
earth again, where these agencies have made
life and constructive thought a possibility,
and have rigidly defined its impossibilities,
whether we like these invitations, restrictions,
and compulsion of nature’s discipline, or not.
In the terrestrial world, the most con-
vincing and familiar example of creative
unity through cooperative action, is the living
organism. But plant and animal life stand
on, and in, the altruistic achievements of the
physical world. They are pensioners of the
past, using both the oldest and newest instru-
ments of nature in their self-construction.
The individual plant, or animal, is the product
of its cooperating elements, cells and organs,
and its environment, and is itself a cooper-
ative agent in that environment. It is sub-
ject to its own sovereign attributes, as well as
to those of its constituents and its habitat.
The individual gain is everywhere contingent
on the general. The plant can not long en-
dure without the animal, the male without
the female, and neither without their retinues
of other servants. They exist, as they do,
because of these mutual services, within and
without, past and present. Their profit is in
service betterments: their working capital,
past betterments conserved.
In this phase of nature-action, the cooper-
ative system is formless, elastic, and demo-
cratic. Plants and animals are the actor-
units, widely separated it may be, in time and
space, but everywhere intermingled regardless
of high or low degree. And the system now
assumes the familiar give and take of pre-
datory life and reproduction, where consumer
and consumed, parent and offspring, egoism
and altruism, perform reciprocal functions in
the universal metabolism of nature-life.
Consider, for example, the nut, the mouse
and the eat.
If the mouse destroyed all the nuts, it
would destroy itself. Its interests are best
served when nuts are encouraged. If it had
intelligence, it would cherish and preserve
them. If it had the necessary cultural im-
plements, it might profitably spend its spare
time and energy in producing more and
JANUARY 30, 1920]
better nuts. Not even a “nut” could reason-
ably object to that. On the other hand, the
cat is an efficient educator. It teaches the
mouse to confine its attention to its own
affairs, and both teacher and pupil are the
better for that.
And when the mouse is about to die, and is
brought to earth, it does not wholly go to
waste. A percentage of him goes to make an-
other nut, and a percentage helps to make
another cat, which without the one and the
other could not exist. And finally nature
levies a tax upon the cat, and in due season
the cat pays his taxes.
By virtue of this rigorous nature discipline,
which prescribes when, and how, and where,
the nut, the mouse, and the cat may act, and
what they must, and must not do, each in its
own way makes a living, as many others like
them have done in similar ways before, a suffi-
cient testimonial to the constructive and
saving virtue of the system.
But this is only one part of this system
of give and take. The plant, the mouse, or
the eat, as an individual, not only gets, or
receives enough income from all sources to
pay his personal running expenses, but on the
whole, each in his own way, makes a profit.
Part goes into alterations, repairs and addi-
tions, or into what we call growth. But
there is always a definite limit to individual
holdings, or to the growth of every individual
system, which is peculiar to itself. When
that limit of cohesion is reached, or ap-
proached, the surplus overflows into other in-
dividualities and becomes their possession.
Much of this surplus of the profiteer, which
for him is unusable, is scattered right and
left with astounding prodigality, and this un-
willing altruism on his part becomes one of
the chief sources of income to life at large.
But an adequate percentage becomes a special
entailed endowment to a new individual, sim-
ilar to the first, thus setting up a substitute,
or a direct lineal descendant in the business of
life, giving him a fixed capital in germinal
materials, quick assets in germinal food-stufts,
with containers and protective envelopes, all
rightly constructed and arranged, and the
whole package so located in time and space
SCIENCE 99
by the administrators of these estates as to
insure for it, in the long run, a new life of
adventure among the hazards and inviting
opportunities of the outer world.
Thus in this larger spongeoplasmic fabric
of nature-life, visible only to the more com-
prehensive instruments of the mind, kingdoms
and classes, races and species, young and old,
the physical and organic entities of the living
and the dead, are unconscious partners in a
common system of cooperative action. In this
social metabolism across the larger reaches of
time and space, each unit, in the reciprocal
egoism and altruism of life and death, plays
its respective anabolic and catabolic func-
tions, and thereby gives the system, as a
whole, its self-sustaining, vital power.
Through the shifting patterns of this grow-
ing fabric, we most clearly see the converging
threads of genetic lineage, the long, gradient
lines of alternating youthful egoism and
parental altruism, on the one hand vanishing
in the primordial life that has its issue in the
terrestrial loom, and on the other, radiating
into the abyss of future possibilities. Every-
where shot through and across these more
rigid hereditary lines are those which mark
the sinuous course of predatory action, and
other actions less discriminating. Thus the
whole system is woven into that variegated
plexus of success and failure, tragedy and
comedy, joys and sorrows, good and eyil,
which makes up the cooperation functions of
life and give it creative unity.
And then man, a new nature-anarchist, the
most modern pattern in this moving-picture
fabric, makes his appearance on the screen,
and surrounded by his satellites of cultural
instruments, and with both positive and nega-
tive poles of his very material self flaming
with the auroras of intelligence, attempts to
set this system which gave him birth to rights.
He is little conscious of the source of his
own endowments, or that his ethics and
morality, as manifest in his sporadic out-
bursts of social philanthropy and benevolence,
are not his own institutions, but the compul-
sory application of world-old constructive
principles to his own peculiar affairs. Nor is
100
he fully conscious that his boasted material
inventions and discoveries, his canoes and
battleships, his ovens, highways and machin-
ery, his microscopes, telephones, and _ tele-
scopes, his commerce, literature-science, and
art, are but improvements, or enlargements,
outside himself, of his own internal organs
and functions, and that he must use these cul-
tural instruments if he would use them con-
structively, in precisely the same ways his
vital organs are used in his bodily growth
and preservation.
In their functioning, these cultural instru-
ments extend, deeper into time and farther
across space, the power of his sense organs
to discriminate between good and evil, and
increase the range and velocity of the load
his muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and other
bodily organs can move, or carry. In other
words they serve to increase the rate and
diversity of the mutually profitable exchange,
mental and physical, between the human mole-
cules of social life, and between man and
nature. They alone give man’s social life its
cooperative unity and power, just as the co-
operative action of molecules, cells, and organs
give unity and power to his body. Their
saving and constructive action is contingent
on the growth and right usage of intelligence,
as the construction and preservation of his
body is contingent on the evolution of right
reflex actions and instincts.
And now, in this twentieth century of the
historian’s calendar—when the human blasto-
derm, for the first time in cosmic evolution,
has practically enclosed the terrestrial egg,
filling in all the habitable surface of this
cosmic yolk-sphere, establishing its capillary
network of highways, and its nerve plexus of
communication, joining its racial blood-is-
lands and national placodes into one organism
—humanity has ceased to be a germinal po-
tentiality, or a mere vision of the prophets. It
has become a present and very obvious reality,
and the academic flickerings of the philosophic
auroras are now sufficiently luminous to be
visible, as practical questions, to the poli-
tician. Indeed there is still hope that some
SCIENCE
LN. S. Von. LI. No. 1309
rays may eventually pass the threshold of sen-
atorial sensibility.
But the man of normal social instincts and
average intelligence, in spite of himself, is
now compelled to recognize this unity in
human life and nature, and the dependence of
that unity on the fulfillment of mutual rights,
of mutual services, and mutual obligations.
In this more humble state of mind, he does
not now ask “ What will I do?” but “ What
must we do?” to preserve social life and social
structures. What is our protection against
the will to destroy? With destructive agen-
cies everywhere now at hand for those who
have the will to use them, What shall be the
compulsion to constructive action ?
The answers to these questions can not be
found in precedents, for there are no preced-
ents in the whole history of evolution for
man’s present social conditions. The solu-
tion must be found in the intelligent appli-
cation of the elementary principles of ethics
and morality, principles which have their
roots in the biological and physical sciences.
We must not accept Huxley’s despairing
assertions that “cosmic nature is no school
of virtue, but the headquarters of the enemy
of ethical nature,” and that “the cosmic
process has no sort of relation to moral ends.”
To do so we should have wholly to ignore
the manifest creative power in cosmic action.
We may surmise, from internal evidence, the
irritation that provoked Huxley’s brilliant but
unconvincing dialectics, and it may be said
that his point of view then, and the chief
target of his attack, is not ours now.
And surely it is not for us “to fight the
cosmic process” even under a fighting Hux-
ley; nor on the other hand need we accept the
stoical philosophy of protective mimicry and
regard “living according to nature as the
whole duty of man”; nor need we be horrified
at the thought of ethics as “applied natural
history.”
Rather is it our duty to understand nature-
action and to cooperate with it; to distinguish
between the minor tactics of evolution and
the grand strategy of evolution, and with our
own peculiar instruments be willing and
happy agents in its consummation. Man has
JANUARY 30, 1920]
but his animal organs, his cultural imple-
ments, and his intelligence, or his knowledge
of right and wrong constructive ways to work
with. The more those instruments are aug-
mented, the better he can direct nature’s con-
structive agencies to his own egoistic ends,
and in so doing, man himself then unwittingly
becomes a new and better altruistic agent in
evolution.
We scientists, conscious of our purpose as
constructive social agents, have three broad
fields of activity open to us, as already indi-
cated in defining the various functions and
purposes of science. First, investigation, or
the discovery of nature’s ways and means of
ereative action. This is the ethical side of
our work. Second, the constructive usage of
these ways and means, or their application to
the growing demands of social life, and their
usage in the regulation of human conduct.
This is the moral side. And, third, the con-
servation of our ethical and moral gains
through education. The first two we may
now ignore, for their significance is duly
appreciated and their future is promising.
But the educational side of our work is in a
very serious condition, and it may even now be
too late to avoid disaster. It little matters how
much we may develop either our technique, or
the spear-head of our research, if the so-called
common people still have the ghost-hunter’s
paleolithiec mental attitude toward natural
phenomena, and their leaders a similar atti-
tude toward social problems.
No social life can endure that is not under
some common compulsion to united action.
With the growth of the spirit of freedom
and democracy, and the absence of any com-
monly recognized dictatorship in church or
state, that compulsion can come only through
a common understanding of the elemental
necessities of social life, and through that
sense of personal benefit and personal owner-
ship in social institutions which alone can
create the will to cherish and protect them.
The compulsion of elemental intelligence,
acting in social unison, can alone provide the
enduring directive and cohesive power essen-
tial to social cooperation. Man’s will to
SCIENCE
101
create can be steadfast in purpose only when
his intelligence becomes stabilized in its
trophic attitudes, and rightly oriented to ele-
mental realities. Man, stumbling in igno-
rance, must be bandaged with restrictions and
propped up with crutches of force. A nation,
pricked by the poisoned shafts of a lying pro-
paganda, will dissolve in anarchy, though the
armies and navies of the world have failed
to break it.
In our education, we continually over-em-
phasized social rights and individual freedom
of action, and ignore the obligations essential
to partnership in any social or constructive
compact. It is not without significance that
ordinary people, like you and me, can discover
no specific mandate in the Constitution of the
United States. It broadly defines what the
state does, or will do, in certain contingencies,
and what its citizens may, or may not do, but
says nothing about what the citizen must do
in return for what the state does for him.
The absence in citizenship of a formal and
specifie contract, defining a common purpose
and recognizing mutual liabilities and mutual
benefits in its attainment, is in marked con-
trast with modern business procedure, as well
as with almost every other form of intelligent
cooperation. It is, therefore, not surprising
that an international covenant for the specific
purpose of reducing the danger of interna-
tional wars to a minimum, in which an at-
tempt is made to define national rights and
obligations in that undertaking, has a strange
and unfamiliar sound.
The absence of this covenant principle is
noticeable in almost every phase of modern
education. Science, even, does not formally
recognize a covenant with nature, although
nature virtually says to man “ Know me, and
serve me, and I will serve you.” Much of our
biological teaching is like a shop window dis-
play of nature’s competitive goods, with a
varied assortment of human notions thrown
in, but with no guarantee as to their signifi-
cance, or quality, or usefulness. The peda-
gogical barker, seldom haying convictions of
his own, proudly displays the impartiality of
his “purely scientific” attitude, and leaves
the callow purchaser to decide for himself
102
which trinket he will select for his mental
adornment.
Perhaps all of us can get together again on
common ground by putting our concepts of
nature-action into simpler, more comprehen-
sive formulas, universal in application, and
somewhat as follows. In so far as we have a
right to assume that purposeful action is in-
volved in any constructive functioning what-
ever, or in anything that has been accom-
plished, we may assume that the purpose, or
grand strategy in nature-action, is evolution,
or self-construction, or growth. To that end,
serviceable agents must first exist, or be con-
structed, in which is resident a basic right to
receive service, and a basic obligation to give
service. As all constructive action is con-
tingent on the fulfilment of these mutual
rights and obligations, the categorical im-
perative to existence is mutual service.
As corollaries to this categorical imperative,
the following compulsions are laid upon these
constructive agents. In all sustained construc-
tive action there must be: (1) A mutual di-
rective discipline, or mutual adaptation; that
is, a mutual subjection, and yielding to one
another’s influence. (2) An individual free-
dom of opportunity for self-constructive, or
egoistic action, within rigidly circumscribed
limitations. (3) Mutual service or cooperative
action, in which, soner or later, the profits of
egoism must be surrendered, through altruism,
to some ulterior creative act. (4) Conserva-
tion of these profits as an accumulating capital
in constructive rightness, and its endowment
to other individualities for usage in further
constructive action.
In that phase of cosmic evolution which we
call social growth, science and religion are the
outstanding cooperative agents. They better
serve their ulterior purposes the better their
mutual services, and the better their mutual
adaptation of thought and act to creative
ends.
Science and religion always have asked, and
doubtless always will ask, the same funda-
mental questions. What creates, what pre-
serves, and what destroys the products of na-
ture, and how may man profit thereby? The
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
answers, whatever they may be, must ulti-
mately be expressed by them in essentially
equivalent terms, their verification sought in
constructive action.
The large element of unpredictable returns
resident in all phases of nature-action de-
mands trial; creative turns justify the experi-
ment.
These unsuspected potentialities are revealed
in the triumphs of nature’s creative art and
thus confirm her independence of established
laws and precedents. Therein is the source of
man’s undying hope and faith, his abiding im-
pulse to endeavor.
WILLIAM PatTTEN
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
ON NIPHER’S “GRAVITATIONAL” EX-—
PERIMENT AND THE ANOMALIES
OF THE MOON’S MOTION!
From his assumption that matter is en-
tirely electrical, Fessenden concluded? that
the atoms in the interior of solid bodies are
charged electrically, contrary to a common
conception that a static charge resides wholly
on the surface. Fessenden’s assumption has
now been completely confirmed by Professor
Francis E. Nipher’s experiment with an elec-
trified Cavendish apparatus,? which shows
that when thin electrified shells of metal are
substituted for the large leaden spheres, no
effect is produced on the inner small sus-
pended spheres, protected by a metal ease,
when the electricity is applied. This, of
course, simply corroborates Faraday’s “ ice-
pail” experiment. But when the large leaden
spheres are restored to place and electrified,
the electricity gradually soaks in, and after
about half an hour this interior charge of the
atoms has accumulated sufficiently to produce
an electrical repulsion of the small spheres,
greater than their original gravitational at-
1 This paper was read at the twenty-second meet-
ing of the American Astronomical Society at Har-
vard College Observatory, August, 1918.
2 Electr. Soc., Newark, 1890; Electr.
August 8-22, 1891.
3 ‘‘Grayitational Repulsion,’’ Transactions of the
Academy of Science of St. Louis, Vol. XXIII, p.
WA Ue
World,
JANUARY 30, 1920]
traction by the material of the unelectrified
large spheres. Professor Nipher calls this a
“ crayitational repulsion,” but this appears to
be a misnomer. If the lead had really be-
come gravitationally repulsive, it should also
repel the earth, and the leaden spheres should
rise up and float away. Needless to say, this
is not what happens. Contrary to the usual
conception of a static charge, the electric
charges have penetrated into the substance of
the metal. Since it is thus shown that a
charge of electricity, which in other respects
would not be distinguished from a static
charge, has in this instance slowly been ab-
sorbed by the metal, permeating its substance,
the thin metal of the protecting case can be
no barrier to the transmission of such a
charge as this, and the metal case no longer
protects the inner balls of lead from directly
receiving a corresponding electric charge of
the same sign as that of the large spheres,
and thus there is repulsion between the two,
no matter whether the electrification be posi-
tive or negative. However, since the electric
penetration progresses very slowly, the large
spheres presumably take more time to charge
up than the small spheres. Consequently, if
after a preliminary application of one sort of
electricity for a sufficient time to produce
saturation, the electrification is changed to
the opposite sort, we should expect that the
electrification of the small spheres would
change sign first, and for a while there should
be electric attraction, or at least a progress-
ively diminishing repulsion. Now this is ex-
actly what takes place, though sometimes with
rather vigorous tremors, as if the interior
distribution of the electricity were not quite
uniform and as though its unloading were
spasmodic; but eventually, if the experiment
endures long enough and the electrification is
sufficiently powerful the signs of the electric
charges become the same in both large and
small spheres and the temporary electric at-
traction changes back to a repulsion. There
are some anomalies connected with the orien-
tation of the applied electricity when direct
contact of brushes is the method of applica-
tion, which possibly signify that the lead
SCIENCE
103
spheres are not entirely homogeneous for
charges communicated in this way.
While the gravitational and _ electrical
forees are intimately related, insomuch that
a common entity—the electron—is presum-
ably concerned in both, their modes of action
and speeds of transmission appear to be
entirely different. The electric phenomena
which counterfeit gravitation in the pre-
ceding experiment, are irregularly variable
and slow. Gravity is constant and its im-
pulses so rapid in their transmission that
their speed has never been directly measured.
There is no reason to suppose that gravity is
conveyed by electro magnetic vibrations with
the speed of light, for these uniformly give
repulsion, and not attraction; nor is the final
action of the penetration of the electric
charges other than repulsion, while, in spite
of Professor Nipher’s title, there is no evi-
dence of any gravitational repulsion.
From the result of Nipher’s experiment, we
may infer that the penetration of electrons,
emitted by the sun from time to time and
entering into the substance of earth and
moon, will produce a variable electric repul-
sion between these neighboring bodies, and
it is conceivable that some of the unaccounted
irregularities in the moon’s motion may be
produced in this way.
The positive electric potential of the at-
mosphere increases in an upward direction,
at first slowly, then more rapidly, though
sometimes quite irregularly, often attaining a
value of tens of thousands of volts at a height
of a few miles. This electrification of the
air is the result of the ionization of some of
its ingredients through absorption of the
sun’s rays. The ionization is greatest in the
upper air, partly because the incoming rays
are there rich in the ultra-violet rays which
are the most efficient ionizers, and the upper
layers are the ones which first take toll of the
radiation before these rays have been depleted;
but the electrification is also greater in the
upper air partly because these layers are
furthest from the surface of the ground
and can not lose their charge by conduction
to the ground as easily as the lower layers.
Although air is a very imperfect conductor,
104
the section of this conductor being equal to
the entire surface of the globe is enormous,
compared with the distance to be bridged;
and thus the minute specific conductivity of
the air multiplied by the section and divided
by the length of the path is still an appre-
ciable quantity even locally, and a very large
one taking the earth as a whole. Moist air
conducts better than dry, and the electrifica-
tion at a given altitude is on the average
several times as great in winter as in summer,
because the drier air of winter is a better
insulator.
The following examples are from U. S.
Weather Bureau observations at Drexel,
Nebraska, in 1917 (e—-mean pressure of
aqueous vapor in the air up to the given
height, measured in millibars; v= positive
electric potential of the upper layer in volts).
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1309
arily negatively charged by contact with the
ground, these conditions of electric distribu-
tion in the atmosphere are fairly persistent.
The two electricities are continually com-
bining, but are as constantly replenished.
The incoming electrons from the sun may
be absorbed by the upper air, but they serve
to increase the absolute potential of the earth
by a process which is independent of the
radiant ionization; and as I have shown that
there is conduction between the upper and
lower layers of the atmosphere and adjust-
ment of its ever varying charges, the in-
creased absolute potential of the upper air is
eventually, and probably pretty rapidly, trans-
ferred to the ground. Thus the ground re-
ceives its permanent negative charge from
the sun; and in spite of all sorts of irregular
electric variations in the intervening atmos-
Height Above Jan. 11, P. M. Jan. 18, A. M. Jan. 26, A. M. June 12, A. M. | June 19, A. M. | June 23, A. M.
Sea-level,
Meters e v e v e v é v é v é v
500 1.44 410 2.39 390 2.17 1,130 | 12.48 0} 10.06 0} 18.47 0
1,000 1.43 3,420 2.04 2,090 2.14 7,520 | 10.18 0} 8.97 40 | 15.24 0
1,500 1.62 6,355 1.89 6,160 2.62 17,735 | 10.46 0} 8.40 320 | 13.27 0
2,000 1.80 9,645 1.67 7,625 2.76 20,775 7.73 315} 7.86 870 | 10.65] 310
2,500 1.87 14,650 1.35 12.280 2.79 22,300 7.00 805} 7.21| 1,245| 9.56] 490
3,000 1.91 19,850 1.13 16,085 2.71 25,060 6.75 | 1,295} 6.68) 1,710] 8.74} 340
3,500 2.57 26,835 6.46 | 1,785} 6.07} 2,405) 7.82] 480
4,000 6.40| 2,270) 5.50) 3,255) 7.24) 535
4,500 5.10 | 4,200} 6.70} 550
On the given dates in January, which are
fairly typical, the average positive electric
potential was 20,332 volts at 3,000 meters for
e=1.92 mb. and in June a potential of
1,375 volts was found at the same height for
=17.39 m.b. So far as ionization of water
vapor is concerned, there should be more of
it in June per unit volume of air; but in
spite of this, the greater atmospheric con-
ductivity at that time cuts down the potential
+o a much lower value than the winter one.
Evidently there is continual conduction from
' the air to the ground. This does not neutral-
ize the negative charge of the ground, partly
because of the large electric capacity of the
latter, but mainly because the prevalent nega-
tive charge of the earth as a whole is con-
tinually being restored. Except for convec-
tive uplifting of local bodies of air tempor-
phere, the permanent negative charge of the
ground is maintained with only such minor
fluctuations as occur in magnetic storms. In
these, the showers of electrons received by
the earth from the sun at times of great solar
activity certainly penetrate into the earth’s
solid substance almost immediately, in spite
of atmospheric obstruction, and produce elec-
tric “earth currents” of considerable magni-
tude. We must conclude that the absolute
potential of the earth is continually varying.
Newcomb’s investigations of the inequali-
ties of the moon’s motion* indicate the exist-
ence of unexplained fluctuations in the moon’s
mean motion—a great fluctuation possibly
with a period of between 250 and 300 years,
4 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical So-
ciety, Vol. LXIX., p. 164, January, 1909.
JANUARY 30, 1920]
though the change may prove aperiodic, and
a lesser one of about 70 years. Professor
Newcomb says :>
Taken in connection with the recent exhaustive
researches of Brown, which seem to be complete in
determining with precision the action of every
known mass of matter upon the moon, the present
study seems to prove beyond serious doubt the
actuality of the large unexplained fluctuations in
the moon’s mean motion to which I have called at-
tention at various times during the past forty
years.
And he concludes, after examining every
known cause of motion, that “if we pass to
unknown causes and inquire what is the
simplest sort of action that would explain all
the phenomena, the answer would be—a fluc-
tuation in the attraction between the earth
and the moon.” This is in line with my
present suggestion, but as yet we have no
certain knowledge whether there is corre-
spondence between the supposed attractive
change and the solar emission of electrons.
However, the comparison which Professor E.
W. Brown has made between the variation of
the moon’s mean motion in longitude and the
fluctuation in height of the maxima of the
sun-spot curve’ lend considerable confirma-
tion to the view that the 70-year period in
the moon’s motion is in fact due to a varying
electric repulsion between the moon and the
earth owing to the larger reception, by both
bodies, of negative electrons when sun-spot
maxima are highest and when, presumably,
solar electronic emission is exceptionally
great, with consequent slight reduction of
gravitational control and loss of motion owing
to electronic repulsion. We might suppose
that the electrons thus received by our earth
from the sun, form a fluctuating electronic
“atmosphere,” outside of the denser air, but
attached to the planet. Nipher’s experiment,
however, favors the supposition that there is
actual electronic penetration into the solid
substance of the outer layers of the earth.
5 Op. cit., p. 164.
6 Op. cit., p. 169.
7See Report of the Australian meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, Transactions Sect. A, pages 311 to 321.
SCIENCE
105
Professor Brown says:8 “ With some change
of phase the periods of high and low maxima
correspond nearly with the fluctuations above,”
referring to his curve of the variations of the
moon’s motion in longitude, where negative
values of the moon’s motion-variation from
the mean follow close after the high sun-spot
maxima of 1780 and 1850, while positive lunar
values (that is, increased speed from greater
total attraction) are equally associated with
the low solar maxima of the epochs near 1815
and 1885, or half way between the epochs of
high sun-spot maxima. Nevertheless, as the
electric hypothesis was then unbroached,
Brown considered the connection open to
doubt because, as he says, “it is difficult to
understand how, under the electron theory of
magnetic storms, the motions of moon and
planets can be sensibly affected.” But this
difficulty which was felt when the only hy-
pothesis in sight was that of some sort of
magnetic effect, disappears in the light of
the now known efticacy of electronic penetra-
tion. Similar, though much smaller varia-
tions, with apparently identical period, are
found in the motions of Mercury and the
Earth in respect to the sun, but in these there
are some discrepancies, and until these are
cleared up, the proposed explanation, though
plausible and perhaps even probable, can not
be considered as certainly established.
F. W. Very
WESTWoopD ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY,
WEstTwoop, Mass.
FRANK PERKINS WHITMAN?
Proressor WuHitmMan was of New England
stock. The Whitman (originally Wightman)
family came to Massachusetts in 1632. The
line of Whitmans has included three clergy-
men. The father of Frank was William
Warren, early in life a lawyer, but later en-
gaged in business, who died in 1902, at the
age of eighty-two. Caroline Keith Perkins,
the mother of Frank, died at the age of forty-
one. She and the mother of President Taylor,
8 Op. cit., p. 321.
1 Minute adopted by the Undergraduate Colleges
of Western Reserve University.
106
of Vassar College, were sisters. Her father,
Aaron Perkins, served the Baptist church as
minister for over seventy years. The Perkins
family also settled in Massachusetts early in
the seventeenth century.
Professor Whitman was born and spent his
boyhood years in Troy, N. Y. After attend-
ing a private academy, the high school, and
also for a while a private home school in
Pittsfield, he entered Brown University and
graduated in 1874. He was a member of
Alpha Delta Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, a Junior
Exhibition speaker and on the commence-
ment list. After graduation he taught in the
English and Classical High School of Mowry
and Goff for four years, at the same time
pursuing graduate studies at Brown Univer-
sity, and received the master’s degree in 1877.
In the year 1878-9 he studied physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at the
same time making astronomical observations
with E. CO. Pickering, and working on lenses
with Alvan Clark. He spent the following
year at the Johns Hopkins University. Dur-
ing this time he was associated with Mr. New-
ton Anderson, who later founded the Univer-
sity School in Cleveland.
In 1880 Professor Whitman was called to
the professorship of physics at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute at Troy, where he re-
mained until he came to Cleveland. His
work in Adelbert College and the College for
Women began in 1886, and continued until
1918, when, after a year’s leave of absence, he
became professor emeritus. He acted as dean
of Adelbert College from 1903 to 1906.
He was chairman of the physics section of
the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, and thus vice-president of
the association, in 1898. His vice-presiden-
tial address was on the subject color-vision.
Two years before he published a paper on the
subject of the flicker photometer, an idea
not original with him, but he developed its
possibilities .and it has since been perfected
by others. His scientific ability was critical
rather than creative. For this critical faculty
there developed few opportunities, hence his
scientific activities were confined mainly to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
college halls. He was not a research scholar
and never wished to be considered one, but
he did haye a profound knowledge of the
great problems of physics and astronomy, and
he kept up with the research work done in
these branches. He devoted much of his at-
tention to the possibilities of lecture experi-
ments as a means of instruction. The con-
struction and administration of the physics
laboratory naturally received much of his
time and interest. He never failed in the
mass of executive work which is required in a
college, and in this field he showed the great-
est capacity and usefulness. In addition to
his minor interest in local organizations, he
was a member of Sigma Xi, of the American
Physical Society, of the American Astro-
nomical Society and of the Illuminating En-
gineering Society. He received the honorary
degree of Sc.D. from Brown University in
1900. He was a trustee of the University
School of Cleveland, and took an active in-
terest in its development.
During his long connection with Western
Reserve, Professor Whitman endeared him-
self to his colleagues in an unusual degree by
his unfailing courtesy and generosity, the
charm of his personality, the wisdom of his
counsel, and the absolute integrity of his
conduct. A righteous man, whose ear was
ever open to the voice of an enlightened con-
science, he inspired complete confidence and
made himself a trusted leader. He brought
honor to his profession, happiness to his
friends, a rich service to the university; and
in the halls of memory, his figure will long
remain a type of perfect faithfulness.
HORATIO C. WOOD
Horatio ©. Woop, M.D., LL.D., emeritus
professor of materia medica, pharmacy and
general therapeutics in the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School, died, January
3. The obituary notice in the Pennsylvania
Gazette states that for three generations mem-
bers of the Wood family have been on the med-
ical faculty. Dr. George Bacon Wood, one of
the founders of the Philadelphia College of
Pharmacy, and an uncle of Horatio C. Wood,
JANUARY 30, 1920]
was professor of materia medica at Pennsyl-
vania from 1835 until 1850, and professor of
the theory and practise of medicine until
1860, when he resigned. Dr. Horatio Charles
Wood, Jr., is professor of pharmacology and
therapeutics, having succeeded to one of the
chairs held by his father when he retired. He
is survived by these children: James L. Wood,
Milford, Pa.; Dr. George B. Wood, Dr. Ho-
ratio Charles Wood, Jr., and Miss Sarah K.
Wood.
Dr. Wood was born in Philadelphia, January
13, 1841, a son of Horatio Curtis and Eliza-
beth Head Bacon Wood. His first American
ancestor, Richard Wood, emigrated from Bris-
tol, England, in 1682, settling first in Phila-
delphia and afterwards in New Jersey. Ho-
ratio C. Wood was educated at Westtown
School and Friends’ Select School, and was
graduated from the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania in 1862.
In his youth he developed a fondness for
natural history and before studying medicine
became a worker in the Academy of Natural
Sciences, distinguishing himself by his orig-
inal work. After spending several years in
hospitals, Dr. Wood began private practise in
1865, making a specialty of therapeutics and
materia medica, meanwhile continuing his nat-
ural history studies and publishing numerous
papers on this branch of science, especially
cell botany. In his early life Dr. Wood also
was a student of entomology and published
- thirteen original memoirs upon the subject.
He abandoned these studies after 1873 and
devoted his whole attention to medicine.
He was appointed professor of botany in
1866 in ithe auxiliary faculty of medicine in
the university which had been established and
endowed by his uncle, Dr. George B. Wood,
and held this position ten years. He also made
a special study of nervous diseases and upon
the organization of the University Hospital
in 1874 was appointed clinical lecturer, be-
coming professor in 1875 and retaining this
chair until 1901. He also was professor of
materia medica and therapeutics from 1875
until he retired.
Dr. Wood was the author of numerous med-
SCIENCE
107
ical and scientific works including ‘“ Thermic
Fever or Sunstroke,” 1872; “Materia Medica
and Therapeutics,” 1874; “Brain Work and
Overwork,” 1880; and “ Nervous Diseases and
their Diagnosis,” 1874. In cooperation with
Professors Bennington and Sadtler he revised
the United States Dispensatory.
Lafayette College conferred upon him the
degree A.M., in 1881 and LL.D. in 1883. He
received the degree LL.D. from Yale in 1889
and from the University of Pennsylvania in
1904. He was a member of many learned so-
cieties including the National Academy of
Sciences, was president of the American
Pharmacopeial convention from 1890 until
1910, and was president of the Oollege of
Physicians in 1902 and 1903.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
WATER-POWER AND DARTMOOR
As similar problems must frequently be
solved in the United States, the following may
be quoted from Nature:
The proposal to develop electrical energy from
water-power on Dartmoor has led to a strong pro-
test against interference with the amenity of the
moor as appreciated by the lovers of solitary
places. Mr. Eden Phillpotts first directed atten-
tion to the matter by a letter in the Times of De-
cember 10, in which he called on the Duchy of
Cornwall, the landlords of Dartmoor, to act
quickly ‘‘and help to create a body of Parliamen-
tary opinion; otherwise the destructive and ill-
considered enterprise may receive sanction from an
indifferent House of Commons next session.’’?’ A
Plymouth correspondent supplied to the Times of
December 23 an account of the scope of the pro-
posed scheme, and on later days other writers ex-
pressed their strong disapproval of the project
from local, engineering, or esthetic points of view.
The scheme of the Dartmoor and District Hy-
dro-electrie Supply Company is briefly to utilize
the great rainfall and high altitude of Dartmoor
in the generation of electricity at several power
stations situated on different streams, to convey
the eurrent to the neighboring towns and villages
for ordinary municipal purposes, and possibly to
erect industrial establishments where current
might be used for electrolytic or power purposes.
It is claimed that this work will furnish needed
employment for the population of the district,
108
provide a continuous and economical supply of
electricity for lighting, traction and heating, re-
duce the congestion of railway traffic by diminish-
ing the demand for coal, and generally increase
prosperity and confer publie benefits more than
sufficient to counterbalance any interference with
agriculture, fishing rights, or the pleasure of
visitors to the Moor.
The general, and especially the local, public is
not qualified to weigh the rival claims, and as
things now stand Parliament must proceed by the
old, cumbrous, and very costly method of hearing
eloquent advocates and technical experts on all the
points raised.
At present the whole question of the water re-
sources, and especially of the water-power of the
British Isles is being investigated by a committee
of the Board of Trade, and on this account Parlia-
ment may be inclined to postpone the considera-
tion of private bills dealing with water, if not of
special urgency, until the committee has reported.
There are few areas in England where an unused
gathering-ground exists at an altitude allowing of
the development of water-power, and it may well
be considered inexpedient to allocate them finally
before a hydrometrie survey has been carried out
to enable the available power and its cost to be
calculated on a sure basis before work is com-
menced.
MEDICAL EDUCATION
_ Tue Council on Medical Education of the
American Medical Association, the Associa-
tion of American Medical Colleges and the
Federation of State Medical Boards of the
United States will hold a congress on medical
education and licensure at Chicago on March
1, 2 and 3. The program is as follows:
MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1920
Morning Session, 9:80 A.M.
Introductory Remarks by Dr. Arthur Dean
Bevan, chairman of the Council on Medical Hdu-
cation, Chicago.
Dr. George Blumer, president of the Association
of American Medical Colleges, New Haven, Conn.
Dr. David A. Strickler, president of the Federa-
tion of State Medical Boards, Denver, Colo.
““Present status of medical education,’’ Dr. N.
P. Colwell, secretary of the Council on Medical
Education, Chicago.
Symposium on ‘‘The needs and future of med-
ical education,’’ Dr. George EH. Vincent, president
of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York City.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Leland
Stanford University, Stanford University, Calif.
Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, president, Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
New York City.
Dr. Harry Pratt Judson, president, University
of Chicago, Chicago.
Mr. Abraham Flexner, secretary of the General
Education Board, New York City.
Monday Afternoon, 2 P.M.
“The larger function of state university med-
ical schools,’’ Dr. Walter A. Jessup, president of
the State University of Iowa, Iowa City.
“‘Wull-time teachers in clinical departments,’’
Dr. William Darrach, dean of Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York
City.
“‘Research in medical schools, laboratory de-
partments,’’ Dr. Oskar Klotz, professor of pathol-
ogy, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
Pittsburgh.
“‘Research in medical schools, clinical depart-
ments,’’? Dr. G. Canby Robinson, dean, Washing-
ton University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1920
Morning Session, 9:30 A.M.
““Graduate medical instruction in the United
States,’’? Dr. Louis B. Wilson, Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, Minn.
‘«Tnterallied medical relations; qualifying ex-
aminations, licensure, examinations, graduate med-
ical instruction,’’ Dr. Walter L. Bierring, secre-
tary of the Federation of State Medical Boards,
Des Moines.
‘«Essential improvements in state medical licen-
sure,’’ Dr. John M. Baldy, president of the Penn-
sylvania Bureau of Medical Education and Licen-
sure, Philadelphia.
“<Tnterstate relations in medical licensure,’’
Francis W. Shepardson, director of the Depart-
ment of Education and Registration of the State
of Illinois, Springfield.
Tuesday Afternoon, 2 P.M.
Reports on Medical Teaching from the Commit-
tee on Medical Pedagogy of the Association of
American Medical Colleges.
Remarks by the chairman, Dr. W. S. Carter, dean,
University of Texas, department of medicine, Gal-
veston.
Anatomy: Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, dean, Univer-
sity of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison,
JANUARY 30, 1920]
Histology and embryology: Dr. F. C. Waite, sec-
retary, Western Reserve University School of Med-
icine, Cleveland.
Physiology: Dr. E. P. Lyon, dean, University of
Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis.
Biological chemistry: Dr. Otto Folin, professor
of biological chemistry, medical school of Harvard
University, Boston.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1920
Morning Session, 9:30 A.M.
Pharmacology: Dr. C. W. Edmunds, assistant
dean, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann
Arbor.
Pathology: Dr. James Ewing, professor of
pathology, Cornell University Medical School, New
York City.
Bacteriology and parasitology: Dr. A. I, Ken-
dall, dean, Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago.
Publie health and preventive medicine: Dr. Vic-
tor C. Vaughan, dean, University of Michigan
Medical School, Ann Arbor.
Wednesday Afternoon, 2 P.M.
Separate business meetings will be held by the
Association of American Medical Colleges and the
Federation of State Medical Boards.
SCIENTIFIC LECTURES
THE faculty of medicine of Harvard Uni-
versity offers a course of free public lectures,
given at the medical school, Longwood Ave-
nue, Boston, on Sunday afternoons, beginning
February 1 and ending March 28, 1920. The
lectures begin at four o’clock and the doors
will be closed at five minutes past the hour.
No tickets are required.
February 1. Child welfare. Dr. Richard M.
Smith.
February 8. Smallpox and vaccination.
Edwin H. Place.
February 15. Protection against infection in
Dr.
diseases other than smallpox. Dr. Harold C.
Ernst.
February 22. Diseases of the teeth in relation
to systematic disturbances. Dr. Kurt H. Thoma.
February 29. Pneumonia, Dr. Frederick T.
Lord.
March 7. Some aspects of alcohol. Dr. Perey
G. Stiles.
March 14. New conceptions of the structure of
matter. Dr. William T. Bovie.
SCIENCE
109
March 21. Health and industry. Dr. Cecil K.
Drinker,
March 28. Some points of interest to the pub-
lic in regard to medical education as brought out
by the recent war. Dr. Channing Frothingham.
The trustees of the Ropes Memorial an-
nounce that the eighth course of lectures on
botany is being given in the trustees’ room at
the Ropes Mansion, 318 Essex Street, Salem,
Mass., by Professor M. L. Fernald, of Har-
vard University, on Thursday afternoons, at
4.15 o’clock, the subject being The Geo-
graphie Origin of the Flora of Northeastern
America. The lectures are:
January 15. The maritime flora: the flowering
plants of sea-margin salt marsh tidal estuaries and
strands.
January 22. The coastal plain flora: the plants
of sand hills; of Cape Cod; of eastern New-
foundland.
January 29. The deciduous forests:
ghenian flora and its history.
February 5. The Canadian forests: similarities
and variations of cireumpolar forest plants.
February 12. The actic-alpine flora: the con-
trasting ranges of the floras of the granitic, lime-
stone and serpentine mountains of northern New
England, Quebee and Newfoundland,
February 19. The cosmopolitan flora of the
future.
the Alle-
The objects of the course are to present in
brief outline the more striking features in
the history of the floras of the northern
hemisphere—their antiquity, probable migra-
tions and wholesale extinctions in geological
time; and to make clear why, unless the more
sensitive and easily exterminated of our wild
flowers are intelligently safecuarded, they are
doomed to early extinction.
THE ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
THE thirteenth annual meeting of the Illi-
nois State Aicademy of Science will be held at
Danville. The preliminary program is as fol-
lows:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20
11 a.m. Business session. Reports of officers
- and committees.
2 pm. General scientific session for the read-
ing of papers.
110
5:30 p.M. Delegates and citizens assemble at
Elks’ Hall.
6pm. Academy banquet.
8:15 p.m. Public session of the academy in the
Washington school and auditorium. Address by
the president, ‘‘ Alaska and its Riches.’’ (Illus-
trated by lantern.)
9:30 p.m. Informal reception.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21
9 a.m. General scientific session for the reading
of papers.
1:30 P.M. Business session. Election of officers.
The Indiana Academy of Science has been
invited to participate and will send a number
of delegates as well as contribute to the pro-
gram. The South American expedition con-
ducted jointly by the University of Indiana
and the University of Illinois will be discussed
by the director, Dean C. H. Eigenmann, of
the University of Indiana.
Amendments to the constitution providing
for the affiliation of the academy with the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science and creating two classes of mem-
bers, viz., national members and local mem-
bers, have been unanimously accepted and
will come up for final adoption.
GIFT OF THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION TO
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
AND THE NATIONAL RESEARCH
COUNCIL
THE Carnegie Corporation of New York has
announced its purpose to give $5,000,000 for
the use of the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Research Councii. It is
understood that a portion of the money will
be used to erect in Washington a home of
suitable architectural dignity for the two
beneficiary organizations. The remainder will
be placed in the hands of the academy, which
enjoys a federal charter, to be used as a
permanent endowment for the National Re-
search Council. Jn announcing this gift the
report from the council says:
This impressive gift is a fitting supplement fo
Mr. Carnegie’s great contributions to science and
industry.
The council is a democratic organization based
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von, LI. No. 1309
upon some forty of the great scientific and engi-
neering societies of the country, which elect dele-
gates to its constituent divisions. It is not sup-
ported or controlled by the government, differing
in this respect from other similar organizations
established since the beginning of the war in Eng-
land, Italy, Japan, Canada and Australia. It in-
tends, if possible to achieve in a democracy and by
demiocratic methods the great scientific results
which the Germans achieved by autocratic meth-
ods in an autocracy while avoiding the obnoxious
features of the autocratic régime.
The council was organized in 1916 as a measure
of national preparedness and its efforts during the
war were mostly confined to assisting the govern-
ment in the solution of pressing war-time problems
involving scientific investigation. Reorganized
since the war on a peacetime footing, it is now
attempting to stimulate and promote scientific re-
search in agriculture, medicine, and industry, and
in every field of pure science. The war afforded a
convincing demonstration of the dependence of
modern nations upon scientific achievement, and
nothing is more certain than that the United States
will ultimately fall behind in its competition with
the other great peoples of the world unless there be
persistent and energetic effort expended to foster
scientific discovery.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Burton E. Livineston has been elected
permanent secretary of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, to
succeed Dr. L. O. Howard, elected president
of the asociation. Dr. Livingston will retain
the professorship of plant physiology at the
Johns Hopkins University, and the office of
the association will remain at the Smith-
sonian Institution.
Dr. W. A. Noyss, head of the department
of chemistry of the University of Illinois, has
been elected president of the American Chem-
ical Society.
At the Cincinnati meeting of the Federa-
tion of Societies for Experimental Biology,
presidents of the constituent societies were
elected as follows: The American Physiolog-
ical Society, Professor Warren P. Lombard,
of the University of Michigan (reelected) ;
the American Bio-chemical Society, Professor
Stanley J. Benedict, of Cornell University;
JANUARY 30, 1920]
the Society for Experimental Pathology, Dr.
William H. Park, of New York City; the
American Pharmacologists’ Society, Professor
Arthur S. Loevenhart, of the University of
Wisconsin.
THE presentation of the Perkin Medal to
Professor-emeritus Charles F. Chandler, of
Columbia University, by Professor Marston
T. Bogert, of Columbia University, took place
at the meeting of the Society of Chemical
Industry, at the Chemists’ Club, New York
City, on January 16.
At a meeting held on December 1, Pro-
fessor Thomas B. Osborne, of the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station, was elected
an associate member of the Société Royale
des Sciences Médicales et Naturelles de
Bruxelles.
THE prize of $100 offered in 1914 for the
best paper on the availability of Pearson’s
formule for psychophysics, to be judged by
an international committee consisting of Pro-
fessors W. Brown, HK. B. Titchener and F. M.
Urban, has been awarded to Dr. Godfrey H.
Thomson, of Armstrong College, Neweastle-
upon-Tyne, for an essay entitled “On the
Application of Pearson’s Methods of Curve-
Fitting to the Problems of Psychophysics.”
AT its last meeting the Rumford Committee
of the American Academy of Arts and Sci-
ences made the following appropriations: to
Professor Frederick A. Saunders, of the
Jefferson Physical Laboratory, one hundred
and fifty dollars in addition to a former ap-
propriation in aid of his research on Spectral
Lines; to Professor David L. Webster, of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three
hundred and fifty dollars in addition to a
previous appropriation in aid of his research
on X-ray spectra.
Mr. Eimer D. Merritt, who has been in
charge of botanical work for the Philippine
government since 1902, has been appointed
director of the Bureau of Science. In addi-
tion to his duties as botanist, Bureau of Sci-
ence, Mr. Merrill was chief of the department
of botany, University of the Philippines, from
1912 to 1919, first as associate professor, later
SCIENCE
111
as professor of botany. In March, 1919, he re-
signed from the university in order to devote
his whole time to the botanical interests of the
Bureau of Science, was made acting director
of the bureau in June, and director in Decem-
ber, 1919.
Dean CHartes FuLLER Baker, of the college
of agriculture, University of the Philippines,
takes a year’s leave during 1920, because of
failing health. He plans tto spend a large
part of this leave in the higher regions of the
Philippines. His address will continue to be
Los Bafios, Philippine Islands.
Mr. R. S. McBriwpz, engineer-chemist of the
National Bureau of Standards, resigned on
January 15, to become the engineering repre-
sentative in Washington, D. C., of MceGraw-
Hill Company of New York City. His first
work will be in connection with certain coal
and fuel utilization problems of particular in-
terest to Coal Age. His address is Colorado
Building, Washington, D. C.
Dr. E. Mzap Witcox has resigned as pro-
fessor of plant pathology in the University of
Nebraska and plant pathologist of the Ex-
periment Station, effective April 1, 1920, to
accept the directorship of the Agricultural
Experiment Station being established at
Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
Dr. W. S. Gorton thas resigned from the
Bureau of Standards, where he has been en-
gaged in work on potential-transformer test-
ing ‘and automotive engine ignition, to accept
a research position with the Western Electric
Company in New York City.
W. Armstrone Price, paleontologist of the
West Virginia Geological Survey, is spending
the winter months at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, where he is carrying on his work on West
Virginia fossils through the courtesy of the
geological department of the university.
Tue list of British new year honors, as re-
ported in Nature, includes Sir Bertrand Daw-
son, physician in ordinary to the king, and
dean of the medical faculty of the University
of London, to a peerage. Among the new
knights are Professor Arthur Schuster; Dr.
E. A. Wallis Budge, keeper of Egyptian and
112
Assyrian antiquities, British Museum; Col-
onel W. A. Churchman, ministry of munitions
explosives department; Dr. J. Court, known by
his researches on diseases of miners; Mr. F.
C. Danson, chairman of the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine; Mr. D. E. Hutchins,
for his services to forestry; Mr. James Kem-
nal, for public services in connection with the
manufacture of munitions; Mr. F. S. Lister,
research bacteriologist, South African Insti-
tute for Medical Research; Mr. H. J. Mac-
kinder, M.P., and Dr. F. G. Ogilvie, director
of the Science Museum, South Kensington.
Professor 8. J. Chapman, joint permanent
secretary, Board of Trade, and Sir Richard
Glazebrook, have been promoted from O.B. to
K.C.B. Dr. G. R. Parkin has been promoted
to the rank of K.C.M.G., and Mr. H. N.
Thompson, chief conservator of forests, Ni-
geria, has received the honor of C.M.G.
Proressor Banti, of Florence, Dr. Van
Ermengem, of Ghent, and Dr. Pawinski, of
Warsaw, have been elected correspondents of
the Paris Academy of Medicine.
Orricers of the American Philosophical
Society for 1902 have been elected as follows:
President, William B. Scott; Vice-presidents,
George Ellery Hale, Arthur A. Noyes, Hamp-
ton L. Carson; Secretaries, I. Minis Hays,
Arthur W. Goodspeed, Harry F. Keller, John
A. Miller; Curators, William P. Wilson,
Leslie W. Miller, Henry H. Donaldson; Treas-
urer, Henry La Barre Jayne.
Orricers of the Brooklyn Entomological
Society for the year 1920 have been elected
as follows:
President: W. T. Davis.
Vice-president: J. R. de la Torre-Bueno.
Treasurer: Rowland F. McElvare.
Recording and Corresponding Secretary: Dr. J.
Bequaert.
Librarian: A. C. Weeks.
Curator: Geo. Franck.
Publication Committee: J. R. de la Torre-
Bueno, editor, Geo, P. Engelhardt, Dr. J. Be-
quaert.
Delegate to Council of New York Academy of
Sciences: Howard Notman.
\
Dr. Louis A. Bauer gave an illustrated lec-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
ture on “The solar eclipse of May 29, 1919,
and the Hinstein effect,” at Brown University,
under the auspices of the Sigma Xi, on Jan-
uary 15. He repeated the lecture at Columbia
University, Friday afternoon, January 16. On
Friday evening, February 6, he has been in-
vited to address the American Philosophical
Society in Philadelphia at the stated meeting,
on “Observations in Liberia and elsewhere of
the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, and
their bearing on the Einstein theory.” The
address will be illustrated by lantern slides of
all expeditions showing the fully developed
solar corona and remarkable prominences, as
well as the deflected star images.
AT a meeting of the Society of Medical
History of Chicago on January 17, addresses
were made by Colonel Casey A. Wood, on
“Walter Bailey, the first writer of an Oph-
thalmie Treatise in English,” and by Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Fielding H. Garrison, on “ Med-
ical Men and Music,” and “Remarks on the
Medical History of the War.”
Proressor GrorceE M. Srrarron, of the
University of California, is giving a series
of lectures in San Francisco, during January
and February on psychology and health.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Ture Massachusetts Institute of Technology
will be administered by a special committee
composed of ithree members of the faculty, the
corporation having decided that it is not ad-
visable to name an acting president in succes-
sion to the late Dr. Richard C. Maclaurin.
This administrative committee will be com-
posed of Dr. Henry P. Talbot, chairman of the
faculty and head of the department of chem-
istry; Professor Edward P. Miller, head of the
department of mechanical engineering, and
Dr. William H. Walker, director of the newly
instituted division of industrial cooperation
and research. Frederick P. Fish, senior mem-
ber, has been elected chairman of the execu-
tive committee of the corporation and a sub-
committee, consisting of Everett Morse,
Francis R. Hart and Edwin S. Webster, has
JANUARY 30, 1920]
been chosen to keep in touch with the affairs
of the institute and to cooperate with the fac-
ulty and officers of administration.
At the University of California Dr. John C.
Merriam, professor of paleontology and his-
torical geology, has been appointed dean of
the faculties, and Dr. A. C. Leuschner, pro-
fessor of astronomy ‘and director of the Stu-
dents’ Observatory, dean of the Graduate Di-
vision.
Dr. Joun M. T. Finney, associate professor
of surgery in the Johns Hopkins Medical
School, has been invited to accept the chair of
surgery at Harvard University, his alma mater.
Dr. Homer L. Dopcr, formerly assistant
professor of physics at the State University
of Iowa, is now professor and head of the de-
partment of physics at the University of
Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. He has also been
appointed director of the State Bureau of
Standards.
Miss CATHERINE BEEKLEY has been appointed
as instructor of zoology at the University of
Oregon to temporarily fill the place left by Dr.
C. H. Edmondson, who has resigned to take
up work in the University of Hawaii.
_ Dr. Roger C. Smitu, of the United States
Bureau of Entomology, has resigned to accept
the position of assistant professor of entomol-
ogy in the Kansas State Agricultural College.
Dr. W. H. Brown, formerly associate pro-
fessor of botany in the University of the Phil-
ippines, has been promoted to the full pro-
fessorship and chief of the department, Mr.
Elmer D. Merrill having resigned to utilize
his whole time in the interests of the Bureau
of Science.
Mr. Harotp Boyp Sirton, of the Seed Lab-
oratory of the Department of Agriculture,
Ottawa, has resigned to accept a position in
the botanical laboratories of the University of
Toronto.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
OFFICIAL FIELD CROP INSPECTION
In a recent number of Science Professor H.
L. Bolley, in an article on this subject, has
SCIENCE
113
pointed out that until we have control of seed
grain production we will continue to have
mixed varieties and the best ones will continue
to be lost through carelessness. Bad weeds
and diseases will be spread with the seeds.
He states that “the work of each cereal crop
improver and public educator on breeding dies
with him,” and mentions Wellman, Haynes
and Saunders as examples. ‘Seed improve-
ment must last through the life of many men
and for this there must be plans based on es-
tablished law.”
I am glad to state that crop improvement
associations are springing up in many states.
Michigan and Wisconsin have each had an
association for about ten years. During the
summer (1919) there was a meeting of crop
improvement association men at St. Paul,
Minn. The states of Michigan, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and
Kansas had representatives at the meeting,
showing that those states were active. Be-
sides this we know that Ohio, Indiana, Ilinois,
Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado are thinking
strongly of organizing crop improvement asso-
ciations.
Professor Bolley, it seems, does not believe
in “cooperative breeders associations.” A
state-controlled seed inspection under the
direction of the agricultural college such as
Professor Bolley advocates, will in most cases
be preceded by a cooperative seed growers
association. It is possible that the North
Dakota work is not done by an association,
as the North Dakota representatives at the
St. Paul meeting were interested in alfalfa
seed only, and the pedigreed seed was all sent
to Fargo for recleaning. This can’t be done
when a state is to be supplied with pedigreed
seed.
Wisconsin was the first to organize one of
these associations, and now they have state aid.
Most of us have not reached the stage where
the lawmakers have recognized the value of a
supply of pure seed, representing the highest
yielding pedigreed varieties. Each of the crop
improvement associations is fostered by the
agricultural college of its state but can not be
114
an organic part of any agricultural college be-
cause the crop improvement associations are
producing and selling associations.
, First, before one of these associations can
work, some plant breeder must have spent
years purifying old varieties, or breeding -up
new ones. In either case the varieties to be
tested must have originated from a single se-
lected plant where thousands are usually se-
lected and tested. The work of variety testing
may continue for several years, and usually
does, before a superior variety is located.
The next stage is to try the new variety in
various parts of the state. If it is generally
found superior to local varieties it is time for
an association to begin.
Thus before a crop improvement association
can work, a superior variety must exist. It
may have been produced in the same or another
state but must have been found superior by lo-
eal testing.
To distribute a new variety in small quanti-
ties without control, always means that farm-
ers lose it by allowing it to be mixed with local
varieties. The agricultural college can, with
the aid of county agricultural agents, see to it
that a new variety is kept pure until it leaves
the farm where it is being inereased. But
if the grower is to continue to produce
pedigreed seed and any considerable number
of growers are to be interested, the producer
must be able to obtain a higher price for
this seed than is paid in the open market.
He has seen to it that the land was free from
other grains and noxious weeds. He has
treated his grain for smut. He has cleaned
his drill. He has pulled weeds and gone to
considerable extra expense. All this trouble
must be paid for. It is true that farmers are
glad to grow a high-producing grain, that they
may produce more bushels. They are also
willing to grow a grain of higher quality if
they can obtain a better price. But, as a rule,
they are not willing to produce seed for other
folks without a profit. They are business
men not philanthropists.
To find a market for the new seed grain,
there has to be a selling agency of some kind.
This agency is taking the form of a crop im-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1309
provement association. This is a farmers or-
ganization in every state where the movement
has gone far enough to be of substantial value
to the state. Usually the extension specialist
in farm crops is the controlling agent. He is
often the secretary of the association but not
as an officer of the agricultural college. In
Michigan he sees to it that the fields of grain
are inspected while in head and before har-
vest. The farmer whose field passes inspection
also submits a recleaned sample of the grain
to the secretary. If his grain is acceptable the
grower receives the shipping tags of the asso-
ciation. The grower certifies on the shipping
tag that the seed conforms to the state seed
laws and to the sample submitted to the asso-
ciation for inspection. Also if these points
are not found true he agrees to refund the
purchase price.
To illustrate how pedigreed grains can be
taken care of, let me mention some Michigan
experience. A bushel of Rosen Rye was sent
to Mr. Carlton Horton at Albion in 1912. We
now estimate there were 400,000 acres of Rosen
Rye in Michigan in 1919. A peck of Red Rock
wheat was sown by Mr. John Odell on a half
of his garden patch in 1918. Mr. Odell lives
about seven miles south of Allegan in Trow-
bridge Township. He grew 74 bushels of Red
Rock in 1914 and sowed seven acres. He had
this seed for sale in 1915, but could not have
interested his neighbors if it had not been for
the county agricultural agent, the miller and
the banker, nor could this seed have continued
to be kept pure and sold for seed had it not
been for the Michigan Crop Improvement
Association. However, I personally inspected
over three hundred acres in 1917 that con-
tained less 1 per cent. of other varieties and
almost no weeds. All this came from the peck
of Red Rock sent to Mr. Odell four years be-
fore. In 1919 there were about 60,000 acres
of Red Rock in Michigan. Several others of
our breeding products have likewise been
taken care of.
Frank A. Sprace
PLANT BREEDER,
MIcHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
JANUARY 30, 1920]
SCIENCE AND POLITICS
Av the St. Louis meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
the council passed the following resolution:
That sectional officers avoid placing on their
programs papers relating to acute political ques-
tions on which public opinion is divided.
I know nothing of the cireumstances lead-
ing to this resolution. If papers offered to
the sections were inspired by partisan politics
rather than by science, they would deserve
condemnation and exclusion. But the reso-
lution does not refer to such papers; it im-
plies that scientific men should not discuss
matters relating to acute political questions
on which public opinion is divided. To one
who believes that in the present chaos of con-
flicting opinions and purposes the finger of
science should point the way to safety, this
seems almost incredibly stupid. I am of
course aware that a scientific man who tries
to throw the light of truth on the field of
political discussion is not unlikely to be
abused for his pains. He may find honest
people doubting his integrity or his intelli-
gence. He himself is only too well aware of
his liability to error. But in the face of all
this, he must and should persevere, knowing
well that his feet are set upon the path of
progress. T. D. A. CockERELL
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO,
January 14, 1920
QUOTATIONS
THE DUES OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
AND THE SALARIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN
THE revised constitution of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
as presented at the Baltimore meeting, was
adopted at St. Louis with only one substantial
change—an increase of the annual dues to five
dollars. This change had been recommended,
after careful consideration, by the committee
on policy and the council and was adopted by
unanimous vote at the opening general session
of the association. The increase in the dues
only meets the general situation. All the ex-
penses of the association have increased in
some such proportion, except the salaries of
SCIENCE
115
the officers, and it would be unfair to them and
a bad example to other institutions, to retain
nominal salaries paid in depreciated dollars.
This has been done in the case of teachers in
many institutions of learning and’ for scien-
tific men in the service of the government,
while commensurate with the increased cost of
living have been the increases in wages for
many of the working classes, and of the earn-
ings of most professional and business men.
Institutions of learning and the scientific
bureaus of the government have suffered
alarming losses from their staffs. At the pres-
ent time many men of science are hesitating
between loyalty to their institutions and re-
search work, on the one hand, and duty to their
families and the attraction of new opportuni-
ties, on the other. In one government bureau
three men are now holding open offers of
twenty to thirty thousand dollars a year to see
whether the Congress will increase their salar-
ies to six or eight thousand.
If men are driven away from positions where
they are using their ability and their training
for the general good, and if those who remain
are compelled to use time that should be de-
voted to research or teaching to earning money
from outside sources, the future of science and
with it the welfare of the nation will be jeop-
ardized. A generation might pass before there
would be recovery from the resulting demorali-
zation. It would be indeed humiliating to
conquer Germany in war and then permit it to
surpass us in the arts of peace.
It is certainly unfortunate that the Ameri-
ean Association should be compelled to in-
erease its dues, as measured in dollars, at a
time when all costs are advancing to such an
extent that those living on fixed salaries find
it extremely difficult to make both ends meet.
It would, however, be a still more serious mis-
fortune to permit the work of the association
and its publications to be crippled. These are
important factors in the advancement of sci-
ence and in impressing on the general public
the place of science in modern civilization and
the need of maintaining research work for the
national welfare.
The meetings of the association and the
116
publications going to its members and read
by a wide public are forces making for ap-
preciation of the value of science to society
and the need of giving adequate support to
scientific research and to scientific men. Hach
member of the association contributes to this
end and does his part to improve the situation
for others as well as for himself. It is conse-
quently to be hoped that no one will permit
his membership to lapse on account of the
necessary increase in nominal dues, but, on the
contrary, that every member use all possible
efforts to increase the membership of the asso-
ciation and to promote its influence and its
usefulness—The Scientific Monthly.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
The System of the Sciences; Principles of
the Theory of Education. By WiLHELM
OstwaLtp. The Rice Institute Pamphlet,
Vol. I1., No. 8, Nov., 1915.
These two lectures were prepared to be
given at the inauguration of Rice Institute
but the author was prevented from delivering
them in person by the outbreak of the Great
War. The purpose of the lectures is ambi-
tious, being no less than to propose a fun-
damental system or classification for the
branches of science and, on the basis of this
system, to suggest a system of pedagogy which
should replace, in some measure, our present
system. The subjects now taught, in our
universities, in particular, have grown up in
an irregular, hit-or-miss fashion, especially as
regards the introduction of new subjects,
because “ Wherever there is a gifted repre-
sentative of a new discipline who is an ex-
cellent teacher and at the same time scien-
tifieally productive, he will be able sooner or
later to acquire the means and influence to
develop this new discipline into a recognized
science.” Professor Ostwald wishes to sub-
stitute for this accidental development a
rational, systematic cultivation of those fields
which will be most useful—presumably,
though he avoids saying so directly, with
the repression and discouragement of the
gifted individual who does not properly fall
into the scheme which has been laid down.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 13809
This is scarcely in accord with that “ Lehr-
freiheit ” of which the older Germany was so
proud.
The historical method is used, in part, to
discover the proper system. “ All sciences in
the early stages of their development formed
one great whole, which, together with all
other departments of human activity having
to do with mental work and cogitation, was
intrusted to the oversight of a single corpor-
ation—the priesthood.” And so the theolog-
ical faculty is the oldest—then came law—
he might have said, perhaps, the Roman Law,
for our modern world—and medicine. All
the remaining sciences are united in the
fourth, the philosophical faculty. The great
technical schools form, practically, a fifth
faculty, which is not, however, recognized as
such.
The statement on p. 112 that “ the pure and
abstract sciences grow by degrees out of the
applied sciences” seems scarcely consistent
with the beginnings of the higher forms of
knowledge in the hands of the priesthood.
Nor does it agree with the development of
science through such great masters as Gallileo,
Newton, Boyle and Lavoisier. Applied sci-
ences made very slow progress until men
came who were interested to know the secrets
of nature rather than to apply their knowl-
edge to practical ends. The same idea is
emphasized again on p. 121 in the statement
that “all sciences have had their origin in
the needs and desires of life.” This is a
utilitarian point of view which we are
scarcely prepared to accept.
The over-emphasis on classical and linguis-
tic studies is traced back to the time of the
Renaissance when such studies opened to the
world a wealth of material from an old and
superior, but half-forgotten civilization. At
such a time the exact knowledge of the lan-
guages which should bring back the old life
and philosophies of the Greeks and Romans
was well worth while. But now that we have
developed a different and very much better
civilization of our own the time devoted to
classical studies can not be so well justified.
It is possible, however, that the author under-
JANUARY 30, 1920]
estimates the value of those linguistic studies
pursued in his youth that gave to him a
power to use language clearly and forcibly
which it would have been difficult to acquire
in any other way.
In the further discussion of language it is
pointed out that the content of words which
have grown up in the usual manner, through
long use, is often vague. This and other con-
siderations lead the author to advocate the
use of an artificial, general language with
accurately defined words. Such a point of
view overlooks the fact that many of the
words of our mother tongue carry in them-
selves delicate shades of meaning which
represent our memory of their use in a great
variety of connections. Such words can not
be successfully replaced by words of a foreign
tongue, still less by the words of an artificial
language.
In classifying the sciences the simplest and
most general ideas came first. These embrace
logic or relationships, mathematics, or num-
bers, order, form and quantity, and the
science of time, for which there is no dis-
tinctive name. The second division, energet-
ical sciences. includes mechanics, physics and
chemistry. These use the concepts and prin-
ciples of the first division while the sciences
of the first division are, in an important sense,
independent of either of the others. The
third division, the biological sciences, is
divided into physiology, psychology and
“ culturology.”
Thus far the divisions of human knowledge
and the pedagogical sequences based upon
them may be accepted as useful and there is
very much of sound common sense in the
discussion. But very many will object to the
complete omission of any direct reference to
moral and religious education, and to his
treatment of the child as merely an “ energet-
ical machine” (p. 202). On p. 120 the
author says; “ We shall renounce in any sci-
entific system the consideration of all super-
natural relationships of whatever nature, and,
on the other hand, we shall extend our scien-
tifie problems to each and every field of
human experience.” If by “supernatural re-
SCIENCE
117
lationships” is meant some one who inter-
feres occasionally and irregularly and capri-
ciously in human affairs, the large majority
of scientific men will agree. But if Professor
Ostwald means that there is no “ Power not
ourselves which makes for righteousness ”
many of the leaders both in England and in
America will dissent most strongly. In re-
membrance of the bitter controversies of the
past, we are wont to be very silent about
questions of this kind, but to very many it is
simply unthinkable that the orderly universe
in which we find ourselves is merely the blind
resultant of the interaction of matter and
energy without some intelligence which is in
and through it all.
Somewhat related to his philosophy is Pro-
fessor Ostwald’s statement (p. 206) of “the
most general problem of every human life”
as “the attainment of happiness.” He re-
ealls his former conclusion that “the most
important requisites for happiness are, first,
the greatest possible amount of completely
transformable free energy, and, secondly, the
greatest possible amount of energy trans-
formed voluntarily.” It is very interesting to
notice the naiveté of the last phrase. Any-
thing done “voluntarily” is either a self-
deception or it is in flat contradiction with a
materialistic or mechanistic philosophy. But
there is no mechanistic philosopher who does
not act as though he considers himself, prac-
tically, a free agent.
The definition of the conditions of happi-
ness is incomplete in a still more important
respect. It overlooks the fact that in matters
of happiness “he that saveth his life shall
lose it.” Happiness is not found best by seek-
ing it directly. We condemn and despise the
man who makes his own personal happiness or
even the personal advantage of his family the
supreme object of his life. The great men of
the world have risen far above such consider-
ations. The time is coming when the class,
or community or nation which considers its
own advantage as paramount to that of all
others will also be condemned. Indeed, the
execration which Germany has brought upon
herself from the whole world was chiefly due
118
to her supreme national selfishness. Un-
fortunately, some of the nations which have
condemned her so unsparingly are not free
from the same fault.
As so often happens, Professor Ostwald is
very much better in his conduct as a man
than his philosophy might lead us to expect.
In these days of international bitterness and
hatred, it is worth while to recall an incident
of the St. Louis Congress of Arts and
Sciences. Professor van’t Hoff gave an ad-
dress in which he presented a masterful sketch
of the historical development of chemistry,
especially from the point of view of the
atomic and molecular theories. In the course
of the address he wrote on the blackboard the
names of some of the great leaders in chem-
istry—such names as Dalton, Dulong and
Petit, Pasteur, La Bel, Guldberg and Waage,
Curie and others. At the close of the address
Professor Bancroft, who was in the chair,
called on Professor Ostwald. Those were the
days when Ostwald and some others wished
to find some way to get on without the atomic
theory. He began his talk with a very kindly
criticism of the address in which he proposed
to substitute “energy ” for “atoms” and sug-
gested that at the hands of the Curies atoms
had “exploded.” Then he picked up a piece
of chalk and saying “I have still another
correction to make” he wrote in the name of
van’t Hoff at three different places among the
great names on the board and in each case
those who were present recognized instantly
that van’t Hoff, in three widely separated
fields, had done work of the same fundamental
and far-reaching importance as the work of
the other men. It is the kindly, generous
spirit shown in this incident which endeared
Professor Ostwald to his students and to
many others with whom he came in personal
contact.
The suggestions with regard to students
helping each other with their tasks are novel
and striking. “It is considered at present
one of the worst offenses for one child to help
another solve its task. Js, then, mutual will-
ingness to help a characteristic so exceedingly
general that it must be systematically done
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
away with in school? Is not, rather, egoism
and narrowmindedness a fault under which
we suffer severely? I do not hesitate to
express the conviction that a considerable
amount of this illiberality is imparted to our
growing youth in school by the prevalent
notions regarding this mutual help and the
usual treatment of it.” So far, good, and
worthy of consideration in our treatment of
children and of students. But the corollary
is not so good—“ others learn at an early age
that in their advancement they have need of
the assistance of better endowed ones, and,
what is the best thing for all of them, they
learn subordination and how to work in rank
and file”—a picture of a world where some
are born to rule and others to be ruled. How
different from the democratic ideal, where
these same differences still exist and always
will exist, but where men should work to-
gether, not as superior and subordinate, but
each according to his ability, for the common
good.
We can not take the space for a more
detailed criticism of the .addresses. While
the author of this review dissents most
earnestly from a part of the philosophy which
lies at the foundation of the papers, there is
very much in them which is sound and worthy
of most careful study.
Wiuiram A. Noyes
SPECIAL ARTICLES
DROUGHT AND THE ROOT-SYSTEM OF
EUCALYPTUS
In the fall of 1913 the eucalyptus trees,
especially the Hucalyptus globulus in the
Arboretum of Stanford University, were evi-
dently dying. Various persons questioned the
members of the Department of Botany here
as to the reason for the grave appearance of
these large trees and none of us was able to
give an answer satisfying to himself. For
this reason we undertook to determine the
cause of the trouble.
By permission of the business office we
tapped various trees with an auger to the
heart and found that the wood and bark were
entirely free from disease of any sort. The
JaNvARY 30, 1920]
trouble manifested itself in the change of
color of the foliage, the leaves turning brown
as if burned or killed by frost, and drying out
and presently beginning to fall. The leaves
which fell showed no sign of fungus or bac-
terial infection. We were therefore forced to
conclude that the trouble was further down
and we were compelled by the condition of
the trunk to suspect that the difficulty was
either between the trunk and the leaves or
below ground. As we had no convenient
means of climbing the trees to make any ex-
amination of the branches, we concluded to
look at the roots first.
By laying bare the more superficial part of
the root system with pick and shovel, we
found that the large superficial roots had
been broken through at various distances
from the trunk by the heavy plows which,
up to that time, had been used in the spring,
for a number of years, to clear the ground
under the trees of weeds. The deep plough-
ing had resulted in the serious injury, the
wounding or amputation, of all the roots to a
distance of twelve or fourteen inches below
the surface. In this way the roots, absorbing
moisture from the upper layers of the soil,
were either very seriously limited, or ab-
solutely destroyed, as regards their capacity
for absorbing water; and the soil water supply
of these trees came therefore through the
taproot or its deeper branches and from the
branches running vertically downward from
the underside of the uninjured lateral roots,
from distances below the surface, of which
we have no means of knowing anything.
Whether one half or what other proportion of
the absorbing surface of the root was thus
destroyed we also have no means of knowing.
The condition of the roots led us to suspect
that this might be the cause of the condition,
deplorable in appearance, of the blue gum
trees throughout the Arboretum.
We were confirmed in this suspicion by ex-
amining the root system of the Monterey
cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) tree growing
close to the big eucalyptus tree previously ex-
amined. We were interested to find that the
horizontal roots of the Monterey cypress grew
SCIENCE
119
enough deeper in the soil entirely to escape
the heavy plows which had wounded or am-
putated the roots of the eucalyptus. This
Monterey cypress tree presented none of the
deplorable features of the eucalyptus trees,
for although its foliage was dusty, it was
green and far from dying. We therefore con-
cluded that the trouble with the big blue gum
trees of our Arboretum was lack of water,
due to an impaired root system.
That this suspicion was justified we believe
is confirmed by two additional observations.
Many of the eucalyptus trees which were evi-
dently dying, as indicated by the brown color
of the leaves, were cut down. Those that
were cut down early enough, promptly stump
sprouted, and have since grown up into prom-
ising young trees, borne on the old butts. By
thus drastically reducing the evaporating sur-
face, the water absorbed by the roots was con-
served and the quantity became immediately
adequate to meet the loss. Additional con-
firmation of our suspicion has been furnished
during the last two years.
In the winter of 1917-18 there fell in Palo
Alto scarcely more than eight inches of rain.
In the following autumn there was no sign
of injury among the eucalyptus trees, of
which there were still many in the Arboretum.
To be sure, many of the larger and finer had
been cut five years earlier, but enough were
left to show damage if the damage had been
present, for the rainfall in the rainy season
of 1917-18 was about an inch less than in the
fifth year preceding. Furthermore, although
the rainfall in Palo Alto in the rainy season
of 1918-19 was approximately twenty-three
inches, there has been practically no rain
since early March until late September; and
there is not yet a total of one inch of rain in
the immediate vicinity of the Arboretum,
though there is no sign of drought among the
eucalyptus trees.
The manner of keeping down the weeds in
the Arboretum, however, has been changed,
since our observation of the injury due to
deep ploughing, and the disk harrow or spring
tooth harrow are all that are used for cutting
down and keeping down the weeds which are
120
necessarily numerous on the floor of an open
woods like our Arboretum. The necessity
therefore of protecting the superficial parts
of the root system, even of a deep-rooted tree
like blue gum is perfectly obvious from the
foregoing description.
One more conclusion can be drawn from
these observations. The Monterey cypress
above referred to, was growing at no great dis-
tance from the eucalyptus trees but was in no
wise impoverished by its more rapidly grow-
ing neighbor. There is a general impression,
based no doubt on a certain amount of
accurate observation, that the eucalyptus is a
bad neighbor and that trees, shrubs, and
herbaceous plants set too close to eucalyptus
trees will suffer for lack of water. The above
observation shows that if the plants set near
eucalyptus have the habit of sending their
roots lower than the superficial part of the
root system of the eucalyptus, such results
will not follow.
Therefore, it would seem to be possible, not-
withstanding general belief to the contrary,
to plant trees and shrubs fairly close to euca-
lyptus providing they can get along with the
amount of light which the growing eucalyptus
will keep from reaching the surface of the
soil. This may make possible the fuller
utilization of areas of soil already carrying a
certain number of eucalyptus trees.
James McMurpny,
GrorcE J. PEIRCE
STANFORD UNIVERSITY,
November 1, 1919
THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION
OF AMERICA
Tue fourth annual meeting of the association
was held at Columbia University on Thursday and
Friday, January 1 and 2, 1920. A joint dinner
with the American Mathematical Society occurred
on Wednesday evening. About 150 were in at-
tendance at the various sessions.
The general topic for all sessions was ‘‘ Mathe-
maties in Relation to the Allied Seiences.’’ The
program was as follows:
‘‘Mathematies for the physiologist and physi-
cian,’’ Dr, Horatio B. Williams, assistant pro-
fessor of physiology, College of Physicians and
Surgeons.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1309
‘¢The regular solids and the types of crystal
symmetry,’’ Dr. Paul L. Saurel, professor of
mathematics, College of the City of New York.
‘«The mathematies of physical chemistry,’’ Pro-
fessor George B. Pegram, dean of the school of
mines, engineering and chemistry, Columbia Uni-
versity.
‘‘The mathematics of biometry,’’ Dr. Lowell
J, Reed, associate professor of biometry and vital
statistics, Johns Hopkins University.
“¢An experiment in the conduct of freshman
mathematics courses,’’ Dr. F. B. Weley, professor
of mathematics, Denison University.
Preliminary report of the National Committee
of Mathematical Requirements, Dr. John W.
Young, professor of mathematics, Dartmouth Col-
lege.
me Mathematies for students of physics,’’? Dr.
Leigh Page, assistant professor of physics, Yale
University.
At the business meeting the election to member-
ship by the council of 73 persons and two institu-
tions was announced. The treasurer’s report
showed receipts of $4,728 on 1919 business, ex-
penditures (up to December 15, 1919) of $4,317,
and an estimated final balance of $2,050 for the
end of the year 1919.
The result of the election of officers was as fol-
lows:
President: David Eugene Smith, Columbia Uni-
versity.
Vice-presidents: Helen A. Merrill, Wellesley
College, and E. J. Wilezynski, University of Chi-
cago.
Additional members of the Council (to serve
until January, 1923): R. D. Carmichael, Univer-
sity of Illinois; E. R. Hedrick, University of Mis-
souri; H. E. Slaught, University of Chicago, and
J. W. Young, Dartmouth College.
To fill the vacancies caused by the election of
Professor Wilezynski to a vice-presidency and the
reappointment of Professor Slaught as manager
of the Monthly, the council appointed as members
of the council E. L. Dodd, University of Texas,
and Oswald Veblen, Princeton University.
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
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Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-effice at Lancaster, Pa., as second class matter
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Vou. LI, No. 1810
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SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
WHAT DOES P,, MEAN?
The symbol Py is an index of the acidity or basicity—in other words,
of the concentration of the hydrogen ions—in a solution. The frequent oc-
currence of references to this important quantity in current scientific litera-
ture is an index of its growing importance in the chemical and biological
sciences.
Since hydrogen ion concentration of culture media, body fluids and of
other solutions has great significance, it is important that its value be accur-
ately measureable.
Color, turbidity, light conditions, or the formation of precipitates should
not interfere with the measurement. The result should be actual acidity,
unmodified. by a titrating solution. The means for making the measurement
should be capable of quick and simple operation.
THE TYPE K POTENTIOMETER OUTFIT
Our circular S70 with its supplement 701 gives interesting
information about the Type K equipment. These, together
with a bibliography of articles on electromeiric hydrogen ion
determinations, we shall gladly send you upon request.
Fully meets these demands. It does more—it has additional features which
make it invaluable in the up-to-date research or control laboratory. It
measures: the entire range of acidity, from Py=0to Pqy=14. The ac-
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of experimental conditions in the medium.
LEEDS & NORTHRUP COMPANY
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Fripay, FEBRUARY 6, 1920
CONTENTS
Botanical Achievement: PROFESSOR WILLIAM
FDA RIWTG RANG Web fal yiey/shcthcn choy sta eh Neves tojedta lorena evoueseiteis! ots 121
The Biochemist on the Hospital Staff: Dr.
FREDERICK S. HAMMETT ................. 131
Charles Buckman Goring: Dr. J. ARTHUR
TaD ARS Ge 05 Gah el estes Baek Gag AR CS ERA ECR CaCI GR 133
Scientific Events :—
The Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research of Great Britain; Natural Gas
Conference; The Steinhart Aquarium; Res-
ignation of Dean Baker of the New York
State College of Forestry 134
Scientific Notes and News ..............++- 136
139
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Unreliable Experimental Methods of Deter-
mining the Toxicity of Alkali Salts: F. B.
HEADLEY. On High-Altitude Research: Dr.
Ropert H. GopDARD
Scientific Books :—
Crampton’s Studies on the Variation, Dis-
tribution and Evolution of the Genus Par-
CULL s AY. Gr Leder inh te Ue Uara Sl 2a aie My auey sae
Gravity and Aerostatic Pressure on Fast Ships
and Airplanes: PRorEssoR ALEXANDER Mc-
140
142
PASTE 7 Mra ant cdaaue eet el wiaek 0) Shanes Seadeu ccs Cl 144
State Rewards for Medical Discoveries ...... 145
Special Articles :—
A Pocono Brachiopod Fauna: Dr. W. ArM-
STRONGWPERICI A: A.crccescisrascicrd costae cloroicdate salt 146
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section F—Zoology: Proressor H. V.
INDSINIT) A OSs RAC EG AE ere EEA ed ee ea R pee 147
The Paleontological Society of America ..... 148
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
teview should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
BOTANICAL ACHIEVEMENT1
TWENTY-FIVE years ago The Botanical So-
ciety of America imposed on me the task of
preparing a presidential address. To-day I
meet a similar obligation laid on me by the
somewhat more democratized society which
continues to bear that name.
For my subject then, I took botanical oppor-
tunity—moved, you may say, by the hopeful-
ness of youth which looks forward and plans
optimistically. To-day I wish to speak of bo-
tanical achievement—moved, you may say, by
the observed tendency of age to live in the
past. Possibly, later, you may not be sure that
in choosing complementary subjects I have
not wanted to extract much the same hopeful
anticipatory lesson from both.
As one looks back over the past, he some-
times finds it difficult to pick out the signifi-
eance of individual components of the con-
glomeration that forms the present super-
structure of our science, and its foundations
are buried in obscurity. Perhaps the most sig-
nificant observation that he makes is that a
person who is minded to add to it has each
year to climb to a greater height before his
own work can be commenced—unless he turn
his attention to repairing the weaknesses and
filling the crevices and pointing-up what has
been done by others.
Work of this kind really makes the structure
stronger, really keeps it from crumbling at
some weak point under the weight that has
been added above, and gives it an appearance
of finish that must be secured at some time
and by some one’s labor before it can meet
with final approval under critical inspection.
Undertaking it may bring to light, even,
wholly faulty workmanship or the incorpora-
tion of materials that have already begun to
1 Address of retiring president of the Botanical
Society of America, given at the Botanists’ dinner,
St. Louis, December 31, 1919.
122
disintegrate, and in this way may lead to re-
placements at various points and to reenforce-
ment of the very foundations.
In putting up a building, such work is
found to delay completion of the enterprise to
a surprising extent after it seems to the casual
observer to be about finished. ‘Those who do
it usually derive their satisfaction as work-
men from knowing that they are accomplish-
ing something necessary but which ought al-
ways to have been left as they leave it; or their
esthetic sense is gratified in the pleasing finish
that they give to what they found strong and
serviceable but raw; or they know that they
are safeguarding the completed structure
against the inroads of time: but they do not
see it really grow under their hands.
If we understand science to be systematized
and formulated knowledge, we may be par-
doned for stopping to wonder whether some-
times we may not fail fully to grasp the mean-
ing conveyed by these words. Knowledge in a
particular field may appear to be systematized
and formulated in itself while it lacks com-
parable incorporation into the knowledge of
other things. It may appear ideally dissoci-
ated from useful application: but perhaps it
never is so in reality. Segregation of the arts
which apply science in the practical affairs of
life, perhaps does not really remove the neces-
sity of considering all of these applications in
the classification and formulation of that
knowledge which science claims as its peculiar
field.
The edict of an emperor, the injunction of a
priest, the counsel of father to son, in the far-
off days when civilization was establishing
itself on the Tigris and the Ganges or in
China, fails to come within our definition of
science. We call such instruction empirical
rules. But in doing so we can not fail to rec-
ognize that before Aristotle philosophized on
the phenomena of life and Theophrastus for-
mulated what he knew of plants—which we
eall the beginning of the science of botany,
men had acquired knowledge in our special
field and had classified it obviously to the ex-
tent of rejection of what they could not use
and of selection of what they made the basis
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
of an agricultural practise which may have
been crude and inefficient as measured by the
standards of to-day, but which was adequate
to their needs and appears very refined in
comparison with the earlier dependence for
food upon the chase— either on land or water,
or gleanings of roots and fruits from the
plain, the mountain-side, or the forest. One
hesitates, even, to think of these still more
primitive practises as carried on independ-
ently of a very large amount of knowledge
gathered and sifted and winnowed through
many preceding generations as men worked
their way toward an empirical precursor of
what we now agree to eall science.
When Liebig, the chemist, disposed of the
humus theory of nutrition of ordinary plants
he is considered to have been making a contri-
bution to the science of botany. When Gil-
bert and Lawes in the field, and Winogradsky
in the laboratory, put the completing link into
the chain of the circulation of nitrogen as an
active element, they are considered to have
been making the same kind of contribution to
the same science. I am wondering if my late
and lamented:associate Cyril Hopkins, calling
himself an agronomist, has been far from the
same field of science in teaching farmers in the
great corn region of the world how to maintain
for their children and their children’s children
a soil fertility that the first generation of
white settlers imperiled, and if the last service
of his life—carrying his message to those who
now farm the worn-out lands of the Hellespont
—must be excluded from the recognition that
we accord to the achievements of science. If
in considering its achievements I chance now
and then to wander too far from standardized
or forming definitions of our particular sci-
ence, I trust that the lapses may be excused as
evidence of unclear vision rather than wilful
disregard of established boundaries.
The superstructure of botany, broadly de-
fined, looks much the same to the casual ob-
server as it did twenty-five years ago. It has
been made more finished in parts, windows
have been put in where there were blank walls,
some parts have been pointed up or rebuilt,
perhaps the gables have begun to take form
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
toward its final closing in; but a snapshot to-
day from certain positions looks very like a
snapshot taken a quarter-century ago except
that what seemed then to be temporary lean-tos
are beginning to look as if they belong where
we see them or to give unmistakable signs of
strengthening as well as amplifying the whole.
Perhaps this is the impression made on the
superannuated workmen of a generation ago,
and of some of those whose activities have con-
tinued from the earlier time up to the present.
The idea of many who have come on ‘to the job
within the past two decades is very different.
Under their own hands they have seen the
shaping of the gables and the rising of the
wings, and in their eyes these have given to the
whole a very different appearance from what
it presented when their work began. Indeed,
under their guidance, and from viewpoints of
their selection, it may scarcely look like the
same edifice; and they may even point with
pride to a well-finished and symmetrical annex
in comparison with ragged parts of the main
wall still defaced by temporary scaffolding.
The edifice of our science is less comparable
with a modern warehouse like the great sup-
ply-base that the army constructed in nine
months on the levee at New Orleans, than with
a medieval chateau that has been changed
from a feudal castle into a modernized home.
The first is planned and constructed as a whole,
and is consistent throughout. The other has
existed through and developed with the cen-
turies until most traces of its original plan—
if there ever was one—have become obliterated.
Perhaps in this may be found explanation
of an impatience that is manifested sometimes
by botanists who do not like to see old sym-
metry changed, or by others who do not like
to see labor wasted on walls that are no longer
serviceable or to see these guarded from dis-
memberment so that their materials may be
used for additions. Both kinds of criticism
are likely to continue as long as construction
continues. It may prove a misfortune for bot-
any if either ceases, because the end of its use-
fulness will have come if it ever reach a stage
in which it can no longer be changed with the
changing times; but it will have become a
SCIENCE
123
ramshackle unserviceable monument if it ever
reach a stage in which it has lost the unifica-
tion of consistency in its details.
_ The achievements of botany have been like
the achievements of nations in many respects,
indeed like human achievements in the aggre-
gate. It is impossible to trace its history with-
out seeing some of the factors which have con-
tributed to or retarded its advancement. Men
and incentive have been necessary in the first
place, opportunity in the second, and intelli-
gent leadership in the third. Of these, per-
haps, it may be said that “‘the first shall be
last, and the last first,’ without too great devi-
ation from the truth.
Men without leadership, even though they
have opportunity and incentive, do not usually
accomplish great things: and what unled men
have achieved has resulted from their ability
to plan for and lead themselves. They have
been pioneers whose restless spirit has led them
to spy out the land beyond the confines of the
known. From the reports or echoes of their
experiences has come knowledge that the lim-
its of the knowable lay beyond the limits of
the known as they found them; and their in-
dividual incursions have been followed ulti-
mately by the invasion of numbers of men
under ‘the organization of leaders.
These are the true settlers: their leaders are
the apostles of progress. Yet there rarely has
been a time when an exodus or a hegira has
been complete; and when it has, others less
happily cireumstanced have found in what
was abandoned something to allure them from
what they already possessed. Even good lead-
ership, too, may have failed in adequate pre-
liminary knowledge or planning, and more
than once the new has proved inferior to the
old or has been abandoned under wiser or bet-
ter-informed guidance, or a generation and
more of men have wandered in the wilderness
before reaching the promised land; and lesser
and transient migraitions often have preceded
or accompanied a large movement.
The founders of our science were pioneers
rather than leaders: men with restless minds,
no more satisfied with limitation of their field
of action when they could see beyond its
124
arbitrary boundaries than some of us to-day
are satisfied with an arbitrary zero-date for
the scientific naming of plants when it is evi-
dent that scientific nomenclature began in part
at a much earlier date.
Without the nature-philosophy of Aristotle
there would have been no starting point for
the systematization of Theophrastus. Yet
without centuries of knowledge accumulated
through human experience there would have
been no background for either. They were
the men who through systematization and
coordination made the known understood, and
thus opened knowable paths into what for
them was the unknown.
It was a little incursion led, after a thou-
sand and more years of mental vegetation, by
a few nature-loving men of the Rhineland
across the old boundaries. Though their day
was that of revolt against theologically re-
stricted thought, these resurrectors of a buried
but not yet dead science were free-thinkers
rather than protestants when they turned
from canonized books to a real examination
of nature. They were few in number and at
first isolated in action; their excursions did
not lead them far from home, but they were
joined early by others, and their spirit found
an instant echo in the sunny south. Instead
of remaining explorers they became leaders of
little bands whose small advances and retreats
cleared the way for advance after advance of
the usually better organized and at times
better led army of searchers after the truth
who in due time became known as botanists,
Small wonder if this growing army saw its
legitimate opportunity less comprehensively
and less clearly than we see it nearly five
hundred years after the movement started!
Without such pioneers, the science of botany
might have remained to this day within the
bounds that Theophrastus found to encompass
it over two thousand years ago. Without
other, later, even more venturesome pioneers,
what they saw in it might remain to us as its
present content.
Back of their activities was the incentive
that underlay these, the unquenchable human
thirst for knowledge. Through the following
centuries this has operated side by side with
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1310
the equally ineradicable human instinct for
leaving well enough alone; and men have
progressed dominated and restrained by the
massive inertia of conservatism, but break-
ing free every now and then for a trial of
the individual inertia of motion, much as a
molecule of evaporating water passes off into
freedom—ultimately to be lost in space, to
enter into a new cycle, or to return to the
bondage from which it made its escape, with
far-reaching derangement in any case of the
stability of what it left behind or joined.
Effort, when really effective, is purposeful.
When the microscope provided means of see-
ing clearly what living beings consist of, it
was not Hooke, who first published its revela-
tions, but Malpighi and Grew, who shortly
afterward examined the structure of living
things with a view to understanding their
vital processes, who laid the foundation for a
broader science than their predecessors had
conceived. They and their followers, in plan-
ning and building on the lines that we now
recognize from long habit as being those that
characterize botany, did not go far from the
procedure that has distinguished successful
human effort in general, in which a search
after the true and the effective has shaped
itself usually inito a quest for proof or disproof
of some theory of what is true or effective.
Without the guiding line of philosophy, the
search might or might not have reached its
goal. But with it, the result has depended
upon adaptation of the means to the end—
an adaptation which in our own day and in
the last quarter-century has grown with sur-
prising rapidity and extension of the experi-
mental questioning of nature to which science
turns with confidence for the solution of those
problems that really lie within its field. Be
yond that field still lies the realm of meta-
physical speculation, which Lewes, half a cen-
tury ago, protested against calling philosophy
because in this sense he felt constrained to call
the restless motion of philosophic speculation
rotary in contrast with the linear (perhaps
one would rather say dendritic) progress of
science. The lure of the pioneer lies in the
prospect of novel as well as great return. A
few years ago some botanists were discussing
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
present-day opportunity in botany, and the
opinion was voiced that it lies in the line of
large and special equipment opening fields
beyond the reach of the ordinary man. This
may really be so. Certainly the first men to
use the microscope were privileged beyond
their fellows: but as we look back on their
work they do not shine with a brilliancy cor-
responding to the greatness of this privilege.
Rather, they profited by it to the extent of
their knowledge and talent; made much or
little progress according to their possession
of these personal gifts; and have been sur-
passed by men who much after their day were
impelled and instructed to look deeper and
see further with the same instrument.
The optimism which led me twenty-five
years ago to see hopeful opportunity for every
man inspired by an all-compelling curious in-
terest in nature and natural phenomena leads
me still to see hopeful opportunity ahead of
every such man—proportioned to his talent
and under everyday environment rather than
dependent on the special and novel provision
which may fall to the lot of a fortunate in-
dividual here and there.
Botany, as a science, grew out of the
gradually accumulated knowledge of plants
acquired through using and cultivating them.
The art of applying this knowledge really
underlay the science into which it has been
organized and formulated, though to-day it
rests upon this, which constitutes a firm
foundation in agriculture, medicine and the
varied fermentation industries. That its scope
should broaden, was as inevitable as that the
natural horizon should amplify for a man
climbing to a hilltop. That the mere selec-
tion of suitable subjects for microscopic study
should result in closer observation of all that
was looked at was equally natural. That Van
Helmont’s demonstration that plants are not
built up out of earth should have preceded a
separate analysis of all possible sources of
their substance is self-evident. But discovery
of the large part that the atmosphere plays
in this organic synthesis, of the marvelous
organism that a vegetable cell proves to be,
and of the part played in heredity by some of
the parts of this unit organism of organisms,
SCIENCE
125
is seen to have resulted more from the in-
telligent ingenious use of means at hand than
from restricted privilege.
If one were to lapse into momentary
pessimism in an optimistic review, the slip
would come from recognition of the in-
stinctive conservatism that inclines most of us
to see only a form of some well known plant
in a specimen that the inspired discoverer
knows and even describes as hitherto un-
known; or that leads us to ignore as “ dirt”
or artefacts the seemingly uncharacteristic
parts of our preparations—as Lohnis believes
that the most eminent bacteriologists have
done; or that leads to a wish that experi-
ments on living things were not so apt to
turn out differently from the predicted result.
We may destroy puzzling intermediates, throw
away disappointing preparations, or exclude
unsuccessful experiments from our ecalcula-
tions: but we do not explain them in doing
this—we merely evade the truth that they
mutely offer for our apprehension. It is the
exceptional man who, even if he lay them
aside for the time, as Haeckel, in his youth,
did the “bad” species of his herbarium, can
not rest until he understands them.
This is the true pioneer type, not content
with what is believed to be the known nor
satisfied with little excursions beyond its
border, but boldly, in season and out of season,
pushing out into the unknown. Such incur-
sions, guided by the compass of correct meth-
ods and starting from the direction of ac-
quired knowledge, have been, are and seem
likely to continue to be, the epoch-making first
moves in scientific progress.
Men who lead in such progress sometimes
set off with general approval and good wishes.
They follow the bent of their less enterprising
fellows. Even rumors of their achievements
are received at par and passed on at a pre-
mium. Fortunate, then, for science, if the
log of their journey come back for verification,
for our average human tendency is to believe
what we want to believe, and those of us who
do not travel to the pole care for little more
than to be told that it has been reached by an
enterprising explorer when we confidently ex-
pected such an explorer to get there.
126
Quite as often, the pioneers set off in a
direction that is uninteresting to the rest of
us. They go and come, and we hear with
passing attention if at all what they have
been doing.
Sometimes they do a good deal of talking
about the inadequacy of what is accepted cur-
rently; they are regarded as heretics or at
best as destructive critics. We complacently
await the calamity that we believe them to
court, and are incredulous if not really dis-
appointed when they do not disappear for
good but return and ask for an impartial ex-
amination of what they claim to have brought
back.
Each of these types has been represented
over and again in our science, which has
profited by the good of each; and in the long
run it can not suffer through the bad, because
time inexorably eliminates this. But there
have been quite enough instances of mistakes
and delays and discouragements on the one
hand, and of spurts of stimulated effort on
the other, following the activities of men
blessed with the gift of originality and at the
same time favored or hampered by its human
concomitant of radicalism or conservatism,
of sanguine credulity or of phlegmatic in-
eredulity.
Starting from isolated springs of impulse,
progress has settled into a continuous flow of
constantly increasing volume and rather fixed
direction, over and over again, until a new
touch of genius or a new revolt against the
established order has opened new channels
that have broadened and deepened with the
years without causing the main course to run
dry.
Sometimes change has come through the
talent of coordination, as when Linneus
brought chaos into order in the arrangement
of flowering plants, or Saceardo in laboriously
assembling the fungi. Sometimes it has come
from an attempt to dam the main channel as a
means of diverting a part of the flow in a new
direction, as when Schleiden fought the sys-
tematists. Sometimes broad epitomization has
caused the change, as when Sachs revivified
the science by giving it coherence as a whole.
Sometimes an epoch-making improvement in
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
technique is to be seen, as when Strasburger
showed how the most transient inner processes
of the dividing cell may be preserved for com-
parative study extending over months or
years. Sometimes a device accurately record-
ing for later study every phase of a passing
physiological process has shown what was un-
seen before. Sometimes, and perhaps more
often, the result has been achieved through
the purposeful untiring straightforward work
of a man possessed at once of the plodding
industry of the laborer, the genius of the de-
signer, and the perspicacity of the philoso-
pher: such men were von Mohl, Hofmeister
and De Bary.
Whatever its type, work that has left its
mark indelibly on the science has been done
by men endowed with an infectious enthu-
siasm. These men may have lived to see
their own discoveries set aside as incomplete
or even faulty, like Schleiden; or they may
have discarded their own forceful convictions,
like Sachs; or they may have known that in
doing a serviceable work effectively, they were
as effectively placing a barrier before the
greater work that they foresaw ahead, as did
Linneus when he substituted an artificial key
for the real taxonomy that he could not
develop. But, however far it may have been
from perfection, what these men did appealed
to the understanding; what they said obtained
a hearing; and, above all, their consuming
interest was communicated to others and yet
others. They proved leaders as well as
workers.
The personnel of botany forms a roster of
men sometimes working alone, unstimulated
and without following, sometimes founding
schools, sometimes following in the footprints
of masters. The suggestive thought is that
these masters for a considerable part have
been self made: that their followers who have
become masters have broken for themselves
new paths; and that one and all they have
been workers fitting their work on to that of
others, systematizing all, and enlisting eager
hands to do the work that they saw ahead
waiting to be done. They may not always
have had what we call a proper veneration for
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
the antique, or a good sense of perspective,
but they have left their mark on the edifice.
Two somewhat paradoxical if not antithetic
achievements in botany stand out conspicu-
ously in the last quarter-century or so: in-
creasing assimilation of the science itself with
cognate sciences into the broader science of
life—biology; and an increasing tendency for
its own members, differentiating into organs,
to segregate into offsets and strike root for
themselves.
To-day we rarely hear any one talk of the
food of plants being inorganic, and that of
animals, organic; we hear, rather, of green
plants as the food makers of the world. Even
the word assimilation has fallen into disuse or
become hyphenated as applied to this process.
Digestion, metabolism, nutrition, have become
subjects of parallel investigation in the two
branches into which the tree of life has
evolved.
The incipient stage of cell division, with
qualitative bipartition in its somatic stages
and qualitative segregation in the formation
of gametes in all but the very lowermost of
protista, has become so largely known as to
make it hard to think of any bit of existing
protoplasm as other than a fragment of one
primordial protoplast, or ‘to think of a proto-
plast of today as not genetically related to
every other protoplast past or present.
The chemico-physical activities of plant and
animal no longer claim attention as separate
problems; absorption, selection and rejection
of material, ionization, diffusion, osmosis—
all have become biological rather than zoolog-
ical or botanical questions, as they pertain to
living things; but botanists are doing their
full share toward answering them.
That botanical investigation should have
demonstrated Mendel’s law two generations
ago or exhumed it two decades ago, places
this discovery among the achievements of
botany; but on it has been founded the bio-
logical superstructure of genetics—as valued
an adjunct of the stockbreeder as of the
breeder of plants. That a botanist differen-
tiated between fluctuations and mutations and
so simplified the understanding of natural
selection has not prevented that differentiation
SCIENCE
127
penetrating into every branch of evolutionary
investigation.
That toxins became known when the activi-
ties of bacteria were studied, has not pre-
vented the student of animal physiology from
carrying the same study of excreta into the
relations of animal parasites and their hosts,
or from developing from it the theory of auto-
intoxication. Enzymes, hormones and _ vita-
mines—whatever either may be, now lie in the
common field of biology, but some of the best
work on them is done by botanists.
Out ofthe harmonies and disharmonies of
plants with the manifold kinds of environ-
ment that the world offers, has developed a
line of ecological observation, experimenta-
tion, and speculation that not only has
brought the microscopic alge of the world-
plankton into recognition as the first fruits
and the foundation of all aquatic life, past
and present, but points as unmistakably to the
individual birth, adolescence, mature life and
senescence of a flora as the experience of
agronomy does for a plant or recorded history
does for a community of men: it has passed
forever from the kodak-census stage.
Incursions into the no-man’s-land confront-
ing science are increasingly paralleling the
phenomena that ecology deals with. The
rapid invasion of an army of men, or a swarm
of locusts such as I have seen blackening the
sky in Central America, carries its own sug-
gestion of impending conquest or devastation.
The trickling of a thin thread of water
through the dike, the exploration of a few
pioneers or the settling of a few families be-
yond the front, may escape notice as sig-
nificant; and the army may be driven back
or the grasshoppers stopped by attention to
their breeding places. The most-heralded ad-
vances sometimes prove the least important,
and the humblest, the most significant, in
retrospect.
Who but a croaking pessimist would have
dreamed that an unknown fungus spore
dropped on the Emerald Isle would lead to
famine and starvation affecting a large popu-
lation of men; that a rather uninteresting
imperfect fungus added to the local flora of
New York would cause the magnificent chest-
128
nut forest to disappear from our seaboard;
that the cultivation of a water plant would
choke the streams of England or render those
of Florida unnavigable? The like is going on
all of the time without such results, and even
the man who knows speaks often to an un-
hearing audience when he ventures to pro-
claim that an immigrant can do what the
leopard moth has done to the elms of New
England or the boll-weevil to the sea-island
cotton: but the lesson is being learned, bit
by bit, and applied with quite as much zeal
as wisdom.
In much this way, science has reached its
achievements: sometimes annexing large fields
that have proved less profitable than they were
advertised to be; sometimes finding itself in
possession of most fruitful territory that it
did not know it was invading. That the
mountains of conquest sometimes prove barren
and the drained plains of slow sedimentation
sometimes prove of inestimable productivity
may well lead us to embark in future on
the most lauded enterprise with reasonable
caution, and to foster in every wise way the
experimental prosecution of even the least ob-
viously promising of minor undertakings.
Among newer lines of botanical activity
none stand out with more significant dis-
tinctness than those directed toward getting
conclusive demonstration of the active causes
of organic variation and of organic function
through a direct questioning of nature. To
such experimentation, the shifting theory and
complicated phenomena of physical chemistry
are fundamental; to it, the deftest and best
controlled manipulation is essential; to it,
recognition and successive elimination of the
many interwoven conditioning factors are in-
dispensable. From it, the subtle change that
converts living into dead matter is not capable
of separation.
Biometry, laborious to the last degree, is the
scale by which some of its results are to be
made evident and coordinated. Biochemistry
has taken assured place as one of its most
necessary tools. Even the physical intricacies
of behavior in colloids that never figure in
vital phenomena are being pressed into daily
use as furnishing analogies for if not demon-
strations of the workings of that substance,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
protoplasm, which alone lives, alone responds
to stimulus in the sense of the physiologist,
and alone increases its substance through
nutrition.
This entire line of advance is very new:
some of its progress is startling: but its final
results do not appear to promise to be those
of metamorphosis but rather of cumulative
mutations, perhaps mostly small. In it, above
all other lines of progress, caution, conser-
vatism and avoidance of too free generaliza-
tion and haste in announcing and applying
results appear to be desirable.
It is natural that a science concerning
itself with the prime makers of human food—
and for that matter of all food, and of the
healing agents and poisons of the world, should
have gleaned its very first results from the use-
fulness or noxiousness of the materials of its
study, and that its achievements should have
acquired great economic importance. Too
much stress can not be laid on the fact that
this is so, and within reason too much can not
be expected from its future activities.
This science works within the bounds of
what we still regard as natural law, and will
continue to be so limited however these boun-
daries may be defined and extended. Never-
theless because of its discoveries the unpal-
atable has been made palatable and the un-
wholesome made wholesome in food; two
blades of grass and two grains of wheat really
have been made to grow where but one grew
before; it has unraveled the mystery of the
epidemic scourges of farm and barnyard, has
pointed the way to prophylaxis and breeding
of hardier races, and at the worst, has shown
where therapy is futile. It certainly will make
known and understood the eritical periods in
crop growth, and enable the agronomist to
foster and protect his crops with profit at these
periods; and it is not unlikely to enable the
man who knows to judge and score the grow-
ing crop as the growing herd is judged and
scored. It has founded a practise of self-sus-
taining fertility of the soil, and it points a way
to restoration of impoverished soils.
These achievements have not come by leaps
and bounds of either discovery or application:
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
they represent gradual accomplishment in both
directions. Nevertheless such practical results
have been reached within the memory of men
now living—many of them indeed through
men now with us. The methods of our science
are analytical, its application is educational:
both require time, and the applications of its
teachings tend to pass its results from the
questioning realm of science into the formu-
lated empiricism of an art.
The world stress that we are passing through
has caused attention to be turned, as never be-
fore, toward science; and science and its
methods have received a utilitarian recogni-
tion never before accorded them. If botany
and its dependent arts have met practical ex-
pectation as chemistry and physics and their
dependent arts have, its hopeful activities are
assured quantitatively and qualitatively for
generations to come: if it has shown an in-
herent lack of the liability of these sciences,
in which application is almost synchronous
with discovery, an understanding of its slower
but none-the-less certain methods will secure
for it opportunity for equally honorable and
useful future advance; and if we think it has
been slow in response we must recognize that
like the plants with which it deals it requires
a period of tilth and growth between seeding
and harvest.
Useful though it may be, until it shall have
become a finished work, fit companion for those
arts and achievements now kept from oblivion
through the kind offices of the museum, it will
be a sorry day for this or any other science
when its prosecution proves to be dependent
upon the evident and immediate usefulness of
its discoveries.
When the inspiration of the greatest of
modern botanists, Sachs, gave to botany some-
thing of the meaning that it now has, its place
in the educational world changed. Though
biological science from its more complex na-
ture fails to give the promise of unmistakable
and predictable answer to experiment that the
physical sciences pledge and furnish, it took
place quickly and without question as one of
the foundation stones of the educational idea
which recognizes experimentation and observa-
SCIENCE
129
tion as of fundamental value in training the
human mind.
Perhaps it was put to this use in the best
possible way and for the best possible reasons.
Its achievements for two generations show that
large results have come because of or despite
its incorporation into the curriculum of even
the secondary schools: the methods of using
it, at any rate, have been largely those believed
best calculated to make investigators of the
pupils who studied it.
To some people, it has seemed from the first
that all who study a science can scarcely be
expected to ‘become specialists in it. There is
no reason for surprise in the patent fact that
few of the myriads of students of botany dur-
ing the last half-century have become pro-
fessional botanists: investigators are born
rather than manufactured. There may be just
ground even for a growing feeling that in its
application to education, botany should ap-
pear in a different guise and with different ac-
cents from the same science as the investiga-
tor knows it.
If we are wise and alert who wish to see bot-
any or even biology at large continue—as we
all must believe that it should—an element of
popular instruction, we must see that in the
school it regains that simple understandable
everyday relation with everyday life that its
vastly simpler precursor possessed; that in the
college its more complex present-day relations
with life are made part of the equipment of
all of those who are to teach it in the schools
and to follow it into the university; and that
in the university its study is characterized by
a breadth of understanding and a scope of
vision commensurate with that refined spe-
cialization which marks the successful delver
after facts.
This is a suggestive gathering. It is a ses-
sion of The Botanical Society of America, but
there are present many members of the Phyto-
pathological Society, of the American Society
of Naturalists, of organizations of ecologists
and geneticists, of fern students and of moss
students. Such organizations are meeting in
affiliation with the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, and members of
130
the botanical and agricultural sections of that
great Association are of our number. Pomol-
ogists and men devoting themselves broadly to
horticultural science are with us. I should not
be surprised if there were present also men
who call themselves bacteriologists, foresters,
or pharmacognosists, though the immediate
affiliation of their special national societies has
been shaped otherwise. We are here at the
present moment as botanists, viewing botany
from the various sides of its many specializa-
tions and applications. To-morrow we shall
be pressing its subdivisions and segregations
intensively in specialized sessions. Let us not
forget when we do this that in union lies
strength and that in division of labor lies effi-
ciency; nor that efficiency usually reaches its
maximum in the connected correlated organs
of an organism, each taking and giving for the
common good.
I would not urge the tyro among us to be-
come less a cytologist, less a bryologist, less a
physiologist, less a bio-chemist, than his great-
est inspiration prompts: but I would urge him
earnestly to be more a botanist, more a natur-
alist, more a disciple of a broad science which
in strength and effectiveness and symmetry
combines all that is good of its many and di-
versified component parts.
Horticulturists talk of graftage. They know
that their art can produce more effective crea-
tures than nature has evolved; but stock as
well as scion is selected for its inherent worth,
and both are essential to the whole that is
built up from them.
The great world upheaval has severed many
a scientific union thait seemed destined to last
interminably. Some of the disjointed parts
may never reunite: some unquestionably re-
quire careful handling. It appears to be our
plain and paramount duty now to see that, if
worth it, ithe parts of the old tree be given a
chance to establish themselves anew, either on
their own roots or on a better footing—not
thinking for a moment that the tree of science
is limited in time or space or components, but
remembering always the old maxim that the
whole is equal to the sum of all its parts and
greater than any of its parts.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
Out of the world dismemberment has come
opportunity for cooperative world reorganiza-
tion and reconstruction which can be made
more effective in science than anything that
has preceded it. The opportunity is ours. If
we make tthe most of it, we shall attain the
greatest of the achievements of science. Even
if we fail, we need not miss the lesson that ac-
complishment in our field is of necessity never
final but proves always to be the opening of
new fields, fresher and larger, to those who
understand the real nature of achievement—
out of which opportunity continually develops.
SOME SUGGESTIVE ADDRESSES, ETC.
Allen, W. E. The naturalist’s place in his com-
munity. SCIENCE, n. s. 50: 448-451, Nov. 14,
1919.
Arthur, J. C. Research as a university function.
ScIENCE, n. s. 49: 387-391, Apr. 25, 1919.
Bailey, L. H. The modern systematist. ScIENCE,
n. s. 46: 623-629, Dec. 28, 1917.
Bailey, L. H. Some present needs in systematic
botany. Proc. Amer. Philosoph. Soc., 54: 58-65,
Apr., 1915.
Bailey, L. H. What is horticulture? Proc. Soc.
Prom. Agric. Sci., 26: 31-40, 1905.
Bessey, C. E. Some of the next steps in botanical
science. SCIENCE, n. s. 37: 1-13, Jan. 3, 1913.
Botanical teaching. A conference at the Minneap-
olis meeting. ScIENCE, n. s. 33: 633-649, Apr.
28, 1911.
Campbell, D. H. The present and future of bot-
any in America. SCIENCE, n. s. 41: 185-191,
Feb. 5, 1915.
Clinton, G. P. Botany in relation to agriculture.
SCIENCE, n. s. 43: 1-13, Jan. 7, 1916.
Copeland, E. B. Botany in the agricultural college.
SCIENCE, n. s. 40: 401-405, Sept. 18, 1914.
Coulter, J. M. Botany as a national asset.
ENCE, n. s. 45: 225-231, Mar. 9, 1917.
Coulter, J. M. The evolution of botanical re-
search. SCIENCE, n. s. 51: 1-8, Jan. 2, 1920.
Crozier, W. L. The position and prospects of bot-
any. ScIENCE, n. s. 48: 193-194, Aug. 23, 1918.
Davis, B. M. Botany after the war. ScIENncr,
n. 8. 48: 514-515, Nov. 22, 1918.
Farlow, W. G. The change from the old to the
new botany in the United States. Screnoz, n. s.
37: 79-86, Jan. 17, 1915.
Gager, C. S. A basis for reconstructing botanical
ScI-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
education.
1919.
Gager, C. S. Horticulture as a profession.
ENCE, n. s. 49: 293-300, Mar. 28, 1919.
Gager, C. S. The near future of botany in Amer-
iea. SCIENCE, n. s. 47: 101-115, Feb. 1, 1918.
Galloway, B. T. The twentieth century botany.
SCIENCE, n. s. 19: 11-18, Jan. 1, 1904.
Ganong, W. F. Some reflections upon botanical
education in America. SCIENCE, n. s. 31: 321-
334, Mar. 4, 1910.
Hitchcock, A. S. The scope and relations of taxo-
nomic botany. SciENcE, n. s. 43: 331-342, Mar.
10, 1916.
Jones, L. R. The relations of plant pathology to
the other branches of botanical science. Phyto-
path, 1: 39-44, 1911,
Lefevre, G. The introductory course in zoology.
SCIENCE, n. s. 50: 429-431, Nov. 7, 1919.
Livingston, B. E. Some responsibilities of botan-
ical science. SciENcE, n. s. 49: 199-207, Feb.
28, 1919.
Lyman, G. R. The need for organization of Amer-
ican botanists for more effective prosecution of
war work. SCIENCE, n. s. 47: 279-285, Mar. 22,
1918.
Nichols, G. EH. The general biology course and the
teaching of elementary botany and zoology in
American colleges and universities. SCIENCE,
n. s. 50: 509-517, Dee. 5, 1919.
Orton, W. A. The biological basis of international
phytopathology. Phytopath. 4: 11-19, 1914.
Osborn, H. Zoological aims and opportunities.
SCIENCE, n. s. 49: 101-112, Jan. 31, 1919.
Peirce, G. J. What kinds of botany does the
world need now? ScrENcE, n. s. 49: 81-84, Jan.
24, 1919.
The reconstruction of elementary botanical teach-
ing. New Phytologist, Dec., 1917. A series of
papers.
Ritter, W. E. A business man’s appraisement of
biology. ScrENcE, n. s. 44: 820-822, Dec. 8, 1916.
Roberts, H. F. Agricultural botany in secondary
education. ScreNcE, n. s. 50: 549-559, Dec. 19,
1919.
Shear, C. L. First decade of the American Phy-
topathological Society. Phytopath. 9: 165-170,
1919.
Shull, A. F. Biological principles in the zoology
course. SCIENCE, n. s. 48: 648-649, Dec. 27,
1918.
Stevens, N. B. American botany and the great
war. SCIENCE, n. s. 48: 177-179, Aug. 23, 1918.
SCIENCE, n. s. 50: 263-269, Sept. 19,
Sci-
SCIENCE
131
Stockberger, W. W. The social obligations of the
botanist. ScrmENcE, n. s. 39: 733-743, May 22,
1914.
Trelease, W. Botanical opportunity. Bot. Gaz.,
22: 193-217, Sept., 1896; Smithsonian Report,
1898: 519-536.
Zeleny, C. The personal relation of the investiga-
tor to his problem. Screncs, n. s. 50: 175-179,
Aug. 22, 1919. WILLIAM TRELEASE
THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE BIOCHEMIST ON THE HOSPITAL
STAFF
Durine the past few years there has been
gradually evolving in the general mind, and
particularly the medical mind, the idea that:
the chemist is actually something more than
a druggist or a detector of arsenic. The
present records of the efforts directed towards
an elucidation of the reactions of the human
organism in health and disease, along the
lines of chemical investigation, are an
achievement that by their very import, if not
their voluminousness, have forcibly directed
the attention of the medical profession to
the possibility that here is a line of attack
worthy of notice. The rapid progress being
made is adding so much to the fundamental
knowledge of how the organism carries on its
activities, that the solution of the many
problems being brought to light is most turbid
in the minds of the chemical physician and
he is turning to the biochemist for clarifica-
tion. Scientific medicine to-day acknowl-
edges the fundamental value of chemistry
in the fight for the prevention and cure of
disease; it recognizes now, as never before,
the need of ascertaining the basic facts con-
cerned in body reactions and that the satis-
fying of that need rests in the intensive ap-
plication of biochemical methods to the study
of the human organism. Outside of diabetes
there is a general lack of definite information
concerning the intricate processes going on,
giving rise to, or accompanying pathological
conditions, and there is opening up a larger
opportunity for acquisition of this informa-
tion through the open-hearted cooperation
between physician and scientist that is now
becoming evident.
132
In view of these facts and since there is
an increasing number of hospitals that are
coming to realize that the optimum treat-
ment for their patients depends not only in
having at hand the means of attaining all
possible data, but also that the hospital
should be the center for investigation, and
are adding to their staffs men specially trained
in biochemistry, it seems apropos to discuss
briefly some of the points these new alliances
are bringing up.
The average physician dumps all chemists
into one class, leaving the biochemists un-
differentiated, considers them analysts and
mentally determines their status on the hos-
pital staff as one a little lower than the plant
engineer, but somewhat better than a nurse,
although lacking even a nurse’s conception of
medicine.
Somewhere, though just where I do not
recollect, I have read a discussion in which
the distinction was drawn between the types
of workers in chemistry. It was there
brought out that whereas a chemist is always
an analyst, an analyst need not necessarily be
a chemist, since a chemist is inherently a
thinker in chemistry. On the hospital staff
it is the chemist that is needed and it is the
chemical specialist, the biochemist, for just
as in the medical profession there are special-
ists devoted to certain types of disorders, so
have we of the chemical profession divided
ourselves according as our inclinations and
training have fitted us to pursue certain more
or less well defined lines of endeavor. The
efficient biochemist, however, must be not
only well founded in information and ability
to think in terms of all branches of chem-
istry, but he must also be familiarly ac-
quainted with the principles of physics and
general biology. This is merely the ground-
work and foundation, on it there must be
erected the suverstructure of a knowledge of
morphology, physiology, bacteriology, pathol-
ogy and the phenomena of normal and dis-
turbed body functions. Only one with such
training can be of maximum service in the
field of hospital activities. To a man so
equipped the opportunities for usefulness are
large, and the full utilization of his services
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
can not but resut in benefit to patients and
science.
The question of what and how much
routine analytical work should be placed on
the shoulders of the biochemist is one of im-
portance, and by routine analytical work is
meant the regular and systematic chemical
examination of every hospital patient.
Routine work, it is true, must and should
be done, for from such analyses it is possible
to follow the progress of disease and the
response to treatment. Moreover, it is from
the accumulated mass data carefully corre-
lated that the conclusions can be drawn lead-
ing to the understanding of fundamentals,
but routine blood and urine analyses can he
made by any skilled technician while it re-
quires the cooperative efforts of the clinician
and the medically trained biochemist to
interpret the results. Now the biochemist
being primarily trained for and adapted to
research should not have his time so taken
up with routine that he can give but meager
attention to the outlining and carrying on
of investigations. In fact I do not believe
that this work should be a part of the duties
of the biochemist, except in so far as the
results are directly applicable to a certain
specific problem, but that it should be done
by a technician, leaving the biochemist’s time
for the investigatory cooperation essential for
progress.
The fundamental purpose of the hospital is
the cure or relief of the patient, and it should
be the aim of the biochemist as an integral
part of the institution to plan his work to
that end. He has two points of view that are
synchronous as to ultimate effect but differ-
ent in immediacy. The one line is intended
to throw light on the present condition and
progress of the patient under treatment; it is
individual. Correlated with this is the group
study of specific disturbance in various in-
dividuals with the aim of acquiring informa-
tion as to the general processes occurring in
the disorder. These are the immediate ob-
jects of study. In addition, he should have
in mind and as an object of his attention
investigations along the lines of basic phe
nomena not connected with any individual
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
or specific pathological condition, but more
with the point of view of contributing in-
formation as to fundamental functioning.
The immediate proposition looms the larger
because it is the more pressing. But who
will say which is the more important?
Logical planning will result in such an
intimate dove-tailing of both the immediate
and the basic lines of effort that the per-
spective of time will afford a well founded
understanding of the causes contributing to
disease, which understanding will lay the
path for cure and prevention.
This can not be done nor can full develop-
ment be obtained without a close cooperation
of the other members of the hospital staff
with the biochemist. And it almost goes
without saying that this cooperation can not
be effected unless the biochemist is equipped
to understand the point of view of the
clinician and is capable of giving to the
clinician assistance in the working out of his
problems. Progress can not be expected when
the biochemist either by preference, or lack
of opportunity to do otherwise, remains
cooped up with his test-tubes and beakers
knowing nothing of the patients save as
numbered bottles of urine on which he makes
his little tests. Consultations should be held
at which the general outlines and progress of
investigation should be discussed and oppor-
tunity afforded for the examination of any
particular case necessitating a biochemical
interpretation or study.
Complete independence should be allowed
the biochemist in the outlining of his meth-
ods of procedure and the problems for in-
vestigation, always, however, seeking assist-
ance and ready to give help when his special-
ized training fits him to be of service. His
administrative duties should be confined to
his own lines of activity and general labora-
tory supervision or directorship since it is in
that field his capabilities have been developed.
The instruction of nurses in the principles of
physiological chemistry by the biochemist
should be encouraged since the proper collec-
tion of specimens depends upon their intelli-
gence. They can not be expected to have an
appreciation of the precautions necessary in
SCIENCE
133
collecting the material if they are set to do
it as automatons and with no knowledge of
the purposes involved.
In these days of ours the question of
compensation is extraordinarily vital. The
scientific specialist is such because he can not
help it. His mental make-up forces him to
spend his life in giving, not in getting. He
is rarely a success in self-directed commercial
enterprise. He has no inclination to enter
such work unless driven by necessity, and
then it is with repugnance, that he competes
with his fellow-men in the accumulation of
dollars. Rather does he live a life largely
deprived of the creature comforts accorded
those mentalities whose urge is acquisitional.
But whose is the greater service is obvious.
Why should not such workers be given com-
pensation sufficient to allow them to have
homes and more than bare necessities? Why
should they be forced to derive their major
joie de vivre in intellectual introspection? Is
it because the work is of low value or is it
because of sluggish appreciation and lack of
self-advertising? Whatever the causes it is
not right, but no matter how wrong it is we
have men, and will continue to have men who
will gladly devote themselves to science what-
ever the compensation. Nevertheless meas-
ures should be taken by properly organized
associations, to so educate those necessary of
education that future generations of sci-
entists, if not this one, may receive an ade-
quate income in recognition of their con-
tinued contributions to human welfare.
Freperick 8S. Hammett
PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL,
PHILADELPHIA
CHARLES BUCKMAN GORING
Few of the readers of Science will be
familiar with even the name of Charles
Goring.1 His time was largely spent as a
1 Goring was born in 1870 and died in 1919. He
was a student and later a fellow of University
College, London. He served on a hospital ship
during the Boer War. At the time of his death—
met at his post combating the influenza epidemic—
he was Medical Officer in Chief at Strangeways
134
prison medical officer. His one monumental
work, which may perhaps best be described as
the biology of the convict, is still unfamiliar
to all but a limited circle.
Goring’s work? was based on thousands of
data and is stringently biometric in form, but
he was no mere measurer, card shufiler and
constant computer. He knew his convicts as
the trained student of animal behavior knows
his organisms—and better, for he had not
merely their physical measurements and an
intimate personal knowledge and evaluation
of their mental characteristics but knew much
of their ancestry and family associations. To
Goring, measurements were inviolate—not to
be juggled with, modified or discarded because
they did not substantiate a popular theory.
Better proof of this could not be found than
the fact that the raw data for his book were
set up before the calculations were well under
way. Goring as a thoroughgoing biometri-
cian believed that in many fields of research
valid conclusions must rest upon the mathe-
matical analysis of large masses of data. But
in his research each constant was critically
weighed against his own broad and intimate
personal experience of the individual in-
stances which constitute the mass.
I find it difficult to decide just what char-
acteristic of Goring impressed me most when
we were working together at the Biometric
Laboratory ten years ago. Sometimes it was
the steadfast scientific purpose which had sup-
ported the years of painstaking detail upon
which his great book rests—detail scrupulously
executed notwithstanding the fact that there
was at times little prospect of its ever serving
as a basis for constants and generalizations.
Sometimes it was the breadth of interests,
knowledge and sympathies of one whose work
Prison, Manchester. Those who desire may find a
portrait and a more adequate appreciation in Bio-
metrika, Vol. XII., pp. 297-307, pl. 1, 1919.
2Goring, C. B., ‘‘The English Convict; A Sta-
tistical Study.’’? 444 pp. London, 1913. Abridged
edition, Wyman and Co., 1915. The statistical
work on this volume was carried out at the Bio-
metrie Laboratory with the cooperation of H. HE.
Soper and with the helpful suggestion and criti-
eism of Professor Pearson.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
lay in a field seemingly so circumscribed.
Sometimes it was the entire freedom from
both callousness and sentimentality of a man
who had spent a decade, more or less, with
the inmates of the British prisons.
One sentence tells much of the man. One
day I asked, “ Why is this to be The English
Convict instead of The English Criminal?”
He replied instantly, “ Perhaps some of them
are not criminals, only convicts.”
J. ArtHur Harris
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUS-
TRIAL RESEARCH OF GREAT BRITAIN
Tue following is a list of research associa-
tions which have been approved by the depart-
ment as complying with the conditions laid
down in the government scheme for the encour-
agement of industrial research and have re-
ceived licenses from the Board of Trade under
Section 20 of the Companies’ (Consolidated)
Act of 1908:
British Boot, Shoe and Allied Trades Research As-
sociation,
Technical School, Abington Square, North-
ampton.
Secretary—Mr. John Blakeman, M.A., M.Sc.
British Cotton Industry Research Association,
108, Deansgate, Manchester.
Secretary—Miss B. Thomas.
British Empire Sugar Research Association,
Evelyn House, 62, Oxford Street, London, W.1.
Secretary—Mr. W. H. Giffard.
British Iron Manufacturers Research Association,
Atlantic Chambers, Brazennose Street, Man-
chester.
Secretary—Mr. H. 8S. Knowles.
British Motor and Allied Manufacturers Research
Association,
39, St. James’s Street, London, S.W.1.
Secretary—Mr. Horace Wyatt.
British Photographie Research Association,
Sicilian House, Southampton Row, London,
W.C.1.
Secretary—Mr. Arthur C. Brookes.
British Portland Cement Research Association,
6, Lloyd’s Avenue, London, E.C.3.
Secretary—Mr. 8S. G. S. Panisset,
F.C.S.
A.C.G..,
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
British Research Association for the Woollen and
Worsted Industries,
Bond Place Chambers, Leeds.
Secretary—Mr. Arnold Frobisher, B.Se.
British Scientific Instrument Research Association,
26, Russell Square, W.C.1.
Secretary—Mr. J. W. Williamson, B.Se.
British Rubber and Tyre Manufacturers Research
Association,
c/o Messrs. W. B. Peat & Co., 11, Ironmonger
Lane, H.C.2.
The Linen Industry Research Association,
3, Bedford Street, Belfast.
Secretary—Miss M. K. BE. Allen.
Glass Research Association,
7, Seamore Place, W.1.
Secretary—Mr. H. Quine, B.Sc.
British Cocoa, Chocolate, Sugar Confectionery, and
Jam Trades Research Association,
9, Queen Street Place, H.C.4.
Secretary—Mr. R. M. Leonard.
Schemes for the establishment of Research
Associations in the following industries have
reached an advanced state of development.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATIONS APPROVED BY THE DE-
PARTMENT BUT NOT YET LICENSED BY THE
BOARD OF TRADE
British Music Industries Research Associa-
tion.
British Refractory Materials Research Asso-
ciation.
British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Asso-
elation.
Scottish Shale Oil Research Association.
PROPOSED RESEARCH ASSOCIATIONS WHOSE MEMO-
RANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION ARE
UNDER CONIDERATION
British Launderers Research Association.
British Electrical and Allied Industries Re-
search Association.
British Aircraft Research Association.
INDUSTRIES ORGANIZATIONS ENGAGED IN PREPARING
MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
Silk Manufacturers.
Leather Trades.
Master Bakers and Confectioners.
In addition to the industries included above,
certain others are engaged in the preliminary
SCIENCE
135
consideration for forming Research Associa-
tions.
NATURAL GAS CONFERENCE
Secrerary Lanz, of the Department of the
Interior, announces that the following ap-
pointments have been made for the committee
of ten authorized by the resolution at the
Natural Gas Conference, held under Secre-
tary Lane’s invitation at Washington, Jan-
uary 15, 1920: Van H. Manning, director,
Bureau of Mines, chairman; John B. Corrin,
The Reserve Gas Company, Pittsburgh, Penn-
sylvania; L. B. Denning, The Ohio Fuel
Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; J. O.
McDowell, Witchita Natural Gas Company,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; W. L. McCloy,
The Philadelphia Company, Pittsburgh, Penn-
sylvania; John S. Rilling, Public Service Com-
mission of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Penn-
sylvania; Miss Edna N. White, American
Home Economics Association, Detroit, Mich-
igan; Art L. Walker, Chairman, Corporation
Committee, Oklahoma City Oklahoma; F. W.
Wozencraft, Mayor, Dallas, Texas; Samuel S.
Wyer, Consulting National Gas Engineer,
Columbus, Ohio; and Dr. I. OC. White, state
geologist of West Virginia, Morgantown,
West Virginia.
The functions of this committee will be to
consider the wastes now going on in natural
gas and the relations between the natural gas
companies and the consuming public. The
committee has been carefully selected from a
number of nominations with a view to repre-
senting equally the interests of the public
and the natural gas companies. Dr. Manning
writes:
The development and utilization of the most
ideal fuel known to man—natural gas—has been
accompanied by almost inconceivable wastes. Al-
though these wastes have been greatly reduced dur-
ing recent years, they have by no means been elim-
inated and the country to-day is paying the penalty
of its sins by the depletion and even exhaustion
of many of the formerly prolific gas supplies.
These wastes have occurred in the fields where the
gas is produced; in the lines through which the
gas is transported; and from ‘the cooking stoves,
furnaces, boiler plants, ete., where the gas is ulti-
mately consumed.
136
Through the knowledge and experience which
has been gained in the natural gas industry, it is
now known how these wastes can be practically
eliminated, but the main obstacles now to be over-
come before these economies can be put into effect
are economic rather than technical; that is modern
engineering can control these wastes, but it is nec-
essary that the saving be made worth while.
There must be a thorough consideration of the
broad, underlying economies of the gas business
and its relations to the conservation and better
utilization of natural gas. There is a necessity
that the public more thoroughly understand the
economics and technique of the gas business to
the end that machinery be devised and put into
operation whereby the interests of the public and
the gas companies can be brought together in such
a manner that the gas now being wasted can be
saved and used.
It is the purpose of this committee to consider
these broader questions of the relations between
the consuming public and the gas companies, that
a program may be drawn up looking forward to
the application of those engineering principles
which it is known minimize the waste of natural
gas now taking place and prolong the supply of
gas to the consumer.
THE STEINHART AQUARIUM
Tne erection of an up-to-date aquarium in
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is an event
of some significance in the scientific world
and the fact that it is to be under the direc-
tion and management of the California Acad-
emy of Sciences and supervised by Dr. Barton
Warren Evermann, the ichthyologist, will in-
sure it fulfilling its purpose of quickening
interest in the fauna of the Pacific Ocean and
the inland waters of the Pacific coast area.
Funds for the building of the aquarium
amounting to $250,000 have been provided
through the munificence of the late Ignatz
Steinhart who stipulated in his will that the
management should vest in the California
Academy of Sciences. By an amendment to
the city charter the city of San Francisco has
undertaken the maintenance of the aquarium.
The aquarium will be built adjoining the
Academy’s Museum building and will be
equipped with a full complement of glass ex-
hibition tanks. Outdoor pools for the ex-
hibition of aquatic mammals form an essen-
tial part of the building scheme.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
Dr. Evermann is now in the East and will
visit the aquariums of Boston, New York,
Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington to
study carefully the most approved methods
of installation.
RESIGNATION OF DEAN BAKER OF THE NEW
YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY
AN appeal for better salaries for educators,
particularly those in New York State and in
the New York State College of Forestry, at
Syracuse marks the letter of resignation filed
by Dean Hugh P. Baker, who has resigned
after eight years of service, to accept twice the
salary he is rated as receiving at the State
College of Forestry, by becoming secretary of
the American Paper and Pulp Association.
Although he receives a big increase in pay,
his letter of retirement specifies that the in-
ducement which caused him to leave the Col-
lege of Forestry was not the salary, but the
opportunity to carry the profession of forestry
into a great industry, that of paper manufac-
turing. His letter discloses that last year he
refused an offer of $7,500 to enter a business
career, but that the trustees increased his
salary from $5,000 to $6,000 to remain, and
he declined the offer. Owing to the rigidity
of the New York state budget system, how-
ever, even this raise would not take effect
until July, 1920, and only then if approved
by the legislature. In his letter of resigna-
tion, he says this of the salaries of teachers:
“The public is apathetic, to say the least, as
to the needs of education, with the result
that our public schools and colleges and uni-
versities throughout the country are suffering
for the lack of the right kind of men and
women in the teaching profession.”
Dean Baker’s last work at the College of
Forestry will include an effort to secure ade-
quate salaries for the educators in the college,
some of whom are paid smaller than men in
the same relative positions at other state
educational institutions.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Davi F. Houston, formerly president
of Washington University, secretary of agri-
culture, has been nominated by President Wil-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
son to succeed Senator Carter Glass as secre-
tary of the treasury. E. T. Meredith, of Iowa,
publisher of Successful Farming, a director of
the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank and demo-
eratie candidate for senator from Jowa in
1914, will succeed Mr. Houston as secretary of
agriculture.
Dr. HucH §. Cummines, of Hampton, Va.,
has been selected to sueceed Dr. Rupert Blue
as surgeon general of the Public Health Serv-
ice. General Blue has served two terms as sur-
geon general. He was first appointed during
the administration of President Taft and was
reappointed by President Wilson. Dr. Blue
will remain in the Public Health Service en-
gaged in research work.
Dr. Herman M. Bices, New York state com-
missioner of health, was reappointed by the
governor for a term of six years, on January
12, and the appointment was unanimously con-
firmed by the senate on the same day.
Proressor GraHam Lusk, of the Cornell
University Medical College, has been elected
associate member of the Société Royale des
Sciences Médicales et Naturelles de Bruxelles.
Dr. W. F. Rupp, of the department of chem-
istry of the Medical College of Virginia, Rich-
mond, has been elected president of the Ameri-
can Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties.
THE council of the Geological Society of
London has made the following awards: Wol-
laston medal to Professor Baron Gerard Jakob
de Geer (Stockholm); Murchison medal to
Mrs. (Dr.) EH. M. Shakespear; Lyell medal to
Mr. E. Greenly; Wollaston fund to Mr. W. B.
R. King; Murchison fund to Dr. D. Woola-
eott, and Lyell fund to Dr. J. D. Falconer and
Mr. E. S. Pinfold.
At the recent meeting of the American Psy-
chological Association at Harvard University,
a committee was appointed to formulate stand-
ards for the qualifications and certification of
practising psychologists for the United States.
The committee consists of Professor Bird T.
Baldwin, State University of Towa, chairman;
Professor Walter F. Dearborn, Harvard Uni-
versity; Professor Leta S. Hollingworth, Co-
lumbia University; Dr. Helen T. Wooley, Vo-
SCIENCE
137
cational Bureau, Cincinnati, and Dr. Beards-
ley Ruml, The Scott Company, Philadelphia.
State departments of education contemplating
the certification of psychologists should con-
sult with a member of the committee. New
York, Wisconsin, New Jersey and California
recently legalized practising psychologists.
Proressor Hresper W. YouncKen, head of
the department of botany and pharmacognosy
of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, has
accepted the invitation of the board of econ-
trol of Botanical Abstracts to become editor
for the section of pharmaceutical botany and
pharmacognosy of this journal.
Dr. R. E. Rinprusz, formerly an assistant
in the chemistry department of Oberlin Col-
lege, is now chief chemist in charge of re-
search for the American Writing Paper Oo.,
Holyoke, Mass.
Proressor THomas L. Hankinson has been
named ichthyologist of the Roosevelt Wild
Life Experiment Station of the New York
State College of Forestry, at Syracuse Uni-
versity. For the past seventeen years Pro-
fessor Hankinson has been engaged in the
study of fish in Michigan and Illinois, and
for five years has been cooperating with Dr.
Adams in the study of the fish in Oneida
Lake and the Palisades Interstate Park
region; since 1902 he has been teaching bio-
logical sciences in the Eastern Illinois Normal
School, Charleston, Dlinois.
Worp has been received that the well-known
Swedish geologist, Professor Gerard De Geer,
of Stockholm, expects to visit America in
the autumn of 1920, in order to study the
glacial geology in the northeastern part of
the United States and Canada.
Dr. Winrrep H. Oscoop, of the Field
Museum of Natural History, accompanied by
M. H. B. Conover, of Chicago, sailed January
28 for Venezuela where they will make gen-
eral zoological collections and distributional
studies in the Maracaibo Basin and the
Sierra de Merida.
In the latter part of October, 1919, Carl
D. La Rue, botanist for the Hollandsch-
Amerikaansche Plantage Maatschappij, re-
138
turned to the laboratory at Kisaran, Asahan,
Sumatra, after a five-weeks stay in Java,
where he represented the research department
of his company at the First Scientific Con-
gress of the Netherlands East Indies, and at
the First Technical Meeting of the Personnel
of the Experiment Stations for the Rubber
Culture.
We learn from Nature that Mr. Willoughby
Lowe has recently started on a mission to the
west coast of Africa for the purpose of collect-
ing specimens for the South Kensington Nat-
ural History Museum. Captain Hubert Lynes,
R.N., has just left England on an expedition
to Darfur, where he intends to make a special
survey of the avifauna of the Jeb-Maria Moun-
tains for the bird department.
Mr. D. FranKLIn FisHer, formerly connected
with the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, New York, N. Y., in the
capacity of food and drug inspector, has re-
cently resigned from that position to become
research chemist in the laboratories of the Van
Camp Packing Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
THE annual Darwin Lecture at New York
University will be given on Friday, February
13, at 4 p.M., in the auditorium at University _
Heights by Robert Cushman Murphy, curator
of natural science at the Brooklyn Museum.
Mr. Murphy sailed for Peru last August to
conduct the Brooklyn Museum Peruvian Lit-
toral Expedition. He has made a comprehen-
sive study of ithe avian marine fauna of the
Humboldt Current and of the Coastal Islands.
He has been successful in taking hundreds of
pictures—still and moving—of birds and other
animals.
Dr. Wiu1M J. Humpureys, of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, gave the address of the re-
tiring president before the Philosophical So-
ciety of Washington on January 31, on “A
bundle of meteorological paradoxes.”
Dr. S. W. Stratton delivered an address on
the “ Advantages of the general adoption of
the metric system in Easton, Pa.,” on January
16, under the auspices of the Lehigh Valley
Section of the American Metric Association.
Under the same auspices Dr. Harrison E.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1310
Howe lectured on December 12, on the work
of the National Research Council.
On the alumni lectureship in chemistry,
Oberlin College has had Colonel W. D. Ban-
croft, chairman of the division of chemistry,
National Research Council, lecturing on “ Col-
loid chemistry,” and Mr. Marsh, of the Her-
cules Powder Co., lecturing on “High ex-
plosives.”
At the meeting of the Royal Society on
February 5, by the council, the program con-
sisted of a discussion on “ The theory of rela-
tivity,” opened by Mr. Jeans and continued by
Professor Eddington, the Astronomer Royal,
and others.
We learn from Nature that active steps are
now being taken in the government to estab-
lish a memorial to Lord Lister in Edinburgh.
The university and the Royal Colleges of
Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, under
the control of which the memorial will be es-
tablished, have determined to provide ian insti-
tute for research and teaching in medicine. A
site has been secured, and a committee is now
being formed to make an appeal to the public
for a sum of £250,000. Mr. Balfour, chancellor
of the university will be president of the com-
mittee.
THERE has been established at Case School
of Applied Science, in memory of the late
Professor Sabine, of Harvard University, the
Wallace Clement Sabine Research Fellowship
in Acoustics. Its purpose is the encourage-
ment of investigation in the science of acous-
tics. The holder of the fellowship will pursue
his studies and carry on original investigation
under the direction of Professor Dayton C.
Miller. The facilities afforded by his labora-
tory for research in any part of acoustics are
unusual, and this is particularly true as re-
gards the analysis and synthesis of sound. A
candidate for this fellowship must be a college
graduate and should have had at least one
year of advanced study in physics. The sti-
pend is $1,000 a year.
Rear ApMimAL JOHN Exuiorr Pinuspury, U.
S. N., retired, president of the National Geo-
graphical Society, distinguished for his con-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
tributions to science, especially, on the Gulf
Stream, as well as for his services as an officer
in the navy, has died at the age of seventy-
three years.
RicHarp Buss, who died at Newport on Jan-
uary 7, was at one time an assistant in the
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge,
and bibliographer of the United States Geolog-
ical Survey and the Northern Trans-conti-
nental Survey. For thirty-one years, until his
retirement in 1914, he was librarian of the
Redwood Library at Newport.
Dr. S. Mackay, professor of chemistry at
Dalhousie University since 1896, died from
pneumonia in Halifax, N. S., on January 6.
Dr. Mackay was born in Nova Scotia in 1864.
He was educated at Dalhousie and the Johns
Hopkins Universities.
THE Senate has passed a joint resolution
appropriating $500,000 to be used by the
Public Health Service in combating influenza.
The resolution directs the Public Health
Service to investigate influenza and allied
diseases in order to discover their causes and
prevent their spread. It requires the allot-
ment of money to universities, colleges and
other research institutions for scientific in-
vestigation. The Public Health Service is
accorded the privilege of making selection of
such institutions.
A MEETING of surgeons, representing the
surgical staffs of all the great teaching hos-
pitals of Britain, assembled in the theater of
the Royal College of Surgeons of England on
January 8, as we learn from Nature, under
the chairmanship of Sir Rickman J. Godlee,
and resolved to form an “ Association of Sur-
geons of Great Britain and Ireland.” British
surgeons have thus followed the precedent set
by their colleagues the physicians, who formed
a similar association a number of years ago.
The object of the newly formed association
is to permit surgeons as the staffs of the
hospitals to meet together from time to time
at various centers in order to exchange ob-
servations and compare results. The associa-
tion will stand as the representative body for
British surgeons, and in that capacity will
SCIENCE
139
represent British interests at international
surgical congresses. Sir John Bland-Sutton
was elected president of the new association.
THERE has been formed recently in Chicago
a Scientific Laboratory Workers’ Union, No.
16,986, American Federation of Labor. This
includes fifteen members, physicians, chemists
and bacteriologists of the Bureau of Labora-
tories of the Chicago Department of Health.
At the annual general meeting of the In-
ventors Union, held in London, the provisions
of the Patents and Designs Bill were warmly
discussed in view of the inadequate protection
the bill provides to British inventors. A reso-
lution was carried to the effect that the gov-
ernment should be approached to consider the
creation of an all-empire patent to replace
the present system which entailed an initial
outlay of several hundred pounds to secure
protection in Great Britain and the domin-
ions and colonies for the simplest invention.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
THE corporation of Yale University having
requested Dr. Fred T. Murphy to make a sur-
vey and report as to the school of medicine
and Dr. Murphy having presented his views
and recommendations, the committee on edu-
cational policy unanimously recommended the
following minutes which were adopted by the
corporation:
1. That there is a clear and definite opportunity
and obligation of the university to medical educa-
tion.
2. That the Yale School of Medicine has a valu-
able nucleus of men and material and sound tra-
ditions, which richly justify the development of
an institution for medical education of the highest
type.
3. That the corporation accept as a policy the
development of a medical school of the highest
type to include tthe pre-clinical and clinical years of
instruction upon such principles of medical educa-
tion as may be approved by the corporation, after
conference with the medical faculty.
4. That every effort be made to obtain at the
earliest possible date the necessary funds with
which to expand and develop the buildings, the
140
equipment, the instruction, and ‘the research, and
the service, in accordance with the best ideals of
modern medical education—as an essential unit of
our university plan for development.
Proressor W. H. DatrymMpue has resigned
the editorship of the Journal of the American
Veterinary Association because of his appoint-
ment to the deanship of the college of agricul-
ture of the Louisiana State University. The
nominees for the governorship and the legisla-
ture have pledged themselves the support of
the movement for a greater university, in
which movement it is proposed to raise three
million dollars for the college of agriculture.
Dr. ALLEN E. STERN, of the department of
chemistry at the University of Illinois, took
charge of the division of physical chemistry
at the University of West Virginia, beginning
in February.
Dr. Henry OC. Tracy, of the Marquette Med-
ical School, has been appointed professor of
anatomy at the University of Kansas.
Dr. C. H. EpMunnson, professor of zoology
at the University of Oregon, resigned at the
close of the fall term to accept the position as
head of the department of zoology and director
of the research laboratories at the College of
Hawaii, Honolulu.
ProFessor CLARENCE Moore has resigned the
chair of biology in Dalhousie University, Hali-
fax, N. S., and has been succeeded by Pro-
fessor Dowell Young, of Cornell University.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
UNRELIABLE EXPERIMENTAL METHODS OF
DETERMINING THE TOXICITY OF ALKALI
SALTS
A meruop frequently used by investigators
of the toxicity of alkali salts is to add certain
percentages of salts to soils, plant them to
crops and estimate the toxicity by the de-
pression of the crop growth. They assume
that if sodium carbonate or other salt is added
to a pot of soil, that it remains in solution in
the soil and that its toxicity can be measured
by subsequent crop growth. Very elaborate
and expensive experiments have been per-
formed based upon this assumption.
Now it has been shown by various investi-
SCIENCE
LN. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1310
gators that soils absorb a part, at least, of the
salts added, and that the crop growth in these
treated soils is much more closely related to
the proportion of alkali salts recoverable from
the soils than to the proportion of salts which
have been added. In other words, the toxicity
of salts is not so accurately measured by the
amount added to the soil as by the salts
recoverable by analysis after the treatments
have been made.
Two papers have been published in the
Journal of Agricultural Research which illus-
trate the erroneous conclusions that may be
reached when toxicity is determined by the
per cent. of salts added, viz., “ Effect of alkali
salts in soils on the germination and growth
of crops,” by Frank §S. Harris, and “Soil
factors affecting the toxicity of alkali,” by
F. S. Harris and D. W. Pittman. In both
these investigations the attempt was made to
measure the toxicity by correlating crop
growth with the amount of salts added. In
the firstmamed paper Mr. Harris reaches the
following conclusions which are not in accord-
ance with results obtained by other investi-
gators. The questionable results quoted below
would almost certainly not have been secured
had the more accurate method been followed
of measuring toxicity by correlating crop
growth with the soluble salts found in the
soil after the various additions had been made.
The conclusions which appear to the writer
to be unjustified are:
1. “Only about half as much alkali is re-
quired to prohibit the growth of crops in sand
as in loam.”
Since no analyses were made Mr. Harris
did not know how much alkali was contained
in the soil solution in either sand or loam and
the conclusion is therefore unjustifiable.
2. “Results obtained in solution cultures
for the toxicity of alkali salts do not always
hold when salts are applied to the soil.”
This statement may be true but his experi-
ments do not warrant the drawing of such a
conclusion for here again the author did not
determine the concentrations of the soil solu-
tions and he therefore has no basis for com-
paring the toxicity of salts in solution cul-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
tures with the same concentrations in soil
solutions.
3. “ The toxicity of soluble salts in the soil
was found to be in the following order: sodium
chlorid, calcium chlorid, potassium chlorid,
sodium nitrate, magnesium chlorid, potassium
nitrate, magnesium nitrate, sodium carbonate,
potassium carbonate, sodium sulfate, potas-
sium sulfate, and magnesium sulfate.”
Since the author did not determine and did
not know how much of these salts were
actually in the soil solution he could not very
well indicate their relative toxicities. It will
be noted that sodium carbonate is placed near
the bottom of the list as a relatively harmless
salt, whereas, as a matter of fact, it is one of
the most toxic salts occurring in the alkali
soils of the west.
4. “Land containing more than the follow-
ing percentages of soluble salts are probably
not suited without reclamation to produce
ordinary crops: In loam, chlorids 0.3 per cent.;
nitrates, 0.4 per cent.; carbonates, 0.5 per
cent.; sulfates, above 1.0 per cent. In coarse
sands, chlorids, 0.2 per cent.; nitrates, 0.3 per
cent; carbonates, 0.3 per cent. and sulfates,
0.6 per cent.”
Here again the author draws conclusions
without having accurate data on which to base
them. Jf the above percentages were to be
adopted by chemists in determining the suit-
ability of alkali soils in the field for crop
growth, the results would be misleading in the
extreme. The results are not in accord with
those obtained by determining toxic limits
in field studies, nor with laboratory experi-
ments in which toxicity is related to the alkali
actually in the soil solution instead of to that
which was put in.
In the paper by Harris and Pittman, pub-
lished in November, 1918, the authors have
adopted the same erroneous method but they
are more careful in drawing conclusions as
the absorption of the salts added is apparently
recognized but is not determined and related
to crop growth. The conclusion, however,
that “Loam soils and soils with a high water-
holding capacity may be successfully farmed
at a higher alkali content than others” may
SCIENCE
141
possibly be true but there is no data given
in the paper which justifies the conclusion, for
the per cent, of alkali salts recoverable from
the two kinds of soil was not correlated with
crop growth.
It is also suggested that the results ob-
tained by Brown and Hitchcock published
under the title “The effects of alkali salts on
nitrification ” (Soil Science, Vol. IV., No. 3)
and by Singh on the “Toxicity of alkali
salts” (Soil Science, Vol. IV., No. 6) would
have been more valuable had they been corre-
lated with the recoverable salts rather than
with the salts added to the soils with which
they were working.
F. B. Hrapitey
NEWLANDS EXPERIMENT Farm,
FauLon, NEVADA
ON HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH
I am beginning to appreciate the difficulty
of making one’s self understood in a state-
ment where matters are suggested rather than
explained in detail, and where a critical
attitude is urged until a result is actually
verified by experiment, even when one feels
perfectly confident beforehand what the result
will be. The present statement is written for
the purpose of correcting any misconceptions
that may have arisen from my recent press
statement.
First, the time necessary for a preliminary
exploration of the atmosphere will be re-
quired chiefly for the preparation. It is not
like an exploration of “darkest Africa,” for,
with the proper rocket apparatus and instru-
ments, each flight will oceupy but a short
time; and not many will be needed to obtain
a very considerable amount of information,
such as an accurate knowledge of densities,
that would be needed for any further devel-
opments.
The expense also will be chiefly that for
preparation; namely, for machine construc-
tion and tests. A final form of apparatus,
designed for reaching.any particular altitude,
should not be expensive. This is, of course,
true of any product that requires machine
development.
142
Incidentally, the object of these experi-
ments is by no means restricted to the taking
of photographs in the earth’s atmosphere, al-
though this application may have more uses
than were at first suspected.
Regarding the ultimate developments of
the method, I do not wish to leave the im-
pression that these will be restricted to re-
searches in or near the earth’s atmosphere.
On the contrary, every one of the matters so
far proposed is, as I have already main-
tained, based upon sound physical principles,
and can therefore be realized. Further, there
are additional principles, the application of
which is certain to lead to results of even
greater interest and importance. All these
results will be realized, however, not by argu-
ment and discussion, but by the application
of real research methods to the problems that
are waiting to be solved.
Rosert H. Gopparp
CLARK COLLEGE,
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
Studies on the Variation, Distribution, and
Evolution of the Genus Partula. The
Species Inhabiting Tahiti. By Hunry Ep-
WARD CRAMPTON. 313 pp., 34 plates, 252
tables, 7 text figures. Publication No. 228
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
January, 1917.
Interest having been diverted from pure
science by the war, no adequate review has
appeared of this monumental and funda-
mentally important work which represents the
results of four journeys of exploration made
by its author in Polynesia; in the course of
which more than 75,000 adult snails were
collected together with over 7,000 adolescent
individuals; more than 200 of the valleys of
the Society Islands haying been visited for
this purpose.
The present volume deals with snails from
Tahiti alone, and the thorough, scholarly,
and conservative treatment given the subject
renders this work of paramount value to all
future students of the variations of Partula.
Not alone were variations and distribution
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1310
of the adult snails studied, but the young
contained in the brood pouches of the adults
were dissected out, thus throwing light upon
the fecundity of each variety, and the ratio
of elimination of the young before they can
reach maturity.
Crampton shows that these snails are not
found in the dry low-lands along the shore,
nor do they occur in the cold regions of the
high peaks of the interior, for a temperature
of 55°-60° F., stops their activity. The
snails are therefore restricted to the relatively
moist deeply wooded troughs of the inter-
mediate regions of the valleys where they are
commonly found during the day-time on the
undersides of the leaves of the banana, wild
plantain, caladium, turmeric, wild ginger and
dracena.
The ridges between valleys are generally
dry, and thus the snail population of each
valley is more or less isolated. Crampton finds
that these snails descend from the trees and
bushes and feed during the night, or on moist
days, upon decaying vegetation. The young
and adolescent being more active in this feed-
ing reaction than are the adults.
Tt has long been known from Garrett’s
studies that the Tahitian species of Partula
like the Achatinella of Oahu varied from
valley to valley, some forms ranging over a
wide area while others are restricted to a
single valley, or even to a limited region
within a valley.
In general moreover the farther apart two
valleys the wider the diversity between their
snails, although this is not always the ease.
Crampton’s work has the merit of giving
precision to our hitherto more or less vague
knowledge of the distribution of the 8 species
of Partula found in Tahiti. He shows con-
clusively that great changes have occurred
since Garrett studied the snails, in 1861-1884,
and that in some cases the species have spread
over wider areas, and in the interval have
produced some new sub-species or varieties.
Thus the fascinating picture of a race in
active process of evolution is presented. The
details of this process are rendered clear by
the excellent photographs of relief maps, and
Frsruary 6, 1920]
the numerous diagrams which accompany the
text.
In a brief review such as the present it is
not possible to do justice even to some of
the more important details of Crampton’s
masterly work, but it is interesting to see that
according to Garrett, Partula clara was rare
and found only in a sector of valleys com-
prising about 1/4 the area of Tahiti, while
Crampton found it to be very common and to
range over 4/5 of the whole island, this dis-
persal having been accomplished by migration
from the former restricted habitat of the
species. There are now 7 subspecies, and
mutation has occurred not only in some of
the new valleys the snail has occupied since
Garrett’s time but also in the area in which
it was found by Garrett.
Partula nodosa which in 1861 was confined
to Punaruu valley has now migrated into 6
other valleys, and 3 new varieties have arisen
in the area into which it has traveled, as
Crampton illustrates in his text-figure 6 on
page ITT.
Nearly one half of Crampton’s volume is
devoted to an analysis of the group species
Partula otaheitana with its 8 subspecies and
varieties of primary, secondary, and tertiary
degree, thus constituting the most complex of
the known species of Partula.
Crampton collected more than 20,000 adult
and 6,000 adolescent snails of this form in
practically every habitable area of Tahiti.
In Fautaua valley these snails form an
extremely complex colony which stands in
parental relation to the diverse colonies of
other valleys; for in any one of the latter the
shells exhibit one combination or another of
the so-called unit characters displayed by the
Fautaua group us a whole. In this snail
Crampton finds some evidence that in the
variety rubescens red and yellow colorations
bear a Mendelian relation to one another, red
being dominant. On the other hand in the
variety affinis plain color seems to be domi-
nant over the banded pattern in Mendelian
inheritance.
Partula hyalina is peculiar in not being
confined to Tahiti for it is found also in
Mangaia, and Moki of the Cook Group and
SCIENCE
143
Rurutu and Tubuai of the Austral Islands,
and in marked contrast to this wide dispersal
Partula, filosa, is found only in Pirai, and
P. producta in Faarahi valley and have not
migrated from these valleys since Garrett’s
time.
Crampton concludes that in the production
of new varieties the originative influence of
environment seems to be little or nothing, and
isolation is a mere condition and not a factor
in the differentiation of new forms. This is
in accord with the studies of Bartsch upon
Cerion, for he found that no new varieties
were produced in any of the numerous
colonies of Bahama Oerions which he estab-
lished upon the Florida Keys from Ragged
Keys near Miami to Tortugas. When how-
ever, these Cerions of Bahaman ancestry
crossed with the native Florida from the
second generation of the hybrids gave rise to
a large number of variations both in form
and color.
This observation indicates that similar ex-
periments should be conducted upon Partula,
for it seems possible that new species may
result from the breeding of mutations with
the parent stock, or -of species with species
producing fertile hybrids unlike either of the
parent stocks.
The editorial work upon Crampton’s volume
reflects the greatest credit upon Mr. William
Barnum the well known editor of all publica-
tions of the Carnegie Institution of Washing-
ton. The 15 colored plates lithographed by
Hoen are faithful reproductions of the colors
and appearance of these snails, and the fact
that the book is published upon the best of
paper is fortunate for it will be even more
interesting to students a hundred years hence
than it is at present.
Crampton’s work is of such wide interest
and importance, and in the light of Bartsch’s
observations so suggestive of future experi-
mental research that it is hoped these studies
may be pursued continuously under the
auspices of the Carnegie Institution until
final conclusions have been reached through
breeding experiments conducted in the field.
A. G. M.
144
GRAVITY AND AEROSTATIC PRESSURE
ON FAST SHIPS AND AIRPLANES
Tue latest issue of the Meteorological Office
Circular, No. 42, December 1, 1919, contains
an interesting note on the Behavior of Marine
Barometers on board fast ships. The views
expressed are based on certain experiments
made by Professor Duftield upon the value of
gravity at sea. In his work it became nec-
essary to study carefully the variations of
pressure recorded by a mercury barometer of
the new type under different conditions of
ship motion.
It has been suspected for a long time that
on fast ships and in strong winds, pressure
readings might be considerably influenced by
eddy action.
The experiments in this case were carried
out on H.M.S. Plucky, a destroyer. Steaming
at 22 knots against a head wind of about 12
m/s., the barometer showed a fall of 1.2 kilo-
bars compared with the reading when going
with the wind. This is an aspiration effect
and will vary with the location of the instru-
ment aboard the ship. Three barometers were
used and the change in the cabins was only
0.4 kb. The fall is sudden and unless the
navigating officer is posted might be taken as
an indication of impending change in weather.
It is stated that opening or closing doors and
ports did not materially affect the readings
but this we are disposed to question since it
has long been known that very noticeable
aerostatie pressure variations occur during
high winds on opening or shutting doors and
windows. At Blue Hill Observatory using
large and sensitive barographs with fast
moving record sheets we have obtained vari-
ations of from 3 to 5 kbs. The location of
the opening determines the character of the
change; windward openings cause a rise, lee-
ward ones, a fall.
This brings home the necessity of correcting
the records of fast ships and it would be
especially interesting if our Hydrographic
Office would furnish open scale barographs to
fast ships and analyze the variations in aero-
static pressure when such vessels were en-
countering high winds ahead or astern. If
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1310
our ships and planes could also carry pressure
tube anemometers of the Dines’s pattern or
the modified form provided for the Navy,
records showing to a nicety gustiness and rela-
tion of speed to pressure would be available.
The next interesting feature of these ex-
periments is the deduction that a ship moving
east and therefore travelling with the earth’s
rotation experiences a consequent increase in
the centrifugal tendency, resulting in a slight
decrease in the value of gravity as indicated
by a mercurial barometer. A west-bound ship,
on the other hand, would show an apparent
increase. This was put to test on the Plucky
and it was found that
on a west course the mereury barometer when com-
pared with an aneroid stood relatively higher than
when on an east course, indicating that the mer-
cury weighs less because a longer column is needed
to give the same pressure. For a speed of 22 knots
the difference amounted to approximately 0.2 kb.
Since bodies travelling east are lighter than
when they are travelling west, we expect to find
(other things being equal) a west wind above an
east wind, a shell fired east with a longer range
than when fired west, and an airship going east
with a larger carrying capacity than when flying
west. H. M. 8. Plucky weighed about 4 ewt. less
on an east course than when steaming west.
Professor Edward V. Huntington in Scr
ENCE, January 9, 1920, p. 45, shows that a
body moving westward at high speed requires
an increase in the supporting force.
Dr. Carl Herring in the same issue discusses
the possibility of moving a mass so rapidly
that the net weight would be zero.
Aerographers of course are familiar with the
equation on which the above reasoning for
gravity rests, namely 2uy cos ¢ sin a. In this,
w» is the angular velocity of the earth’s rota-
tion, that is 27/86164 seconds or .00007292
radians per second; v, the velocity of the ship
in meters per second, q, the latitude and q the
deviation from true north or south, of the
ship’s course. Dr. Duffield gives this value
for latitude 50° N. as .005 kb. per knot.
Another matter under discussion is the
effect of the ship’s vibration due to engines
upon the sensitiveness of the barograph rec-
ord. At present it can be said that on a vi-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
brating ship the lag of the instrument is much
reduced.
All of the above applies with even more
force to airships. Deflective influence will
modify the course not only in a horizontal but
also in a vertical plane. Professor Marvin has
shown that when a machine is climbing with
given power, the ascent will be more rapid if
made clockwise than when counterclockwise;
' this of course for the northern hemisphere, and
conversely in the southern. So the aviator
must watch his barometer not less than his
compass. With him it is all important that
true static pressures be recorded; and at least
he should be keenly alive to the importance of
the corrections to be applied, most of them
functions of speed. When an aneroid is moy-
ing at 45 m/s (100 miles an hour) not an un-
usual speed, he may be called upon to add to
or subtract from his proper speed, the air
speed, say 25 m/s., also the earths angular
velocity.
The exposure of the barograph 7s important.
The containing box must have an opening
either facing the wind or away from it: if
the former, the pressure shown is aerostatic
plus aerodynamic. Zahm and others have dis-
cussed pressure distribution around a steam-
like body and J. G. Coffin has actually de-
signed and used a container that rotates
periodically. He found that when the aper-
ture was 45° either side of the head-on posi-
tion the observed pressure was normal or true
static.
From all the above, it is evident that here-
after in ‘the charting and discussion of storm
centers at sea, as based on pressure readings, we
must know whether the ships were headed east
or west, the angle of inclination of the ship to
the wind, the speed of the ship and the speed,
direction and gustiness of the wind.
ALEXANDER McApir
BLuE Hint OBSERVATORY,
January 20, 1920
STATE REWARDS FOR MEDICAL
DISCOVERIES
A report has been issued by a joint com-
mittee of the British Medical Association and
SCIENCE
145
of the British Science Guild, which has been
considering the question of awards for med-
ical discoveries. According to the abstract
in the Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation the committee defines medical dis-
coveries as being: (1) the ascertainment of
new facts or theorems bearing on the human
body in health and on the nature, prevention,
cure or nutigration of injuries and diseases;
(2) the invention of new methods or instru-
ments for the improvement of sanitary, med-
ical and surgical practise, or of scientific and
pathologie work. The reasons given for re-
warding medical discoveries are the encour-
agement of medical investigation and the dis-
charge of a moral obligation incurred by the
public for its use of private eftort. The
various public types of rewards are cited as;
titles and honors given by the state, by uni-
versities and other public bodies; prizes and
medals; patents; promotion and appoint-
ments; pecuniary rewards by the state. Con-
cerning the general principle of assessment,
the committee hold that, in the interests of
the public, all medical discoveries should if
possible receive some kind of acknowledgment
or recompense. But in view of the variable
conditions, nature and effects of particular
investigations, it will often be difficult to
assess the kind of recompense suitable. In
the first place, a distinction should be drawn
between compensation and reward. By com-
pensation is meant an act of justice done to
reimburse losses; by reward an act of grace
in appreciation of services. The following
different cases should be considered: A. Dis-
coveries involving pecuniary or other loss
either by direct monetary sacrifice or by ex-
penditure of time, or by diminution of pro-
fessional practise, without corresponding pecu-
niary gains. An example is that of Jenner,
who occupied himself so closely with the in-
vestigation of vaccination that he lost most
of his medical practise and also a consider-
able sum in expenses. This was fully ac-
knowledge by Parliament, which granted him
$150,000. B. Discoveries that have increased
the professional emoluments of the investi-
gator by enhanced practise or other means.
146
Such are frequently improvements in surgical
operations or medical treatment, which leads
to inereased practise. Another case is that of
serums, etc., which may have been protected
and put on the market. Here compensation
can not be demanded, and pecuniary rewards
are generally unnecessary. On the other
hand, honors are often and justly bestowed
for such work. ©. Discoveries that involve
neither gain nor loss to the investigator.
This class includes most of the good and some-
times great clinical, pathologic and sanitary
discoveries. Here also compensation can
scarcely be demanded, and honors are already
often given, but pecuniary awards should
sometimes be bestowed as an act of grace
when the value of a discovery greatly exceeds
the emoluments of the investigator. This
principle should hold even for men who are
directly paid for undertaking the research,
especially when such payment is (as usual)
small and the discovery great. Special atten-
tion is drawn to: (1) men who have refused
lucrative posts to complete researches; (2)
men who have refused to protect their work
for fear of limiting its application, and (3)
men who have carried out investigations for
governments for little or no payment, on
patriotic grounds.
In the public interest, the committee in-
sists on these principles: (1) No medical dis-
covery should be allowed to entail financial
loss on him who has made it. (2) Compensa-
tion or reward should be assessed as equal to
the difference between the emoluments actually
received and those which a successful clinician
might have received in the same time. Addi-
tional reasons for this are that few medical
discoveries are patentable, and they seldom
give good grounds for promotion or for admin-
istrative appointments in the public services.
Whether a particular discovery shall receive
large or small assessment will depend, in ad-
dition, on these considerations: (1) Width of
application. For example, the work of many
of the older anatomists, physiologists, and
parasitologists, of Pasteur and of investi-
gators of immunity, have affected most recent
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1310
discoveries. Discoveries on widespread dis-
eases, such as the work of Lister, Laveran or
Koch, are often more important that those
on more limited maladies. (2) Difficulty of
the work done. The solution of a difficult
problem requires more study and also more
time and cost, and therefore deserves more
recompense than a chance observation. (3)
Immediate practical utility. A strong plea
can be made for state remuneration in cases
of this kind unless they come under Class B.
Curiously, they never receive it, and academic
recognition is also often not forthcoming.
(4) Scientific importance. Discoveries not of
practical utility may become so at any
moment and should be included in the scheme
if sound and of wide application.
During the last few years, the British gov-
ernment has disbursed an annual grant of
about $300,000, under the Medical Research
Committee, for subsidizing investigations au-
thorized by the committee and carried on by
workers selected by it. This grant does not
remunerate discoveries already made, but
proceeds on the principle of payment for
prospective benefits.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
A POCONO BRACHIOPOD FAUNA
TuE Pocono formation of the Appalachian
Mississippian measures is known to contain
marine fossils in places but little has been
published on the subject and the information
is scattered and difficult to assemble. The
writer has recently found two beds of sand-
stone in the Pocono Series on Laurel Moun-
tain in Tucker county, West Virginia, which
contain branchiopod impressions and has as-
sembled the following list of occurrences of
fossils in strata which are considered to be
of Pocono age. Since the present note is
written in the field, full descriptions of these
localities and complete citations to the litera-
ture are not given.
POCOND FAUNAL LOCALITIES
1. At Altamont, Maryland, on the western
limb of the Georges Oreek-Potomac Syn-
FEBRUARY 6, 1920]
cline, noted by G. C. Martin, 1903, Mary-
land Geological Survey, (Report on) Gar-
rett county, pp. 91 and 92; marine in-
vertebrate fauna noted in the Pocono but
not described.
2. In the Broad Top Coal Field of Southern
Pennsylvania a Pocono fauna has been
collected from a black shale by Messrs.
David White and G. H. Girty. They
have been studied by Dr. Girty and de-
scribed in manuscript. The fauna con-
sists of only a few genera and species,
only three or four species being found
at any single locality. In order of abun-
dance the forms noted were: Chonetes,
Camarotechia, Rhipidomella, discinoids,
and the pelecypod Cypricardinia (oral
communication from Dr. Girty).
8. At the Beaverhole (ford and limestone
quarries) on Cheat River in Preston
county, West Virginia, 8 miles east of
Morgantown, brachiopoda were found
some years ago by Professor S. B.
Brown in a dark shale near the base of
the Pocono. A small collection consist-
ing of a very few species of brachiopoda
was obtained by the writer several years
ago, but no list of the forms is at present
available.
4. On Laurel Mountain, in Tucker county,
West Virginia, brachiopoda have been
found in two sandstone beds lying ap-
proximately 30 and 90 feet, respectively,
below the top of the Pocono. The lower
of the two faunal members rests upon a
shale which becomes deep red in color a
few feet below its top and seems to be
the highest red bed at this point below
the top of the Pocono. A small assem-
blage of forms, which are, however,
abundantly represented by individuals,
was noted. The upper fauna consists of
the following forms as noted in the field,
given in the order of relative abundance:
Chonetes, Schizophoria, Spirifer (coarse-
ribbed), a gastropod (cf. Pleurotomaria),
a pelecypod (cf. Cypricardinia or Gram-
mysia). The lower fauna contains the
following: Spirifer (fine-ribbed), abun-
dant, and Camarotoechia.
SCIENCE
147
5. On Limestone Mountain in Tucker county,
West Virginia, in talus accumulation
from the Pocono were found impressions
of Schizophoria in sandstone.
6. In the Price (Pocono?) Sandstone of
Southwestern Virginia brachiopoda have
been collected from at least two localities
by G. W. Stose, (oral communication),
and their presence noted in Bulletin 530
of the U. S. Geological Survey, p. 251.
The study of the Maryland and West Vir-
ginia collections is contemplated by the
writer and he would be glad to receive
through these columns or otherwise addi-
tional information concerning Pocono faunas.
W. Armstrong Price
WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
Morgantown, W. Va.
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
SECTION F—ZOOLOGY
THE Convocation Week meetings of Section F
(Zoology) of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science were held in conjunction
with those of the American Society of Zoologists
at Saint Louis, Missouri, December 29, 30 and 31,
1919.
At the business meeting of the section, Professor
Caswell Grave was elected secretary pro tem.;
Professor George Lefevre, of the University of
Missouri, was elected member of the council; Pro-
fessor B. H. Ransom, of Northwestern University,
was chosen member of the general committee;
Professor H. B. Ward, of the University of Illi-
nois, was elected member of the sectional commit-
tee for five years.
The sectional committee nominated Professor
John Sterling Kingsley, of the University of Tli-
nois, as vice-president of the section for the en-
suing year.
The address of the retiring vice-president of
Section F, Professor William Patten, of Dart-
mouth College, upon ‘‘The message of the biolo-
gist’? was delivered at the annual dinner of the
American Society of Zoologists at Hotel Statler,
Wednesday evening, December 31, and is printed
in the issue of ScizeNcE for January 30.
H. V. NEat,
Secretary
148
THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
AMERICA
THE eleventh annual meeting of the Paleontolog-
ical Society was held at Boston, Mass., in the
Rogers Building of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, December 30 and 31, 1919, in affilia-
tion with the Geological Society of America. The
meeting was the best attended in a number of
years, and numerous papers on the various
branches of paleontology and stratigraphy were
presented. An important item on the program was
the symposium on the teaching of paleontology
which was combined with a similar symposium on
the teaching of geology delivered before the joint
membership of the Paleontological and Geological
Societies. The result of the ballot of officers for
1920 was as follows:
President: F. B. Loomis, Amherst, Massachu-
setts,
First Vice-president: E. C. Case, Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
Second Vice-president:
Angeles California.
Third Vice-president: E. M. Kindle, Ottawa,
Canada.
Secretary: R. S. Bassler, Washington, D. C.
Treasurer: Richard §. Lull, New Haven, Con-
necticut.
Editor: W. D. Matthew, New York City.
The address of the retiring president, Dr. R. T.
Jackson, was on the subject ‘‘Studies in varia-
tion and a proposed classification of variants.’’
Following is a list of papers presented.
Recent restorations of fossil invertebrates: JOHN
M. CuarkeE,
The ‘‘good use’’ of the term ‘‘fossil’’: RICHARD
M. FIELD.
The presence of Upper Silurian sandstone in Es-
sex County, northeastern Massachusetts: A. F.
FOERSTE.
Paleontological collections in the vicinity of Bos-
ton: Percy E. RAYMOND.
The value of Foraminifera in stratigraphic corre-
lation: JosrPpH A. CUSHMAN.
The intercalation of thecal plates in Holocystites
in connection with the criteria upon which species
can be distinguished: A, F, FOERSTE.
A revision of the anticosti section: W. H. TwEn-
HOFEL.
The hydrozoan affinities of Serpulites Sowerby: W.
ARMSTRONG PRICE.
The Paleozoic section of the lower Mackenzie
River valley: E, M. KINDLE.
Echinoderms of the Iowa Devonian: A. O. THOMAS.
Ralph Arnold, Los
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1310
Cambrian formations and faunas of the upper Miss-
issippt valley: EH. O. ULRICH.
Bibliographic studies of the Cambrian: CHARLES
E. RESSER.
Correlation of the middle Cambrian of Newfound-
land and Great Britain: B. EF. Howe tt.
The Trilobites as ancestors: PERcY H. RAYMOND.
The foraminiferal fauna of the Byram Marl:
JOSEPH A. CUSHMAN.
Study of the life processes in fossils: R. S.
BASSLER.
The method of appearance of additional arms on
increasing age in Caryocrinites: A. F. FOERSTE.
Origin of the ‘‘ Beach Rock’’ (Coquina) at Log-
gerhead Key: RicHarD M. FIELD.
Notes on the teaching of paleobotany: Marian D.
MarqTINn.
Further discussion of the ecological composition of
the Eagle Creek flora: RALPH W. CHANEY.
New mounts in the Princeton Geological Musewm:
Wm. J. SINCLAIR.
A study of the entelodonts: EDwarpD L. TROXELL.
A mounted skeleton of Moschops capensis Broom:
WILLIAM K. GREGORY. :
Small mammals in the Marsh collection: EDWARD
L. TROXELL,
A new method of restoration for fossil vertebrates:
RicHArD 8. LULL.
The Oligocene Equide in the Marsh collection of
Peabody Musewm, Yale University: JoHn P.
BUWALDA.
The Pawnee creek beds of Colorado: F. B. Loomis.
Nothrotherium Shastense, a Pleistocene ground
sloth of North America, with remarks on the
Megalonychide: CHESTER STOCK.
The present status of the Paleocene:
MATTHEW.
A mounted
MATTHEW.
W. Dz.
skeleton of Pteranodon: W. OD.
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
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CIENCE™
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Vou. LI, No. 1311 Fripay, FEBRUARY 13, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
Blakiston
SCHAEFFER
The Nose, Paranasal Sinuses Nasolacrimal
Passageways and Olfactory Organ in Man
A Genetic Developmental and Anatomico=Physiological
Consideration
By J. PARSONS SCHAEFFER, A.M., M.D., PH.D., Professor of Anatomy and Director of the
Daniel Baugh Institute of Anatomy, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Formerly Assistant Pro-
fessor of Anatomy, Cornell University Medical College, and Professor of Anatomy, Yale University
Medical School.
204 Illustrations, 18 In Colors. Large 8vo. Cloth, $10.00 Postpaid
In studying a given region of the body in an extensive series of cadavers one is profoundly im-
pressed with the ever-recurring departure of the morphology of the part under investigation from
the conventional or typal description. This is particularly applicable to the gross anatomy of the
paranasal (accessory) sinuses.
While there may be a “typical’’ gross form for regions, organs and structures, it is, strictly
speaking, not often encountered in nature. The typical is ideal and the region, organ, etc., as re-
gards shape, size, relations, configuration, etc., very commonly in their actual or real anatomy are
variants. It is therefore of the greatest importance that the student early recognizes the very com-
mon and constant anatomic variations that beset the human body. All that the observant student
need do is to witness the dissection of a series of cadavers to have impressed upon him that there is
no fixed and unalterable type in very many of the parts of the human body. Unfortunately, how-
ever, some students never get beyond the belief and thought that every structure and organ and
region conforms to an arbitrary and fixed normal, and if there is a slight digression from the conven-
tional text-book description the term ‘‘anomaly” is applied. With this erroneous and unfortunate
belief they go forth into the practice of medicine. The far-reaching and direful effects of such faulty
conceptions of the anatomy of the human body are so obvious that they need not be discussed here.
It, of course, goes without saying, that one must primarily have a fundamental understanding of
the ground plan of the human body; it cannot be gainsaid that one should be equally cognizant of
anatomical departures therefrom.
P. Blakiston’s Son & Co.
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A Synopsis of the
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By ALBERT F. SWAIN
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Notes on the Natural History of the Bushy-tailed Wood
Rats of California, by Joseph Dixon. ...... 25
Geology of a Part of the Santa Ynez River District,
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Ferpruary 13, 1920
Fripay,
CONTENTS
Cooperation in Research: Dr. GEORGE ELLERY
TED AIO aC GIRtEG ater atch Eae eR Pe Ee Oy He 149
General Chemistry and its Relation to the
Distribution of Students’ Supplies in the
Laboratory: Prorressor W. L. ESTABROOKE. 155
Herbert Spencer Woods: Prorsssor LEWIS
\iamnTiiy AMAT Ns Gab cnalgaidaaieicloape soc 159
Scientific Events :—
The Lister Memorial Institute in Edinburgh;
A Journal of Ecology; Public Lectures of
the California Academy of Sciences; Deaths
from Influenza and Pneumonia; Gifts to the
National Research Council .............. 160
University and Educational News .......... 163
Scientific Notes and News ................ 165
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Further History of the Calculus: PROFESSOR
JARI (Sh JEUNE AT oo ucocopsccusouec 166
Scientific Books :—
Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition,
LUSTIG) CeeKS OS es AO ET oO crac ON Tero Sia tere 167
The American Society of Naturalists: Pro-
FESSOR BRADLEY M. Davis .............. 169
The American Physical Society: PROFESSOR
DAVDON MCS OMMEGER Mei acc ce en cece es 171
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrigon-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
eT
COOPERATION IN RESEARCH!
No one can survey the part played by
science in the war without reflecting on the
ultimate influence of the war on science.
Able investigators have been killed or in-
eapacitated, and with them a host of men who
might have taken high places in research.
Sources of revenue have been cut off, and the
heavy fiancial burdens permanently imposed
upon individuals, institutions, and govern-
ments must tend to reduce the funds available
for the advancement of science. On the other
hand, the usefulness of science is appreciated
as it never has been before, and some newly
enlightened governments have already recog-
nized that large appropriations for research
will bring manifold benefits to the state.
The leaders of industry have also been quick
to appreciate the increased returns that re-
search renders possible, and industrial labora-
tories are multiplying at an unprecedented
rate. The death of available investigators,
and the higher salary scale of the industrial
world, have seriously affected educational in-
stitutions, members of whose scientific staffs,
inadequately paid and tempted by offers of
powerful instrumental equipment, have been
drawn into the industries. On the other
hand, industrial leaders have repeatedly em-
phasized the fundamental importance of sci-
entific researches made solely for the advance-
ment of knowledge, and the necessity of
basing all great industrial advances on the
results of such investigations. Thus they
may be expected to contribute even more
liberally than before to the development of
laboratories organized for work of this
nature. Educational institutions are also
likely to recognize that science should play
a larger part in their curriculum, and that
men skilled in research should be developed
1 Address given before the Royal Canadian In-
stitute, Toronto, April 9, 1919.
150
in greatly increased numbers. The enlarged
appreciation of science by the public, the
demand for investigators in the industries,
and the attitude of industrial leaders of wide
vision toward fundamental science, should
facilitate attempts to secure the added endow-
ments and equipment required.
On the whole, the outlook in America seems
most encouraging. But the great advance in
science that thus appears to be within reach
can not be attained without organized effort
and much hard work. On the one hand, the
present interest of the public in science must
be developed and utilized to the full and on
the other, the spirit of cooperation that played
so large a part during the war must be applied
to the lasting advantage of science and re-
search. Fortunately enough, this spirit has
not been confined within national boundaries.
The harmony of purpose and unity of effort
displayed by the nations of the Entente in
the prosecution of the war have also drawn
them more closely together in science and
research, with consequences that are bound to
prove fruitful in coming years.
The Honorable Elihu Root, who combines
the wide vision of a great statesman with a
keen appreciation of the importance and
methods of scientific research, has recently
expressed himself as follows:
Science has been arranging, classifying, method-
izing, simplifying everything except itself. It has
made possible the tremendous modern development
of the power of organization which has so multi-
plied the effective power of human effort as to
make the differences from the past seem to be of
kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself
very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently
realizing that the principles which apply to suc-
cess on a large scale in transportation and manu-
facture and general staff work apply to them, that
the difference between a mob and an army does
not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon
human nature; that the effective power of a great
number of scientific men may be increased by or-
ganization just as the effective power of a great
number of laborers may be increased by military
discipline.
The emphasis laid by Mr. Root on the im-
portance of organization in science must not
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
be misinterpreted. For many years he has
been president of the board of trustees of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and
an active member of its executive committee.
Thus kept in close touch with scientific re-
search, he is well aware of the vital impor-
tance of individual initiative and the necessity
of encouraging the independent efforts of the
original thinker. Thus he goes on to say:
This attitude follows naturally from the demand
of true scientific work for individual concentra-
tion and isolation. The sequence, however, is not
necessary or laudable. Your isolated and concen-
trated scientist must know what has gone before,
or he will waste his life in doing what has already
been done, or in repeating past failures. He must
know something about what his contemporaries are
trying to do, or he will waste his life in duplicat-
ing effort. The history of science is so vast and
contemporary effort is so active that if he under-
takes to acquire this knowledge by himself alone
his life is largely wasted in doing that; his initia-
tive and creative power are gone before he is ready
to use them. Occasionally a man appears who has
the instinet to reject the negligible. A very great
mind goes directly to the decisive fact, the deter-
mining symptom, and can afford not to burden
itself with a great mass of unimportant facts; but
there are few such minds even among those ¢a-
pable of real scientific work. All other minds need
to be guided away from the useless and towards the
useful. That can be done only by the application
of scientific method to science itself through the
purely scientific process of organizing effort.
It is plain that if we are to have effective
organization in science, it must be adapted
to the needs of the individual worker, stimu-
lating him to larger conceptions, emphasizing
the value of original effort, and encouraging
independence of action, while at the same
time securing the advantages of wide cooper-
ation and division of labor, reducing unnec-
essary duplication? of work and providing the
means of facilitating research and promoting
discovery and progress.
A casual view of the problem of effecting
such organization of science might lead to
the conclusion that the aims just enumerated
are mutually incompatible. It can be shown
2Some duplication is frequently desirable.
FrEBruary 13, 1920]
by actual examples, however, that this is not
the case, and that an important advance, in
harmony with Mr. Root’s conception, is en-
tirely possible.
It goes without saying that no scheme of
organization, effected by lesser men, can ever
duplicate the epoch-making discoveries of the
Faradays, the Darwins, the Pasteurs, and the
Rayleighs, who have worked largely unaided,
and who will continue to open up the chief
pathways of science. Even for such men,
however, organization can accomplish much,
not by seeking to plan their researches or con-
trol their methods, but by securing cooper-
ation, if and when it is needed, and by render-
ing unnecessary some of the routine work
they are now forced to perform.
Let us now turn to some examples of or-
ganized research, beginning with a familiar
case drawn from the field of astronomy, where
the wide expanse of the heavens and the nat-
ural limitations of single observers, and even
of the largest observatories, led long ago to
cooperative effort.
In the words of the late Sir David Gill,
then Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good
Hope, the great comet of 1882 showed “an
astonishing brillianey as it rose behind the
mountains on the east of Table Bay, and
seemed in no way diminished in brightness
when the sun rose a few minutes afterward.
It was only necessary to shade the eye from
direct sunlight with a hand at arm’s length,
to see the comet, with its brilliant white
nucleus and dense white, sharply bordered tail
of quite half a degree in length.” This extra-
ordinary phenomenon more brilliant than any
comet since 1843 marked the beginning of
celestial photography at the Cape of Good
Hope. No special photographic telescope was
available, but Sir David enlisted the aid of
a local photographer, whose camera, strapped
to an equatorial telescope, immediately yielded
pictures of exceptional value. But even more
striking than the image of the comet itself
was the dense background of stars simulta-
neously registered upon these plates. Stellar
photographs had been taken before, but they
had shown only a few of the brighter stars,
SCIENCE
151
and no such demonstration of the boundless
possibilities of astronomical photography had
ever been encountered. Always alive to new
opportunities and keen in the appreciation of
new methods, Sir David adopted similar
means for the mapping of more than 450,000
stars, whose positions were determined through
the cooperation of Professor Kapteyn, of
Groningen, who measured their images on the
photographs.
Stimulated by this success, the Henry
brothers soon adapted photographic methods
for star charting at the Paris Observatory,
and in 1887 an International Congress, called
at Sir David’s suggestion, met in Paris to
arrange for a general survey of the entire
heavens by photography. Fifty-six delegates
of seventeen different nationalities resolved
to construct a photographic chart of the whole
sky, comprising stars down to the fourteenth
magnitude, estimated to be twenty millions in
number. A standard form of photographic
telescope was adopted for use at eighteen ob-
servatories scattered over the globe, with re-
sults which have appeared in many volumes.
These contain the measured positions of the
stars, and are supplemented by heliogravure
enlargements from the plates, estimated, when
complete for the entire atlas of the sky, to
form a pile thirty feet high and two tons in
weight.
The great cooperative undertaking just de-
seribed is one that involves dealing with a
task that is too large for a single institution,
and therefore calls for a division of labor
among a number of participants. It should
be remembered, however, that a very different
mode of attacking such a problem may be
employed. In fact, although the difference
between the two methods may seem on first
examination to be slight, it nevertheless in-
volves a fundamental question of principle,
so important that it calls for special emphasis
to any discussion of cooperative research.
One of the great problems of astronomy is
the determination of the structure of the side-
real universe. Its complete solution would
involve countless observations. Nevertheless,
Professor Kapteyn, the eminent Dutch astron-
152
omer, resolved many years ago to make a
serious effort to deal with the question. In
order to do so, as he had no telescope or other
observational means of his own, he enlisted
the cooperation of astronomers scattered over
the whole world.
In organizing his attack, he recognized that
the inclusion of only the brighter stars, or
even of all those contained in the Interna-
tional Chart of the Heavens, would not nearly
suffice for his purpose. He must penetrate as
far as possible into the depths of space, and
therefore hundreds of millions of stars are of
direct importance in his studies. Moreover,
it is evident that if he were to confine his
attention to some limited region of the sky,
he could form no conclusions regarding the
distribution of stars in other directions in
space or such common motions as might be
shown, for example, by immense streams of
stars circling about the center of the visible
universe.
As the measurement of the positions, the
motions, the brightness, and the distance of
all the stars within the reach of the most
powerful telescopes would be a truly Utopian
task, Professor Kapteyn wisely limited his
efforts, and at the same time provided a
means of obtaining the uniformly distributed
observations essential to the discussion of his
great problem. His simple plan was to divide
the entire sky into a series of 206 selected
areas, thus providing sample regions, uni-
formly spaced and regularly distributed over
the eutire sphere. Conclusions based upon
the observation of stars in these areas are
almost as reliable, so far as large general
questions of structure and motion are con-
cerned, as though data were available for
all the stars of the visible sidereal universe.
As already remarked, Professor Kapteyn de-
pends entirely upon the volunteer efforts of
cooperating astronomers in various parts of
the world. One of these astronomers assumes
such a task as the determination of the bright-
ness of the stars, of a certain range of magni-
tude, in the selected areas. Another deals
with their positions and motions, another with
their velocities measured with the spectro-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
scope, ete. Hach observer is able to take a
large number of selected areas, covering so
much of the sky that he may separately dis-
euss the bearing of his results on some im-
portant problem, such as the distribution of
the stars of each magnitude with reference to
the plane of the Galaxy, the motions in space
of stars of different spectral types, the velocity
and direction of the sun’s motion in space, the
dependence of a star’s velocity upon its mass.
Moreover, each observer is free to use his
utmost ingenuity in devising and applying
new methods and instruments, in increasing
the accuracy of his measures, and in adopting
improved means of reducing and discussing
his observations. He also enjoys the advan-
tage of observing stars for which many data,
necessary for his own purposes, have been ob-
tained by other members of the cooperating
group. Outside the selected areas, such data
are usually lacking, because so small a pro-
portion of the total number of stars has been
accurately observed.
In physics, as well as in astronomy, there
are innumerable opportunities for cooperative
research. A good illustration is afforded by
the determination of the exact wave-lengths
of lines in the spectra of various elements,
for use as standards in measuring the relative
positions of lines in the spectra of celestial
and terrestrial light-sources. This work was
initiated in 1904 by the International Union
for Cooperation in Solar Research, and is now
being continued by the International Astron-
omical Union. The spectrum of iron con-
tains thousands of lines, many of which are
well adapted for use as standards. The work
of determining their positions was undertaken
by the members of an international committee,
in accordance with certain specifications
formulated by the Solar Union. But those
who took part in the investigation were not
bound by any rigid rule. On the contrary,
they were encouraged to make every possible
innovation in the manner of attack, in order
that obscure sources of error might be dis-
eovered and the highest possible accuracy in
the final results attained. The outcome dem-
onstrates most conclusively that organized
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
effort and freedom of initiative are by no
means incompatible. Important instrumental
improvements of many kinds were effected,
sources of error previously unsuspected were
brought to light, and means of eliminating
them were devised. A by-product of the in-
vestigation, of great fundamental interest, was
the discovery that the peculiar displacements
of certain lines in the spectrum of the electric
are, which are greatest near the negative pole,
are due to the influence of the electric field.
These displacements, previously unsuspected,
are sufficient to render such lines wholly un-
suitable for use as standards unless rigorous
precautions are observed. The international
committee, in the light of the new information
thus rendered available, will now have no diffi-
culty in completing its task of determining
the positions of standard lines with an ac-
curacy formerly unattainable.
The variation of latitude is another subject
in which international cooperation has yielded
important results. It was found some years
ago by astronomical observations that the
earth’s axis does not maintain a fixed direc-
tion in space, but moves in such a way as to
cause the earth’s pole to describe a small but
complicated curve around a mean position.
The change in the direction of the axis is so
slight, however, that the most accurate obser-
vations made simultaneously at different
points on the earth, are required to reveal it.
These were undertaken at several stations
widely distributed in longitude, in Italy,
Japan, and the United States. A new photo-
graphic method has recently been devised
which will probably render unnecessary the
use of more than two stations in future work.
An extensive cooperative investigation
planned by the Division of Geology and
Geography of the National Research Council
involves the joint effort of geologists and
chemists in the study of sediments and sedi-
mentary deposits. This is of great impor-
tance in connection with many aspects of geo-
logical history, and also because of its bear-
ing on economic problems, such as the origin
and identification of deposits or accumulations
of coal, oil, gas, phosphates, sodium nitrate,
clay, iron, manganese, ete.
SCIENCE
153
The essential requirements are sufiicient in-
formation on (1) modern sediments and
deposits and (2) changes in sediments after
deposition and the causes of such changes.
In the study of sediments now in process
of formation it is important to learn the
mechanical state and shapes of particles of
different sizes, their mineralogical and chem-
ical composition, the arrangement of the
material composing the deposit, the source of
the material, the transporting agencies, and
the cause of precipitation. Modern deposits
must be studied in the scores of forms in
which they are laid down: in deserts and arid
regions and in humid climates, in the beds of
great lakes, in the track of glaciers, and in
marine beds off the coast, in deltas and bays,
or on submarine plateaus, in lagoons, and on
reefs in subtropical and tropical waters.
In much of this work chemical investiga-
tions are essential, especially on the composi-
tion of the waters flowing into the ocean,
yielding data on the chemical degradation of
the continent and the amount of soluble mate-
rial discharged into the sea.
In undertaking this extensive investigation,
which would include the studies just cited and
others on ancient deposits, the following pro-
cedure is proposed: (1) To make a more com-
plete survey than has yet been made of the
investigations that are at present under way
in the United States and Canada. (2) To pre-
pare, in the light of present geological knowl-
edge, a program for the investigations needed
to supply an adequate basis for interpreting
sediments. As knowledge advances, the pro-
gram will have to be modified. (3) To can-
vass the field for existing agencies that are
suitable in prosecuting such investigations.
(4) To assign problems to those institutions
or individuals prepared properly to prosecute
researches of the kind needed. (5) To pro-
vide additional agencies for the study of prob-
lems of sedimentation and thereby make
possible investigations for which there are
either no provisions or only inadequate pro-
visions at present.
It is easy to see how an investigator
choosing to deal with some aspect of this
large general problem would be assisted by in-
154
formation regarding related work planned or
in progress, and how readily, as a member of
the group, he could render his own researches
more widely useful and significant.
Another interesting piece of cooperative re-
search, which involves the joint activities of
geographers, physicists, zoologists, and prac-
tical fishermen, is centered largely at the
Marine Biological Laboratory at La Jolla,
California. Systematic measurements of the
temperature of the Pacific near the coast
show occasional upwelling of cold water.
Simultaneous biological studies reveal a
change in the distribution of microscopic
organisms with the temperature of the water.
This has an immediate practical bearing, be-
eause the distribution of the organisms is a
dominant factor in the distribution of certain
food fishes. The source of the temperature
changes and their influence on meteorological
phenomena, are other interesting aspects of
this work.
In the field of engineering, the possibilities
of cooperative research are unlimited. The
fatigue phenomena of metals have been chosen
by the Engineering Division of the National
Research Council, acting in conjunction with
the Engineering Foundation, as the subject
of one of many cooperative investigations.
Metals and alloys which are subjected to long-
repeated stresses frequently break down, espe-
cially in aircraft, where the weight of the
parts must be reduced to a minimum. The
elastic limit and, to a lesser degree, the ulti-
mate strength of steel can be raised by work-
ing it cold, provided that a period of rest
ensues after cold-working. The tests indicate,
however, that increased static strength due to
cold working does not necessarily indicate in-
creased resistance to fatigue under repeated
stress. In the case of cold-stretched steel, for
low stresses the fatigue strength is actually
less than for the same steel before stretching.
These phenomena, and others that illustrate
the complexity of this problem, afford abun-
dant opportunity for further research. The
membership of the committee includes repre-
sentatives of educational institutions, the Bu-
reau of Standards, and several large industrial
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
establishments. The work was divided among
the members, two dealing with its metallo-
graphic features, two with machines for test-
ing, two with mechanics of the materials in-
volved, and one with a survey of the subject
from the standpoint of the steel manufacturer.
The results already obtained promise much for
the future success of this undertaking.
Scores of other illustrations of effective
cooperation in research might be given, espe-
cially in astronomy, where each of the 32
committees of the International Astronomical
Union is constituted for the purpose of organ-
izing cooperative investigations. In spite of
the length of this list of committees, it can
not be said that astronomy offers any unique
possibilities of joint action. The division of
the sky among widely separated observers is
only a single means of cooperation, which may
be paralleled in geology, paleontology, geog-
raphy, botany, zoology, meteorology, geodesy,
terrestrial magnetism and other branches of
geophysics, and in many other departments
of science. Most of the larger problems of
physics and chemistry, though open to study
in any laboratory, could be attacked to advan-
tage by cooperating groups. In fact, it may be
doubted whether research in any field of
science or its applications would not benefit
greatly by some form of cooperative attack.
As for the fear of central control, and of in-
terference with personal liberty and individual
initiative, which has been entertained by some
men of science, it certainly is not warranted
by the facts. Cooperative research should
always be purely voluntary, and the develop-
ment of improved methods of observation and
novel modes of procedure, not foreseen in
preparing the original scheme, should invari-
ably be encouraged. They may occasionally
upset some adopted plan of action, but if the
cooperating investigators are following the
wrong path, or neglecting easily available
means of improving their results, the sooner
this is discovered the better for all concerned.
Canada and the United States, enjoying
similar natural advantages, and lying in such
close proximity as to permit the greatest free-
dom of intercourse, are most favorably situ-
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
ated to profit by cooperation in research. In
both countries national movements for the
promotion of research are in progress and im-
portant advances are being made. The ex-
ample set by the Canadian government in
establishing the Honorary Advisory Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research and
that of the Royal Canadian Institute in
organizing this series of addresses on research
and its applications, have stimulated and en-
couraged us in the United States. The
friendly bonds that have joined the two
countries in the past have been greatly
strengthened by the war, and I am sure that
our men of science will welcome every oppor-
tunity to cooperate with yours in common
efforts to advance science and research.
Grorce Eniery Hare
GENERAL CHEMISTRY AND ITS RELA-
TION TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF
STUDENTS’ SUPPLIES IN THE
LABORATORY
THE object of the general chemistry labora-
tory is, I take it, to teach chemistry. Its
mechanical aspect is clearly a business on a
par with any other undertaking that has a
special object in view. True, the methods
will differ somewhat from other endeavors,
but the main idea of striving “to put across”
a definite proposition puts the laboratory side
of teaching chemistry on a straight business
basis, and subject to the ordinary rules of
business. Now a business firm no matter
what the character of its work, knows that if
they are to compete with others, they must
avail themselves of every method, scheme or
device that will cheapen production, facilitate
transportation, add to the efficiency of their
employees, or in any other way make better
goods at a lower price than the competing
firm. They are ever on the watch for a new
idea and many dollars’ worth of machinery
are often scrapped to give place to a newer
and more efficient machine. Many firms em-
ploy efficiency experts constantly seeking to
improve or save anywhere and everywhere
throughout the works. No progressive firm
ever stands still, but is ever changing its
methods for better ones. This does not seem
SCIENCE
155
to be true always in the conducting of a
chemical laboratory. What ‘Bunsen did”
many years ago is good enough now, and the
old song, “the old time religion is good
enough for me” seems to apply very appro-
priately to the management of many labora-
tories.
Such a state of affairs should not be, and
these laboratories with unchanging methods
will go to the wall as surely as will a busi-
ness house run on similar ideas.
A recent questionnaire sent to a large
number of institutions in all parts of this
country reveals the fact that general chem-
istry is regarded as the most important and
vital course in the department. The grade of
work done in all other courses is determined
by the nature of this course. If it is poorly
given, all other courses are built on a poor
foundation, and a poorly trained chemist is
the result. The importance of this course is
further brought out by this questionnaire,
when we note that the number of laboratory
hours in general chemistry varies from six to
eight per week, for one year. In some cases
this is in addition to a year of physics and
chemistry in the high school. This, in many
cases means that a student before he can take
qualitative analysis in college has had in the
high school one year of chemistry of say five
hours a week for forty weeks, which makes a
total of two hundred hours. In college, he
has two laboratory afternoons of three hours
each and three or four recitation hours a week
for a year of thirty weeks, which amounts to
970 hours as a minimum. In other words,
the student has had 200 hours in high school
and 200 hours in college, or a total of 470
hours, exclusive of all home study both in
high school and college. A few years ago
these same institutions gave only five hours a
week to general chemistry, but the growth of
chemistry in this country has demanded a
correspondingly increased preparation of stu-
dents (on the part of institutions) and a very
generous response has been given all over
America. This increased preparation has been
made possible by putting into the students
earlier and basic training the best the institu-
156
tion had, in quality of instruction, equipment,
largely increased laboratory time, and a uni-
versal recognition that the important course
to the department, as a whole, is general
chemistry. It might be said, and some pro-
gressive administrators and teachers do say,
that a chemistry department can be rated in
terms of its general chemistry. We can al-
most say that there is no department of chem-
istry in this country that can be classed as a
great or strong department whose general
chemistry is not the best course that the de-
partment can secure by having experienced
teachers to handle the work, having excellent
equipment, modern laboratories, and a suffi-
cient number of laboratory hours to do the
work required. Unfortunately some few large
institutions still have not changed their gen-
eral chemistry to meet the new conditions.
One has only 44 hours a week for one year
without a year of high school chemistry as a
prerequisite; another has had its hours re-
duced by the board of trustees from five hours
a week for a year to four (without a year of
high-school chemistry as a prerequisite) ; this
despite the strong protest of the administra-
tive head and the entire teaching staff. This
is certainly a mistake, a short-sighted policy,
and a backward step by the board. Why
should a body of business men who are not
experts in this line, determine the policy of a
department and neglect the advice of those
who do know and have the good of the depart-
ment at heart?
The greatest confirmatory proof of the
statement made that a department of chem-
istry is great in proportion to the quality of
its general chemistry is found by making a
list of those institutions, which rank highest
in this country from the point of view of
research and of the training of its students,
and comparing the effort expended in making
general chemistry the very best. It will be
found that the institutions of the highest
rank have a first class course in general chem-
istry with six hours a week or more in lab-
oratory work for one year. Those who do not
take this ever-growing and modern point of
view will surely become decadent departments.
The ever-growing importance of chemistry
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1311
will demand an ever increasing efficiency. I
predict that the time is not far distant when
an investigation carried on by such an organ-
ization as the Carnegie Foundation similar
to that done in the medical schools! of this
country and Canada, will be instituted, and a
result similar to that of this report on low
grade medical schools, viz., an elimination of
those institutions who do not do so good
chemistry work. When such a report is pub-
lished, those low grade institutions will cease
to teach chemistry, because the students,
knowing the true state of affairs will either
not elect chemistry, or if interested, will go
elsewhere where the subject is properly taught.
Before taking up the working of the
“Freas System’2 in the general chemistry
laboratory, we wish to review briefly the exist-
ing methods now in use.
First, the old side-shelf reagent system
which is very common, in fact now exists in
most college laboratories in this country.
Nothing can be said in favor of this system,
as it has no virtues, and possesses innumerable
evils. It is wasteful, expensive, untidy; al-
most impossible to prevent contamination of
chemicals and is one of the main sources for
wasting students’ time and encouraging petty
theft. In a chemical laboratory of one of the
oldest universities in this country, where the
side-shelf reagent scheme is used, a student
needs one particular chemical five times
during the course. For this one chemical
alone he has to walk five hundred feet during
the term. One hundred and forty chemicals
are used, and it can readily be seen that a
large amount of time will be wasted if he
makes but one trip for each chemical. One
trip to the side shelf for these chemicals
means a walk of thirteen miles, while a
double trip, which is most common, would
amount to a twenty-six mile walk or equal to
two or more laboratory weeks work. The
director of this department told me that while
1 Published in a report to the Carnegie Founda-
tion on Medical Education in the United States
and Canada by Abraham Flexner, Bulletin Num-
ber 4, 1910.
2Scrence, May 30, 1919.
FrEBruaRY 13, 1920]
taking these laboratory walks to the side
shelf the student was deep in chemical
thought and therefore it was a good thing.
My observation of students in this labora-
tory and elsewhere leads me to believe that
this director seldom enters the chemical lab-
oratory, and therefore does not know the true
state of affairs, nevertheless he regards him-
self eminently qualified to pass on such
matters.
One of the most serious objections to this
system is not cost, or waste of students’
time, but the slovenly habits which a student
of a necessity acquires.
In going to a 2-kilogram bottle of potassium
iodide, for example, to get 2 grams of that
salt the neat and quantitative idea of general
chemistry is absolutely lost, although he may
be assigned to some general quantitative ex-
periments during the course. Thus, the
orderly habits which are so necessary to a
good chemist, are not formed when they
should be formed, viz., during the early days
of his chemical training.
I can not pass without referring to a com-
mon sight a few years ago in another large
laboratory in this country. Large bottles of
chemicals were put on side tables for student
use. A cheap porcelain pan balance anda
box of weights stood nearby. Suppose a stu-
dent needs 5 grams of potassium bromide,
should it be a bit lumpy, a rusty ring stand
served to break up the lumps. A handful of
‘the expensive chemical was then placed on
one pan of the scale and the old and corroded
5 gram weight on the other pan. The stu-
dent brushed the excess chemical from the
pan to the floor till he had remaining ap-
proximately 5 grams. In the morning I have
seen the cleaners sweep up dust pan after
dust pan full of valuable chemicals from the
floor near this side table. There was seldom
any supervision on the part of the instructor
in charge when the students were getting
their chemicals or conditions would probably
not have been so bad. This institution of
course was not famous for turning out great
chemists and a sudden change in administra-
tion alone would save its life. To-day this
SCIENCE
157
same laboratory is one of the most up-to-date
and progressive laboratories in this country.
Few of the former teaching staff now remain,
as they were too firmly fixed.in the old ways
to make reform possible.
The next step in the evolution of the hand-
ling of students’ chemicals and supplies was
to give him a kit of apparatus and place on
his bench in the laboratory all the chemicals
needed for the day or week. If two men
worked on opposite sides of a bench this one
set was sufficient for them both, e. g., in a
laboratory which holds 28 students at a time
14 such kits are used. This was a very great
advance over the side-shelf reagent plan, as
it eliminated a great deal of walking on the
part of the student, thus enabling him to do
much more work. One institution made this:
change and at the same time enormously in-
creased the amount of assigned laboratory
work per afternoon. While this scheme is a
great improvement, it has still serious draw-
backs. Chemicals are still bound to be mixed
up and contaminated no matter how watch-
ful the instructor may be. Certain chemicals
are always running short, as some student
will take more than his share even though a
cheap balance is provided for every two men,
so that weighing out approximate amounts is
an easy and rapid matter.
Theft of chemicals is still possible, as no
instructor can watch 25 students all at one
time, and even if he could do so, he can not
determine whether chemicals placed in a test
tube were for laboratory or home use; this
method while cheaper than the first is still
expensive, because the students are bound to
waste chemicals when they are handy and do
not cost them anything; the bottles are always
getting mixed up and out of place; and finally
it entails enormous amount of work on the
stock system or for the instructor, out of
laboratory hours, as well as a certain amount
of the same kind of stock work during the
laboratory period.
In one institution? where this plan has been
in operation for the past five years a special
3 Professor C. D. Carpenter’s laboratory at
Teachers’ College, Columbia University.
158
staff of women is employed to make up sets
of common chemicals, place them on the stu-
dents’ desks and on completion of this set of
experiments, refill the bottles and place them
away for the next time needed. One equip-
ping a week generally suffices for a laboratory
with several fillings of certain bottles. This
plan relieves the instructor of stock duties,
but is still open to the objections named
above.
In another large institution with nearly
1,000 students in general chemistry, the
change was made from the side-shelf plan to
the method of supplying a student chemicals
at his bench. Here again the amount of lab-
oratory work was nearly doubled per after-
noon, because of the more efficient handling
of supplies and a corresponding saving of
students’ time. Unfortunately in this insti-
tution no provision was made for the putting
up of sets of chemicals by the stock division
and the entire teaching staff in this division
became stock keepers and more energy was
expended in filling bottles than in giving in-
struction. This overload was at once ob-
served in a decreased efficiency of work on the
part of the instructor, and strenuous appeals
have been made to the administrative head to
relieve a most intolerable condition. Much
cheaper and less highly trained people can
and should be secured to fill bottles and do
this kind of work, and a director of a chem-
istry department is short-sighted indeed who
insists on his teaching staff spending most of
their time doing the work of a ten-dollar-a-
week boy. It can be clearly seen that the
efforts to improve the work in general chem-
istry in this particular institution are not
appreciated, or conditions will be improved at
once and the teacher given a chance to per-
fect himself in his chosen profession and give
the students the benefit of his experience.
The failure of an executive to encourage and
aid progressive teachers in the development of
new ideas along this line is not only a very
great injury to the teacher concerned, and to
the institution as well, but is professional
suicide to the administrator himself. It has
been shown that the second scheme is an im-
provement over the first, but is still open to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
objections, and while it possesses consider-
able merit, it has many fatal defects.
The third plan, viz., the Freas System in
the general chemistry laboratory has all the
virtues of the second plan and none of its
defects. In fact, when this plan is properly
installed and carried out, it leaves little to be
desired for both student and instructor.
The plan in brief is to give the student on
his first day all the apparatus and chemicals
he will need for that course. The student
after the payment of all fees and deposits
reports to his instructor and is assigned in
writing to a bench in the laboratory. He
takes this assignment to the stock room and
receives his apparatus and chemicals in heavy
cardboard or metal boxes and takes them to
his bench. This kit he arranges in his desk
as stated in his directions If he has properly
arranged his material he can quickly find
any special chemical or piece of apparatus
and is ready for work within two hours of
starting. He puts his own padlock on his
bench and he alone is responsible for its con-
tents till his course is completed at the end
of the term. He has received just enough of
each chemical to perform the experiment plus
a slight excess to offset any possible unavoid
able accident. Should he be careless and not
perform his experiment properly he must go
to the store room and sign for more chemicals
which of course are charged to his account,
and later deducted from his advance breakage
and “excess chemicals” deposit. Right here
it should be stated for clearness that the stu-
dent is charged for all apparatus and chem-
icals, but is given as a free allowance the
average value of the chemicals used by his
class. If he has a modern bench, with a
hod in front of him, all walking about has
been eliminated, and the amount of labora-
tory work that he can do per afternoon can
be nearly tripled over that possible under the
side-shelf reagent scheme.
Contamination of chemicals is impossible
under this plan, as each container is plainly
labelled and is under the personal care of the
student interested.
The factor of expense has been reduced to
the minimum, as there can be no waste from
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
the department’s point of view and the stu-
dent has received as a free allowance, suffi-
cient chemicals for his needs, providing he is
the average student and exercises moderate
eare. The possibility of theft is withdrawn
absolutely, as the kit belongs to the student,
to do with as he wishes, and no student will
or can steal his own things. The prices on
his list are selected from the most recent
eatalogue of the largest apparatus house in
his vicinity, so he has no temptation to take
things home because he saves by so doing.
In fact in many cases an apparatus house
will sell him things somewhat cheaper. The-
oretically the student can if he wishes get all
his kit elsewhere, and this is encouraged, as
it will save the department the trouble of
furnishing it, but the student would much
rather take the department kit which is all
ready made up and easy to procure, and is
just exactly what he needs in his course.
This system takes out of the hands of the
teaching staff all cares in regard to apparatus
and chemicals, as this side of the work is
handled by a trained body of men and women
who soon learn to do the bottling of chem-
icals and the assembling of the same into kits,
with the greatest speed and accuracy. In
rush times, student help makes possible the
doing of a great deal of work in a short time
and is a benefit to both the department and
the student.
The Freas System is just as helpful and as
easily installed in a high school as in a tech-
nical school, college or university laboratory.
Of course each student must have the
average size bench, viz., about 8,000 cubic
inches, in order to hold this kit. Many lab-
oratories give the student more space than
this, but if one takes the measurement of a
student bench in high schools and colleges
all over this country, the figure 8,000 cubic
inches is about the average. Unfortunately
in a few good institutions circumstances over
which the departmental authorities had no
control, forced a reduction of students’ bench
space. More students were crowded into the
laboratories than the benches were able to ac-
commodate, and it seemed at that time wise
to begin to reduce the size of the student
SCIENCE
159
bench. In one ease this went on until a stu-
dent finally had but one drawer of about 400
cubic inches. In such a space only the most
“meager equipment can be placed, and the stu-
dent of course suffers through lack of appara-
tus and an enforced walking to the storeroom
and back for every little thing he may need.
The pendulum has started to swing back, and
I have no doubt that before long this depart-
ment will restore the normal 8,000 cubic
inches.
Some may say that the cost of installing
this system is prohibitive. This is not so, as
can be shown by actual figures in institutions
using it. Others may wish to know where
this scheme has been tried out for a sufficient
length of time as to insure it being out of the
experimental stage. The department of chem-
istry of Columbia University in New York
City has been using this system for the past
eight years with an ever-increasing satisfac-
tion to all concerned, in all divisions of the
department.
There is no question but that the Freas
System is the cheapest, everything considered,
most efficient, and up-to-date method of hand-
ling students’ supplies yet devised. If a
chemical department wishes quality of work
above everything else, then this system will
be an enormous aid to both student and in-
structor; but if quantity is the object to be
obtained, then it does not matter so much, as
quality of work is probably given but little
thought. If a department must handle large
numbers of students and wishes quality of
work as well, then there is no question but
that the quicker the authorities investigate
the Freas System the better. No unpreju-
diced man can see this system in operation
without feeling that he will not be satisfied
till it is as speedily as possible installed in his
own department.
W. L. Estaprooxkt
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY,
COLLEGE OF THE City or NEw York
HERBERT SPENCER WOODS
Herpert SPENCER Woops, assistant professor -
in the department of physiology, pharmacol-
160
ogy and biochemistry, died on January 4,
1920, in Dallas, Texas, following an operation.
Professor Woods was born and raised a
Missourian and descended from Virginia and
Kentucky stock.
He received the A.B. and A.M. degrees from
the University of Missouri. While pursuing
work for the Master’s degree he came under
the influence of the late Waldemar Koch with
whom he conducted fundamental research on
the distribution of the lecithins.
Later work and study were had at the Uni-
versities of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Cali-
fornia and at the Ohio Agricultural Experi-
ment Station. His earliest teaching experi-
ences were enjoyed at the Universities of Illi-
nois and Wisconsin and later on in a high
school of California.
Professor Woods’s first teaching in Texas
was at the Texas Christian University, at
Fort Worth,.and a little later at the Grubbs
Vocational College, an institution connected
with the Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
lege of Texas.
Those who gained an intimate acquaintance
with Professor Woods found him to be a man
possessed of extraordinary ability. His habits
were simple and abstemious, his temperament
sensitive and impetuous, very often not san-
guine and serene enough for steady happiness.
As a man of science he was essentially
clean, candid and a devout lover and seeker
of the truth. !
When he died he was thirty-six years of
age, a period in life when most begin to live
in enjoyment of the progression of science.
He was a fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
Lewis WituiamM Frrzer
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE LISTER MEMORIAL INSTITUTE IN
EDINBURGH
As has been noted in Science, the project
originated before the war, for the establishment
in Edinburgh of a permanent memorial to the
late Lord Lister, has been revived. The Brit-
ish Medical Journal states that the University
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians
and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin-
burgh have come to the conclusion that the
most suitable form for such a memorial will be
an institute in which the scientific investiga-
tion of disease in any of its forms can be
undertaken, and in which the principal sci-
ences concerned can be adequately taught. It
was in Edinburgh that Lister elaborated and
consolidated his system, and it is appropriate
that the scientific spirit which animated him
and the methods of research he developed
should be commemorated and continued in that
city. Lister’s work in the wards of the Royal
Infirmary would have been fruitless—could not
indeed have been carried out—had he not first
tested his theories in the laboratory. It was in
and through research that his system of treat-
ment came to fruition. Research was the key-
note of his work, and it is to research and the
teaching of the results of research that the
proposed memorial is to be dedicated. The
need for such a centralized teaching and re-
search institute in Edinburgh, it is said, is
pressing. At the present time the burden of
such work is borne by the university depart-
ment of pathology and the laboratory of the
Royal College of Physicians. Of these, the
former, built and equipped thirty-five years
ago, is now inadequate, and the resources of
the latter, particularly as regards the accom-
modation of the workers, are entirely insufii-
cient, even for present needs. There is as yet
no permanent memorial to Lister in Edinburgh,
and it is felt that the rapid development of
pathology, of bacteriology, of clinical pathol-
ogy, of pathological chemistry, and of other
cogmate branches of knowledge has widened
the field to such an extent as to render it nec-
essary that the building erected to his memory
shall be modern in design and equipment, and
sufficiently large to house all the departments
enumerated. The proposed new institute will
be managed by a board on which the univer-
sity and the two Royal Colleges will be repre-
sented.
A committee has been formed to make an
appeal for £250,000 to pay for the site, to erect
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
and equip the necessary buildings, and to pro-
vide for maintenance, apart from remunera-
tion to research workers. A site, described as
extensive and extremely suitable, has been se-
eured close to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
and the medical school of the university at a
cost of over £50,000. The president of the
committee is the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour,
M.P., chancellor of the university, and vice-
presidents are the Duke of Atholl, the Earl of
Rosebery, Earl Beatty, Lord Glenconner, Lord
Leverhulme, and Sir J. Lorne MacLeod. An
appeal has been issued, signed by Sir J. A.
Ewing, principal of the university, Sir R. W.
Philip, president of the Royal College of Physi-
cians of Edinburgh, and George Mackay, pres-
ident of the Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh. The university has given £10,000,
the college of physicians £10,000, and the col-
lege of surgeons £5,000.
A JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
CooPERATION in science doubles the value of
each man’s knowledge and efforts. The Eco-
logical Society of America, comprising zool-
ogists, botanists, foresters, agricultural in-
vestigators, climatologists and geographers, is
a link in the cooperative chain which will
bind the natural sciences together. The
society has long felt the need of having its
own journal, and at its St. Louis meeting
last December voted to start a serial publica-
tion to present original papers of an ecological
character.
The enterprise is made possible by the
generous action of the owners of Plant World,
who are giving this magazine to the Ecolog-
ical Society to continue as its official organ.
The new serial will begin as an illustrated
quarterly of about 200 to 800 pages per year,
known as Fcology. The Brooklyn Botanic
Garden is undertaking the publication of this
journal in cooperation with the Ecological
Society under an agreement substantially like
that under which the American Journal of
Botany is now being published. The Plant
World will complete the present volume, num-
SCIENCE
161
ber 22, and Ecology will begin with the num-
ber for March, 1920. Barrington Moore, now
serving his second term as president of the
Ecological Society, has been elected editor-in-
chief.
PUBLIC LECTURES OF THE CALIFORNIA
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Tue California Academy of Sciences, under
the direction of Dr. Barton Warren Evermann,
maintains a Sunday afternoon lecture course
devoted to popular science topics in its Mu-
seum in Golden Gate Park. This course is
steadily gaining in popularity and serves a
useful purpose in bringing into closer relations
the research man and the public. The lec-
turers are largely drawn from the research de-
partments of the University of California and
Stanford University. Following is the sched-
ule for February and March:
February 1. ‘‘The ocean as an abode of life.’?
Dr. W. K. Fisher, director of the Hopkins Marine
Station of Stanford University.
February 7. ‘‘Life of the deep sea.’’ J. O.
Snyder, associate professor of zoology, Stanford
University. Illustrated.
February 15. ‘‘The ocean meadows, or the
microscopic life of the open sea.’’ Dr. C. A. Ko-
foid, professor of zoology, University of California.
Illustrated.
February 22. ‘‘ Fishes of the California coast.’
E. C. Starks, assistant professor of zoology, Stan-
ford University. Illustrated.
February 29. ‘‘Marine mammals.’’ Dr, Harold
Heath, professor of zoology, Stanford University.
Illustrated.
March 7. ‘‘The fur seals of the Pribilof Is-
lands.’’ Dr. Barton Warren Evermann, director of
the Museum, California Academy of Sciences. II-
lustrated.
March 14. ‘‘Life between tides.’? Dr. W. K.
Fisher, director of the Hopkins Marine Station of
Stanford University. Illustrated.
March 21. “‘Oceans of the Past.’’ Dr. J. P.
Smith, professor of paleontology, Stanford Uni-
versity.
March 28. ‘‘Systematie and economic phases of
California marine alge.’’ Dr. N. L. Gardner, as-
sistant professor of botany, University of Cali-
fornia,
162
DEATHS FROM INFLUENZA AND PNEUMONIA
THe Bureau of the Census has issued a
bulletin containing records of deaths in larger
cities from influenza and pneumonia which
are as follows:
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1311
cil of the National Academy of Sciences on
June 24, 1919, which records gifts for the sup-
port of the council from the Carnegie Corpo-
ration and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The president of the National Academy of
Influenza, Week Ending January Pneumonia, Week Ending January
3 10 17 24 31 3 10 17 24 31
Albany ressoseenetnesese tere eesteee-t 2 1 0 0 3 4 2 2 3 11
Atlanta .... 1 6 17 10 10
Baltimonelmecteseeceetececceaeeeniocenee eee 0 1 0 14 29 20 34 24 45
Birmingham ...............00ese000-- 2 2 4 9 11 8 14 10
TROETIOI pescopuocon casendoadsno0de sodadoot6 0 1 0 2 25 24 27 28 43
TELTHIRAIIOL oscpnossmeocoooseqnoboaagobacoas 0 0 0 2 8 13 10 7 17 9
Cambridge ........ 0 0 0 0 2 4 8 uf 8 12
Chicago ..........+. 6 13 Pal 200 586 92 94 132 272 523
Cincinnati. 3 2 1 1 1 15 12 11 16 24
Cleveland.... 2 2 iI 4 16 26 19 24 22 25
Columbus ... 0 3 0 2 5 5 12 9 6 17
Dayton....... 0 0 0 5 10 7 4 7 8
IDS RVGR scoops ccanccocs seoenodo020N009000 0 1 0 1 19 15 20 18 23
BallRivernteccsnceccencneceeteeneseesese 1 0 0 0 0 2 7 10 5 3
Grand Rapids ... 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 2
Indianapolis ... 2 1 3 16 16 20
Jersey City..... 0 0 2 5 12 14 12 19
Kansas City. .......0-.s.ssscersereeenes 0 0 2 45 73 12 13 27 51 47
Los Angeles ... 0 1 0 1 8 18 15 18 18
Louisville ............-. 0 0 0 0 2 9 10 10 9 16
HON EL es capcooosposzocosncenooeonp assos6 0 0 0 0 1 3 5 4 2 6
Mem phi sspeesscecnntestensseercsctas tna 1 0 1 0 1 14 12 11 11 9
Milwaukee...........:.-sseeeceeeeeesees 1 1 11 27 14 24 13 34 114
Minneapolis 1 2 3 2 46 19 10 7 7
Nashville............... ie 0 0 3 2 2 4 6 8 4 10
IN@WAES cooseccoobanooaasd seacscio0ane0000 0 3 0 4 14 15 14 14 26 4)
News lavienteccstcsetcenceteessecccecee 1 0 0 1 8 10 6 8 9
New Orleansses-cececceesemecsitenacee 5 3 0 4 9 13 24 27 23
TGs SCO el bsodescedaoneooadoosacco accede 6 13 13 108 557 | 189 | 200 248 403 751
@alilandeeecsnceeeretsccsececdasse 0 0 2 3 12 a 4 6 17
Omaliatatcersorctecescstscecsccccasssers 0 0 1 1 12 5 4 6 12
Philadelphia...............cc0eceeeeees 2 2 5 3 16 62 53 70 105 137
TERGTE STHETa Ne cccon canecondcoscioono lonecace i 0 2 5 11 54 47 51 50 65
Portland, Oregon............-......+5 4 13 8 9
Providence 1 0 0 1 2 5 12 133 7 12
Richmond.... 0 (0) 1 0 8 6 2 8 6 13
Rochester 0 0 0 1 9 8 13 7 11 14
St. Louis 2 2 0 6 77 45 55 41 67 159
Shi, TEED bceosanocouducedcasossecadancesone 0 0 12 52 7 4 14
San Francisco 1 1 6 15 27 19 13 20 33 32
Seattlepenccssss-ceceseeeeee: 2 0 1 0 Mi 2 4 6 12
Spokane 0 0 1 0 1 0 4 2 3
Syracuse 0 0 0 1 8 6 9 8 9 23
ANG Co pa addcncucsacedsodas cooodedooendods 0 1 0 2 7 8 8 8 7 11
Washington, D.C. .......2........00 1 0 2 28 77 31 22 25 53 104
Wrorcestérc...0 soso scdsvokiscnecessee 0 Q 1 Oo | 0 | 4 5 10 9 7 10
Total sidsc. cocstugeeecottatyenes eet 42 54 68 482 | 1,765 | 868 | 913 | 1,020 | 1,525 | 2,265
GIFTS TO THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Tue last issue of the Proceedings of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences prints the minutes
of a joint meeting of the executive board of
the National Research Council with the coun-
Sciences presented the following resolution
which was passed by the Carnegie Corporation
of New York on June 3, 1919, making pro-
vision to cover expenses of the National Re-
search Council during the coming year:
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
Resolved, that, pursuant to paragraph 3 of the
resolution recording action taken at the special
meeting of the board of trustees held March 28,
1919, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars
($100,000) be and it hereby is appropriated to the
National Academy of Sciences for the use of the
National Research Council for the year beginning
July 1, 1919; and that the treasurer be and he
hereby is authorized to make payments as needed
to the extent of $100,000 on certificates of the
chairman of the National Academy of Sciences and
the chairman of the National Research Council.
Moved: That the executive board of the National
Research Council go on record as appreciating the
recognition by the Carnegie Corporation of New
York of the work which it is accomplishing by ap-
propriating the sum of $100,000 for its use for the
year beginning July 1, 1919.
The chairman of the National Research
Council presented the following letter from
the Rockefeller Foundation, appropriating the
sum of $20,000 to meet the expenses involved
in conferences of special subcommittees on re-
search subjects of the Division of Physical
Sciences.
THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
June 20, 1919
My Dear Mr. Merriam: I have the honor to in-
form you that at a meeting of the executive com-
mittee of the Rockefeller Foundation held June 16,
1919, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved: That the sum of twenty thousand dol-
lars ($20,000) be, and it is hereby, appropriated to
the National Research Council for the Division of
Physical Sciences, of which so much as may be
necessary shall be used to defray the necessary
travelling and other expenses involved in confer-
ences of the subcommittees of that division during
the year 1919.
Very truly yours,
EDWIN R. EMBREE,
Secretary
Moved: That the chairman of the National Re-
search Council express in behalf of the executive
board its appreciation of the interest which the
Rockefeller Foundation has shown in the research
work of the Division of Physical Sciences by ap-
propriating the sum of $20,000 to meet the ex-
penses involved in conferences of special subcom-
mittees on research subjects of that division.
SCIENCE
163
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Orricers of the Geological Society of Amer-
ica were elected at the Boston meeting, as fol-
lows: President, I. O. White, Morgantown, W.
Va. First Vice-president, George P. Merrill,
Washington, D. ©. Second Vice-president,
Willet G. Miller, Toronto, Canada. Third
Vice-president, F. B. Loomis, Amherst, Mass.
Secretary, Kdward B. Mathews, Baltimore,
Md. Jditor, Joseph Stanley-Brown, New
York, N. Y. Councilors, H. E. Gregory, New
Haven, Conn.; R. A. Daly, Cambridge, Mass.;
William 8. Bayley, Urbana, Ill.; E. W. Shaw,
Washington, D. C.; T. W. Vaughan, Washing-
ton, D. C.; George F. Kay, Iowa City, Iowa.
Past Presidents, Frank D. Adams, Whitman
Cross and John ©. Merriam, are likewise ex
officto on the council.
Proressor Larayerte B. Mernpet, of Yale
University, has been elected an associate mem-
ber of the Société Royale des Sciences Médi-
eales et Naturelles of Brussels.
Dr. R. Bennett Bean has been elected a
corresponding member of the Anthropological
Society of Rome.
Proressor ArTHuR STANLEY Eppincton, of
the University of Cambridge, has received the
G. de Pontécoulant prize of the Paris Acad-
emy of Sciences for his studies of stellar mo-
tlons.
Proressor H. G. GreenisH, dean of the
Pharmaceutical Society School of Pharmacy,
London, thas received the honorary doctorate
from the University of Paris.
Dr. Hanz Gertz, of the physiological labora-
tory of Karolina Institute, Stockholm, has
been awarded the Jubilee Prize by the Swed-
ish Medical Association for his work on the
functions of the labyrinth.
Mr. T. W. Reaper has been selected by the
British Geologists’ Association as the first
recipient of the Foulerton award. The sum of
money which has enabled the association to
make this award is the recent gift of Miss
Foulerton in accordance with the wishes of
her late uncle, Dr. John Foulerton, who was
for many years secretary to the association.
164
Mr. R. M. Davis resigned from the Power
Section of the Water Resources Branch, U. S.
Geological Survey, in October, to take up work
as statistician for the Hlectrical World. He
takes the position of Mr. W. B. Heroy, for-
merly of the survey, who has entered the em-
ploy of the Sinclair Oil Corporation.
Proressor W. S. Brown, who has been act-
ing as chief of the division of horticulture of
the Oregon Agricultural College since Pro-
fessor C. I. Lewis resigned to become manager
of the Oregon Fruit Growers’ Association, has
been appointed permanent chief.
Since the return of Mr. Eugene Stebinger
from private work in the Tampico oil field of
Mexico he has been appointed chief of the for-
eign section of the Mineral Resource Branch,
U. S. Geological Survey.
Dr. Frank SCHLESINGER, director of the
Allegheny Observatory, lectured on “ The Ein-
stein Theory of Relativity from the Point of
View of an Astronomer” at the Carnegie In-
stitute of Pittsburgh on January 27. The
lecture was followed by a general discussion
of the subject.
Tue death is announced of Dr. Christian
R. Holmes, dean of the college of medicine,
University of Cincinnati. It was largely
through his energy and enthusiasm that the
General Hospital with its fine equipment was
built and the College of Medicine organized.
By the terms of his will Dr. Holmes gave
$25,000 to establish a medical journal. A
memorial fund will be collected by popular
subscription in order to establish a depart-
ment of research in medicine.
Dr. Daviv S. Pratt, who since the begin-
ning of the year has been a practising chem-
ist at St. Louis, has died at the age of thirty-
four years. He had taught in the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh and later had become an
assistant director of the Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research. He had received his
doctor’s degree from Cornell University.
Dr. E. R. Hoskins, assistant professor of
anatomy in the University of Minnesota, died
on January 30 after a brief illness with in-
fluenza and pneumonia.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1311
THE death is announced of Professor
Severin Jolin, incumbent of the chair of
chemistry and pharmacology at Stockholm
and at Upsala. To him is ascribed in large
part the high standard of the Swedish Phar-
macopeia as he has taken an active share
in the revision of the different editions. He
had recently been elected president of the
Swedish Medical Association.
Tue Bulletin of the American Mathe-
matical Society records the deaths of the
following German mathematicians: Professor
K. Botteher, of the University of Leipzig,
at the age of seventy-two years; Professor O.
Dziobek, of the Charlottenburg Technical
School, at the age of sixty-three years; Pro-
fessor F. Graefe, of the Charlottenburg Tech-
nical School, at the age of sixty-three years;
Professor E. Netto, of the University of
Giessen, at the age of seventy-two years; Dr.
K. T. Reye, formerly professor at the Uni-
versity of Strassburg, at the age of eighty-one
years; Professor R. Sturm, of the University
of Breslau, at the age of seventy-seven years,
and Dr. J. Wellstein, formerly professor at
the University of Strassburg, in his fiftieth
year.
THE annual meeting of the Society of Ameri-
ean Foresters was held in New York City
on January 14, 1920. The meeting was
given up to the consideration of papers on
technical forestry presented by members, and
reports of special committees and the officers
for the past year.
On October 3, 4, 5 and 6 there was held at
Batavia, Java, the first Dutch East Indies Sci-
entific Congress with two hundred and seventy
members in attendance. Papers were read be-
fore mathematical, biological, medical and geo-
logical sections and at the General Session it
was decided to continue the association and to
hold the next meeting in 1921. The congress
concluded with a two-days’ excursion to the is-
land-voleano Krakatau to study the renewing
vegetation and geological formations.
THE eighth annual meeting of the American
Association of Variable Star Observers, which
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
was held at Harvard College Observatory on
November 8, was attended by about fifty mem-
bers and friends. Mr. Leon Campbell was
elected president for the year and Professor
Anne Young, of Mount Holyoke, was elected
vice-president. The program of the meeting
consisted of papers and reports, followed by a
banquet at which Rev. Joel Metcalf was the
guest of honor. This association is com-
posed of amateur astronomers who are anxious
to contribute observations of value, and over a
hundred thousand observations have been pub-
lished. It offers an opportunity for all lovers
of astronomy to do work of value; particularly
those who have small telescopes stored away
and do not know how to put them to use. Any
one interested should write to Mr. William
T. Oleott, secretary, 62 Church Street, Nor-
wich, Conn.
THe University of Illinois has recently
added to its collections a historical herbarium
of about 3,000 specimens formed early in the
last century by Dr. Jonathan Roberts (1805-
1878). Dr. Paddock, after holding a professor-
ship in the literary department of the college
became a professor in Worthington Medical
College, at Worthington, Ohio, when Dr. J. L.
Riddell, well known as a botanist in his day,
moved from that institution to the University
of Louisiana. He is said to have been a schol-
arly man, and an ardent botanist, who enjoyed
particularly the friendship of Sullivant, the
banker-bryologist of Columbus.
A MEETING was held in New York City on
December 3 to commemorate the eightieth
anniversary of the beginning of Captain John
Kricsson’s work in this country, and the
thirtieth anniversary of the death of Captain
Ericsson and of Mr. Cornelius H. De
Lamater, founder of the DeLamater Iron
Works, where Captain Ericsson’s most im-
portant work was executed. The exercises in-
cluded addresses by Hon. Lewis Nixon, com-
missioner of public works, Borough of Man-
hattan; Rear-Admiral Bradley A. Fiske and
Hon. W. A. Ekengren, Sweden’s Minister at
Washington. Mr. H. F. J. Porter gave an
illustrated historical review of the work per-
SCIENCE
165
formed at the Phenix Foundry and the De-
Lameter Iron Works.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Mr. Cuartes H. Swirr, of Chicago, has
given $5,000 to the University of Chicago for
its department of geography, for the purpose
of sending a member of its staff to Asia the
coming autumn. Assistant Professor Well-
ington D. Jones is to make the trip. He will
carry on geographic studies either in China
or in India, the choice being determined by
conditions in Asia when the trip is made.
This will be the second trip of Professor
Jones to Asia made possible by Mr. Swift’s
generosity.
Boston Universiry has concluded an ar-
rangement for an exchange of professorships
in mathematics for the college year 1920-21
with Tsing Hua College, Peking, China.
Professor Robert E. Bruce, chairman of the
department in Boston University, will ex-
change with Professor Albert H. Heinz, of
Tsing Hua. Professor Heinz, head of the
department of mathematics, is a graduate of
the University of Missouri and has been at
Tsing Hua nine years. This college is under
the control of the Chinese government and
was founded with part of the returned Boxer
Indemnity. Professor Bruce will sail from
the Pacific coast in April. Professor Heinz
will reach this country in time to begin his
work at Boston University at the opening of
the college in September.
In recognition of the gift of £34,500 by
Sir Ralph Forster, Bt., to the fund for the
chemistry building and equipment at. Uni-
versity College, London, the organic depart-
ment of the chemical laboratories will be
known by his name.
At the University of California, Assistant
Professor B. M. Woods has been promoted to
a full professorship of aerodynamics.
Dr. Carrott W. Donce has succeeded Pro-
fessor Harlan H. York, as head of the depart-
ment of botany at Brown University and
166
Walter H. Snell, formerly of the Office of
Investigations in Forest Pathology of the
Department of Agriculture, has accepted an
instructorship in the same department.
Proressor A. K. Prrrersen, who for the
past seven years has been assistant professor
of botany and assistant botanist of the experi-
ment station, of the University of Vermont,
has gone to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he
has been elected professor of botany.
Proressor Swale VINCENT, who has occu-
pied the chair of physiology at the University
of Manitoba (Winnipeg) since 1904, has been
appointed professor of physiology in the Uni-
versity of London (Middlesex Hospital). He
will probably take up his duties in London at
the beginning of May.
Dr. Haroxtp Prine, lecturer on histology
and assistant in physiology in the University
of Edinburgh, has been appointed professor
of physiology in Trinity College, Dublin,
succeeding the late Sir Henry Thompson.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
FURTHER HISTORY OF THE CALCULUS
To tHe Eprror or Science: Please make a
correction of my college address to Rose
Polytechnic Institute, in the paper on “The
Early History of Calculus,” in Scmnce for
July 11. The error is due perhaps to the fact
that only my name was signed to the article.
The quotation from the “ Encyclopedia
Britannica” should be stated as from the
ninth edition, since it has been omitted in
the eleventh. The historical part of the
article “Inf. Cal.” is entirely changed in the
last edition to one of still stronger German
bias. It makes the statement, for example,
that Leibniz did not meet Collins, nor see the
tract “De analysi per aequationen .. .” on
his first visit to London in 1678. No verifi-
cation of this statement is offered. English
histories and documents have it the other
way with regard to Collins.
Evidence of the possible duplicity of Collins
which indicates that he was an agent under
Oldenberg as early as 1669, appears in the
rewritten history. To quote:
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
The tract ‘‘De analysi per aequationen . . .’’
was sent by Newton to Barrow, who sent it to
John Collins with a request that it might be made
known. One way of making it known would have
been to print it in the Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society, but this course was not
adopted. Collins made a copy of the tract and
sent it to Lord Brouncker, but neither of them
brought it before the Royal Society. . . . In 1680
Collins sought the assistance of the Royal Society
for the publication of the tract and this was
granted in 1682, yet it remained unpublished. The
reason is unknown... .
The usual history is that Collins was the
active agent in soliciting the tract “to make it
known.” Also, Oldenberg was secretary of the
Royal Society, and published the Transac-
tions for his private profit, without supervis-
ion from the society. The relations of these
two men were intimate. The tract was prob-
ably brought directly to Oldenberg—he has
shown that he had knowledge of it—and that
he did not act upon it in his official capacity
is evidence of conspiracy to suppress it. When
both were urging Newton, as already cited, to
undertake “for the honor of England,” a cor-
respondence which Leibnitz had planned, it
was at that time within their power to promote
greater honor to England by publishing the
tract in the Transactions. In reference to the
threatened publication in 1680, the death of
Oldenberg about two years before, had left
Collins without his principal, if Oldenberg
were such, and that transaction might have
been a shrewd move on Collins’ part to retain
his honorariums through Leibniz. At least
some cause delayed Leibniz seven years in the
publication of his calculus, already prepared,
while it was put in in the hands of the printer
immediately after the death of Collins.
There is reason to believe that Leibniz had
information of matters transpiring in England
before he left Germany. It is difficult to ex-
plain otherwise the grandiloquent announce-
ment of wonderful discoveries of new meth-
ods in mathematics, which heralded his visit
to Paris in 1672, with no work to show, and
with admittedly inferior mathematical knowl-
edge for such work. The London exposure by
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
Pell, in 1673, is clarifying. Leibniz was a poli-
tician, not a mathematician, and worked and
wrote for the power and prestige of Germany.
To this end he founded the Berlin Academy of
Science, and was perhaps the first to inaugu-
rate that system of espionage on scientific
work in foreign countries by which the use-
fulness and credit of as much of that work as
possible might be transferred to Germany.
It may be urged that caleulus has been
benefited by the interference of Leibniz.
This is true as to notation, but it has been
harmful as to the theory and understanding
of the subject. On the one hand we have an
illogical infinitesimal method, on the other an
incomplete derivative one in protest of the
first, whose rival expounders reason along dif-
ferent lines, and hardly understand each other.
Newton substitutes one rigorous theory,
broader than either of these, neglecting no
AY PZ.
NY
\
\
Az=shaded area,
SCIENCE
s
\\
&'ssshaded area.
167
Starting from given corresponding values, x,
y, 2, the actual variables are corresponding
increments to these with a common first value,
0; and starting with any corresponding incre-
ments, Az, Ay, Az, we form an deal variation
in the same ratio, A'c—NAz, A'y=WNaAy,
A’'z = NAz, where the common multiplier N,
varies. This is the familiar law of uniform
variation between two sets of values of the
variables, and the symbols A’x, ete., are not
limited to small values but vary from 0 to
co, aS. N so varies, however small Az, etc.,
may be.
Such A’z, A’y, A’z are approximate fluxions;
and the exact fluxions dz, dy, dz, are limits of
these for lim. Ax = 0, lim. Ay = 0, lim. Az = 0.
For example, let z=zy, then Az=yAgr +
(x -++ Ax)Ay, and multiply both members by JV.
A’z = yA'@ + (x + Az)A'y,
whence by limits, dz = ydx + ady.
2
\
ras
dz=shaded area.
We may illustrate the three variations geometrically:
(1) Actual.
quantity, however small, leaving no unex-
plained symbol, and yet of an arithmetical
character of the utmost simplicity. A free
translation of his definition in “ Quadrature
of Curves,” is as follows:
In their highest possible approximation,
fluxions are quantities in the same ratio as
the smallest possible corresponding increments
of variables, or, in a form of exact statement,
they are in the first ratio of nascent incre-
ments.
Thus fluxions, or differentials, are inter-
preted as ordinary arithmetical increments,
but in a variation defined as in the first ratio,
or, as the variables begin to increase, or, in
the instantaneous state, which are all one.
(2) In the Same Ratio.
(3) In the First Ratio.
ArtHur S. HatHaway
RosE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
REPORT OF THE CANADIAN ARCTIC EXPEDI-
TION, 1913-18
SHorTLy after the return of the Southern
Party of the Canadian Arctic Expedition with
their collections in the fall of 1916, steps were
taken to arrange for the publication of the
scientific results of the expedition. Although
the general direction of the operations of the
expedition had been under the Department of
the Naval Service, most of the scientific men
on the expedition were under the Geological
Survey, of the Department of Mines, the col-
168
lections were destined for the Victoria Memor-
ial Museum, of Ottawa, and interdepartmental
cooperation was desirable in publishing the re-
sults. An Arctic Biological Committee was
appointed jointly by the two services, to select
specialists to report on the various groups of
specimens represented in the collections of the
expedition, to distribute the specimens, and
arrange for the final publication of the reports.
This committee consisted of: Chairman, Pro-
fessor EH. EK. Prince, commissioner of Dominion
Fisheries; secretary, Mr. James M. Macoun,
C.M.G., botanist and chief of the biological
division of the Geological Survey; Professor
A. B. Macallum, chairman of the Commission
for Scientific and Industrial Research; Dr. C.
Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Entomologist, of the
Department of Agriculture, and Dr. R. M.
Anderson, zoologist of the Geological Survey
and lately chief of the Southern Party of the
expedition, representing the expedition. Each
member of the committee was made responsible
for the editing of reports in his own section,
and Dr. R. M. Anderson was appointed general
editor of the reports. This committee has been
at work for nearly three years, but owing to
the difficulty of securing the services of the
fifty or more competent specialists needed to
work up the reports, on account of the exi-
gencies of war and other reasons, the first of
the technical reports was not issued from the
press until July 10, 1919.
. These biological reports, and to a large ex-
tent the geological and ethnological reports
which it is hoped will follow them, were mainly
the results of the work of the scientists of the
Southern Party of the expedition, owing to
the unfortunate death or elimination from
work of most of the scientific staff of the
Northern Party of the expedition and the total
loss of their collections with the Karluk in
1914. As a result the later activities of the
remainder of that party were practically all
geographical and other work and collections
merely incidental. The small amount of frag-
mentary material which was brought back in
1918 has in most cases been included in the
reports issued, but in some cases a separate
paper will be issued.
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No, 1311
The plan adopted by the committee is to issue
the report on each group or subject as a sepa-
rate paper, of the regular octavo size which
has been found to be the most convenient and
popular for modern scientific papers. Most of
the papers are illustrated by line drawings or
half-tone engravings from photographs, and in
some cases by heliotype or colored plates, illus-
trating many new species and a few new
genera. These papers are mostly too technical
to be of interest to the general reader, and the
separates are intended to be distributed at
time of issue to specialists interested in the
particular branch covered, and 1,000 copies of
each paper are to be kept by the government
and bound into volumes for distribution to
public libraries, universities, colleges and other
scientific institutions. Eight volumes have
been arranged for the biological series, includ-
ing reports on mammalogy, ornithology, ich-
thyology and invertebrate marine biology, ento-
mology and botany, and the parts as issued are
numbered as parts of these volumes. They are
not issued in consecutive order, but each part
is printed as it is ready, in order to avoid delay
in making the knowledge available to the sci-
entific world and to the public. The amount
of specimens and data available and the char-
acter and scientific reputation of the special-
ists engaged in the work promise to make this
the most extensive and comprehensive publi-
eation on Canadian and western Arctic biology
since Richardson and Swainson’s “Fauna
Boreali-Americana” (1829-31) and Hooker’s
“Flora Boreali-Americana” (1840).
The volumes in preparation are as follows:
Volume I: General Introduction and Narrative.
A. Northern Party.
B. Southern Party.
Volume II: A. Mammals. B. Birds.
Volume IIT: Insects. (10 parts.)
Volume IV: Botany. (Cryptogams) (5 parts).
Volume V: Botany. (Phanerogams.)
Volume VI: Fishes, Tunicates, ete. (2 parts.)
Volume VII: Crustacea. (12 parts.)
Volume VIII: Mollusks, Echinoderms, Coelenter-
ates, ete. (9 parts.)
Volume IX: Annelids, Parasitic Worms, Proto-
zoans, ete. (12 parts.)
Volume X: Plankton, Hydrography, Tides, ete.
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
, Eleven of the separate parts of the different
volumes have been issued:
Volume III.—Insects:
Part A—Collembola, by Justus W. Folsom.
July 10, 1919.
Part B—Neuropteroid Insects, by Nathan Banks.
July 11, 1919.
Part C—Diptera. July 14, 1919.
Crane-flies, by Charles P. Alexander.
Mosquitoes, by Harrison G. Dyar.
Diptera (excluding Tipulidae and Culicidae),
by J. R. Malloch.
Part D—Mallophaga and Anoplura.
12, 1919.
Mallophaga, by A. W. Baker.
Anoplura, by G. F. Ferris and G. H. F. Nut-
tall.
Part E—Coleoptera. December 12, 1919.
Forest Insects, including Ipidae, Cerambycide,
and Buprestide, by J. M. Swaine.
Carabide and Silphide, by H. C. Fall.
Coccinnellide, Elateraide, Clerysomelide and
Rhynchophora, by C. W. Leng.
Dystiscide, by J. D. Sherman, Jr.
Part F—Hemiptera, by E. P. Van Duzee.
11, 1919.
Sawflies, by Alex. D. MacGillivray.
Parasitic Hymenoptera, by Charles T. Brues.
Wasps and Bees, by F. W. L. Sladen.
Plant Galls, by E. Porter Felt.
Part G—Hymenoptera and Plant Galls, November
3, 1919.
Sawflies, by Alex. D. MacGillivray.
Parasitic Hymenoptera, by Chas. T. Brues.
Wasps and Bees, by F. W. Sladen.
Plant Jalls, by E, P. Felt.
Part H—Spiders, Mites and Myriapods.
14, 1919.
Spiders, by J. H. Emerton.
Acarina, by Nathan Banks.
Chilopoda, by Ralph V. Chamberlin.
Volume VII.—Crustacea,
Part A—Decapod Crustaceans, by Miss Mary J.
Rathbun. August 18, 1919.
Part B—Schizopod Crustaceans, by Waldo L.
Schmitt. September 22, 1919.
Volume VIII—Mollusks, Echinoderms, Coelenter-
ates, etc.
Part A—Mollusks, Recent and Pleistocene, by
Wm. Healey Dall. September 24, 1919.
Volume IX.—Annelids, Parasitic Worms, Proto-
zoans, etc.
Part A—Oligochaeta, by Frank Smith and Paul
S. Welch. September 29, 1919.
September
July
July
SCIENCE
169
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATU-
RALISTS
THE thirty-seventh annual meeting of the
American Society of Naturalists was held in Guyot
Hall, Princeton University, on December 30 and
31, 1919.
The report of the treasurer showing a balance
on hand of $327.33 was accepted.
The following changes in the constitution, rec-
ommended by the executive committee, were au-
thorized.
Artiele III., Section 1, to read: The officers of
the society shall be a president, a vice-president, a
secretary and a treasurer. These, together with
three past-presidentts and the retiring vice-presi-
dent, shall constitute the executive committee of
the society.
Article III., Section 2, to read: The president
and vice-president shall be elected for a term of
one year, the secretary and treasurer for a term
of three years. Hach president on retirement
shall serve on the executive committee for three
years. Hach vice-president on retirement shall
serve on the executive committee for one year.
The election of officers shall take place at the an-
nual meeting of the society, and their official term
shall commence at the close of the meeting at which
they are elected.
On recommendation of the executive committee
the society accepted an invitation from the Na-
tional Research Council to appoint an advisory
committee to act with the Division of Biology and
Agriculture. The following were elected to this
committee: Herbert S. Jennings, Alfred G. Mayor,
George H. Shull, Ross G. Harrison, Bradley M.
Davis.
A request for financial support from the man-
agement of Botanical Abstracts was discussed by
the society with the result that a motion was ecar-
ried to the effect that such appropriations were
against the general policy of the American Society
of Naturalists.
On motion the society approved of the appoint-
ment by the chair of a committee to consider and
report on genetic form and nomenclature. This
committee consists of Clarence C. Little, Donald
F. Jones, Sewall Wright, Alfred H. Sturtevant
and George H. Shull.
The following resolution presented by Charles
B. Davenport and strongly supported from the
floor was adopted.
WuereEas, A current index of scientific publi-
cations is necessary to the progress of science and
170
ean be conducted properly only by bibliographers
of experience, and at great expense; and
WHEREAS, The Concilium Bibliographicum of
Zurich has for a quarter of a century maintained
a valuable and unique service in international bib-
liography, especially in the fields of zoology,
physiology, vertebrate anatomy and general biol-
ogy; has continued the bibliography of Engelmann
and Carus which covers the period from 1700 to
the present; and has maintained a service of gen-
eral bibliographic information; and
WHEREAS, the sciences named are the pure sci-
ences upon which the science of medicine rests;
Therefore resolved, that the American Society
of Naturalists (which has in the past made such
subsidies to the Concilium as it could afford) cor-
dially endorses the effort of the Concilium Bib-
liographicum to secure adequate financial support
in this country.
There was elected to honorary membership in
the society, William Bateson, John Innes Horti-
cultural Institute, England.
The following were elected to membership:
Joseph C. Arthur, Purdue University; Henry C.
Cowles, University of Chicago; William Crocker,
University of Chicago; Herbert M. Evans, Uni-
versity of California; Edward M. Freeman, Uni-
versity of Minnesota; AleS MHrdlitka, United
States National Museum; Clarence M. Jackson,
University of Minnesota; Warren H. Lewis, Johns
Hopkins Medical School; Ann H. Morgan, Mount
Holyoke College; John T. Patterson, University
of Texas; Everett F. Phillips, United States De-
partment of Agriculture; Donald Reddick, New
York State College of Agriculture; Jacob R.
Schramm, New York State College of Agriculture;
Homer L. Shantz, United States Department of
Agriculture; Henry B. Ward, University of Illi-
nois,
The following program was presented at the
morning session of December 30:
Causes of variation in sex ratio of the wasp, Hadro-
bracon: P. W. WHITING.
Population and race in the Pacific area: W. E.
RITTER.
The evolution of Pacific coral reefs: A. G. Mayor.
The relative importance of heredity and environ-
ment in determining the piebald pattern of
guinea-pigs: SEWALL WRIGHT.
Relations between nuclear number, chromatin mass,
cytoplasmic mass and shell characteristics in
Arcella: R. W. HEGNER.
The function of the striae in the rotation of the
Luglenoids and the problem of evolution: L. B.
WALTON.
Iodine and the thyroid: W. W. SwINGte.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1311
Selective fertilization in pollen mixtures: D. F.
JONES.
Changing by castration the hen-feathered into the
cock-feathered condition: T, H. Morean.
Application of the chromosome theory to embryonic
differentiation: H. G. CONKLIN.
The session of the afternoon of December 30
consisted of a symposium on Some relations of
biology to human welfare.
The theoretical problems of forestry: RAPHAEL
ZON.
Biology in relation to ethics: W. E. RitTTEr.
Biology and society: W. M. WHEELER.
The significance of some general biological prin-
ciples in public health problems: RayMonpD
PEARL.
General biology in its relation to medicine: H. EH.
JORDAN (read by title.)
The program of December 31 consisted of the
following papers:
A type of primary non-disjunction in Drosophila
melanogaster: A. H. STURTEVANT.
A sex-linked recessive linkage variation in Droso-
phila melanogaster: C. B. BRIDGES.
A race of Drosophila willistoni giving a shortage
of females: D. E. LANCEFIELD AND C. W. Metz.
Mutants and mutability in different species of
Drosophila: C. W. Metz.
Two hereditary tumors in Drosophila: Mary B.
STARK. \
Inheritance of the rubricalyx character in Gino-
thera: G. H. SHULL.
An analysis of an intergrading sex character: A.
M. Banta AND Mary GOVER.
Precocious development in Salpa: a biological not
a utilitarian phenomenon: M. M. Mrtoaur (read
by title.)
Ontogeny versus phylogeny in the development of
the sensory apparatus in mammalian embryos:
H. H. Lane.
The influence of alcoholized grandparents upon the
behavior of white rats: EB. C. MacDowELL AND
E. M. Vicari.
Evidence of specific evolution in the genus Partula
in the Society Islands; H. E. CrRaAMpPrTon.
Inheritance of flower form in Phlox Drummondii:
J. P. Kewuy.
An extra chromosome in Camnula pellucida; vari-
ations in the number of chromosomes within the
testis: MITcHEL CARROLL.
Inheritance of milk production and butter-fat per-
centage as shown by first generation hybrids
between the dairy and beef breeds of cattle: J.
W. GOwEN.
FEBRUARY 13, 1920]
The vascular anatomy of dimerous and trimerous
seedlings of Phaseolus vulgaris: J. ARTHUR
Harris, E. W. Sinnott anD J. Y. PENNY-
PACKER.
Genetic investigations in Crepis: E. B. Bascock
(vead by title.)
Relationships among the genes for color variation
in rodents: L. C. DUNN (read by title.)
Dice casting and pedigree selection:
LAUGHLIN.
Known matings in a species with heteromorphic
homologous chromosomes; recombinations ob-
tained in F, and F,: E. ELEANOR CAROTHERS.
The relation of the somatic chromosomes in Cino-
nothera Lamarckiana and O. gigas: R. T. HANCE.
Concerning the inheritance of broodiness in do-
mestic fowl: H. D. GooDALE (read by title.)
Heredity of twining from the paternal side: C. B.
DAVENPORT.
Notes on the human sex ratio: C. C. Litre.
An experiment on regulation in plants: EH. N.
Harvey (read by title.)
A series of allelomorphs in Drosophila with non-
quantitative relationships: H. J. MuLurr.
The rate of evolution: HB. G. ConKLIN.
The Naturalists’ dinner was held on the even-
ing of December 30 in the dining hall of the
Graduate School of Princeton University with
eighty-two in attendance. The presidential address
by Edward M. Hast was entitled ‘‘Population.’’
The officers of the society for 1920 are:
President—Jaeques Loeb, Rockefeller Institute
for Medical Research.
Vice-president—Bradley M. Davis, University of
Michigan.
Secretary—A, Franklin Shull,
Michigan (1920-22).
Treasurer—J. Arthur Harris, Carnegie Station
for Experimental Evolution (1918-20).
Additional members of the Executive Commit-
tee—John H. Gerould, Dartmouth College (1920) ;
George H. Shull, Princeton University (1918-20) ;
William E. Castle, Harvard University (1919-21) ;
Edward M. East, Harvard University (1920-22).
Brapuey M. Davis,
Secretary
13l, dal
University of
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
THE twenty-first annual meeting (the 101st reg-
ular meeting) of the American Physical Society
was held at Soldan High School in St. Louis, Mis-
souri, on December 30, 31, 1919, and January 1,
1920, in affiliation with Section B—Physics—of
SCIENCE
171
the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. a
At the business session held on December 31,
1919, officers for 1920 were elected as follows:
President—J. 8. Ames.
Vice-president—Theodore Lyman.
Secretary—D. C. Miller.
Treasurer—G. B. Pegram.
Managing Editor—¥. Bedell.
Councillors—F. B. Jewett and Max Mason.
Members of the Editorial Board—H. L. Nichols,
C. M. Sparrow and W. F. G. Swann.
The question of the relation of the society to the
work of the trustees for the Preparation of Crit-
ical Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants
was brought before the society; after discussion it
was, by general consent, referred to the president,
the councillor and the trustee representing the so-
ciety, for such action as may seem best.
At the meeting of the council held on December
30, 1919, the following elections were made: to
regular membership, T. H. Gronwall, E. H. Ken-
nard, Henry A. McTaggart; to associate member-
ship, William H. Agnew, W. H. Bair, Vola P.
Barton, Henry M. Brook, J. T. Lindsay Brown,
John A. David, E. C. Gaskill, Charles W. Hender-
son, F. F. Householder, Teizo Isshiki, Charles S.
Jewell, P. Kirkpatrick, F. W. Kranz, Charles P.
Miller, George S. Monk, Chalmer N. Patterson,
Herbert J. Plagge, Geo. E. Raburn, S. P. Shackle-
ton, George C. Southworth, John Alden Terrell,
John A. Tobin, A. P. Vanselow, E. EH. Zimmer-
man; transferred from associate to regular mem-
bership, Harold D. Babeock, Clifton G. Found, R.
C. Gibbs, J. A. Gray, Frank B. Jewett, Edwin C.
Kemble, Fred Loomis Mohler, Lindley Pyle, C. V.
Raman, Paul E. Sabine, F. B. Silsbee, Elmer H.
Williams,
On Tuesday afternoon, December 30, 1919, the
president, J. S. Ames, delivered an address on
‘‘Hinstein’s theory of gravitation and some of its
consequences.’’? This was a masterly presentation
of the development and conclusions of this theory,
and it was listened to by the largest audience of
the meetings.
The session on the afternoon of Wednesday, De-
cember 31, 1919, was under the auspices of Sec-
tion B—Physics—of the American Association of
the Advancement of Science. The retiring chair-
man of Section B, Dr. G. F. Hull, gave an address
on ‘‘Some aspects of physics in war and peace.’’
Following this there was a symposium of four
special papers on ‘‘Phenomena in the ultra-violet
172
spectrum, including X-rays,’’ by R. A. Millikan,
D. L. Webster, Wm. Duane and A. W. Hull.
The programs consisted of thirty-four papers, six
of which were read by title only, presented at four
different sessions. The program of eight papers
given at the session of Wednesday morning, con-
sisted exclusively of papers relating to acoustics.
The average attendance was about eighty-five, the
maximum being about one hundred and twenty-
five. The program was as follows:
Variation of transparency to total radiation with
temperature of source: S. Leroy Brown.
The dissipation of heat by various surfaces in still
ar: T, 8. TAyor.
The influence of air velocity and the angle of inci-
dence on the dissipation of heat: T. S. TAYLor.
The measurement of thermal expansion of metals
at ordinary temperatures: CHARLES D, Hope-
MAN.
A method for determining the photographic ab-
sorption of lenses: G. W. MorrFitt.
Defects in centered quadric lenses: IRWIN ROMAN.
The sinker method applied to the rapid and accu-
rate determination of specific gravities: N. W.
CumMINGs. (Read by title.)
Amplification of currents in the Bunsen flame: C.
W. Heaps.
A new type of non-inductive resistance: H. L.
Dovce.
Some laboratory uses for the contract rectifier: J.
C. JENSEN.
An undamped wave method of determining dielec-
tric constants of liquids: W. H. Hystop and A.
P. CARMAN. (Read by title.)
Difficulties in the theory of rain formation: W. J.
HUMPHREYS.
A physical theory of ocean or reservoir tempera-
ture distributions, regarded as effects of solar
radiation, evaporation and the resulting convec-
tion: Gro. F. McE WEN.
Electromagnetic induction and relative motion: W.
F. G. Swann.
The influence of blowing pressure on pitch of or-
gan pipes: ArtHuR C. LUNN.
A photographic study of explosions in gases: JOHN
B. DUTCHER.
A photographic study of sound pulses through
crooked and curved tubes, with deductions con-
cerning telephone mouthpieces, phonograph
horns, etc.: ARTHUR L. FOLEY.
A photographic method of measuring the instan-
taneous velocity of sound waves at points near
the source: ARTHUR L. FOLEY.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1311
A possible standard of sound—I., study of opera-
ting conditions; II., study of wave form: CHAS.
T. Knipp.
The performance of conical horns: G. W. STEWART.
A photographic study of the wave-form of sounds
from large guns in action: Dayton C. MiLurr.
The calibration of a sound chamber and sound
sources and the measurement of sound transmis-
sion of simple partitions: PAuL EH. SABINE.
Transmissions of sound through walls: F. R.
WATSON.
Charcoal absorption and cyclic changes: THOS. E.
Dovusr.
The heat of vaporization and work of ionization: C.
S. Fazen. (Read by title.)
Energy content of characteristic
CHESTER W. RICE.
The spectrum of radium emanation: R. EH. Ny-
SWANDER, S. C. Linp and R. B. Moore.
The Zeeman effect for electric furnace spectra:
ArtHuR §. Kine. (Read by title.)
Critical potentials of the ‘‘L’’ series of platinum:
Davip L. WEBSTER.
On the possibility of pulling electrons from metals
by powerful electric fields: R. A. MILLIKAN and
B. E. SHACKELFORD.
On the recoil of Alpha particles from light atoms:
L. B. Lors. (Read by title.)
Reactive hydrogen in the electrical discharge:
GERALD L. WENDT and Rosrrt S. LANDAUER.
(Read by title.)
The construction and design of a device permitting
the application of a current pulse for a prede-
terminate number of milliseconds: LYNDLEY
PYLE.
The spectral transmission
Henry P. Gace.
radiations :
of various glasses:
Dayton C. MILLER,
Secretary
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
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Vou, LI, No. 1312 Fripay, FEBRUARY 20, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
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SCIENCE
Fray, Fresruary 20, 1920
CONTENTS
The Functions and Ideals of a National Geo-
logical Survey: F. LL. RANSOME ..........
George Macloskie: Proressor W. M. RaNxKIn. 180
Scientific Events :—
The California Institute of Technology; The
Annual Meeting of the Board of Trustees
of the American Museum of Natural His-
tory; The New York Meeting of the Ameri-
can Institute of Mining and Metallurgical
Engineers; Resolutions on the Death of Sir
WatiLam SOSleTA en asta eesieles earia aers 181
Scientific Notes and News ................ 185
University and Educational News .......... 187
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Blood-inhabiting Protozoa for Class Use:
Proressor R. W. Heaner. Horizontal Rain-
bows: PROFESSOR CHANCEY JUDAY. Chem-
istry applied to Commerce: WILLIAMS
ELEACANIIOS age) svevetavas isco on poral ee ncvarsuayeatitea stor sic acsie 187
Scientific Books :—
Schenck’s Physical Chemistry of the Metals:
1a LE OE Go Dee Sint sein AIG at hahr Mii) ieee a eae 190
Special Articles :—
The Developmental Origin of the Notochord:
Proressor B. F. KINGSBURY ............ 190
The Conference at Cleveland on the History of
Science: PRorEsson LYNN THORNDIKE .... 193
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Financial Report of the Permanent Secre-
tary and of the Treasurer ................ 194
MSS. intended for publication and books, ete.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
nnn ess
THE FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS OF A
NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY!
Introduction.—During the period of unrest
and uncertainty through which we are still
painfully groping, the many distracting calls
upon my time and thoughts have made per-
formance of the duty to prepare a presidential
address particularly difficult. In view of these
circumstances I may perhaps hope for some
indulgence on your part if my effort shows
some lack of thoroughness in its preparation
and falls somewhat short of the high standard
set by some of my distinguished predecessors.
The subject of a presidential address to the
academy should, I think, be of wider interest
and more general character than would
ordinarily be an account of work in the
speaker’s particular branch of science, and
this condition I have attempted to fulfill.
Although what follows will deal especially
with national geological surveys much of it
will apply in principle to any scientific bureau
conducted as a government organization.
Reasons for the Existence of a National
Geological Survey.—tin the beginning it may
be well to review briefly the reasons for the
existence of a national geological survey.
Why should the government undertake work
in geology while investigations in other sci-
ences are in general left to private initiation
and enterprise? The reasons that may be ad-
duced will differ with the point of view. The
geologist will suggest that whereas some
sciences, such as chemistry, physics or astron-
omy may be pursued with success with sta-
tionary and permanent equipment at any one
of a number of localities, geology is regional
in its scope and is primarily a field science as
contrasted with a laboratory science. Geology,
it is true, must avail itself of laboratory re-
1 Address delivered as retiring president of the
Washington Academy of Sciences on January 13,
1920.
174
sources and methods, but the geologist can
not have the greater part of his material
brought to him; he must himself seek it afield.
Thus it comes that comprehensive geologic
problems require for their solution the equip-
ment of more or less expensive expeditions or
travel over large areas. Such projects as a
rule can not be undertaken by individual
geologists or by local organizations. The
preparation of a geologic map of a whole
country, with its explanatory text, generally
recognized as essential fundamental work, is
an undertaking that requires consistent effort
by a central organization extending over a
period of years. Such a map is not likely to
result from the patching together of the re-
sults of uncoordinated local effort. From a
broadly utilitarian point of view, the intelli-
gent layman as well as the geologist must
recognize that the development of a country’s
natural resources in such a manner as to
,secure their maximum use for the greatest
number of its citizens necessarily depends
upon reliable information concerning the
character, location and extent of these re-
sources and that this information should be
available before they are exploited, by those
who have eyes only for their own immediate
profit, or before they pass entirely into private
control or are exhausted. Such information
ean best be obtained and published by an im-
partial national organization responsible for
its results to the people as a whole. Such
a layman will recognize also that knowledge
of the mineral resources of a country must
rest upon a geological foundation. As Pro-
fessor J. OC. Branner has recently said in his
“ Outlines of the Geology of Brazil”:
After a life spent chiefly in active geologic work
and in the direction of such work, I should be re-
miss in my duty to Brazil if I did not use this
occasion to urge on Brazilian statesmen the serious
necessity for the active encouragement and sup-
port of scientific geologic work on the part of the
national and state governments. Knowledge must
precede the application of knowledge in geology
as well as in other matters; and unless the devel-
opment of the country’s mineral resources be based
on and proceed from a scientific knowledge of its
geology, there must inevitably be waste of effort,
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
loss of money, and the delay of national progress
inseparable from haphazard methods.2
Finally, the citizen of narrower vision will
regard as sufficient justification for a national
geological survey the fact that he himself can
turn to it for information and assistance in
the development of particular mineral depos-
its, to his own material advantage.
As a matter of fact, most of the progressive
countries of the world maintain geological
surveys so that the desirability of such an
organization appears to have been generally
recognized, whatever may have been the par-
ticular reason or reasons that set in motion
the machinery of organization in each
country. z
Recognizing the fact that most of the prin-
cipal countries have established geological
surveys and granting that there are good
reasons for considering the maintenance of
such an organization as a proper govern-
mental function, we may next inquire: What
should be the ideals and duties of such a geo-
logical survey? How may these ideals be
realized and these duties performed ?
General Legal Functions—The organic act
of the United States Geological Survey speci-
fies indirectly and in general terms the field
that the organization should occupy. It
states, with reference to the director:
This officer shall have the direction of the Geo-
logical Survey and the classification of the public
lands and examination of the geological structure,
mineral resources and products of the national do-
main,
Doubtless the laws or decrees under which
other national geological surveys have been
established also prescribe to some extent their
duties. Such legal authorization, however, is
a rule so general as to leave room for con-
siderable latitude in its interpretation. I
propose first to discuss the functions of a nat-
tional geologic survey without reference to
legal prescription or definition and after-
wards to consider the extent to which some
2Branner, J. C., ‘‘Outlines of the Geology of
Brazil,’’ Geol. Soc. America, Bull., Vol. 30, p, 194,
1919.
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
of the actual conditions interfere with the
realization of these ideals.
Usefulness in Science—It has been the
fashion in some quarters of late to emphasize
usefulness as the chief criterion by which to
judge the value of scientific research under
government auspices. It has been intimated
that this or that scientific bureau of the gov-
ernment must do “useful” work if it is to
justify its existence and its expenditure of
public.funds. The statement is usually made
with an air of finality, as if a troublesome
question had been once for all disposed of
and the path of the future made plain. As a
matter of fact, however, when it is said that
science must be useful in order to receive
government support we have really made very
little advance. Probably the most idealistic
scientific man will admit that ultimate use-
fulness is the justification for scientific re-
search although that end may not enter into
his thoughts when he undertakes any partic-
ular investigation with the hope of increasing
human knowledge. Men will differ very
widely however as to what is meant by use-
fulness in science. It is well known to all
scientific men, although not yet as widely
recognized by others as it should be, that the
utility of research is not generally predict-
able. For example, the investigations on
electricity for hundreds of years preceding
the middle of the nineteenth century had, so
far as could be seen, no practical bearing.
The experiments of Volta, of Galvani, and
even those of our own Franklin, outside of
his invention of the lightning rod, were not
conducted with any thought of utility and
were probably looked upon by the people of
the time as diversions of the learned, not
likely to have much effect upon human life
and progress. How erroneous such a view
was it is unnecessary to point out to a genera-
tion accustomed to daily use of the trolley car,
telegraph, telephone and electric lights. Not
only is the utility of science not always pre-
dictable but it is of very different kinds. That
astronomy has certain practical applications in
navigation and geodesy is well known; but
important as these applications are they seem
SCIENCE
175
insignificant in comparison with the debt
that we owe to this science for enlarging our
intellectual horizon. This, too, is usefulness
which I venture to think is of a truer and
higher sort than much that passes current for
utility. The classic researches of Pasteur on
the tartaric acids, on fermentation, on the
anthrax bacillus, on the silkworm disease and
on rabies, were so-called applied science of
the very highest type, indistinguishable in
the spirit and method of their pursuit from
investigations in pure science. They were
not merely the application of knowledge to
industry but were extraordinarily fruitful
scientific investigations undertaken to solve
particular industrial and humanitarian prob-
lems. They are especially interesting in the
present connection as probably the most con-
spicuous example in the history of research
of the merging of pure and applied science.
Pasteur was doubly fortunate in that he not
only enormously enlarged human knowledge
but was able to see, at least in part, the prac-
tical application of his discoveries to the
benefit of humanity. The value of his re-
sults measurable in dollars is enormous, yet
this is not their only value. Professor Arthur
Schuster, in a recent address, remarks:
The researches of Pasteur, Lister and their fol-
lowers, are triumphs of science applied directly to
the benefit of mankind; but I fancy that their hold
on our imagination is mainly due to the new vista
opened out on the nature of disease, the marvelous
workings of the lower forms of life, and the al-
most human attributes of blood corpuscles, which
have been disclosed.
The effect on a community is only the summa-
tion of the effect on individuals, and if we judge
by individuals there can be little doubt that, ex-
cept under the stress of abnormal circumstances,
pure knowledge has as great a hold upon tthe public
mind as the story of its applications.
Quite independently of any recognized use-
fulness, investigations that yield results that
are of interest to the public are willingly sup-
ported by the people and this fact is signifi-
cant in connection with what I shall have to
say later on the function of education. As
illustrations of this truth may be cited our
goyernment Bureau of Ethnology and our
176
large public museums. Probably few who
read the admirable government reports on the
aboriginal antiquities of our country and on
the arts and customs of the Indian tribes
could point out any particular usefulness in
these studies but they have to do with human
life and their popular appeal is undeniable.
The average visitor to a museum probably has
little conception of what to a scientific man
is the real purpose of such an institution.
He gazes with interest at the contents of the
display cases without realizing that by far the
greater part of the material upon which the
scientific staff is working or upon which in-
vestigators will work in future, is hidden
away in drawers and packing cases. The
principal recognizable result so far as he is
concerned is that he is interested in what he
sees and feels that he is being pleasantly
instructed.
In other words, it is as important for man
to have his imagination quickened as to have
his bodily needs supplied, and in ministering
to either requirement science is entitled to be
ealled useful or valuable.
It may be remarked in passing that
Pasteur’s work had this in common with pure
science, or science pursued with the single
aim of adding to human knowledge, in that
Pasteur himself could not foresee all of the
applications that would in future be made of
his discoveries.
Enough, I think, has been said to show
that the term usefulness as applied to science
covers a wide range and that when employed
by people of imagination and liberal culture
may include much more than when used by
those whose only standard of value is the un-
stable doilar.
Functions under an ideal Autocracy—tlt
government were in the hands of a wise and
benevolent autocracy a national geological
survey would be so conducted as to be useful
to the people whose taxes go towards its sup-
port; but it would probably be useful in the
broader sense that I have outlined. It would
give the people not perhaps what they think
they want but what, in the wisdom of their
government, seems best for them. I believe
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
that a survey so directed would aim to en-
courage and promote the study of geology
by undertaking those general problems and
regional investigations that would be likely
to remain untouched if left to private enter-
prise. It would lay the foundation for the
most economic and efficient development of
the natural resources of the country by ascer-
taining and making known the location,
character and extent of the national mineral
resources. As an aid to the intelligent utili-
zation of these resources, and to the discovery
of deposits additional to those already known,
it would properly occupy itself with problems
concerning the origin and mode of formation
of mineral deposits. Last, but not least, it
would accept the responsibility, not only for
making known the material resources of the
country but for contributing to the moral
and intellectual life of the nation and of the
world by seeing to it that the country’s re-
sources in opportunities for progress in the
science of geology are fully utilized. I may
illustrate my meaning by examples taken
from the publications of the U. S. Geological
Survey. In my opinion such works as Dut-
ton’s Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon,
Gilbert’s Lake Bonneville, and the investiga-
tions of Marsh, Cope, and their successors,
on the wonderful series of reptile, bird and
mammal remains found in the Cretaceous and
Tertiary strata of the west are fully as ade-
quate and appropriate a return for the ex-
penditure of public funds as a report describ-
ing the occurrence of a coal bed and giving
the quantity of coal available in a given field.
Many years ago when the United States Geo-
logical Survey was under heavy fire in Con-
gress one member of that body in some un-
explained way learned that Professor Marsh
had discovered and had described in a govern-
ment publication a wonderful fosssil bird
with teeth—a great diver up to 6 feet in
length. He held this up to ridicule as a
glaring example of the waste of public funds
in useless scientific work, quite unaware of
the light that this and similar discoveries
threw upon the interesting history of the
development of birds from reptiles and upon
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
evolution, or of the intellectual value of such
a contribution to knowledge. The representa-
tive of a people educated in the value of geo-
logic science would, by such an exhibition of
ignorance, discredit himself in the eyes of
his constituents.
Functions in a Democracy—Our govern-
ment, however, is not an all-wise benevolent
autocracy but is democratic in plan and
intent and suffers from certain well-known
disadvantages from which no democracy has
yet been free. The wishes of the politically
active majority control and these wishes may
or may not coincide with those of the wisest
and most enlightened of the citizens. The
funds for government work in science must
be granted by Congress and the vote of each
congressman is determined by the real or sup-
posed desires of his constituents. A national
scientific bureau, if it is to survive, must
have popular support, and to obtain and hold
such support it must do at least some work
that the majority of the people can under-
stand or can recognize as being worth the
doing. Here evidently compromise with sci-
entific ideals is necessary. Something must
be sacrificed in order that something can be
done. Such concessions and compromises are
inseparable from democratic government and
the scientific man of high ideals who is un-
able to recognize this fact will inevitably fail
as a director of the scientific work of a govy-
ernment bureau. Such a man is likely to in-
sist that no concessions are necessary and
that the public will support science that is
not interesting to it or from which it can see
no immediate resulting material benefit. One
very eminent geologist with whom I was once
conversing held this view. He said that he
had always found that he could go before a
legislative body and secure appropriations for
scientific research by being absolutely frank
and making no attempt to show that the
results of the work would be what the average
man would term “useful” within the imme-
diate future. His confidence was possibly
well grounded, but I am inclined to think
that the success gained by him was rather a
tribute to his earnest eloquence and winning
SCIENCE
177
personality than a proof that the people are
yet ready to contribute their taxes to the sup-
port of investigations that, so far as they can
see, are neither useful nor interesting.
Character of Compromises.—Lest it be sup-
posed that I am advocating the surrender of
the high ideals of science to the political bus-
iness of vote-getting I hasten to point out
that surrender and compromise are not synon-
ymous and may be very far apart. Some com-
promise there must be, but in my opinion the
most delicate and critical problem in the
direction of a national scientific bureau is to
determine the nature and extent of this com-
promise so as to obtain the largest and stead-
iest support for real research with the least
sacrifice. Complete surrender to popularity
may mean large initial support, but is sure to
be followed by deterioration in the spirit of
the organization and in the quality of its
work, by loss of scientific prestige, and by
final bankruptey even in that popular favor
which had been so sedulously cultivated.
The extent to which concessions must be
made will depend largely of course on the
general level of intelligence of the people and
upon the degree to which the less intelligent
are influenced through the press and other
channels by those who are able to appreciate
the value of science. The more enlightened
‘the people the more general and permanent
will be their support of science.
Importance of Popular Education in Geol-
ogy—This leads us to the consideration of
what I believe to be one of the most important
of the functions of a government scientific
bureau, namely, education. Of all forms of
concession, if indeed it is really a concession,
this is the least objectionable and most fruit-
ful. Its results are constructive and cumula-
tive. It is not, like other concessions to
popularity, corrosive of the scientific spirit of
an organization and in so far as it calls for
clear thinking and attractive presentation on
the part of those puting it into practise as
well as the ability to grasp and expound es-
sentials, its educational effect may be sub-
jective as well as objective. Whatever may
be true of other sciences, geologists in this
178
country have shown little interest in popular-
izing their science or in encouraging its pur-
suit by amateurs. Such attempts as have
been made have often been inept and unsuc-
cessful and the professional geologists have
looked with more or less disdain upon those
of their fellows who have tried to expound
their science to the people. They have felt
that men with unusual ability for research
should devote all of their energy to the work
of enlarging the confines of knowledge rather
than to dissemination and popularization of
what is known to the few. There is undoubt-
edly much to be said for this view and when
applied to certain exceptional men it is
strictly correct. When, however, we think of
Darwin and compare the magnitude of his
achievements with the pains that he took to
make his conclusions comprehensible by the
multitude, we are inclined to feel that only by
extraordinary ability and performance in cer-
tain directions can an investigator in natural
science be altogether absolved from the duty
of making himself intelligible to more than
a few specialists in his own line. There are
undoubtedly many scientific men, thoroughly
and earnestly convinced of the importance of
their researches, who would in the long run
be doing more for humanity and perhaps for
themselves if they would spare some time to
tell us as clearly and attractively as possible
what it is that they are doing. While I be
lieve this to be true of scientific men in gen-
eral, it is particularly true of those who are
officially servants of a democracy. A demo-
eratic government might almost be character-
ized as a government by compromise, and this
is one of the major compromises that con-
fronts scientific men in the service of such a
government. The conclusion that a very im-
portant function of a national geological sur-
vey is the education of the people in geology
and the increasing of popular interest in that
science, appears to be unavoidable, yet it is
surprising how little this function has been
recognized and exercised. The results of such
education are cumulative and a direct and
permanent gain to science whereas, on the
other hand, the consequences of prostituting
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
the opportunities for scientific work to satisfy
this and that popular demand for so-called
practical results in any problem that happens
to be momentarily in the public eye, is a kind
of charlatanry that is utterly demoralizing to
those who practise it and that must ulti-
mately bring even popular discredit on science.
A bureau that follows such a policy can
neither hold within it nor attract to its serv-
ice men animated by the true spirit of in-
vestigation.
Methods of Education—It is not practic-
able in the present address to discuss in detail
the many possibilities of educational work in
geology. Only a few general suggestions can
be offered.
In the first place the importance of edu-
cation by a national geological survey should
be frankly recognized and the idea that it is
beneath the dignity of a geologist to partici-
pate in this function should be discounte-
nanced. A geological survey should include
on its staff one or more men of high ability
who are especially gifted in interesting the
public in the purposes, methods and results
of geologic work—men of imagination who
can see the romance of science; men of broad
sympathy who know the hearts and minds of
their countrymen from the Atlantic to the
Pacific; men imbued with the truthful spirit
of science; and finally, men skilled in the art
of illuminating the cold impersonal results of
science with a warm glow of human interest.
It should be the duty of these men to see
that so far as possible all of the results of
geclogic work are interpreted to the people so
that every citizen can benefit to the limit of
his individual capacity. Magazines, the daily
papers, moving pictures, and all possible
means of publication should be utilized.
There should be close contact with educators
and special pains taken to prepare material
for use in schools and colleges. Carefully
planned courses at university summer schools
and elsewhere might be given by members of
the educational or publicity staff, or by cer-
tain selected geologists from the field staff.
Geologists in preparing papers and reports
should consider with particular care the ques-
Frpruary 20, 1920]
°
tion “ Who may be reached by this?”? Some
scientific results can not be popularized and
these may be written in the concise accurate
language of science. Others, however, may
by taking sufficient care and trouble, be made
interesting to more than a small circle of
scientific colleagues. Every effort should be
made to enlarge this circle by simple and
attractive presentation. In some cases I am
inclined to think that a geologist might issue
separately or as a part of his complete report,
an abstract or résumé in which all effort is
concentrated on an endeavor to be interesting
and clear to as many people as possible. If
this were done, I am sure that the writer
would be in a position to appraise more truly
the value of his complete report and might
proceed to rewrite some portions of it and to
omit others, without loss to science and at a
saving in paper and printing.
Relations with Universities—In connection
with the subject of education attention may
be called to the fundamental importance of
establishing and maintaining close and cordial
relationship between a government scientific
bureau and the universities. The advantages
of such a relationship are so many that it is
difficult to enumerate them all but it may be
pointed out that any plan of popular educa-
tion in science will be seriously crippled if
the professional teachers, whose influence in
molding the thoughts and determining the
careers of the young men and women of the
country is so great, are out of sympathy with
the government organization that is attempt-
ing to quicken the interest of the people in a
particular branch of science. Moreover, it is
vital to such an organization that it should
attract to its service young men of exceptional
ability in science. This it is not likely to do
if professors of geology feel that they must
conscientiously advise their most promising
graduates to avoid government service.
Doubtless some teachers of geology in the
universities fail to realize the necessity for
some of the compromises inevitable in a goy-
ernment bureau, or in their impatience at
some of the stupidities of bureaucratic pro-
cedure are inclined to place the blame for
SCIENCE
179
these where it does not belong; a few may
cherish personal grievances. No class of men
is without its unreasonable members and
neither rectitude nor tact can prevent oc-
casional clashes; but if a national geological
survey can not command the respect and
hearty support of most of the geological
faculties of the universities the consequences
to the progress of geology must be deplorable.
Any approach to such a condition demands
immediate action with less emphasis on the
question “ Who is to blame?” for in all prob-
ability there is some fault on both sides, than
on “ What can be done to restore relations of
mutual regard and helpfulness?”
The Amateur in Geology.—tIn the present
age of specialization we are apt to forget how
much geology owes to amateurs, particularly
in Britain and France. Sir Archibald Geikie
in the concluding chapter of his “ Founders
of Geology ” dwells particularly on this debt.
He says:
In the account which has been presented in this
volume of the work of some of the more notable
men who have ereated the science of geology, one
or two leading facts stand out prominently before
us. In the first place, even in the list of selected
names which we have considered, it is remarkable
how varied have been the ordinary avocations? of
these pioneers. The majority have been men en-
gaged in other pursuits, who have devoted their
leisure to the cultivation of geological studies.
Steno, Guettard, Pallas, Fiichsel, and many more
were physicians, either led by their medical train-
ing to interest themselves in natural history, or
not seldom, even from boyhood, so fond of natural
history as to choose medicine as their profession
because of its affinities with that branch of sci-
ence. Giraud-Soulavie and Michell were clergy-
men. Murchison was a retired soldier. Alexandre
Brogniart was at first engaged in superintending
the porcelain manufactory of Sévres. Demarest
was a hard-worked civil servant who snatched his
intervals for geology from the toils of incessant
official occupation. William Smith found time for
his researches in the midst of all the cares and
anxieties of his profession as an engineer and sur-
veyor. Hutton, Hall, De Saussure, Von Buch,
Lyell and Darwin were men of means, who scorned
3 Vocations would seem to be the right word
here. F. L. R.
180
a life of slothful ease, and dedicated themselves
and their fortune to the study of the history of the
earth. Playfair and Cuvier were both teachers of
other branches of science, irresistibly drawn into
the sphere of geological inquiry and speculation.
Of the whole gallery of worthies that have passed
before us, a comparatively small proportion could
be classed as in the strictest sense professional
geologists, such as Werner, Sedgwick and Logan.
Were we to step outside of that gallery, and in-
clude the names of all who have helped to lay the
foundations of the science, we should find the pro-
portion to be still less.
From the beginning of its career, geology has
owed its foundation and its advance to no select
and privileged class. It has been open to all
who cared to undergo the trials which its success-
ful prosecution demands. And what it has been in
the past, it remains to-day. No branch of natural
knowledge lies more invitingly open to every stu-
dent who, loving the fresh face of Nature, is will-
ing to train his faculty of observation in the field,
and to discipline his mind by the patient correla-
tion of facts and the fearless dissection of theories.
To such an inquirer no limit can be set. He may
be enabled to rebuild parts of the temple of sci-
ence, or to add new towers and pinnacles to its
superstructure. But even if he should never ven-
ture into such ambitious undertakings, he will gain,
in the cultivation of geological pursuits, a solace
and enjoyment amid the cares of life, which will
become to him a source of the purest joy.
In this country at the present time, as Mr.
David White in an as yet unpublished ad-
dress, has I believe pointed out, the amateur
geologist, due partly to the way in which the
subject is taught, is rare and few indeed are
the contributions made to the science by those
who follow geology as an avocation or hobby.
This is unfortunate and an improvement of
this condition should be one of the major ob-
jects of the educational program of a national
geological survey. The science lends itself
particularly to its pursuit as a recreation by
men of trained intellect who must find in the
open air some relief from sedentary pro-
fessions. In a country still so new as ours
geologic problems lie on every hand and many
of these can be solved wholly or in part with-
out elaborate apparatus or laboratory facili-
ties. The standards for the professional geol-
ogist should be high, but there is no necessity
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1312
e
that maintenance of such standards should be
accompanied by a patronizing or supercilious
attitude toward the work of the amateur.
Rather, let the professional geologist cultivate
sympathy, tolerance, and generosity toward
all who are earnestly seeking for the truth;
let him help by encouragement instead of
deterring by disdain. There is no better evi-
dence of a wide interest in geology than the
existence of numerous amateur workers and
it is decidedly to the advantage of the pro-
fessional geologist and to the science to en-
courage in every way possible the efforts of
such workers and to increase their number.
F. L. Ransome
(Lo be concluded)
GEORGE MACLOSKIE
GrorGE MacnoskIE was born in Castledown,
Ireland, in 1834. He studied at Queens’
University, Ireland, receiving the degree of
A.B. and A.M. Later, at the University of
London, he took the degrees in course of
LL.B. and LL.D. He was three times gold
medalist. After he had been some years in
America the University of Ireland eee
him the honorary Se.D.
He was for 13 years (186174) pastor of
the church of Ballygoney, Ireland. During
his student life and while discharging his
pastorial duties he was actively interested in
the study of natural history. This interest
had attracted the attention of his friend and
one-time teacher, Dr. McCosh, the new Presi-
dent of Princeton College, who called him in
to occupy the chair of natural history in the
recently established John ©. Green School of
Seience, at Princeton.
In this chair, later termed biology, with
unfailing devotion he served the college and
university for 31 years, retiring in 1906 as
professor emeritus. During this period, in
addition to his teaching and executive duties,
he wrote his “ Elementary Botany with Stu-
dent’s guide to the Examination of Plants”
published by Henry Holt & Company, 1883,
which for several years was used in his
elasses. He published also a number of
papers on botanical subjects, chiefly in the
Torrey Bulletin and entomological papers, in
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
The American Naturalist and Psyche, deal-
ing mainly with the structure of the head and
mouth parts of the house fly and mosquitoes,
and the trachee of insects.
An omnivorous reader, he kept abreast of
the advances of his science and at the same
time retained a keen interest in mathemat-
ical, physical and linguistic studies, publishing
papers dealing with the mathematical proper-
ties of lenses, and on hyperbolic functions.
His self-acquired mastery of a reading knowl-
edge of the modern languages led him to a
desire for some more universal means of com-
munication, so that he was attracted to the
Esperanto movement and became one of its
early American promoters.
Bred as a theologian he was nevertheless in
sympathy with the then new doctrine of evo-
lution, and throughout his life was a firm
upholder of the essential harmony of science
and religion. His papers on this subject were
numerous.
His retirement from the active duties of a
professor did not lessen his abounding zeal
for work, for he then began and carried
through to completion a three-volume report
on the Flora of Patagonia—a labor that
might tax the energies of a much younger
man.
Dr. Macloskie was true and loyal to his
adopted country while cherishing with pride
his Seotch-Irish ancestry. He was a man of
strictest probity, affectionate, enthusiastic and
impulsive; he was just and sympathetic in his
dealings with his students; a most devoted
and unselfish collaborator in the work of his
own and other departments; loyally devoted
to his friends through good and evil report;
a good citizen and a Christian gentleman.
In 1896 Princeton University granted him
the honorary A.M. As one of her adopted
sons he served her faithfully in his life and
his death comes as a loss to his former pupils
and colleagues. W. M. Ranxin
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
In view of the many developments taking
place in the institution, by which it is being
SCIENCE
181
rapidly transformed from a college or pri-
marily local relationships into a scientific
school of national importance, the trustees
of Throop College of Technology, at Pasa-
dena, voted at their annual meeting on Feb-
ruary tenth to change its name to the Cali-
fornia Institute of Technology.
The developments of the recent past and
those assured in the near future that have
seemed to justify this action are briefly as
follows:
There have been received by the institution
two gifts of $200,000 each to form permanent
endowments for the support of research in
physics and chemistry, respectively; and in
addition $800,000 has been given for general
purposes, on condition that this endowment
be inereased by additional subscriptions to
two million dollars.
Other gifts aggregating $380,000 have been
received for the construction of new build-
ings.. With the aid of these funds a building
for chemical instruction and research, named
after the donors the Gates Chemical Labora-
tory, has already been completed and is occu-
pied by the chemistry department, which in-
cludes five professors and assistant professors,
two instructors, and six teaching fellows. A
laboratory for aeronautical research has also
been built, and. investigations on airplane
propellers are in progress. During the latter
part of the war a laboratory for submarine
detection was erected and the researches in
that field are still in progress, with reference
to both commercial uses and future military
developments. This work will next year be
transferred to the new physics building; and
the war laboratory will be equipped for ad-
vanced instruction and research in applied
chemistry and chemical engineering. A
building for instruction and research in phys-
ics is now being planned, and is to be erected
during the year. In recognition of the dona-
tion which made it possible, it will be known
as the Norman Bridge Physical Laboratory.
In addition, a building to serve as an audi-
torium and music hall, both for the Institute
and for the Pasadena Music and Art Asso-
ciation is to be built at once upon the campus.
182
An impressive architectural plan for the
whole campus has been prepared by the dis-
tinguished New York architect, Mr. Bertram
G. Goodhue, and all the new construction is
being carried out in accordance with this
plan.
There have recently become associated with
the faculty of the institute a number of well
known investigators. Dr. Arthur A. Noyes
has resigned his position at the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology to become
director of chemical research at the California
Institute. Dr. Robert A. Millikan, of the
University of Chicago, has arranged to spend
one term of each year at the institute, and
will have general supervision of the research
and instruction in physics. Professor Albert
A. Michelson, of the University of Chicago,
will also spend much of his time there for the
purpose of carrying on researches on the fun-
damental problem of earth tides, for which
the necessary equipment is now being in-
stalled. Dr. Harry Bateman, formerly of
‘Cambridge University and Johns Hopkins
University, had previously joined the faculty
as professor of aeronautical research and
mathematical physics.
In the development of the institute special
emphasis is being placed upon research, not
only because every institution of higher edu-
eation should contribute to the advancement
of science, but also and particularly because a
prominent feature of the work of instruction
is to be the training of engineers of the re-
search or creative type. While the institute
will continue to offer four-year undergraduate
courses which fit its students directly for the
positions of operating and constructing engi-
neers, two new courses of instruction, to be
known as the courses in physics and engineer-
ing and in chemistry and engineering, will
soon be announced by the faculty, in which
‘special stress will be laid on an unusually
thorough grounding in the three fundamental
sciences of physics, chemistry and mathe-
‘matics; and in the last two years of which
much time will be assigned to research in
physics and chemistry; the time required for
sthese purposes being secured by omitting
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1312
some of the more technical engineering sub-
jects included in the other engineering
courses.
The faculty has also been strengthened on
the side of humanistic studies by renewal of
the arrangement with Alfred Noyes, the Eng-
lish poet, which was in effect before the war,
under which he will during the next year
give courses of lectures on English literature;
and by the appointment of Paul Perigord as
professor of economics.
THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
OF NATURAL HISTORY
ANNOUNCEMENT of the nature and scope of
the activities of the American Museum of
Natural History during the past year and of
a prospectus for the coming fifty years was
made on February 2 by President Henry
Fairfield Osborn, at the annual meeting of
the board of trustees, held at the home of
Arthur Curtiss James, 39 East 69th Street,
who acted at host.
Due to its urgency, the matter of main-
tenance and building funds was given prom-
inence. It was reported that the Museum is
now facing the most critical time of its
history.
While progress is being made in many
directions, President Osborn said, it is not
symmetrical, and in order to secure a har-
monious educational treatment and to truth-
fully arrange our present collections, the
museum needs double the space which it now
oceupies. It is fifteen years since the build-
ing has been-enlarged, and during this time
the collections have nearly doubled. Presi-
dent Osborn ascribes this marking time of
progress not to lack of cooperation on the
part of the board of estimate and apportion-
ment of the city, which has recently mani-
fested its confidence in the institution by in-
creasing the annual maintenance fund fifty
per cent.; nor to lack of interest on the part
of the trustees, who have been signally gen-
erous, contributing the sum of over $100,000
in 1919 alone to meet deficiencies in the bud-
get; nor to lack of friendliness on the part
of the Board of Education, which has also
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
given its cooperation. He gave three very
sufficient reasons in the following: the un-
precedented growth of the collections; the
actual shortage of funds in the city treasury;
and the interruption by the war of building
extension through personal subscription of the
trustees which was planned in 1913.
He went on to point out that the whole
educational system of New York city and
state has suffered from the same causes; that
conditions have arisen where we are com-
pelled to take a very large and constructive
view of the future. The need of the hour as
felt in every one’s mind is Americanization,
which can be accomplished only through the
thorough training of our youth according to
American ideals. The free schools, colleges,
libraries, museums, scientifically arranged
parks and aquaria, free lectures and free con-
certs designed for instruction and inspiration
form the structure on which Americanization
rests. In this structure, the American Mu-
seum has won a vital place. In its school
educational work, the museum holds a strong
position. In the last five years it has reached
5,650,595 children directly and indirectly
through its lecture system and traveling
museums; it has expended $89,126.08 of its
own funds directly on public education, in
addition to the $1,538,057 expended on ex-
plorations, collections and researches, the re-
sults of which ultimately find their way into
the school mind. The scope and efficiency of
its public educational work is such as to have
ealled forth the enthusiastic admiration of
the British Educational Mission on its recent
visit, and to be taken as a model for educa-
tional development in Great Britain.
With all this obvious advance, the museum
has in certain ways come to a full stop in its
educational activities. This is particularly
true of exhibition work. In hall after hall
the arrangement is less truthful and more
misleading than it was twenty years ago, for
the collections are jumbled together out of
their natural order, giving, in cases entirely
erroneous impressions. It is therefore, not a
civic luxury, but a paramount educational
necessity which demands the enlargement of
SCIENCE
183
the museum buildings and the provision of
the necessary equipment. The most impor-
tant thing for the museum to-day is imme-
diate building space and equipment. And the
next most important thing is the immediate
increase of its general endowment by not less
than $2,000,000 in addition to the munificent
bequest of Mrs. Russell Sage.
In exploration and field work but little
more activity was possible than in 1918. Roy
C. Andrews continued his work in northern
China and Mongolia, and has been eminently
successful in securing valuable series of goral,
serow and mountain sheep. Paul D. Ruth-
ling and Karl P. Schmidt have collected
reptiles and amphibians in Mexico and Porto
Rico. Henry E. Crampton has continued his
work in the Society Islands; George K
Cherrie and Harry Watkins have secured col-
lections of small mammals and birds in
Venezuela and Peru; and Herbert J. Spinden
has made archeological collections in Peru,
Colombia, Dutch Guiana and Central Amer-
ica. In the United States, valuable and
unique archeological and ethnological mate-
rial was secured in Arizona and New Mexico
by Leslie Speir and Earl H. Morris, and a
collection of Miocene fossils including a slab
containing a number of skeletons of the two-
horned Rhinoceros Diceratherium were ob-
tained by Albert Thomas in Nebraska.
During the year over 600 accessions to the
collections were recorded. Some of the more
important gifts were: the painting of the
eclipse of the sun in 1918 by H. R. Sutler,
presented by Edward D. Adams; a Chinese
painting on silk of the last dynastic period,
1761, presented by Ogden Mills; a lacquered
dog-house from a Chinese imperial palace,
from Miss Theodora Wilbour; skin of an
albino deer, from Archibald Harrison; a
series of bronze objects from Sumatra from
Arthur §. Walcott; and a collection of ethno-
logical specimens from Zuni, from Mrs. Elsie
Clews Parsons.
Nearly 900,000 people visited the museum
in 1919, exceeding by 175,000 the attendance
of 1918. The net gain in membership was
615, the total membership now being 5,183.
184
Childa Frick was elected a trustee.
Those present at the annual meeting were:
Thomas DeWitt Cuyler, Cleveland H. Dodge,
Walter Douglas, Madison Grant, William
Averell Harriman; Archer M. Huntington,
Adrian Iselin, Arthur Curtis James, J. P.
Morgan, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Perey R.
Pyne, Theodore Roosevelt, John B. Trevor
and Francis D. Gallatin.
NEW YORK MEETING OF THE AMERICAN IN-
STITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL
ENGINEERS
Tue American Institute of Mining and Met-
allurgical Engineers under the presidency of
Mr. Hoover, met in New York City this week.
Three sessions of the annual meeting were de-
voted to the subject of coal. In the first of
these facts were brought out on some of the
questions around which controversies raged
during the recent strike, including: Why is
production intermittent? How and when do
the irregularities occur? How many days a
year do the men actually work? What are the
actual wages received by men during each sea-
son and in what way can the wage basis be
changed? How and where can coal be stored
at the mine, at industrial plants or elsewhere?
The fundamentals of the problem were pre-
sented in a series of papers by authorities.
Van H. Manning, director of the U. 8. Bureau
of Mines, outlined conditions in a paper on
“The problems of the coal industry.” George
Otis Smith, director, U. S. Geological Survey,
presented a statistical analysis of the rate of
output over a period of years, showing the
relative effect of shortage of transportation and
of labor and lack of market and other factors
in the production of coal. H. H. Stoek, of the
University of Illinois, discussed the storage of
bituminous coal at the point of production, at
centers of distribution and by the consumer.
S. L. Yerkes discussed transportation as a fac-
tor in irregularity of coal-mine operation.
The business side was presented by Eugene
McAuliffe, president of the Union Colliery
Company, in a paper on stabilizing the market.
Edwin Ludlow, of the Lehigh Coal and Nayi-
gation Co., discussed conservation as applied
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1312
to mining methods, by-products and consump-
tion.
Unpaid taxes on mines amounting to $200,-
000,000 were involved in a discussion at an
open forum held on the subject of mine taxa-
tion. The views both of the government and
the mine owners were presented, the discussion
being led by Ralph Arnold, valuation expert of
the Petroleum Division of the Internal Rev-
enue Department; J. R. Finlay, who evaluated
the mines of the state of Michigan; J. Parke
Channing, of New York, and R. C. Allen, vice-
president of the Lake Superior Ore Associa-
tion.
In the evening of February 17 more than one
thousand delegates and their friends attended
a banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria at which
Lawrence Addicks was toastmaster. President
Herbert Hoover, retiring President Horace V.
Winchell and Professor James F. Kemp, of
Columbia University, were the speakers.
Besides Mr. Hoover as president, the follow-
ing officers were elected: Frederick Laist, Ana-
conda, Mont., and Seeley W. Mudd, Los
Angeles, vice-presidents. W. R. Walker, New
York; A. S. Dwight, New York; R. M. Catlin,
Franklin Furnace, N. J.; G. H. Clevenger,
Washington, D. C., and W. A. Carlyle, Ottawa,
Canada, directors.
RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF SIR
WILLIAM OSLER
On motion of the executive committee of
the Federation of American Societies for Ex-
perimental Biology in Cincinnati December
30, 1919, the following minute was drafted:
In the death of Dr. Osler, the medical profession
has suffered an immeasurable loss. Belonging to
no cult, or age, or clime, but descended in direct
line from Hippocrates, he was master of the art of
medicine in its purest form. As a teacher, he was
again master, painting with broad strokes pictures
of disease never to be forgotten by the student.
An investigator and an inspirer of investigation,
a worthy counsellor of brother physicians, a delver
in the history of medicine, and an ornament to its
letters; and withal so human and of such rare per-
sonal charm as to be beloved of all who came in
contact with him. Such was the man we mourn.
We grieve not only at loss of leader and friend,
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
but also that death overtook him in the very shadow
of the great conflict which brought him so great
personal loss and sorrow and robbed him of the
mellow years which were so fully his due.
(Singned)
C. H. Buntine,
Henry A. CHRISTIAN,
A. §. LorvENHART,
Committee
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Lupvia Hextorn, of the John Mce-
Cormick Institute for Infectious Diseases,
Chicago, has been elected honorary member of
the Pathological Society of Philadelphia.
Dr. E. V. McCotium, professor of chemical
hygiene, school of hygiene and public health,
Johns Hopkins University, has been made cor-
responding member of the Academie Royale
de Médecine de Belgique.
Dr. Hersert EB. Grecory, Silliman professor
of geology, Yale University, sailed on February
17, to resume his duties as acting director of
the Bishop Museum at Honolulu, Hawaii.
Professor Gregory will return to New Haven
in September.
Dr. WituiAM T. SepGWIcK, senior professor
of the Institute of Technology and head of the
department of biology and public health, will
be the first exchange professor with the British
universities of Cambridge and Leeds. Dr.
Sedgwick will leave for England early in April,
and expects to spend the summer in Europe,
returning to Boston in September.
Dr. Rospert W. HEGNER, associate professor
of protozoology in charge of the department of
medical zoology in the School of Hygiene and
Public Health, has been appointed a delegate
from The Johns Hopkins University to the
Congress of the Royal Institute of Public
Health which meets in Brussels from May 20
to May 24, 1920. Dr. Heener will read a paper
at the Congress on “ The relation of medical
zoology to public health problems.” He ex-
pects to spend the months of June, July and
August in study at the Liverpool and London
Schools of Tropical Medicine and in visiting
SCIENCE
185
other institutions in Europe and Africa where
medical zoology is being taught or investigated.
Ernest F. Burcuarp, geologist in charge of
the iron and steel section, U. S. Geological
Survey, has been granted a ten months’ ab-
sence and will make geologic investigations in
the Philippines.
Dr. M. W. Lyon, Jr., formerly professor of
pathology and bacteriology, George Washing-
ton University, and at one time connected
with the Division of Mammals, U. S. National
Museum, and captain in the Medical Corps
during the war, has left Washington to take
charge of pathological work at South Bend,
Indiana.
We learn from the Journal of the Amer-
ican Medical Association that, following the
usual custom, Professor Laveran, formerly
vice-president, has assumed the duties of pres-
ident of the Paris Academy of Medicine for
the year 1920. Dr. L. G. Richelot, hospital
surgeon and professor of medicine in the Uni-
versity of Paris, was chosen vice-president for
the year 1920, and Dr. Arcard, also of the
University of Paris, was elected secretary for
the year. Dr. F. Lejars, professor of clinical
surgery, has been elected president of the
Surgical Society for the year 1920.
It is announced in Nature that Professor
R. T. Leiper, reader in helminthology in the
University of London, has been awarded the
Straits Settlement gold medal by the senate
of the University of Glasgow. The medal was
founded some years ago by Scottish medical
practitioners in the Malay States, and is
given periodically to a graduate in medicine
of the Scottish universities for a thesis on a
subject of tropical medicine.
Dr. Cartos E. Porter, editor of the Revista
Chilena de Historia Natural, of Santiago,
Chile, is about to publish a work, upon which
he has been engaged for fifteen years, on the
museums and naturalists of Latin America.
The work will comprise three volumes abun-
dantly illustrated. Dr. Porter is enabled to
publish this work through the financial sup-
port of Dr. Chistobal M. Hicken, professor of
botany and geology in the faculty of natural
186
science of Buenos Aires, known through his
explorations of Patagonia.
Sir ArtHur NewsHoums, lecturer on public
health administration, school of hygiene and
public health, Johns Hopkins University, de-
livered the annual Frederick A. Packard Lec-
ture of the Philadelphia Pediatrie Society in
Thompson Hall, College of Physicians, Feb-
ruary 10, on “ Neo-Natal Infant Mortality.”
AT the meeting of the Institute of Medicine
of Chicago, January 30, at the City Club, Dr.
Victor C. Vaughan, of the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, presented a paper on
“Remarks on the Chemistry of the Protein
Molecule in Relation to Infection,” and Dr.
Karl K. Koessler spoke on “ The Relations of
Proteinogenous Amins to Medicine.”
Amone the speakers at “ Farmers’ Week”
at the Michigan Agricultural College from
February 2 to 6 inclusive, were Dr. E. V. Mc-
Collum, of the Johns Hopkins University;
Dr. F. J. Alway, of the University of Minne-
sota, and Dean Alfred Vivian, of the Ohio
State University. Being members of the
American Chemical Society they were the
guests of honor at a luncheon given by the
local section of that society on February 5,
at which about forty members were present.
As a permanent memorial of Dr. Christian
R. Holmes, his friends have inaugurated plans
to raise a fund of $1,000,000 for medical re-
search, the endowment to be known as the
Christian R. Holmes Medical Research Fund.
The Carnegie Corporation has made a gift of
$250,000 to the medical college of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati, as a tribute to Dr. Holmes’s
services and to endow a chair in his memory.
Rosert Ho.iisteR CHapmMan, for many
years topographical engineer of the U. S.
Geological Survey, died of pneumonia in New
York where he was attending a meeting of
the American Alpine Club, of which he was
secretary. After the United States entered
the war Mr. Chapman became a major in the
Engineers’ Reserve Corps. He was born in
New Haven in 1868.
Dr. ExmMer Ernst Soutuarp, Bullard pro-
fessor of neuro-pathology at the Harvard Med-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
ical School, died from pneumonia on Feb-
ruary 8, aged forty-four years.
Sir Tuomas R. Fraser, F.R.S., emeritus
professor of materia medica, University of
Edinburgh, died on January 4, at seventy-
eight years of age.
Dr. Epwin A. Strone, emeritus professor
of physics at the Michigan State Normal
College, died on February 4 at the age of
eighty-six years. He devoted nearly sixty
years of his life to the promotion of educa-
tion and science in Michigan in long terms of
service at Grand Rapids and Ypsilanti.
A REGULAR meeting of the American Phys-
ical Society will be held in Fayerweather Hall,
Columbia University, New York, on Saturday,
February 28. If the length of the program re-
quires it, there will also be sessions on Friday,
February 27. The next following meeting of
the society will be held in Washington on April
23 and 24.
Mr. JaMEs Simpson, vice-president of Mar-
shall Field & Co., Chicago, will present the
Field Museum of Natural History with a large
assembly hall or theater. The seating capacity
will be 925, exclusive of lobbies extending
around three sides of the theater. The theater
is to be in the west wing of the main building
of the museum.
A Pasteur InstituTE has been inaugurated
at Managua, Nicaragua, presented to that
country by the President of Mexico. The
institute has therefore been named Instituto
Antira4bico Carranza.
Unper the auspices of the Pan-Pacific Union,
arrangements are being made for a scientific
conference to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, Au-
gust, 1920. The purpose of the conference is
to outline some of the fundamental scientific
problems of the Pacific Ocean region and to
formulate methods for their solution. The
plan involves the cooperation of representative
scientists and institutions from the countries
whose interests lie within or about the Pacific
with the hope that a program of research may
be developed which will eliminate duplication
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
of effort and of funds. The program of the
conference is in the hands of the Committee on
Pacific Exploration of the National Research
Council.
Tues U.S. Bureau of Chemistry at Washing-
ton announces that the work on photosensitiz-
ing dyes begun during the war for the Bureau
of Aircraft Production has met with such suc-
cess as to make possible the preparation in the
United States of dyes of all the recognized
types: pinaverdol (including Orthochrome T),
cyanine, pinacyanol and dicyanine; and of a
new type useful for astrophotographie work.
The Color Laboratory of the bureau will place
its experience at the disposal of any manufac-
turer who wishes to prepare these important
photographie aids for the American market;
and pending their commercial availability is
prepared to supply them to users at a price
fixed by the secretary of agriculture.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Dr. Epear F. Suita, provost of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania since 1911, tendered his
resignation to the board of trustees on Febru-
ary 9. Dr. Smith became professor of chem-
istry in the University of Pennsylvania in
1888.
Dr. Jacop Goutp ScHuRMAN has resigned
the presidency of Cornell University. Dr.
Schurman, previously professor of philosophy,
became president of Cornell University in
1892.
Dr. CHarteEs W. Dasney has resigned the
presidency of the University of Cincinnati,
which he has held since 1904.
Dr. Joun M. T. Finney, Baltimore, has
declined the offer made him by Harvard Uni-
versity and will continue his connection with
the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical
School.
Dr. H. H. Lane, who has since 1905 been
head of the department of zoology of the
University of Oklahoma, has accepted a posi-
tion for next year as head of department of
zoology, of Phillips University, Enid, Okla-
homa.
SCIENCE
187
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
BLOOD-INHABITING PROTOZOA FOR CLASS
USE
Art the present time there are several large
and important groups of Protozoa that remain
unknown to students of biology chiefly be-
cause they are not easy to obtain when they
are needed. One of these groups that is of
added interest because of the economic im-
portance of some of its members contains the
hemoflagellates, including the trypanosomes.
Trypanosomes are responsible for the human
disease known as sleeping sickness, that is
prevalent in certain parts of Africa, and for
Chagas’ disease in South America. They
also cause diseases in domestic animals such
as surra, nagana, murrina, mal de caderas
and dourine which result in great losses every
year.
The first trypanosome described was found
in the frog in 1848 and was given the name
Trypanosoma rotatorium. Specimens belong-
ing to this species occur in the frogs of this
country, particularly in the “water” frogs
such as the green frog, Rana clamitans, and
the bullfrog, Rana catesbiana, but they are
present usually in small numbers and not all
frogs are infected. If it is desired to obtain
for study this type species the centrifuge may
be used to concentrate the specimens. Blood
may be obtained from an etherized frog and
mixed to prevent clotting with a solution of
sodium citrate made up as follows: sodium
citrate, 14 grams; sodium chloride 13 grams;
water 250 cc. After centrifuging for about
ten minutes the trypanosomes, if present, will
be found in a layer at the top of the mass
of red blood cells.
A much more simple method of furnishing
trypanosomes to a large class of students is
to collect a few newts, Diemyctylus viridescens,
from the water. Tobey in 1906 first described
the species in these newts naming it Try-
panosoma diemyctylt. He found them pres-
ent in every specimen that he had purchased
in an animal store in Boston. The writer
has had a similar experience with newts col-
lected for him in Pennsylvania. Seventy-
188
eight of the olive-green water form and seven
of the vermillion land form were examined.
Every one of the former was abundantly sup-
plied with the parasites, but only two of the
land forms were infected.
All that is necessary to obtain living speci-
mens of the trypanosomes for study is to
snip off a little piece from the end of the tail,
and then squeeze out several drops of blood
on each slide. A cover glass can be added
directly or a ring of vaseline may first be
spread around the blood so that the preparation
will be sealed when the cover glass is put in
place. In such a preparation the spiral move-
ment of the organism is evident, and the
flagellum and undulating membrane are easily
observed in action. The nucleus and other
structures are clearly revealed in dried films
stained with Wright’s or Leishman’s stains.
Obtain a drop of blood near one end of a
elean slide. Place the end of another slide
near the drop of blood at an angle of about
30 degrees with the shorter end of the slide.
Draw this slide along until it touches the
drop. When the blood has spread along the
edge, push the slide fairly rapidly toward the
other end. A thin even film will result
covering about one half of the slide. Allow
this to dry. Then place a few drops of the
stain on the film and allow to remain one
minute. Add double the volume of distilled
water and after five minutes wash the film
with distilled water, and dry in the air.
Balsam and a cover glass may then be added
but the stain will fade. If oil immersion ob-
jectives are available no cover glass should be
used but the oil placed directly on the film,
and after the examination is completed this
oil may be wiped off with lens paper or washed
off with xylol. The stain may be obtained in
small 0.1 gram tubes. This amount is dis-
solved in 10 ec. of pure methyl alcohol and
is then ready for use. R. W. HEGNER
ScHooL oF HYGIENE AND PuBLIC HEALTH,
THE JOHNS HoPKINS UNIVERSITY
HORIZONTAL RAINBOWS
To THE Epiror or ScreENcE: With respect to
Reese’s account of an ‘‘ unusual form of rain-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
bow” in Science for December 12, 1919 (Vol.
L., p. 542), it may be said that, in Europe,
rainbows on the surfaces of ponds and lakes
have been reported from time to time during
the past fifty years. They have been observed,
also, on several bodies of water in Japan
during the past few years and the investiga-
tors of that country have given some atten-
tion to the mathematical explanation of these
phenomena.
In the United States these spectral displays
have been seen frequently on the surface of
Lake Mendota at Madison, Wisconsin, during
the past ten or twelve years. Some of these
displays have been unusually brilliant and
varied; double and triple primary bows to-
gether with a secondary bow have been noted
at times. These phenomena have been de-
seribed in the Monthly Weather Review for
February, 1916 (Vol. 44, p. 65).
The complete bows that have appeared on
the surface of Lake Mendota possessed a very
different outline from the diagram shown by
Reese. They were parabolic in shape instead
of circular; neither did they possess an in-
verted segment connecting the outer extrem-
ities as in his figure.
As far as the present writer is aware, these
horizontal rainbows have been reported for
only two lakes in this country, namely, Lake
Mendota and the lake referred to by Reese.
This seems to indicate that it is not a wide-
spread phenomenon, or else other observers
have not taken the trouble to publish accounts
of their observations. It would be interest-
ing to know whether these spectral colors
have been seen on any other bodies of water
in this country.
CHANCEY JUDAY
MaDISON, WISCONSIN
CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO COMMERCE
THE divorce of science and industry, which
has long been a noisesome skeleton in our
economic household, is fast being annulled.
“During the war, American industry acquired
—or had thrust upon it—a wholesome respect
for American science,” Drug and Chemical
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
Markets said in a recent editorial, and this
organ of commercial chemistry might well
have added that at the same time American
science learned the wholesome lesson that
American industry has problems and aims not
altogether ignoble. It is no longer the hall-
mark of the practical business man openly to
hold in contempt all knowledge gained from
books or laboratories. The man of science
no longer believes that the application of his
training and talents to practical problems is
prostitution.
During the war period, the practical prob-
lems of the chemical industry were problems
of production. American chemists helped
solve these production problems, and, now
that war conditions are passing, American
chemical manufacturers naturally turn to
them for help in solving the problems of
distribution. This help must come finally
from our colleges and universities.
It is not necessary for me to point out that
chemical manufacture is a “key industry,”
nor to emphasize the fact that, if we are to
keep the tremendous advantages we have won
during the past five years in the development
of the American chemical industry, a bitter
trade war must be successfully waged. Soon
our manufacturers will meet, both at home
and abroad, the products of foreign com-
petitors. Then the trade war will be declared
in earnest, since our domestic consumption
of chemicals is not sufficient to support a self-
contained industry. Our Allies have all in-
ereased their chemical productivity greatly,
and they appreciate, quite as well as we do,
the vital importance of this industry. Ger-
many has always had a nice comprehension of
the place of chemicals in industry and in war-
fare, and her chemical equipment, both men
and plants, is intact.
To make chemical products in competition
with the world avails us nothing if we can not
market them successfully in world-competi-
tion. Chemical manufacturing is the most
diversified and technical of industries, and its
basic conditions place a premium upon tech-
nical training; its productive branches are
as complex, for the diversified products to
SCIENCE
189
be marketed are bought by many consumers
and their uses are various and often highly
technical. Men of technical, chemical train-
ing who can market our American-made
chemicals are needed to-day.
Detailed, expert knowledge of the goods he
handles is an important part of the salesman’s
equipment, for, since he can no longer sell
his customers by means of cigars and jokes,
he must render them a service. This service
is often expert advice. Dyes must be properly
applied; medicinals must be intelligently pre-
scribed; aromatics must be skillfully com-
bined. New markets must be developed for
old chemicals and new products must be intro-
duced. A smattering of chemical trade jargon
ig poor equipment for such work, and it is
worth remembering that the German dye
trusts took pains to send out salesmen trained
in the chemistry of dyestuffs and speaking
the language of the countries they visited.
The haphazard supply of men who have taken
more or less chemistry at college and who
chance to become salesmen is in no way able
to meet this kind of selling competition.
Graduates in chemistry are seldom fitted by
temperament or experience for this work:
salesmen are not often equipped with tech-
nical training. Chemistry applied commer-
cially to distribution is even further removed
from the pure science than are industrial re-
search and production work. The commercial
instinct, however, is not to be condemned,
and courses in commercial chemistry would
attract undergraduates who, after a year’s
course, would normally drop out of the ken of
the chemistry department. The training of
so-called chemical engineers has brought to
the study of chemistry many students anxious
to become plant executives, but quite in-
different to analysis, research, or teaching.
Courses in commercial chemistry would, in
like manner, open up new opportunities.
The foundation of such courses would nat-
urally be a broad one of chemistry upon
which could be raised a working knowledge of
analysis and of important industrial processes.
The uses of chemical products in the indus-
tries—steel, textile, leather, rubber, paper,
190
glass, fertilizers, ete——ought to be treated in
such courses, and crude drugs, essential and
fixed oils, and petroleum, are products closely
allied commercially to chemicals about which
the student should know something. A series
of lectures on the chemical markets—how
chemicals are sold, containers, insurance, fire
risks, sales contracts, ete—might well be
delivered by some sales manager or broker
familiar through daily, practical experience
with this subject. Supplementary courses in
applied economics, such as given in many of
the larger universities on banking and finance,
commercial law, traffic and transportation,
business administration, advertising, and even
actual salesmanship, might to advantage be
offered to the students of commercial chem-
istry.
A definite and very real need for men with
technical training in chemistry as applied to
commerce exists and, as yet, there has been
no systematic, serious effort on the part of
our colleges and universities to supply this
demand. Young men equipped with this
training would find places in the most highly
paid branch of industry open to them, and
institutions giving this training would in-
erease the scope of their chemistry depart-
ments. Moreover, to supply the American
chemical industry with technically trained
merchandizing experts will strengthen a “key
industry,” necessary to national prosperity
and, in event of war, essential to national
preservation.
WiuuiaMs Haynes
New York Ciry
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
The Physical Chemistry of the Metals. By
RupotrpH ScuHencK, Professor of Physical
Chemistry in the Technischen Hochschule
in Aachen. Translated by Recivatp Scorr
Dean, Research Metallurgist, American
Zine, Lead and Smelting Company. New
York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1919.
VIII -++ 239 pages.
It is surprising that this book published in
Germany in 1908 should have escaped the eye
of the translator until now. It is, however,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
most encouraging to the future of American
industry to find the translator connected with
one of the large metallurgical plants. Usually
texts which deal largely with theoretical sub-
jects are translated by college men for use in
their classes and find their way into the prac-
tical field only indirectly. It is, therefore,
doubly weleome to see a translation eman-
ating from an industrial plant.
The book deals very largely with principles,
but is eminently practical for the metal-
lurgist. The chapter headings: I. Properties
of Metals; IT. Metallic Solutions and Alloys;
Tit. Alloys of Metals with Carbides, Oxides
and Sulphides, Iron and Steel, Mattes, Phase
Rule; IV. Metallurgical Reactions, Oxidation
and Reduction; V. Decomposition of Carbon
Monoxide, Blast Furnace Process; VI. The
Reactions of Sulphides give a good idea of the
subject matter contained in the book. All of
this material is essential to the well-trained
metallurgist, but particularly that in the last
four chapters. Each subject is treated briefly,
but clearly and special emphasis is laid upon
equilibrium phenomena and the factors which
influence equilibrium. The reactions between
carbon and oxygen and metallic oxides receive
the full attention they deserve.
With the many merits which the book has
it is surprising that it has some simple faults
which might easily have been corrected. As
examples might be mentioned the following:
the omission of the eutectic lines in the dia-
gram on page 51; the form of curves 1, 2,
and 4 in diagram on p. 50; the inadequacy of
the treatment of Crystal Growth on p. 20;
the synonymous use of the terms martensite
and austenite; the use of the term sorbitic as
applied to chilled cast iron. These are, how-
ever, unimportant and it is hoped and be-
lieved that the book will be a distinct help to
American metallurgists.
Jal, 13,
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE DEVELOPMENTAL ORIGIN OF THE
NOTOCHORD
Tue notochord is so constant, fundamental
and distinctive a structure in the Chordate
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
group that its interpretation—as is of course
thoroughly known—has received great atten-
tion, and it plays a part in many of the
theories of “the origin of vertebrates.”
Despite the great theoretical importance at-
taching to the origin of the chorda dorsalis or
notochord, we find in the current text-books
statements of its origin most conflicting—and
as it seems to me unnecessarily so. Of five
standard text-books of human anatomy in the
English language, two give the notochord as
entodermal, three as derived from the prim-
itive streak. Of five text-books of histology,
two describe the notochord as entodermal, one
as ectodermal, while two make no statement;
two standard comparative anatomies give the
notochord as entodermal; of seven embryology
texts, five state that it is of entodermal origin,
although three of these qualify it as an ap-
parent origin only, one gives the notochord as
mesodermal, while one states that it may in
different vertebrate groups be ectodermal,
mesodermal, or entodermal. Three standard
text-books of pathology state that the noto-
chord is an endodermal structure. Most text-
books of zoology will probably be found to ad-
here to the entodermal origin of the noto-
chord. The preponderant statement is thus
that the notochord is an entodermal structure,
and since this is the origin in the latest
human anatomy and in the latest vertebrate
embryology, it is clear that this interpretation
is not an old obsolete one held over from edi-
tion to edition.
In the attempt to reconcile the apparent
differences of origin of the notochord or the
different interpretations, we have two atti-
tudes illustrated: (1) Kellicott in his “Gen-
eral Embryology” confessedly accepts an
origin from any one of the three germ-layers
when he says (p. 358): The “notochord may
with equal correctness be described as ento-
dermal, mesodermal or even ectodermal, in
various forms.” Kingsley, in his “ Compara-
tive Anatomy of Vertebrates,” who accepts
the entodermal origin says, however (p. 18,
footnote): “The statement is made that in
some groups the notochord arises from an-
other germ layer than the entoderm, but
SCIENCE
191
these statements apparently rest on erroneous
observations or interpretations. Different
origins in different vertebrates would tend to
show that what are called notochord are not
homologous.” It requires but brief review of
the early development of the chick (for ex-
ample) to recognize that the notochord is here
developed from the primitive streak and hence
not entodermal. Furthermore, the funda-
mental plan of the vertebrate body is so con-
stant and the occurrence, position, extent and
relations of the notochord so uniform that any
suggestion that the notochord is not homo-
logous in the different vertebrate classes must
be rejected at once as without evidence.
Finally, it would be improbable that such a
structure as the notochord should have funda-
mentally different origins in different forms
as Kellicott felt forced to asume.
When the facts of vertebrate development
are fully examined, it becomes at once appar-
ent that it is unnecessary to assume lack of
homology, error in interpretation or real
diversity in origin, but that in all vertebrates
whose development has been traced—from
Amphiozus up to man—the notochord is
formed from the dorsal lip of the blastopore
or (in higher forms) its equivalent the prim-
itive streak. For the preponderance of the
view that the notochord is an entodermal
structure perhaps three things are mainly
responsible: (a) the prevailing tendency to
interpret development as seen in the con-
venient transverse plane, with (b) neglect of
the concomitant changes in the long axis and
without an appreciation of the dorsal lip of the
blastopore as the center of differential growth
which lays down, along with other structures,
the notochord. (¢c) The preponderant work
done upon the development of the lower
vertebrates, particularly Amphioxus and the
Amphibia, where, as followed in transection
without an accompanying consideration of the
growth in the longitudinal planes, it would be
unhesitatingly stated that the notochord was
folded off from the entoderm. But even in
these forms, it would be only the first, more
cephalic, portion, of the notochord that could
be under any interpretation termed ento-
192
dermic, since as soon as the so-called “ tail-
bud” has formed by growth-transformation of
the blastoporic lip, differential growth in that
region continues to form notochord that has
no association with the entoderm whatever.
Cerfontaine, it may be pointed out, in his
classical paper on the early development of
Amphiozus, has critically studied the develop-
ment of the notochord from the dorsal blasto-
poric lip, and accordingly ranks it as an
ectodermal structure.
It is unnecessary to take up here in detail
the evidence of the formation of the notochord
from the blastoporic lip. There is no reason
to consider the development of the chick as
exceptional among birds. In mammals, the
evidence as it accumulates shows the same
mode of origin (from the primitive streak),
as exemplified by the recent careful descrip-
tion of Huber? for the guinea pig.
The acceptance of the origin of the noto-
chord from the dorsal lip of the blastopore
(resp. primitive streak) throughout the verte-
brate group (including Amphioxrus) leads
naturally to the statement that the notochord
is to be regarded as ectodermal in origin.
For many years it has seemed to the writer
that the conception of a germ-layer should
include nore than topographical relation. It
is therefore advantageous to consider the blas-
toporie lip, primitive streak and so-called
“tail bud,” undifferentiated material rather
than definitive ectoderm, and having within
it the “potentialities” of the several struc-
tures developed out of it. Its cells would be
“+totipotent” or at least “pluripotent,” if we
wish to use these terms. Particularly from
the pathological viewpoint, in the interpreta-
tion of teratomata from the persistence of un-
differentiated cells of primitive streak or tail-
bud origin would this be helpful.
The notochord throughout the vertebrate
class shows the marked association with the
entoderm, which is of course directly respon-
sible for the prevailing view that the noto-
chord is an entodermal structure. While in
the phylogenetic interpretation of the origin
1 Cerfontaine, P. Arch. de Biol., Vol. 22, 1906.
2 Huber, G. Karl, 1918, Anat. Record, Vol. 14.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
of the notochord this fact must ultimately be
taken full account of, ontogenetically, the
entoderm is the only one of the three germ-
layers which can not be considered as the
source of its cells—the one to which it may be
referred. Many, as indicated above, from the
fact of the superficial location of the forma-
tive centers in the blastoporic lip will regard
the notochord as ectodermic. One may, as
Keibel clearly does, consider it unnecessary
to refer the notochord to any germ-layer.
However, if we must group the notochord in
with one of the three fundamental germ-
layers, it has seemed to the writer that the
notochord must be included among the meso-
dermal structures, for the following reasons:
(1) The mesoderm—or, to make due allowance
for other possible sources of mesoderm—that
portion of the mesoderm with which the
notochord is associated is developed from the
blastoporie lip (resp. primitive streak, tail-
bud), and is similarly “handled” in develop-
ment. When, as in Amphioxus the notochord
is at first associated with the entoderm, form-
ing temporarily part of the roof of the arch-
enteron, the mesoderm is similarly associated.
(2) It attains like the mesoderm an interior
(intermediate) position. (38) It is endoskele-
tal in its physiologic significance. (4) The
notochord in amphibia and reptilia at least
gives rise to hyalin cartilage, a tissue of
recognized mesodermal characteristic. This
seems to be clearly shown by a number of
investigators.t Considerations similar to the
above led Triepel®> to pronounce the notochord
a mesodermal structure.
Were the pathologists to accept the noto-
chord as a mesodermal structure rather than
entodermal, it may be suggested that the close
resemblance of chordomata to myxomata,
myxo-chondromata and chondromata, which I
3 Keibel, Franz, 1900, Anat. Hefte, Vol. X.;
Keibel, Fr., 1910; Keibel and Mall, Vol. I., Ch. V.
4 Bruni, A., 1912, Anat. Hefte, Vol. 4. Krauss,
Fr., 1909, Arch. f. mikr. Anat., Vol. 73. Pusanow,
I., 1913, Anat. Anzeiger, Vol. 44. Schauinsland,
H., 1906, in Hertwig’s Handbuch d. vergel. Entw.
ges., Vol, III., Pt. 2.
5 Triepel, H., 1914, Anat. Hefte, Vol. 50.
FEBRUARY 20, 1920]
understand so frequently makes diagnosis
difficult, might have added significance.
B. F. Kinespury
DEPARTMENT OF HISTOLOGY
AND EMBRYOLOGY,
CoRNELL UNIVERSITY
THE CONFERENCE AT CLEVELAND
ON THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Reapers of Science may be interested in
some account of what was probably both the
most novel and significant conference of all
those held by the various learned associations
at their recent holiday meetings, namely, the
conference devoted to the History of Science
at the Annual Meeting of the American His-
torical Association in Cleveland. Of even
more value than the papers read and the
public discussion, although these were marked
by an unusual degree of originality, interest,
and enthusiasm, and were heard by an au-
dience of very gratifying numbers, most of
whom remained throughout the unusually
long session, was the opportunity offered—in
many instances for the first time—to those
engaged in research in this promising field
to become personally acquainted, and to talk
over matters of common interest informally
and face to face.
The chairman of the conference, George L.
Burr, librarian, and Andrew D. White pro-
fessor of history at Cornell University, and a
former president of the American Historical
Association, presided with something even
more than his characteristic charm and
felicity. In his opening remarks he noted
the fact that while isolated papers bearing on
the history of science had been presented at
some previous meetings of the American His-
torical Association, this was the first time in
the history of that organization that a con-
ference had been especially devoted to that
subject. He also emphasized the rapid strides
that research in this subject had made in
recent years. Of the papers which followed it
will be possible to give only a very brief and, I
fear, otherwise imperfect summary here; it is
to be hoped that they may be published in
full at an early date.
SCIENCE
193
T. Wingate Todd, professor of anatomy in
the medical school of Western Reserve Uni-
versity, in an illustrated address on Egyptian
medicine showed the predominance of ritual
and superstition in that field and the employ-
ment of similar postures and paraphernalia
by the natives of modern Africa. He ques-
tioned whether the priest-physicians of the
Nile Valley advanced far beyond the stage of
primitive practise in dentistry, general sur-
gery, and therapeutics; and was also skeptical
as to their contributions to pharmacology.
Before the Eighteenth Dynasty abscesses
were incised and fatty tumors removed, but
surgery of the extremities is doubtful. Dur-
ing the Fifth Dynasty splints were used with
the idea of supporting the injured limb rather
than of controlling the fragments.
The paper on “ Peter of Abano: A Medie-
val Scientist,’ 1250-1316(?), by the present
writer discussed the sources for and chief
events of his life, showing that he perhaps
lived beyond 1316 and taught at Treviso and
Montpellier as well as at Paris and Padua,
that the evidence for his being protected and
employed by popes is better than that for his
supposed trial by the inquisition, and that he
was a commentator on Aristotle, a critical
translator especially from the Greek, and an
experimental astronomer, as well as a keen
student of medicine and natural science. He
was far, however, from being free from the
superstition of his age.
Louis ©. Karpinski, professor of mathe-
matics in the University of Michigan, spoke
concerning “The history of algebra.” After
touching briefly upon the contribution to
mathematical speculation made by the Egyp-
tians, he illustrated the relations of Greek
geometry, especially in such a problem as
that of the construction of a regular pentagon,
to the development of algebraic thinking. He
concluded with a summary of the contribu-
tions made by several Arabian mathematicians
to the growth of algebra.
Henry Crew, professor of physics in North-
western University, discussing “ The problem
of the history of science in the college cur-
riculum,” pled for a more human treatment
194
of the sciences and argued that the teaching
of science might be made more stimulating
to young minds by some treatment in each
case of the personality and achievement of
the man who had discovered the scientifie fact
or law in question. He further advocated
separate courses in the history of science in
the four fundamental fields of physics and
chemistry, zoology and botany. He also raised
the question of the age and academic position
of the men to offer such courses.
The discussion was opened by Dr. Harry E.
Barnes, of The New School for Social Re
search, who noted that of the four papers on
the program only one was by a professor of
history and expressed regret that of all the
workers in the history of science probably
even less than this twenty-five per cent. were
professed historians. He emphasized the high
value and. promise of the history of science
compared to the old political history, and
sketched the progress particularly of Amer-
ican historiography of science. He also men-
tioned the increased space given to the history
of science in the new Syllabus of Professor
James Harvey Robinson’s well-known course
in the Intellectual History of Europe.
Charles H. Haskins, dean of the graduate
school of Harvard University, who was chosen
at this meeting second vice-president of the
American Historical Association, expressed
his sense of the importance of the history of
science and desire that a conference in the
subject might become a permanent feature of
the program. In speaking of Professor Hen-
derson’s course at Harvard in the history of
science, he suggested the advisability of re-
quiring one laboratory course as a pre-
requisite to the course in the history of
science, so that the students would not con-
sider the history of science as a substitute for
science itself.
Dr. Walter Libby, of the University of
Pittsburgh, after a brief tribute to the
memory of Sir William Osler as a friend of
the history of science, advised that courses
should be given for freshmen in the general
history of science, and saw large possibilities
for advanced work in this new field of univer-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1312
sity research. As for the less easy problem
of the intermediate courses, he suggested the
treatment of the history of physics, chemistry,
and the like by experts in those subjects with
the possible cooperation of the professor of
the history of science. A treatment of va-
rious epochs by the department of general
history with emphasis on the relation of sci-
entific progress to the advance of civilization
was also to be desired. He alluded to the
course in the history of science and eiviliza-
tion now required of freshmen in the com-
bined arts and medical course at the Uni-
versity of Toronto, and to courses offered in
the histories of medicine, pharmacy, and psy-
chology at Pittsburgh.
Tn view of the good attendance at this con-
ference, although it was not arranged for
until almost the last moment, and the fact
that the program was a little too crowded, I
am inclined to suggest that another time
there should be at least two conferences
planned, one for papers embodying historical
research, and the other for a discussion of the
teaching of the history of science.
Lynn THORNDIKE
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY,
CLEVELAND, OHIO
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
FINANCIAL REPORT OF THE PERMANENT
SECRETARY
L. 0. HOWARD, PERMANENT SECRETARY, IN ACCOUNT
WITH THE AMERIOAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Dr.
To balance from last account ........ $7,575.45
To receipts from members:
Annual dues previous to
WON soossocdc0p08s000 $435.00
Annual dues 1918 ........ 479.00
Annual dues 1919 ........ 31,330.00
Admission fees .......... 535.00
Life membership fees .... 500.00 33,279.00
To other receipts:
Sale of publications ...... $22.50
Interest on accounts at
ban eer errrrriecirreticier 114.35
Miscellaneous receipts, in-
cluding treasurer’s pay-
FrEsruary 20, 1920]
ment of SCIENCE sub-
scriptions for life mem-
bers, foreign postage, sale
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of programs, etc....... 901.96 1,038.81
$41,893.26
Cr. reo
By publications:
Publishers SCIENCE ............... $22,108.85
By expenses, Baltimore meeting:
Sectional secretaries’ commutations,
accounts, carpenter, preliminary
announcements, badges, programs,
press secretary, local secretary, ete. 1,822.50
By expenses, Pacific Division......... 1,500.00
By expenses, Washington office:
Salary, Permanent Sec’y.. $1,500.00
Salary, Assistant See’y .. 2,100.00
Extra clerical help ....... 2,356.25
OSL LE Mec arte: <<) pox lens ets 1,391.07
Office supplies ........... 115.88
Stationery and forms ..... 1,564.45
Express, telegrams and tele-
DUCES de adososdoogouT 139.96 9,167.61
By miscellaneous expenses: ND
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of member ............ 3.00
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tifie Research and Com-
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$35,904.36
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$41,893.26
The foregoing account has been examined and
found correct, the expenditures being sup-
ported by proper vouchers. The balance of
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D. C., banks:
American Nat. Bank of Washington... $405.38
Ditto (Savings Department) ........ 3,205.59
American Security and Trust Co...... 2,377.93
$5,988.90
HERBERT A. GILL,
Auditor
WasHINGTon, D. C.,
December 20, 1919
195
REPORT OF THE TREASURER
BALANCE SHEET
Assets
Investments:
Securities (Exhibit ‘‘A’’)........ $114.766.75
Cashminebamksy eyes scterrelateneierelsnertterers 3,657.69
$118,424.44
Liabilities
Funds:
Life Memberships 343 at $50 ...... $17,150.00
Jane M. Smith Fund ............ 5,000.00
ColburneHundie esperar 77,755.74
Miscellaneous Funds ............. 14,861.01
114,766.75
Uninvested Interest .............. 3,657.69
$118,424.44
CASH STATEMENT
Receipts
1918
Dec. 16. Balance from last report .. $3,827.95
Interest from se-
eurities ....... $5,447.18
Interest from bank
balance ....... 52.94
25 Life Commuta-
TONS ereveiele 1,250.00 6,750.12
$10,578.07
A Disbursements
Investments
$2,000 U. S. Victory Loan Bonds... $1,989.25
Grants
W. P. Whiting .......... $200.00
Myra M. Hulst .......... 200.00
lity 1D) Wille) Gagoanesb bos 200.00
PAS TEEN MOLEY: oes yeritenssate opsia: 150.00
Oxinyhuomaniee aera 100.00
TMT errysie yeva.siaveyaters s\e)is 150.00
UN OMBlake tes eet ieecels 100.00
1D, 18 JUGS Goosaododacc 500.00
Donald Reddick .......... 500.00
SieD yy Lowneyarian oii 250.00
C. H. Higenmann ......... 500.00
IN, LEONA, Soba osscaeds 200.00
Gann) Wendt), ss aikceroae 350.00
SheAt Courtishe erence 100.00
Gilbert M. Smith ........ 100.00
Ts UBiwAreygieye milage: 400.00 4,000.00
196
Interest on Life Memberships
343 members ($17,150 at
4 per cent.) for 1918... 686.00
4 members (Jane M. Smith
ING!) Sogooooodgc agoo 6 200.00 886.00
Accrued Interest on purchase of $2,000
Wactory, Hoan’ :Bonds) -.seeee cee 45.13
$6,920.38
Cash in Banks
Fifth Avenue Bank of New
MOIR oéc00000c000000000 $1,499.49
U. S. Trust- Company of
Ew WOW cosdosedosoo0 2,158.20 3,657.69
«$10,578.07
(Exhibit ‘‘A’’) ®
SCHEDULE OF SECURITIES
Securities Purchased
Par Value Purchase Value
$10,000 Chicago and North-
western Railway Co. gen-
eral mortgage 4 per cent.
bonds, due 1987 <=. 32.2.
$10,000 Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway Co.
general mortgage 4 per
cent. bonds, due 1995.....
$10,000 Great Northern Rail-
way Co. first and refund-
ing mortgage 4.25 per
cent. bonds, due 1961....
$10,000 Pennsylvania Rail-
road Co. consolidated
mortgage 4.5 per cent.
bonds, due 1960 ........
$10,000 Chicago, Burling-
ton and Quiney Railroad
Co. general mortgage 4
per cent. bonds due 1918.
$10,000 Union Pacific Rail-
road Co. first lien and re-
funding mortgage 4 per
cent. bonds, due 2008.....
$10,000 Northern Pacific
Railway Co prior lien
railway and land grant 4
per cent. bonds, due 1997.
$10,000 New York Central
and Hudson River Rail-
Co. 3.5 per cent. bonds,
SHE) NOY sacaceacca00ba0
$8,000 U. S. Second Liberty
Loan Bonds ............
$9,425.00
9,287.50
10,050.00
10,487.50
9,350.00
9,012.50
9,187.50
8,237.50
8,000.00
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1312
$2,000 U. S. Third Liberty
Moan vBondss eer ree eee
$2,000 U. S. Fourth Liberty
Loan Bonds ............
$2,000 U. S. Victory Liberty
oanes ondsaeeme cee 1,989.25 $89,026.75
Bonds from Colburn Estate
Par Value Appraised Value
$20,000 Acker, Merrill and
Condit Co. debenture 6
per cent. bonds ......... $13,600.00
$7,000 Buffalo City Gas Co.
first mortgage 5 per cent.
bonds
$8,000 Park and Tilford Co.
sinking fund debenture 6
pen cent. bonds)...
$42,000 Pittsburgh, Shaw-
mut and Northern Rail-
way first mortgage 4 per
cent. bonds, due February
1, 1952
$171,000
4,200.00 $25,740.00
$114,766.75
I certify that I have audited the accounts of the
Treasurer of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science for the period December
16, 1918, to December 20, 1919; that the securities
representing the investments of the association
have been exhibited and verified; and that the in-
eome therefrom has been duly accounted for.
The financial statements accompanying the
Treasurer’s report are in accord with the books of
the association and correctly summarize the ac-
counts thereof.
HERBERT A, GILL,
Auditor
Dated December 20, 1919.
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CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
On the Relations of Anthropology and
Psychology: Dr. ALES. HRDLIGKA ......... 199
The Functions and Ideals of a National Geo-
logical Survey: Dr. F. L. RANSOME ....... 201
David S. Pratt: W. A. H. ..........0...05-. 207
Scientific Events :—
The Bonaparte and Loutrewil Foundation of
the Paris Academy of Sciences; Award of
the Nobel Prize to Professor Haber; Dye
Section of the American Chemical Society. 208
Scientific Notes and News ................ 209
University and Educational News .......... 211
Discussion and Correspondence :—
A Proposed Method for Carrying Triangula-
tion across Wide Gaps: Dr. H. L. Cooxs,
Proressor Henry Norris RUSSELL. 211
Two New Base Maps of the United States.... 213
Special Articles:
Substitutes for Phenolphthalein and Methyl
Orange: FB. M. ScaLes ...............4.. 214
The American Society of Zoologists: Pro-
MESSOR MW Co PAU TimT footy rset mieten svernc 214
The Mineralogical Society of America: Dr.
HERBERT P, WHITLOCK .................; 219
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section A—Mathematics and Astronomy:
Proressor F, R, MounTon ...........-.. 220
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
Sent
[ea ea \
r ° 4) -)
Ne he \
L
eet eee
ON THE RELATIONS OF ANTHROPOL-
OGY AND PSYCHOLOGY}
Ir we are to compare two objects and study
their relations, we will naturally want data as
to their dimensions, their composition, and
their observed influence upon each other. In
comparing two branches of science we should
thoroughly know their scope, the intrinsic
work and the tendencies of each, and their mu-
tual interplay and cooperation. This stipu-
lates, in the first place, a clear definition of
both of the branches concerned; in the second,
a good acquaintance with their workings and
their possibilities; and lastly, a possession of
some satisfactory measure of the field of ac-
tivities of each of the two branches for direct
comparison.
In considering the relations of anthropology
and psychology, the conditions just named are
regrettably, not all fulfillable. We are fairly
clear to-day as to the definition of scope, and
work done, as well as doing and to be done, in
physical anthropology; but we are less clear
in these respects when it comes to other sub-
divisions of the “science of man,” and matters
are even less satisfactory when we approach
psychology.
In a general way, we all feel that psychology
and anthropology are related. The very ex-
istence of this joint Section, as well as that of
the joint committee of our two branches in
the National Research Council, are sufficient
proofs of this feeling, in this country at least.
We all know also that anthropological studies
of human activities, both in the far past and
at present, tthe studies of language, beliefs,
ceremonies, music and habits, as well as the
studies upon the human and animal brain and
on the sense organs and their functions, are
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section H—Anthropology, American Association
for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, De-
cember, 1919.
200
of direct and intense concern to psychology;
while on the other hand we are equally aware
of the fact that many of the studies of the
psychologists, such as those on hereditary and
group conditions, and on behavior of primi-
tive peoples are of considerable interest to
anthropology. But when we examine more
closely into these relations, we meet with vari-
ous setbacks and difficulties. We soon see, al-
though again only in a general way, that the
psychologists and anthropologists of whatever
shade of color can and do exist quite independ-
ently; that they actually work to a very large
extent unknown to each other; that as time
goes on they associate rather less than more at
the colleges and universities; that they pro-
gressively drift further apart in nomenclature,
methods and other respects, and that in no im-
portant way are they really coming closer to-
gether. No one, I am sure, would claim that
if every anthropologist disappeared to-day,
psychology could not go on as well as it
has hitherto; and no one could claim on the
other hand, that anthropology could not exist
without the aid of psychology.
In our institutions the two branches proceed
to-day, as well known to all of us, quite inde-
pendently. Our great museums all have their
departments of anthropology, but none that
of psychology; while in some of the colleges,
in the War Department, and the Public Health
Service, matters are the reverse. The publi-
cations of one of the branches are scarcely
known to the workers in the other, and bar-
ring rare exceptions there is no thought of ex-
changes, references or mutual reviewing of
literature. The terminology is divergent, in-
struments and methods differ; our most im-
portant international congresses and relations
are wholly distinct; at our meetings we mingle
only through courtesy and habit; and as has
well been shown during the years of war there
was no actual cooperation of the two branches
in this greatest of contingencies, and but little
concern in one of what the other might be do-
ing or planning. If the anthropologist takes
up the list of psychological publications such
as furnished by the Psychological Index he
will note that as this proceeds from year to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1313
year it progressively drops reference to anthro-
pological publications; and the same condi-
tion is observable in the anthropological bibli-
ographies in relation to what may be consid-
ered more strictly psychological work.
It is also known to you that for several
years now increasingly strong efforts have been
put forward from both sides to separate in this
association anthropology from psychology and
have each form its own section, efforts which
now have been successful.
Bearing all this in mind we can not help
asking: Is there really any relation of conse-
quence between modern anthropology and psy-
chology ?
There is indeed such a relation; but it has
never thus far been sufticiently defined and
never as yet sufliciently exploited. This rela-
tion is of such a nature, that during the pre-
liminary and earlier work in both branches it
could and had to be neglected; but as psychol-
ogy progresses it will grow in strength, to
eventually become of importance.
' I may be permitted, in the first place, to
point out the areas of contact and interdigi-
tation of the two branches.
Unfortunately, I meet here with the serious
initial difficulty of defining psychology. After
striking this snag in the preparation of my
address, I turned to a series of the foremost
representatives of your science for help, and
the help did not materialize. Some of those
appealed to would give no definition; others
would attempt it only cireumstantially, so that
it was of little use for my purpose; while the
rest defined or inclined to define psychology
as the “science of behavior,” which characteri-
zation does not seem to be sufficiently compre-
hensive.
I then turned to the publications given in
the last few volumes of the Psychological In-
dex and particularly the volume for 1918,
which presumably is the most representative.
It gives 1,585 titles. Out of these I found,
so far as I could judge from the titles, 14 per
cent. dealing with neurology and physiology;
28 per cent. dealing with neuropathology and
psychiatry; 6.5 per cent. dealing with sociol-
ogy, ethies, and philosophy; 2.5 per cent. with
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
religion, mysticism, and metaphysics; 3.5 per
cent. of the titles were mixed and indefinite;
4 per cent. dealt with animal psychology; 36
per cent. with human psychology; and 6.5 per
cent. with what approached physical and gen-
eral anthropology.
I found further that the publications in-
cluded in your index, and hence those in
which you are interested, range from anatomy
and histology of the nervous system to mathe-
matics on the one hand and metaphysics on
the other, covering practically the whole vast
range of phenomena relating to the nervous
system and mental activities of man and
animals. This shows indefiniteness, incom-
plete crystallization.
As psychology advances, its field will doubt-
less become better differentiated, and possibly
separated into a number of special sub-
branches. When this happens the relations
of the various subdivisions of psychology and
those of anthropology will be more evident
and easier of precision. It will then be found
that your anatomical and physiological sec-
tion will have many points of contact with
physical anthropology, while your sections on
behavior, beliefs, habits, dreams, ete., will con-
nect in many respects with the anthropolog-
ical studies which are to-day grouped under
the terms of ethnology and ethnography.
However, even such clarified relations would
be of no great importance, were it not for the
fact that psychology must as time passes on
enlarge the scope of its activities, until no
small part of these shall really become an-
thropological.
And here I must define anthropology. Its
old definition as the “science of man” is not
sufficient, being too comprehensive and too
indefinite. But if you will examine the
activities in any branch of anthropology, you
will find that although they deal with a vast
array of subjects they are all characterized by
certain something distinctive, and this is the
comparative element. Anthropology is essen-
tially a science of comparisons. It is com-
parative human anatomy, physiology, psychol-
ogy, sociology, linguistics, ete. And being
comparative it does not deal with individuals
SCIENCE
201
or mere abstract averages, but with groups of
mankind, whether these are social, occupa-
tional, environmental, racial, or pathological.
In brief, it is the science of human variation,
both in man himself and in his activities.
Let us now return to psychology. In the
course of its development, psychology will
unquestionably find its choicest field in group
studies. It has already begun in this direc-
tion. It compares classes with classes, as
during the late war; it will enter in the not
far distant future into race psychology; and
it will compare other definite human groups
with groups, study their variations and the
causes of these, study evolution, involution,
and degenerations of the nervous organs of
mankind as a whole—and all this will be or
be very near to anthropology.
A word in conclusion. Anthropology and
psychology as they are to-day, are fairly inde-
pendent branches of scientific activities, with
no closer actual bonds and interdependence
than those that exist, for instance, between
either of them and sociology, or history. But
in their further development and particularly
that of psychology, the two branches will ap-
proach closer together until an important part
of their activities will be in the same orbit.
A. HrpuiéKa
THE FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS OF A
NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. II
Kinds of Work to be Undertaken by a
National Geological Survey.——There has been
considerable difference of opinion as to the
kinds of work that should be undertaken by a
national geological survey. Shall its field be
eonfined to what may be included under
geology or shall it embrace other activities,
such as topographic mapping, hydrography
and hydraulic engineering, mining engineer-
ing, the classification of public lands, the col-
lection and publication of statistics of mineral
production and the mechanical arts of publi-
eation such as printing and engraving. These
various lines of activity may be divided into
two main classes—those that are more or less
contributory to or subordinate to the publi-
202
cation of geologic results, and those that have
little if any connection with geology.
The speaker is one of those who believe that
a geological survey should be essentially what
its name implies—that it should confine its
activity to the science of geology. This opin-
ion is held, however, in full realization of the
fact that here as elsewhere some compromise
may be necessary. This may be dictated by
law or may be determined by policy.
The organic law of the U. S. Geological
Survey, for example, includes among the
duties of the organization “the classification
of the public lands.” There may be some
difference of opinion as to what the framers
of the law meant by this provision, but it is
at least a reasonable conclusion that they in-
tended the sort of classification adopted by
the General Land Office. If so, the determi-
nation of the so-called “mineral” or “non-
mineral” character of public lands is un-
doubtedly a proper function of the U. S.
Geological Survey, although it is one that
was neglected by that survey for many years
and has not yet received the recognition of a
specific appropriation, except recently, in con-
nection with the stock-raising and enlarged
homestead acts.
Topographic Mapping—Inasmuch as the
preparation of a topographic map is a nec-
essary preliminary to accurate and detailed
geologic mapping, a geological survey is
vitally interested in seeing that satisfactory
maps are available as needed. Whether the
national geological survey should itself under-
take this mapping depends upon circum-
stances. If another government organization
is equipped for doing this work and can pro-
vide maps of the requisite quality when
needed, it would appear that the geological
bureau should leave this work to the other
organization, particularly as the maps re-
quired to keep abreast of geologic require-
ments are likely to constitute only a part of
the work of the topographic bureau. There
are certain decided advantages, however, in
having the topographic work done by the
geological survey and these advantages must
be weighed against other considerations.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1313
With the topographie and geologic work
under a single control, the geologist is more
likely to be assured of getting the kind of
map desired at the time needed. Cooperation
between geologists and topographers is apt to
be both closer and more flexible than were the
two staffs in separate organizations. Finally
the field work in topography and geology is
in some respects alike and is carried out by
similar methods and equipment. Occasionally
the two kinds of work can be combined and
carried on simultaneously.
The general question, Whether a national
geological survey shall do its own topographic
mapping, appears to be one that can not be
answered once for all but must be determined
for each country. In an old country where
accurate and detailed maps have long been
made by military and other organizations, a
geological survey may be under no necessity
of providing its own topographic base maps.
In a new country, where exploration is still
in progress, the geological survey may have
to make its own topographic surveys. The
The main point, as I see it, is that the geo-
logical survey must have maps of the stand-
ard required by it with the least possible
delay, but should not undertake to make them
itself if other organizations that can and will
provide the maps needed are already in the
field.
We have seen that there is at least a very
close connection between topographic and geo-
logic mapping and that in this relation may
lie a sufficient reason why both kinds of work
should be undertaken by the same organiza-
tion. Is there as good a reason why the
study of geology and the collection of statis-
ties of mineral production should be united?
Statistics of Mineral Production—When
shortly after the organization of the U. S.
Geological Survey the collection of statistics
was begun, those geologists who were most in-
fluential in urging that the survey should
undertake statistical work adduced as the
principal reason that the people desired such
figures and if the Geological Survey did the
work it would be able to secure larger appro-
priations than if the task were left for others.
FEsruary 27, 1920]
It does not appear to have been thought at
that time that geologists were the only men
who could satisfactorily do statistical work
or that it was necessary to impose this task
on them. Subsequently, however, the work
was apportioned among the geologists. The
reasons for this step appear to have been first,
that the results of having the statistical re-
ports prepared under contract by specialists
who were not on the regular staff of the
organization had proved unsatisfactory; sec-
ond, that by apportioning the work among
the geologists already on the staff not only
would the apparent cost in money be less
than under the former arrangement, but it
would, in a book-keeping sense, be very much
cheaper than taking on new men for this
particular work; finally, it was argued that
geologists could apply their knowledge of the
field relations of ore deposits to improve the
character of statistical reports and would
themselves benefit by additional opportunities
to visit and examine many deposits that they
might not otherwise see.
It is undoubtedly true that the statistical
reports of the United States Geological Sur-
vey have greatly improved in accuracy, full-
ness, and general interest since this plan was
adopted. It is also true that some geologists
have turned their opportunities as statistical
experts to good account both in enlarging their
experience and by gathering material that has
been worked into geological papers. Never-
theless, the policy has, in my opinion, been a
mistake both economically and scientifically.
It has insidiously filched the time of highly
trained men who have shown originality and
capacity for geologic research and has tied
these men down to comparatively easy and
more or less routine tasks. Some geologists
who were once scientifically productive no
longer contribute anything to geological lit-
erature but are immersed in work that men
without their special geological training could
do as well. To a certain extent the policy is
destructive of scientific morale. A young
geologist sees that a man who publishes an-
nually or at shorter periods reports on the
statistics of production of some metal be-
SCIENCE
203
comes widely known to all interested in that
metal and is considered by them as the United
States Geological Survey’s principal expert
on that commodity. This easily won recog-
nition, with all that it implies or seems to
imply in the way of promotion and of in-
dustrial opportunity must constitute a real
temptation so long as a scientific man is ex-
pected to contribute his own enthusiastic
devotion to science as part payment of his
salary. The incidental geological opportuni-
ties offered by statistical work are found
chiefly in connection with a few of the minor
mineral resources, rather than with such in-
dustrially dominant commodities as petroleum,
iron or copper, and these opportunities for
the individual geologist are soon exhausted
and are likely to be purchased at a price far
out of proportion to their value. The sup-
position that geological training is essential
for good statistical work in mineral products
is a fallacy, and no man who shows promise
of making real contributions to geologic sci-
ence should be placed in such circumstances
that he is virtually forced to worship an idol
whose head may be of gold and precious
stones but whose feet are assuredly of clay.
I am emphatically of the opinion that the
collection of mineral statistics is not logically
a function of a national geological survey. If,
however, such a survey is committed to this
task by law, by the lack of any other organi-
zation to do the work, or by well considered
reasons of policy, then it is even more certain
that the duty should not devolve upon geol-
ogists at the expense of their own science, but
should be cared for by a special staff. Some
cooperation between the statistical staff and
the geologic staff may be advisable but the
extent of this cooperation should be deter-
mined by those fully alive to the necessity of
safeguarding geology against encroachments
by statistical work. A
Water Resources.—Studies concerned with
the occurrence of underground water are of
course as much geological as those concerned
with the occurrence of petroleum. Investiga-
tions of surface waters, however, including
stream gaging and the study of water-power
204
come within the field of engineering and have
so little connection with geology that it is
difficult to see any logical ground for their
inclusion within the group of activities be-
longing properly to a geological survey. In
an ideal apportionment of fields of endeavor
among the scientific and technical bureaus of
a government, stream gaging and estimation
of water-power would scarcely fall to the na-
tional geological survey. As it happens, the
United States Geological Survey does perform
these functions and I am not prepared to say
that there is not ample legal and practical
justification for this adventitious growth on a
geological bureau. There has been little or
no tendency to draft geologists into hydraulic
engineering and consequently the principal
objection urged against the inclusion of sta-
tistical work within the sphere of a geological
survey does not here apply. Apparently the
only practical disadvantages are the intro-
duction of additional complexity into a pri-
marily scientific organization and the con-
sequent danger of the partial submergence of
principal and primary functions by those of
adventitious character.
It should be pointed out in this connection
that certain studies of surface waters, espe-
cially those that are concerned with the char-
acter and quantity of material carried in sus-
pension and in solution in river waters, have
much geological importance. Such studies
supply data for estimating the rate of erosion
and sedimentation. They are to be regarded,
however, rather as an illustration of the way
in which geology overlaps other branches of
science and utilizes their results than as
reason for considering hydraulic engineering
as normally a function of a geological survey.
Foreign Mineral Resources—One of the
results of the war was to suggest the advan-
tage to the citizens and government of the
United States of a central source of informa-
tion concerning the mineral resources of for-
eign countries. The United States Geological
Survey undertook to gather this information,
primarily for the specific purpose of supply-
ing data to the American representatives at
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1313
the Peace Conference. As the director of the
survey states in his fortieth annual report:
Two general purposes were served—first that of
obtaining a clear understanding of the relations
between our own war needs and the foreign sources
of supply from which these needs must or could
-be met; second, that of obtaining an understand-
ing of the bearing of mineral resources upon the
origin and conduct of the war and upon the po-
litical and commercial readjustments that would
follow the end of hostilities.
This work, of a kind that so far as known
had not previously been undertaken by any
national geological survey, has been continued
with the view that it is important for those
who direct American industries to possess as
much information as possible concerning those
foreign mineral resources upon which they
can draw or against which they must compete.
The results aimed at are directly practical
and are largely obtained by compilation of
available published and unpublished material
as it is manifestly impossible to make direct
detailed investigation of the mineral resources
of all foreign countries. Nevertheless the
work appears to fall appropriately within the
field of a geological bureau and if it can be
made to furnish the opportunity, hitherto
lacking, for geologists in the government serv-
ice to make first-hand comparison between
our own mineral deposits and those of other
lands the experiment will probably bear scien-
tifie fruit.
Mineralogy and Paleontology—Mineralogy
and paleontology are so closely related to
geology that there can be no question of the
propriety of including the pursuit of these
sciences within the scope of a geological
survey.
Chemistry and Physics——The application of
chemistry and physics to geological problems
admits of more discussion. Chemical work,
however, as carried on in connection with
geological investigations is of such special
character and must be conducted in such
intimate contact with geological data as to
make it almost certain that better results
can be obtained with a special staff and equip-
ment than would be possible were the routine
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
and investigative work in geological chem-
istry turned over to some central bureau of
chemistry. The same argument is believed
to be applicable also to physics. Research in
geophysics was at one time a recognized func-
tion of the United States Geological Survey
but since the founding of the geophysical lab-
oratory of the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington, this field has been left almost entirely
to that splendid organization which is un-
hampered by some of the unfortunate re-
strictions of a government bureau. Under
these particular and unusual conditions this
course may have been wise, although it does
not negative the conclusion that, in general,
investigations in geophysics are logically and
properly a function of a national geological
survey.
Soils—The study of soils, with reference to
origin, composition and classification, is un-
questionably a branch of geology, but the
geologist, with tradition behind him, gener-
ally looks upon soil as a nuisance and geo-
logical surveys have reflected his attitude. In
the United States the classification and map-
ping of soil types has for some years been in
progress by the Department of Agriculture.
While quite devoid of any enthusiasm for
engaging in soil mapping, I wish to point out
merely that this work, if its results justify its
performance by the government, and if the
classification adopted is based on chemical,
physical and mineralogical character rather
than on crop adaptability, is properly a func-
tion of the national geological survey.
Seismology.—Another subject that is com-
paratively neglected by national geological
surveys is seismology. It can scarcely be
asserted that earthquakes have no economic
bearing and conspicuous or destructive ex-
amples usually receive some official attention
—after the event. The comparative neglect
of systematic study of earthquakes is probably
due to a number of causes. One of these is
that few geologists specialize in seismology—
a science in which little progress can be made
unless the investigator possesses unusual qual-
ifications in mathematics and physics. An-
other reason probably is that to most men the
SCIENCE
205
difficulties in the way of gaining real knowl-
edge of the causes of earthquakes and espe-
cially of predicting with any certainty the
time, place, intensity and effects of earth-
quakes appear rather appalling. Finally earth-
quake prediction or even the recognition of
the possibility of future earthquakes in a par
ticular part of the country is likely to have
consequences decidedly unpleasant to those
responsible for the prediction. Experience in
California has shown that a community still
staggering from a violent shaking may insist
with some acerbity that nothing of any con-
sequence has happened and that it never felt
better in its life.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, I believe
that a national geological survey, in a country
where serious earthquakes have taken place
and may occur again, should consider the col-
lection and interpretation of seismoiogical
data as part of its duty. Such work is
regional in scope and can not be earried far
by local initiative and by individual investi-
gators on their own resources. In spite of
difficulties I believe that it is within the range
of possibility that some day we shall be able
to predict earthquakes with sufficient relia-
bility to give the prediction practical utility.
Summary.—Briefly summarizing what has
gone before, I conclude that the chief primary
function of a geological survey is geological
research and that the spirit of investigation
should be the same whether the work is under-
taken to increase knowledge and to serve as
the starting point for further attacks on the
unknown, or is begun with a definite eco-
nomic or practical result as its desired goal.
Compromise and concession are inevitable but
the necessity for making them should not and
need not permit the real purpose of the organ-
ization to sink from sight. If the members
of a scientific bureau can confidently feel that
those charged with its direction make such
coneessions wisely with the higher purposes
of the bureau really at heart their whole atti-
tude towards their work will be entirely differ-
ent from that into which they will fall if they
become convinced that scientific ideals receive
206
only perfunctory regard and that the real
allegiance is directed elsewhere.
What may be called the chief secondary
function of a national geological survey is
believed to be popular education in geology
both for the benefit of the people and as pro-
viding the most enduring basis for the sup-
port of such an organization by a democracy.
Such education should be conducted through
every possible channel and in close coopera-
tion with all of the educational institutions
of the country. One of its objects should be
the revival and encouragement of amateur
geological observation and study. In this
connection I heartily approve the present
trend in the policy of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science and
believe that this great organization will ful-
fill its purpose and advance science much more
effectively than in the past if it will leave
to the various special scientific societies the
holding of meetings devoted to the presenta-
tion of scientific papers, and devote itself to
the popularization of science and to the en-
couragement of cooperation between different
branches of science.
Personnel.—Finally a few words may be said
concerning the relation between the personnel
of a geological survey and the results ob-
tained by the organization. If such a survey
is to attract to its service men of first-rate
ability and to hold these men after their
development and experience has made them of
the highest value, certain inducements must
be offered. Salary is unfortunately the first
of these that comes to mind under conditions
that continually force the scientific men in
government service to recognize painfully how
inadequate at present is the stipend upon
which he had existed before the war. It is
all very well to insist that the scientific man
does not work for money and should not
trouble his thoughts with such an unworthy
consideration. Nevertheless if he is to do the
best of which he is capable he must be lifted
above the grind of poverty, be able to give his
children those educational advantages that he
can so well appreciate, have opportunity for
mental cultivation and feel his social position
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1313
to be such that he can mingle without humili-
ation with his intellectual peers. If it is
destructive to the scientific spirit to set up
material gain as an object it may be equally
blighting to scientific achievement to force
the attention continually downward to the
problem of meager existence. The normal
scientific man usually has other human beings
dependent upon him and the traditional spirit
of self-sacrifice and the indifference to mate-
rial reward that are commonly attributed to
the true investigator may, when these mem-
bers of his family are considered, come very
close to selfishness.
However, salary, important as it is, is by
no means the only determinant. If it is
reasonably adequate most men who are ani-
mated by the spirit of science will find addi-
tional reward in their work itself if this is
felt to be worthy of their best efforts. A man
of first rate scientific ability, however, will
not enter an organization in which con-
secutive application to a problem is thwarted,
in which he is expected to turn to this or that
comparatively unimportant task as political
expediency may dictate or in which the gen-
eral atmosphere is unfavorable to the initia-
tion and prosecution of research problems of
any magnitude. If a man of the type in mind
finds himself in such an uncongenial environ-
ment he is likely to go elsewhere. The final
effect upon the organization will be that its
scientific staff will be mediocre or worse and
it will become chiefly a statistical and engi-
neering bureau from which leadership in
geology will have departed.
If, on the other hand, a young geologist
ean feel that every possible opportunity and
encouragement will be given to him in ad-
vancing the science of geology; that results
on the whole will be considered more im-
portant than adherence to a schedule; that
imagination and originality will be more
highly valued than routine efficiency or mere
executive capacity; that he will not be
diverted to tasks for which, important as
they may be, his training and inclination do
not particularly fit him; that those directing
the organization are interested in his develop-
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
ment and will give him all possible oppor-
tunity to demonstrate his power of growth;
and that appreciation and material reward
will be in proportion to his scientific achieve-
ment; he will then be capable of the best that
is in him and will cheerfully contribute that
best to the credit of the organization that he
serves.
A national geological survey should hold
recognized leadership in geology in the coun-
try to which it belongs and attainment of this
proud position must obviously depend upon
the quality of its geological personnel. With
respect to personnel at least three conditions
may be recognized—first, that in which the
ablest geologists in the country are drawn to,
and remain in service; second, that in which
geologists perhaps of a somewhat lower grade
as regards scientific promise are attracted to
the service for a few years of training and
then pass out to positions where the opportuni-
ties for research or for increased earnings are
greater; and third, that in which able young
men no longer look upon the geological survey
as a desirable stepping stone to a future
career. Who can doubt that it is the first
condition that raises an organization to pre-
eminence in science and the last that marks
opportunities lost or unattained? Those re-
sponsible for the success of a geological sur-
vey, if they be wise, will watch the trend of
the organization with reference to these con-
ditions much as the mariner watches his
barometer and, like him, if the indication be
threatening, take action to forestall disaster.
F. L. Ransome
DAVID S. PRATT
Dr. Dav S. Pratt, formerly assistant
director of the Mellon Institute of Industrial
Research of the University of Pittsburgh,
died in St. Louis, Mo., on January 28, after
a short illness from pneumonia. He was a
member of the American Chemical Society
and of the following fraternities: Phi Kappa
Sigma, Sigma Xi, Alpha Chi Sigma, and Phi
Lambda Upsilon.
Dr. David Shepard Pratt was born in
Towanda, Pa., on September 20, 1885, the son
SCIENCE
207
of Charles Manville and Louise Hale (Wood-
ford) Pratt. Following the completion of the
collegiate course at Cornell University (A.B.,
1908), he was appointed a fellow in chemistry
at that institution (1909-1911) and in 1911 he
received the degree of Ph.D. Dr. Pratt then
joined the staff of the Bureau of Chemistry,
Washington, D. C., as asistant chemist, but
shortly afterward was selected as chief of the
Organic Division of the Bureau of Science in
Manila, P. I., where he spent three productive
years in chemical research and as a member
of the Pure Food and Drug Board. In 1914
he decided to return to the states and accepted
a professorship of chemistry at the University
of Pittsburgh. Dr. Pratt occupied that chair
and the headship of the organic department
of the school of chemistry at “Pitt” from
1914 to 1917, in which year he was made an
assistant director of the Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research. On January 1, 1920,
Dr. Pratt resigned at the institute and was
arranging to enter consulting chemical prac-
tise in St. Louis, Mo., at the time of his fatal
illness.
Dr. Pratt was known principally for his
published investigations on phthalic acid
derivatives, but his reports of researches on
various problems in the domain of tropical
chemistry have also been of importance and
he was a recognized authority on chemical
Philippiniana. At the Mellon Institute Dr.
Pratt enjoyed broad opportunities to apply,
in the inquiries of the industrial fellowships
under his supervision, his splendid equipment
in chemistry and many results of technical
importance were obtained through his sug-
gestive aid. His profound knowledge of pure
organic chemistry and his familiarity with
research methodology were respected by his
associates and played a prominent part in es-
tablishing the high success of the system in
operation at the institute. His departure to
enter professional practise was sincerely re-
gretted by all of the members of the institu-
tion. He is survived by his wife, Fredonia
Elizabeth (Johnson) Pratt, and an infant
son, David Shepard Pratt, Jr.
W. A. H.
208
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE BONAPARTE AND LOUTREUIL FOUNDA-
TIONS OF THE PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
We learn from Nature that of the 72,500
franes placed at the disposal of the Academy
by Prince Bonaparte, it proposed to allocate
30,000 francs as follows:
Five thousand franes to Charles Alluaud, travel-
ing naturalist to the National Natural History Mu-
seum, for a geological and botanical expedition in
the Morocean Grand Atlas Chain.
Two thousand franes to A. Boutaric, for the con-
struction of an apparatus for recording nocturnal
radiation.
One thousand frances to Emile Brumpt, for con-
tinuing his work on parasitic hemoglobinuria or
piroplasmos of cattle.
Three thousand francs to H. Fauré-Fremiet, for
undertaking a series of studies on histogenesis and
certain surgical applications.
Three thousand frances to A. Guilliermond, for
pursuing his researches on lower organisms and on
mitochondria.
Three thousand franes to Joseph Martinet, for
continuing his researches on the isatins capable of
serving as raw material for the synthesis of indigo
coloring matters.
Three thousand francs to A. Vavssiéres, for the
continuation of his researches of the marine mol-
luses, family Cypreide.
Ten thousand franes to the Fédération francaise
des Sociétés de Sciences naturelles, for the publi-
cation of a fauna of France.
The committee appointed to allocate the
Loutreuil foundations recommended the fol-
lowing grants:
1. To establishments named by the founder:
Ten thousand franes to the National Museum of
Natural History, for the reorganization of its li-
brary.
Seven thousand five hundred franes to the Paris
Observatory, at the request of the Central Council
of the Observatories, for purchasing an instrument.
2. Grants applied for direct:
Six thousand franes to the Société Géologique du
Nord, to enable it to take up work interrupted by
the war.
Ten thousand franes to 1’Heole des hautes études
industrielles et commerciales ed Lille, for restoring
the material of its chemical laboratory.
Twenty thousand franes to the Observatory of
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1313
Ksara (near Beyrout). This laboratory was prac-
tically destroyed by the Turks and Germans. The
grant is towards its restoration.
Hight thousand franes to Henri Deslandres, for
the study of the radical movements of the solar
vapors and the thickness of the gaseous atmosphere
of the sun.
Seven thousand five hundred franes to Maurice
Hamy, to carry out certain improvements in astro-
nomical apparatus of precision.
Three thousand five hundred franes to Félix
Boquet, for the publication of Kepler tables.
One thousand franes to G. Raymond, for the con-
tinuation of his actinometric experiments.
Ten thousand franes to Charles Marie, for ex-
ceptional expense connected with the publication of
the ‘‘Tables annuelles de constants et données
numériques de chimie, de physique et de technol-
ogie.’’”
Ten thousand franes to the Fédération francaise
des Sociétés de Sciences naturelles, for the publica-
tion of a French fauna.
Two thousand franes to P. Lesne, for his re-
searches on the insects of peat-bogs.
Two thousand franes to A. Paillot, for his re-
searches on the microbial diseases of insects.
Two thousand franes to Just Aumiot, for the
methodical study of the varieties of potato.
Five thousand franes to Albert Peyron and Ga-
briel Petit, for the experimental study of cancer in
the larger mammals.
Three thousand franes to Th. Nogier, for com-
pleting the installation of the radio-physiological
laboratory of the Bacteriological Institute of
Lyons.
AWARD OF THE NOBEL PRIZE TO PROFESSOR
HABER
By order of the minister from Sweden the
first secretary of the legation has made public
the following statement correcting certain re-
marks that have appeared in the daily press
concerning the award by the Swedish Acad-
emy of Science of a Nobel Prize for chem-
istry to Professor Fritz Haber of Berlin-
Dahlen.
1. The invention for which the prize was
awarded to Professor Haber was the synthesis
of ammonia by direct way out of its constitu-
ent elements.
2. The report on which the award was made
stated that the Haber method of producing
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
ammonia is cheaper than any other so far
known, that the production of cheap nitric
fertilizers is of a universal importance to the
increase of food production, and that con-
sequently the Haber invention was of the
greatest value to the world at large.
3. The Haber method was invented and
published several years before the outbreak
of the great war. At the International Con-
gress for Applied Chemistry held in the United
States in 1912, it was described by Professor
Bernthsen. The method was consequently
known to all nations before the war and avail-
able to them to the same extent. It seems
to have been put into practise in the United
States.
4. Ammonia, the product of the Haber
method, must be converted into nitrie acid
in order to give rise to explosives or to cor-
rosive gases. As a matter of fact, the Haber
plants in Germany were erected with a view
to producing agricultural fertilizers.
5. As far as I know, no gas masks have
ever been manufactured in Sweden. In all
events, there existed in Sweden during the
whole war an export prohibition on all sorts
of war material. That prohibition has been
rigorously upheld.
6. The Nobel Prizes are paid in one single
post and not in monthly installments.
DYE SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
THE second meeting of the Dye Section
will be held in St. Louis, beginning Wednes-
day, April 14. At this meeting the com-
mittee on permanent organization will submit
“ By-Laws” for the consideration of the Sec-
tion, the approval of which by the Section
and by the Council, will be the necessary
steps to the permanent organization of the
Dye Chemists of the United States, as the
Dye Division of the American Chemical
Society.
The secretary asks all scientific workers in
the field of dyes to present the results of their
researches and experiences at these meetings
of the dye chemists. Papers on the manufac-
ture, properties or application of dyes, both
of coal tar or natural origin, will be of timely
SCIENCE
209
interest. Any chemist having any such sci-
entific information ready for presentation is
asked to communicate at once with the secre-
tary, giving subject and time for presentation.
As is usual, full details of the final pro-
gram, time and place of meeting can be ob-
tained by addressing Dr. C. L. Parsons, 1709
G. Street, N. W., Washington, D. C., or the
undersigned. R. Norris SHREvE,
Secretary
43 FirtH AVENUE,
New York Ciry
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Rear Apmirat Rosert Epwin Peary, re-
tired, the distinguished arctic explorer, died
at his home in Washington, on February 20,
from pernicious anemia, aged sixty-three
years.
Proressor E. G. Conxuin, of Princeton
University, and Professor T. H. Morgan, of
Columbia University, have been elected hon-
orary members of the Belgian Society of
Zoology and Malacology.
Dr. Joon R. Swanton, of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, and Dr. Truman Michel-
son, of the Bureau of American Ethnology
and professor in George Washington Univer-
sity, have been elected corresponding members
of the Société des Américanistes de Paris.
Tue Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hos-
pital for December contains a record by Dr.
Thomas S. Cullen, of the work and writings
of Dr. Henry Mills Hurd, Baltimore, who was
the first superintendent of the hospital.
Dr. James Harris Rogers, of Hyattsville,
Maryland, has received from the Maryland
Academy of Sciences, Baltimore, its in-
ventor’s medal for his work on “ underground
and sub-sea wireless.”
It is stated in Nature that the council of
the Glass Research Association has appointed
Mr. R. L. Frink, Lancaster, Ohio, director of
research. The secretary of the association
says: “ Mr. Frink has a lifelong experience of
the American glass trade and glass research,
is well known to the foremost English glass
210
manufacturers, and his appointment is wel-
comed by the British glass industry.”
Proressor Frank G. HaucuHwout has been
placed in charge of the work and investiga-
tion in protozoology and parasitology in the
Bureau of Science, Manila. He has resigned
his chair in the University of the Philippines,
but will continue to lecture to the medical
students.
Messrs. ©. G. Derick, William Hoskins,
F. A. Lidbury, A. D. Little, Charles L. Reese,
and C. P. Townsend, have been appointed as-
sociate editors with Dr. John Johnston, editor
of the Technological Monographs of the Amer-
ican Chemical Society. Messrs. G. N. Lewis,
L. B. Mendel, Julius Stieglitz and A. A.
Noyes, have been appointed associate editors
with A. A. Noyes, editor of the Scientific
Monographs of the society.
Proressor H. A. Ourtis, who has held the
chair of organic chemistry at Northwestern
University, has resigned to enter industrial
work.
Mr. R. K. Bropiz has been transferred from
the position of industrial fellow at the Mellon
Institute of Industrial Research to the chem-
ical department of the chemical division of
Proctor and Gamble Company, Ivorydale,
Ohio.
Dr. Grorc—E Hryt has become vice-presi-
dent and technical director of the Heyl Lab-
oratories, Inc., New York City.
Tue directors of the Fenger Memorial As-
sociation have awarded Dr. Harry Culver a
grant to aid in the study of certain urinary
infections.
Dr. Epwin Detter, secretary of the Brown
Animal Sanatory Institution, University of
London, has been appointed assistant secre-
tary to the Royal Society to succeed Mr. R.
W. F. Harrison, who, owing to the state of
his health, has resigned the office, which he
has held for twenty-four years.
Tue following awards have been made by
the council of the British Institution of
Mining and Metallurgy: (1) Gold medal of
the institution to Mr. H. Livingstone Sulman,
in recognition of his contributions to metal-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1313
lurgical science, with special reference to his
work in the development of flotation and its
application to the recovery of minerals. (2)
“The Consolidated Gold Fields of South
Africa, Ltd.” gold medal to Mr. William
Henry Goodchild, for his papers on “The
Economie Geology of the Insizwa Range”
and “The Genesis of Igneous Ore Deposits.”
(3) “The Consolidated Gold Fields of South
Africa, Ltd.” premium of forty guineas to
Dr. Edward Thomas Mellor, for his paper on
“The Conglomerates of the Witwatersrand.”
AT a recent meeting of the advisory com-
mittee of the American Chemical Society it
was voted to recommend to the Board of
Directors that a sum not to exceed $1,000 for
traveling expenses be placed at the disposal of
Professor W. A. Noyes, the president of the
society, for the year 1920, for the purpose of
visiting local sections of the society, such
trips to be made by arrangement with the
president but only on condition that the sec-
tion or sections visited pay one half such ex-
penses. It was suggested that local sections
so far as possible arrange with the president
or among themselves for joint meetings or
continuous routing.
Ir is noted in Nature that December 31,
marked the bicentenary of the death of John
Flamsteed, first astronomer royal of England,
and the rector of the parish of Burstow,
Surrey, where he is buried. Flamsteed was
born four years after Newton. Though pre-
vented by illness from attending a university,
he was devoted to mathematical studies, and
in 1671 sent a paper to the Royal Society.
Three years later he published his “ Ephe-
merides,” a copy of which, being presented to
Charles II. by Sir Jonas Moore, led to Flam-
steed being appointed on March 4, 1675, “our
astronomical observer” at a salary of £100
per annum, his duty being “forthwith to
apply himself with the most exact care and
diligence to the rectifying the tables of the
motions of the heavens and the places of the
fixed stars, so as to find out the so much
desired longitude of places for the perfecting
the art of navigation.” The observatory at
Greenwich, constructed partly of brick from —
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
old Tilbury Fort and of timber and lead
from the Tower of London, was designed
by Wren and built at a cost of £520, the money
being derived from the sale of spoilt gun-
powder.
A Researcu Mepicau Soclirty was organized
recently at the Loyola University School of
Medicine. The following officers were elected
for the academic year 1919-20: President,
R. M. Strong; Vice-president, F. M. Phifer;
Secretary, A. B. Dawson; Treasurer, E. S.
Maxwell; Members of the council, S. A.
Matthews, George W. Wilson, and F. B. Lusk.
Proressor Freperic S. Les, of Columbia
University, lectured recently on “ Problems of
industrial physiology ” before the Royal Ca-
nadian Institute, Toronto, and the Johns Hop-
kins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
Proressor H. N. Hoitmes, head of the chem-
istry department in Oberlin College, has re-
cently lectured at Case School of Applied Sci-
ence, Cleveland, and before the Cincinnati
section of the American Chemical Society on
“The industrial applications of colloid chem-
istry.”
An address on the “ Theories regarding the
formation of phosphate deposits ” was given at
the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station on
February 16, by Dr. Walter H. Bucher, of the
department of geology of the University of
Cincinnati.
Proressor H. Suipiey Fry, director of chem-
ical laboratories, University of Cincinnati,
lectured on “The electronic conception of
valence and the constitution of benzene” be-
fore a joint meeting of the Leigh Chemical
Society and the Lexington, Kentucky, section
of the American Chemical Society at George-
town College on February 13.
_ Av a meeting of the Faculty Club of tthe
University of Mississippi on February 2, 1920,
Dr. Hiram Byrd, director of the department
of hygiene, delivered a lecture on “ Rattle-
snakes.”
THE president of the Royal College of Physi-
cians, London, has appointed Dr. F. W. An-
drews to be Harveian orator, and Dr. R. C.
SCIENCE
211
Wall to be Bradshaw lecturer for this year.
The council has appointed Dr. Martin Flack
to be Milroy lecturer for 1921. The Oliver-
Sharpey prize for 1920 has been awarded to
Professor Emil Roux, of the Pasteur Institute,
Paris.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Mr. J. Ocpren Armour has made a further
gift of six million dollars to the Armour In-
stitute of Chicago. A new site for the school
has been purchased at the cost of one million
dollars, and five million dollars will be ex-
pended on buildings.
At Yate University, Dr. W. H. Sheldon,
of Dartmouth College, has been appointed
professor of philosophy. Dr. W. R. Longley,
has been promoted to a full professorship of
mathematies.
Dr. E. F. Hopxins, associate plant pathol-
ogist at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute
and Experiment Station, has been appointed
plant pathologist and assistant professor of
botany at the University of Missouri. Dr.
Hopkins will begin his work on April 1.
Dr. CO. L. Mercaur has been promoted to be
professor of entomology in the Ohio State
University.
Dr. H. G. Firzcrratp has received an ap-
pointment as profesor of hygiene at the Uni-
versity of Toronto, to succeed Dr. J. A.
Amyst, who has been appointed deputy min-
ister of health in the Federal Department of
Health, Ottawa.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
A PROPOSED METHOD FOR CARRYING
TRIANGULATION ACROSS WIDE GAPS
So far as is known, the possibility of ex-
tending an are of triangulation across straits
or arms of the sea has been limited in the past
to cases in which one shore is visible from the
other, or at most where the masts of a vessel
anchored in mid-channel are visible from both
shores. It has occurred to us that much wider
212
gaps may be bridged by the use of lights
raised to a high altitude by aircraft or pilot
balloons. For example, the distance between
the Florida reefs and Cuba is about 90 miles,
and the shores not high enough to permit of
intervisibility. From an aircraft at a height
of 5,000 feet or more above the middle of the
straits both sides would be readily visible in
clear weather. Suppose now that a series of
stations along the Florida coast had been con-
nected in the usual manner with the triangu-
lation net of the United States, and that an-
other series of points on the Cuban coast had
been connected with a triangulation covering
the island. A light carried by a dirigible or
pilot balloon above the middle of the straits
could be observed from two or more stations
on each shore, and its position accurately
fixed with respect to both systems of triangu-
lation. If two or three such aerial points at
distances of 30 or 40 miles along the axis of
the channel have been tied in this fashion to
both triangulations, a strong connection will
have been established between them.
It is obviously necessary either that the
“serial point” should remain fixed while ob-
servations are being made on it, or that the
observations at the different stations should
all be exactly synchronized. The first is im-
possible, but the second alternative can easily
be realized by using practically instantaneous
flashes as signals and observing them photo-
graphically. A quantity of flash powder suffi-
cient to produce a signal which could be
photographed from 50 miles distance could
probably be carried by an unmanned balloon
of moderate size and cost, or failing this, a
series of such charges attached to parachutes
and ignited by time fuses could be dropped
from a dirigible.
The photographic records would preferably
be made with lenses of moderately large
aperture and long focus, such as are used for
astronomical chart work, which give a field
of good definition several degrees in diameter.
Tf the observation stations are several miles
back from the shore line, a series of reference
lights ean be established on the shore, and
their azimuths accurately determined in ad-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1313
vance. The photographs will then show these
lights as well as the distant flashes, and the
angular elevation and azimuth of the latter
can be determined directly from the plates
themselves, in exactly the same manner in
which astronomers determine the position of
a planet with reference to neighboring stars.
A number of successive flashes could be
recorded on one plate, provided they were
so spaced as to avoid confusion, with marked
economy both in flying time and computa-
tion. Clear weather would be necessary, but
not more so than in the case of ordinary
methods of observation.
With regard to accuracy, it is well known
that this standard method of determining
angular position by the measurement of photo-
graphic plates is capable of very high
precision. For example, at the Allegheny Ob-
servatory with a 4-inch objective the probable
error of a resulting angular coordinate derived
from two plates was found to be + 0.2”. The
apparent angular diameter of the flash as seen
from a distance of 50 miles would be roughly
1” for each foot of its actual linear diameter.
As settings may be made on the center of a
photographic image within 1 per cent. or 2
per cent. of its diameter, the azimuth of the
flash should be obtainable with sufficient
accuracy for purposes of primary triangula-
tion, particularly as the mean position deter-
mined from the several successive flashes on
one plate should be regarded as the real unit
of observation. Irregularities in refraction
are likely to be less serious than in the case
of rays which pass closer to the earth’s
surface. :
This method might also be advantageous in
crossing wide areas of swamp or jungle. The
limiting distance over which it is available
can be determined only by actual experiment,
but it is likely to exceed 100 miles, which
would be great enough to permit the exten-
sion of continuous triangulation along the
whole chain of the West Indies. The theoret-
ical distance of the horizon from an altitude
of 20,000 feet is over 170 miles, so that if the
difficulties involved in producing flashes pho-
tographically observable at this great distance
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
can be surmounted, it may ultimately be
possible to connect Australia with the East
Indies and so with Asia.
H. L. Coorg,
Henry Norris Russenu
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
TWO NEW BASE MAPS OF THE
UNITED STATES
Aw outline base map of the United States
on the Lambert Zenithal equal area projection,
scale 1—7,500,000, dimensions 19? inches by
25% inches, price 15 cents, has just been
issued by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
The map covers the whole of the United
States, including the northern part of Mexico.
Only state names and boundaries, principal
rivers, capitals, and largest cities are shown,
the chief object being to furnish a base map
for political, census, or statistical purposes on
a projection in which the property of equiv-
alence of area is one of the essential features.
It is the first publication of a projection of
this type by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
The two errors, to one or both of which all
map projections are liable, are change of area
and distortion, as applying to portions of the
earth’s surface. Errors of distortion imply
deviation from right shape in the graticules
or network of meridians and parallels of the
map, involving deformation of angles, curva-
ture of meridians, changes of scale, and errors
of distance, bearings, or area.
In the mercator projection as well as in
the Lambert Conformal Conic projection, the
changes in scale and area can not truly be
considered as distortion or as error. A mere
alteration of size in the same ratio in all
directions is not considered distortion or
error. These projections being conformal,
both scale and area are correct in any re-
stricted locality when referred to the scale of
that locality, but as the scale varies in lati-
tude from point to point large areas are not
correctly represented.
In the Lambert Zenithal projection the
zenith of the central point of the surface to
be represented appears as pole in the center
of the map; the azimuth of any point within
SCIENCE
213
the surface, as seen from the central point,
is the same as that for the corresponding
points of the map; and from the same central
point, in all directions, equal great circle dis-
tances to points on the earth are represented
by equal linear distances on the map. The
amount of scale error, as we depart from the
center of the map radially, increases (scale
becoming smaller), while in a direction at
right angles thereto the scale is by the same
amount too great.
For a distance from the assumed center of
the map equal to 22 degrees of are of a great
circle, an extent embracing the whole of the
United States, the maximum scale error is
but one and seven eighths per cent. The
amount of this error is less than one third of
the scale error in a polyconie projection of
the same area, while the direction errors
(errors of angles and azimuths) are likewise
considerably less than in the latter projection.
An outline base map of the United States
on the Lambert Conformal Conic projection,
scale, 15,000,000, dimensions, 25 by 39 inches,
price, 25 cents, has also been issued by the
Coast and Geodetic Survey. This map is
similar to the one on the Zenithal Equal Area
projection in general treatment. It is larger
in scale, however, but embraces a lesser extent
of latitude, being limited to the area of the
United States, whereas the zenithal equal area
map includes the greater portion of Mexico.
The map is of special interest from the fact
that it is based on the same system of pro-
jection as that which was employed by the
allied forces in the military operations in
France.
The term conformal has been defined as
follows: If at any point the scale along the
meridian and the parallel is the same (not
correct, but the same in the two directions)
and the parallels and meridians of the map
are at right angles to one another, then the
shape of any very small area on the map is
the same as the shape of the corresponding
small area upon the earth. The projection is
then called orthomorphiec (right shape).
The value of this new outline map can best
be realized when it is stated that throughout
214
the larger and most important part of the
United States, that is, between latitudes 304°
and 474°, the maximum scale error is only
one half of one per cent. Only in southern-
most Florida and Texas does this projection
attain its maximum scale error of 23 per cent.
This implies, however, an error in the areas
at these extreme parts equal to the square of
the linear distortion, or an error of 5% per
cent.
While this error in area may be accounted
for by methods already described, the Zenithal
projection on the other hand is free from this
inconvenience.
The choice then between the Lambert
zenithal and the Lambert conformal for a
base map of the United States, disregarding
scale and direction errors which are con-
veniently small in both projections, rests
largely upon the choice of equal area as rep-
resented by the Zenithal and conformality as
represented by the Conformal Conic projec-
tion—the former property appealing directly
to the practical use of the map, the latter
property being one of mathematical refine-
ment and symmetry with definite scale factors
available, the projection having two parallels
of latitude of true scale, the advantages of
straight meridians as an element of prime
importance, and the possibilities of indefinite
east and west extension without increase of
seale error.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
SUBSTITUTES FOR PHENOLPHTHALEIN AND
METHYL ORANGE IN THE TITRATION
OF FIXED AND HALF-BOUND CO;
Durinc the past year the writer has had
occasion to make a great many determina-
tions of sodium carbonate in the presence of
the hydrate by the double titration method
with phenolphthalein and methyl orange as
indicators. The end point with methyl
orange was not satisfactory. A number of
new indicators were tried with the result that
two were found which may be used as substi-
tutes for phenolphthalein and methyl orange.
1 Published by permission of the Secretary of
Agriculture.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1313
An added advantage of these two indicators?
is that both have the same color changes. Six
drops of one indicator in 75 e.c. of solution
gives a fairly deep blue in the presence of
sodium hydrate and carbonate and on titra-
tion with hydrochloric acid retains this color
until the hydrate is all neutralized and the
carbonate converted into bicarbonate when it
changes at the neutral point to a muddy
green and then with a slight excess of acid to
a lemon yellow. The addition of three drops
of the second indicator will now change the
solution to a deep blue, which continues until
the bicarbonate has all been destroyed, when
the solution shows the same intermediate
change as before and becomes a lemon yellow
again when a slight excess of acid is present.
These indicators are among the nine recom-
mended by Clark & Lubs? for the colorimetric
determination of hydrogen ion concentration.
The first indicator, thymol blue (thymol sulfon
phthalein) is prepared by introducing 1 deci-
gram of the substance into a Florence flask
and then adding 4.3 cc. of n/20 sodium hy-
droxid. The solution is best heated by intro-
ducing the flask into hot water and agitating
until the indicator is all dissolved. When
solution is complete, the volume is made up to
250 ee. with distilled water.
The substitute for methyl orange is brom
phenol blue (tetra bromo phenol sulfon
phthalein). This indicator is made up in
the same way except that 1 decigram requires
only 3.0 cc. of n/20 sodium hydroxide.
F. M. Scarzs
U. 8S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF
ZOOLOGISTS
Tur American Society of Zoologists held its
seventeenth annual meeting in conjunction with
Section F of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and the Ecological So-
ciety of America, December 29, 30 and 31, in the
Soldan High School building, St. Louis, Missouri.
President C. M. Child presided throughout the
2These indicators may be obtained from Hyn-
son, Westcott & Dunning, of Baltimore, Maryland.
8 Clark, Wm. Mansfield, and Lubs, Herbert A.,
Jour. of Bacteriology, Vol. II., Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
meetings. The other officers for the year were:
Vice-president, H. H. Wilder; Secretary-Treasurer,
W. C. Allee; Hxecutive Committee, L. J. Cole, R.
P. Bigelow, H V. Wilson, M. M. Metcalf, George
Lefevre; Member Council A. A. A. S., C. P. Siger-
foos; Local Representative, Caswell Grave.
ELECTION OF MEMBERS
At tthe business meeting the Executive Commit-
tee recommended the following persons for elec-
tion to membership in the society: George Delwin
Allen, Albert W. Bellamy, William Charles Boeck,
Calvin O. Hsterly, Frank Blair Hanson, Charles
Eugene Johnson, Hrnest Everett Just, James Er-
nest Kindred, Mrs. Ruth Stocking Lynch, Thomas
Byrd Magath, James Watt Mayor, Dwight Elmer
Minnich, Carl R. Moore, Thurlow Chase Nelson,
Nadine Nowlin, Charles H. O. Donoghue, Albert
Dunean Robertson, Francis Metealf Root, Elizabeth
Anita Smith, Dayton Stoner, Gertrude Marean
White, Sadao Yoshida. All were duly elected.
The treasurer’s report showed a balance of
$809.59, an increase for the year of $63.21.
ADVISORY BOARD
At the request of Frank R. Lillie, chairman of
the committee on cooperation and coordination of
the Division of Biology and Agriculture of the
National Research Council, the executive commit-
tee approved, and the society passed the following
resolution:
Resolved: That there be established a permanent
committee to be called the advisory board of the
American Society of Zoologists, consisting of eight
members appointed by the executive committee,
two each for periods of one, two, three and four
years; and thereafter two each year for a four-
year term. The chairman of the board shall be
elected annually by the board.
The duties of the board shall be:
1. To represent the American Society of Zool-
ogists before the National Research Council.
2. To correlate the various research agencies of
the country in zoology; including various govern-
ment bodies, both national and state, museums, re-
search establishments and universities.
3. To promote international relations in zoology.
4. To take up other problems for the promotion
of research in zoology, subject to the approval of
The Executive Committee.
President Child announced the appointment by
the executive committee of the following advisory
board: F. R. Lillie, Wm. E. Castle, C. C. Nutting,
G. N. Calkins, J. T. Patterson, M. M. Metealf, V.
E. Shelford, Robert Chambers, Jr.
SCIENCE
215
THE JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY
Owing to the request of Professor J. 8S. Kings-
ley to be relieved of the editorial management of
the Journal of Morphology at a date in 1920 not
yet definitely fixed, The Wistar Institute through
M. J. Greenman, its director, approached the Amer-
ican Society of Zoologists, proposing that the so-
ciety assume responsibility for the scientifie policy
and the election of the editorial board of the
Journal of Morphology, subject to the approval of
the advisory board of The Wistar Institute and
full financial responsibility for the Journal to be
kept by The Wistar Institute.
Mr. Greenman further proposed that the society
appoint a small special committee on publication
which should meet with the advisory board of The
Wistar Institute in Philadelphia at certain of its
regular meetings held in April to discuss journal
affairs in general, and those of the Journal of
Morphology in particular.
Whenever the committee was called to attend a
meeting in Philadelphia all expenses of travel and
entertainment incident thereto are to be paid by
The Wistar Institute.
After discussion it was voted to approve the
general proposition of assuming responsibility for
the scientific policy, and the appointment of the
editorial board of the Journal of Morphology;
and the Executive Committee was instructed to ap-
point a committee on publication whose duties
would be:
1. To initiate a scientific policy concerning the
Journal of Morphology.
2. To nominate an editorial board.
3. To consult with the advisory board of The
Wistar Institute concerning both the proposed
policy and the editorial nominations.
4. To refer the recommendations for final de
cision to the executive committee in 1920, and
thereafter through the executive committee to the
society at its annual meeting.
M. M. Metcalf, Caswell Grave and W. E. Castle
have been duly appointed members of the Com-
mittee on Publication.
NEW BY-LAW
The following new By-law was adopted:
By-Laws (Add) No. 4
The National Research Council allows the so-
ciety three representatives on the Division of Biol-
ogy and Agriculture. Of these three representa-
tives, one shall be elected each year to serve three
years. The method of election shall be the same
as that used in the election of the officers of the
society.
216
PROPOSED CHANGE IN CONSTITUTION
Although final action could not be taken at this
meeting, the following proposed amendment to the
Constitution was read:
Article II. -(Add) Section 4
Honorary fellows, regardless of membership in
the society, may be elected upon unanimous rec-
ommendation of the executive committee, by a ma-
jority vote of the members present at any meeting
of the society. The number of honorary fellows
shall be limited to ten and not more than one shall
be elected on any one meeting of the society.
Honorary fellowships does not involve the payment
of dues nor does it eonfer the right to vote.
After discussion, it was voted that any amend-
ment to the constitution shall not contemplate the
elevation of members of the society, and that hon-
orary membership shall be limited to members of
foreign societies,
RESOLUTIONS
The resolution committee, consisting of Caswell
Grave, Bennet M. Allen and Chancey Juday, re-
ported the following resolutions, which were
adopted by standing vote, and ordered spread on
the records:
William Erskine Kellicott
1878-1919
Mindful of the great loss sustained by the Amer-
ican Society of Zoologists and zoological science
in the death of William Erskine Kellicott, the
members of the society find comfort and satisfac-
tion in recalling the mature and substantial char-
acter of his scientific contributions, the unusual
abilities he displayed asa teacher of zoology, and
above all the pleasing personality of their co-
worker and friend.
The society, therefore, desires to record this
minute in recognition of his services to zoological
science and to mankind.
George L. Kite
1882-1919
During the brief period of his labors, George L.
Kite showed special aptitude, and an adequate
preparation for the investigation of the difficult
problems which lie in the field where zoology,
chemistry and physics meet. His loss is only par-
tially repaired by the inspiration which the meth-
ods he developed and the results he attained are
affording to the workers who have taken up the
problems he relinquished.
The American Society of Zoologists places this
minute on record, thereby expressing its regret at
the early loss of this promising member.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The nominating committee composed of S. O.
Mast, V. E. Shelford and B. M. Allen, reported the
following nominations:
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1313
President, Gilman A. Drew.
Vice-president, Caswell Grave.
Member Executive Committee to serve five
years, C. M. Child.
Member of Division of Biology and Agriculture,
National Research Council, to serve three years,
F, R. Lillie. t
Nominations from the floor were called for but
none was suggested, and the officers as presented
by the Nominating Committee were duly elected.
On nomination of the executive committee, OC. C.
Nutting was elected member of the council of the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science in place of C. P. Sigerfoos, resigned.
SESSIONS FOR THE PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION
OF PAPERS
At the meetings of the society for the presenta-
tion and discussion of papers a total of 42 papers
were presented in full, and 28 were read by title.
Seventeen of the papers were followed by discus-
sion.
List of Titles
The titles have been arranged by the secretary
of the zoologists according to the rules of the so-
ciety, in the order of their arrival.
Papers marked with an asterisk were read by
title.
Embryology
*The individuality of the germ-nuclei during the
cleavage of the egg of Cryptobranchus alleghe-
niensis: BERTRAM G. SMITH, Michigan State
Normal College.
*A sex intergrade pig which resembles a free-mar-
tin: WinL Scort, Indiana University.
Retention of dead fetuses in utero and its bearing
on the problems of superfetation and superfecun-
dation: AuBErtT Kuntz, St. Louis University,
School of Medicine.
*An explanation of the early development of the
peripheral nervous system in the vertebrate em-
bryo: H. H. Lanz, University of Oklahoma.
The thyroid and parathyroid glands of Bufo tad-
poles deprived of the pituitary glands: BENNET
M. ALLEN, University of Kansas.
The influence of thyroid extirpation upon the vari-
ous organs of Bufo larve: BENNET M. ALLEN,
University of Kansas.
Stages in the development of the thymus, para-
thyroid and ultimobranchial bodies in turtles:
CHARLES EUGENE JOHNSON, department of zool-
ogy, University of Kansas.
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
The results of the extirpation of the thyroid and
of the pituitary anlagen on the suprarenal tissue
in Rana pipiens: Auicr L. Brown, Kansas State
Agricultural College. (Introduced by B. M.
Allen.)
Cytology
*The effect of hypotonic and hypertonic solutions
on fibroblasts of the embryonic chick heart in
vitro: M. J. Hocus, school of hygiene and public
health, Johns Hopkins University.
*Coelenterates and the evolution of germ cells:
Grorce IT. Hareirr, Syracuse University.
Cytological criteria for the determination of
Amebic cysts in man: S. I. KornHAuser, Deni-
son University.
The spermatogenesis of Anolis carolinensis: THE-
oPHILUS S. PatnTER, University of Texas.
The presence of a longitudinal split in chromosomes
prior to their union in parasynapsis: W. R. B.
RosERTSON, University of Kansas.
Chromosome studies in Tettigide. II. Chromosomes
of BB, CC and the hybrid BC in the genus
Paratettia: Mary T. Harman, zoology depart-
ment, Kansas State Agricultural College.
Parasitology
Notes on the life-cycle of two species of Acantho-
cephala from fresh-water fishes: H. J. VAN
CuzAveE, University of Illinois.
On the life-history of the gape-worm (Synagamus
trachealis): B. H. Ransom, U. S. Bureau of
Animal Industry, Washington, D. C.
A new bladder fluke from the frog: JoHN E.
GUBERLET, Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment
Station, Stillwater, Okla.
Studies on the development of Ascarida perspicil-
lum, parasitic in fowls: JAMES E. ACKERT, Kan-
sas State Agricultural College.
*New data bearing on the life-history of Sarco-
cystis tenella: JoHN W. Scorr, University of
Wyoming.
Contributions to the life-history of Gordius robustus
Leidy: H. G. May, Mississippi College.
Leucochloridium problematicum n. sp.: THOMAS
Byrp Magatu, Mayo Clinic. (Lantern.)
Two new genera of Acanthocephala from V enezue-
lan fishes: H. J. VAN CLEAVE, University of
Tilinois.
*Note on the behavior of embryos of the fringed
tapeworm: JOHN W. Scort, University of Wy-
oming.
Contributions to the life-history of Paragordius
varius (Leidy): H. G. May, Mississippi College.
SCIENCE
217
Genetics
Selection for increased and decreased bristle num-
ber in the mutant strain ‘‘reduced’’: F. PAYNE,
Indiana University.
The mutational series, full to bar to ultra bar, in
Drosophila: CHARLES ZELENY, University of
Illinois,
Variation m the percentage of crossovers and se-
lection: J. A. DETLEFSEN and E. Roserts, Col-
lege of Agriculture, University of Illinois.
Inheritance of color in the domestic turkey: W. R.
B. RoBertson, University of Kansas.
Heredity of orange eye color: F, PAYNE and Mar-
GARET DENNY, Indiana University.
The tabulation of factorial values for eye-facet
number in the bar races of Drosophila: CHARLES
ZELENY, University of Illinois.
Linkage of genetic factors in mice: J. A. Drt-
LEFSEN and E. Roserts, College of Agriculture,
University of Illinois.
Forty-two generations of selection for high and
low facet number in the white bar-eyed race of
Drosophila: CHARLES ZELENY, University of
Tilinois.
On the inheritance of congenital cataract in dairy
cattle: J. A. DETLEFSEN and W. W. Yapp, Col-
lege of Agriculture University of Illinois.
Ecology and General Physiology
Observations on the habits of larval colonies of
Pectinatella: StspHen R. WituiAMs, Miami
University.
Animal aggregations: W. C. AuLEr, Lake Forest
College.
Behavior of the larve of Corethra punctipennis
Say: CHAUNCEY JuDAY, Wisconsin Natural His-
tory Survey.
* Studies on chitons: W. J. Crozizr, Hull Zoolog-
ieal Laboratory, University of Chicago.
*On the natural history of Onchidium: LESLIE B.
Arry and W. J. Crozier, Northwestern Univer-
sity, University of Chicago.
*The olfactory sense of Orthoptera: N. E. Mc-
InDoo, Bureau of NHntomology, Washington,
1D), Oe
On a new principle underlying movement in organ-
isms: A, A. SCHAEFFER, University of Tennessee.
The relation of the concentration of oxygen to the
rate of respiratory metabolism in Planaria: E.
J. Lunp, Laboratory of General Physiology,
University of Minnesota.
*Haperimental studies on the cerebral cortez and
218
corpus striatum of the pigeon: F. T. Roazrs,
Marquette School of Medicine.
*Photic orientation in the drone-fly, Eristalis
tenax: S. O. Mast, Johns Hopkins University.
*Behavior of a tunicate larva: W. J. Crozier, The
University of Chicago.
*Vision in the seventeen-year locust, Cicada sep-
tendecim: S. O. Mast, Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity.
*Periodicity in the photic responses of the eugle-
noid, Septocinclis texta, and its bearing on re-
version in the sense of orientation: S. O. Mast,
Johns Hopkins University.
* Adaptation to light in Huglena variabilis (?) and
tts bearing on reversion in orientation: S. O.
Mast, Johns Hopkins University.
*The maze-behavior of white rats in the second
generation after alcoholic treatment: E. C. Mac-
DoweE.t and E. M. Vicari, Carnegie Institution
of Washington.
*The relation of modifiability of behavior and
metabolism in land isopods: C. H, Assort,
Massachusetts Agricultural College. (From the
Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale University ;
introduced by Henry Laurens.)
The rate of carbon dioxide production by pieces of
Planaria, in relation to the theory of azial
gradients: GEORGE DELWIN ALLEN, University
of Minnesota. (Introduced by E. J. Lund.)
Evolution
*Trreversible differentiation and orthogenesis: C.
JUDSON HERRICK, The University of Chicago.
*An analysis of the sexual modifications of an ap-
pendage in sex-intergrade Daphnia longispina:
A. M. Banta and Mary Gover, Station for Ex-
perimental Evolution.
Comparative Anatomy
*The Urodele vomer:
Smith College.
“The origin, function and fate of the test-vesicles
of Amaroucium constellatum: CASWELL GRAVE,
Washington University. (Lantern.)
Respiratory organs of Ucides caudatus, a West In-
dian land crab: C. C. Nurrine, University of
Towa. (Lantern.)
*The homologies and development of the papal or-
gan of male spiders: W. M. Barrows, Ohio
State University.
*Morphology of the enteron of the periodical ci-
cada, Tibicen septendecim Linn: CHARLES W.
Hareirr and L. M. HicKERNELL, Syracuse Uni-
versity.
Inrz WHIPPLE WILDER,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LL No, 1313
"Sexual dimorphism in Nemertians: W. R. Cor,
Yale University.
The columella auris of the Reptilia: Epwarp L.
Rice, Ohio Wesleyan University.
“The spiracular organ of elasmobranch, ganoid
and dipnoan fishes: H. W. Norris and Sauny
P. Hua@uss, Grinnell College.
Invitation Program
Faunal areas on the Pacific slope of South Amer-
ica: C. H. EIGENMANN, University of Indiana.
Discussion led by C. C. Nutting, University of
Towa.
Polyembryony and sex: J. T. PaTTerRson, Texas
University.
Discussion led by S. I. Kornhauser, Denison Uni-
versity.
Physiological life histories of terrestrial animals:
V. E. SHELFORD, Illinois Natural History Sur-
vey and the University of Illinois.
Discussion led by Thomas Headlee, New Jersey
Agricultural Experiment Station.
The work of the National Research Council in re-
lation to zoology: C. E. McCuune, chairman,
Division of Biology and Agriculture, National
Research Council.
Papers Contributed by The Ecological Society of
America
Hydrogen ion concentration in the different stages
of pond succession: V. H. SHELFORD, Illinois Nat-
ural History Survey.
Distribution of life on a river bottom: A. D. How-
ArD, U. 8. Bureau of Fisheries.
Changes observed in river fauna above Keokuk
Dam: A. D. Howarp, U. 8. Bureau of Fisheries.
Ecological succession of imsects in stored food
products: Roya N. CHapMan, University of
Minnesota.
Papers following the Zoology Dinner
The message of the biologist, vice-presidential ad-
dress for Section F: WiLLIAM PATTEN, Dart-
mouth College.
Motion pictures of the Barbadoes-Antigua Expedi-
tion: C. C. Nurtine, University of Iowa.
EXHIBITS
Slides of stained cysts of the intestinal amebas
and flagellates of man: S. I. KornwAusER, Deni-
son University.
Wire models of paths of oyster larve, dero, ete.:
A, A. ScHAEFrER, University of Tennessee.
FEBRUARY 27, 1920]
The embryonic columella auria of the lizard,
Humeces: Epwarpd L. Rick, Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity.
Phenotypes in coat colors in mice: J. A. DrtTuEr-
SEN and ELMER Roperts, Laboratory of Genet-
ies, College of Agriculture, University of Illi-
nois,
Demonstration of synapsis stages in the chromo-
somes of grouse locusts and other grasshoppers:
W. R. B. Rosertson, University of Kansas.
Feathers illustrating the inheritance of color in
varieties of the domestic turkey: W. R. B.
ROBERTSON, University of Kansas.
The development of the asexual larve in Para-
copidosomopsis: J. T. PATTERSON, University of
Texas.
Full proceedings of the meeting together with
abstracts of papers and a list of members and their
addresses will be found in the Anatomical Record
for January, 1920.
W. C. ALLEE,
Secretary
THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF
AMERICA
At a meeting held in the quarters of the
Department of Mineralogy at Harvard Uni-
versity on December 30 a group of 28 mineral-
ogists from all sections of the United States,
including representatives from Canada, or-
ganized a new society to be known as the
Mineralogical Society of America. This ac-
tion was the outcome of a movement started
at the Albany meeting of the Geological
Society of America in 1916 for the bringing
together into a permanent organization of
workers in science whose interest lay largely
or wholly in mineralogy, crystallography or
those allied sciences which include physical
erystallography and mineral synthesis.
A provisional Constitution and By-Laws
were adopted which defined the object of the
society as the advancement of mineralogy,
crystallography and the allied sciences and
provided for several forms of membership, as
follows:
1. Fellows, who are to be nominated by the
council, must qualify for eligibility by having
produced some published results of research
in mineralogy, crystallography or the allied
sciences. Fellows are eligible for office in the
SCIENCE
219
society and may vote upon amendments to
the Constitution.
2. Members, who comprise persons who are
engaged in or interested in mineralogy, crys-
tallography or the allied sciences, but who are
not qualified for fellowship. Membership
carries with it the right to vote upon all
matters except the amendment of the Con-
stitution, but members are not eligible for
office.
The Constitution also provides for Patrons,
who shall have conferred material favors upon
the society and Correspondents, or residents
outside of North America who are sufficiently
distinguished in the subjects for which the
society stands to warrant their receiving this
recognition.
Because it was recognized that the com-
paratively small attendance at the meeting
did not adequately represent the probable
initial membership of the society, the lists of
charter fellows and members have been kept
open until a later meeting of the society.
It is expected that the general membership
of the society at the close of 1920 will number
some 350 to 400 fellows and members.
It was decided to publish a journal devoted
to mineralogy, crystallography and the allied
seiences, which shall be the official organ of
the society, and which the general member-
ship of the society shall be entitled to receive.
The present plan is to enlarge the American
Mineralogist to include research papers and
abstracts, but at the same time to retain the
valuable features of this publication which
has become recognized as of permanent inter-
est to such collectors and amateurs who are
eligible to membership but not fellowship.
The council of the society has under con-
sideration the question of affiliation with the
Geological Society of America.
The provisional officers of the new society
which were elected at the December meeting
are: President, E. H. Kraus, of the Univer-
sity of Michigan; Vice-president, T. L.
Walker, of the University of Toronto; Secre-
tary, H. P. Whitlock, of the American Museum
of Natural History; Treasurer, A. B. Peck,
of the Bureau of Standards, Washington;
220
Editor, E. T. Wherry, of the Bureau of
Chemistry, Washington; and Councilors, A.
S. Eakle, of the University of California (1
year); F. R. Van Horn, of the Case School of
Applied Science, Cleveland (2 years); F. KE.
Wright, of the Carnegie Geophysical Labora-
tory, Washington (8 years); and A. H.
Phillips, of Princeton University (4 years).
The formation of a society whose object is
to promote and foster the mineralogical sci-
ences comes at a time when there is a distinct
need in this country for such a body. The
growing importance of this field of research,
already felt to a marked degree in the period
preceding the war, has now with the necessary
curtailing of scientific activity in Europe,
assumed scope and size. It is acknowledged
by observers of the trend of events that scien-
tific prestige has come to abide in America
rather than in the countries of the Old World.
No more keenly is this tendency sensed than
in those industries which are demanding
trained workers in crystallography and phys-
ical mineralogy for their research laboratories.
If then, science is to keep pace with industry
in this period of reconstruction and if our
universities and technical schools are to
supply to the increasing stream of students
coming to us from abroad, the high standard
of scientific education which has come to be
demanded of us, it is eminently right and
fitting that such specialized bodies as the
Mineralogical Society of America should be
formed and fostered.
Hersert P. WHITLOCK,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
SECTION A—MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY
INASMUCH as the American Mathematical Society
and the Mathematical Association of America both
had meetings at St. Louis during the period of the
meeting of the American Association, only one for-
mal meeting was held of Section A. At this meet-
ing, which was a joint meeting with the American
Mathematical Society, the following papers were
given:
Recent progress in dynamics: PRoressor G. D.
BIRKHOFF, retiring vice-president of Section A.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1313
Some recent developments in the calculus of varia-
tions: PRoFEsSsSoR G. A. BLISS, retiring chairman
of the Chicago Section of the American Mathe-
matical Society.
A suggestion for the utilization of atmospheric
molecular energy: Mr. H. H. Puarr.
What has been heretofore Section A has been
divided into two sections, ‘‘ A’’—Mathematies, and
“¢B’’—Astronomy. The officers of Section A are
as follows:
Vice-president—D. R. Curtiss, Northwestern Uni-
versity.
Secretary—Wm. H. Roever, Washington Univer-
sity).
Members of Sectional Committee—5 years, Dun-
ham Jackson, University of Minnesota; 4 years, A.
D, Pitchard, Western Reserve University; 3 years,
G, A. Bliss, University of Chicago; 2 years, James
Page, University of Virginia; 1 year, H. L. Rietz,
University of Iowa.
Member of the Council—G, A. Miller, Univer-
sity of Illinois.
Member of General Committee—E. V. Hunting-
ton, Harvard University.
The officers of Section B are:
Vice-president—Joel Stebbins,
Illinois.
Secretary—F. R. Moulton, University of Chicago.
Members of the Sectional Committee—5 years,
Philip Fox, Northwestern University; 4 years, H.
N. Russell, Princeton University; 3 years, Harlow
Shapley, Solar Observatory; 2 years, H. D. Curtis,
Lick Observatory; 1 year, J. M. Poor, Dartmouth
College.
Member of the Council—S. A. Mitchell, Univer-
sity of Virginia.
Member of General Committee—E. B. Frost,
Yerkes Observatory. F. R. Movuiton,
Secretary
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official netices and pro-
ceedings of the American Asseciation for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattes
University of
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SCIENCE
New SzRizs SINGLE CoriEs, 15 Crs.
Vou. LI, No. 1814 FRIDAY, Marcu 5, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
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3.—The illustrations—numerous outline sketches, because nothing is more
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4.—A thorough summary of today’s physiologic literature, making the
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SCIENCE
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CONTENTS
American Association for the Advancement of
Science :—
Some Aspects of Physics in War and
Peace: Proressor GorDON F. HULL ...... 221
Board of Surveys and Maps of the Federal
Government: WILLIAM BOWIE ........----. 233
The Cinchona Tropical Botanical Station again
Available: Proressor DuNCAN S. JOHNSON. 235
Entomology in the United States National Mu-
seum
Scientific Events :—
Manganese in Costa Rica and Panama; The
Cambridge Natural Science Club; Fellow-
ship of the New Zealand Institute ........ 237
Scientific Notes and News ........+.++++++- 239
University and Educational News .......... 242
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Mathematics at the University of Stras-
bourg: PRoressor EDWIN BIDWELL WIL-
son. Professor Pawlow: PROFESSOR FRAN-
cis G. BENEDIcT. Anopheles quadrimacu-
latus and Anopheles punctipennis in Salt
Water: Dr. F. E. Comestrer. A Paraffine
Ruler for drawing Curves: Dr. D. F. JONES. 243
The Handwriting on the Walls of Universities. 245
Special Articles :—
Two Destructive Rusts ready to wvade
the United States: Proressor J. C. ARTHUR.
The Fixation of Free Nitrogen by Green
J21HSS 1), 18, VNR, cocoboocccocoououaKe 246
The American Physiological Society: Pro-
FESSOR CHAS. W. GREENE ............-.. 248
MSS. intended for publication and books, ete.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
SOME ASPECTS OF PHYSICS IN WAR
AND PEACE!
SOME APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICS TO WAR
PROBLEMS
PART I.
A YEAR ago in Baltimore we met with peace
in prospect. The armistice had been signed.
But like a strong runner who had just gotten
under way we found it difficult to stop. We
continued many of the programs of war.
Many of us were still in uniform. Our
thoughts were still largely concerned with
those problems upon which we had been en-
gaged. But now most of us are back to our
normal pursuits, eager as we had been during
the war to contribute our energies to securing
the welfare of the nation. The tumult and
the shouting dies, the captains and the kings
depart, still stands the ancient and abiding
sacrifice, the labor of unselfish service which
we regard as the natural birthright of
scientific men.
We are still too near the war to get a clear
perspective of the extent to which the various
agencies contributed to its successful prosecu-
tion. But we can examine it in part and later
the results of our examination can be gathered
together. It had been my intention to pass
in review the many ways in which physics
had been applied to the problems of war, but
these had been so numerous and so extensive
that my time would be given to a mere
enumeration of the activities. For the war
was one of many elements and many dimen-
sions. Leaving aside the human and, I may
add, the inhuman elements, and considering
those confined to space, we had warfare in the
air, on the surface of the earth, under the
earth, on and under the sea. Applications of
science were everywhere. Many of the appli-
eations of physics have been presented else-
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section B—Physies—American Association for the
Advancement of Science, St. Louis, December, 1919.
222
where and at length. You have been told
the story of aviation, of the physical labora-
tory on wing; the story of wireless between
stations on the surface of the earth, under
water and high in the air; the story of signal-
ing through the darkness of night or the
brightness of day; the story of sound-ranging,
of spotting enemy guns and the explosions of
our own projectiles seeking out those guns
and of the re-directing of our guns until those
of the enemy had been destroyed; the story
of submarine detection and of the extremely
valuable applications which the study of that
problem brought to us—the ability literally
to sound the ocean—the ability to guide a
ship through fog or past shoals. These and
other stories you know. Indeed, many of you
contributed to their unfolding. It is my
desire here to present briefly some develop-
ments in a branch concerning which little has
been written, viz., warfare with guns, project-
iles, bombs. Later I want to turn from the
contemplation of problems of war to view our
subject in its relation to peace.
The English playwright, John Drinkwater,
represents Abraham Lincoln as saying “the
appeal to force is the misdeed of an imperfect
world.” Unfortunately the world is still im-
perfect. In the horrible business of killing
people in war, guns of all sizes and kinds are
the effective weapons. Have you reflected on
the enormous extent to which artillery was
used in the Great War? According to Sir
Charles Parsons, on the British Front alone,
in one day, nearly one million rounds of
nearly 20,000 tons of projectiles were fired.
Extend this along both sides of the Eastern
and Western fronts and you may gain some
idea of the daily amount of metal fired by
guns.
The actual American contribution of artil-
lery to the war was very small but at the time
of the Armistice we were making progress.
In America we often measure things by
money. The total amount of money author-
ized for artillery, including motor equipment,
was $3,188,000,000, and for machine guns
was $1,102,600,000. Judged by the money ex-
pended for them, guns are of importance.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI, No. 1314
It is essential that we get as effective guns as
possible and that we know how to use them.
Aircraft, and anti-aireraft warfare, barrage
firing, long range guns—all of these call for a
very complete and accurate knowledge con-
cerning the motion of a projectile and the
energy required to carry it to a certain place
and to cause it there to explode at a chosen
time. Exterior and interior ballistics are
thus matters of great importance.
For two hundred years or more the subject
of exterior ballistics has been regarded as
belonging to’ pure mathematics. But into
this realm physicists at times intruded. To
Newton we ascribe the law that the resistance
which a body experiences in passing through
the air varies as the square of the velocity.
But that great scientist made it clear that
that might not be the only law. Euler, one
hundred and fifty years ago, proved various
mathematical results. Assuming the air re
sistance to vary as the square of the velocity
and that the density of the air did not change
with altitude, he showed that the coordinates
x, y, and the time can be computed by quad-
ratures. His method of taking the angle of
slope of the trajectory as the independent
variable has been followed by most of his
successors in ballistics.
Even in Euler’s method the variation of the
density of the air with altitude can be allowed
for by using small ares and by changing the
constant of proportionality in the law of air
resistance to accord with the new density.
His method can in general be followed where
the law of air resistance is that given by
Mayevski, viz.,
A,V"
Ei nnG
where
m—2 for V between 0 and 790 f.s.
= 3 790 970
=5 970 1,230
1 1,230 1,370
=2 1,370 1,800
= il 1,800 2,600
= 1.55 2,600 3,600
Siacci, with his elusive pseudo-velocity, has
been the chief contributor along this line. His
Marcu 5, 1920]
method as elaborated by Ingalls and Hamilton
has been the standard in American works on
ballistics.
In Mayevski’s law as given in American
texts
A,V™
=
C is called the ballistic coefficient. Being the
reciprocal of a resistance it represents the
penetrating power or ability of a projectile to
continue in motion. It is assumed to be con-
stant for any definite projectile. But it was
found that when the angle of elevation was
changed, or even the muzzle velocity, in gen-
eral C had to be changed to allow for the new
range. Attempts have repeatedly been made
to find a functional relation between C and
these variables. At certain proving grounds
in the United States a relation was supposed
to have been established but we find that the
law adopted does not agree with data which
we have secured from Aberdeen. It follows
that, though the mathematical computations
have been earried through with great rigor
and accuracy, actual firings for various eleva-
tions have to be made in order, from the
ranges observed, to compute the ballistic co-
efficient for those elevations. In other words,
the ballistic coefficient always contains in it
a factor which represents the amount by
which the theoretical range has to be multi-
plied in order to obtain the actual range. If
range and time be the only quantities required
these can be found by actual firings and al-
most any approximate law of air resistance
will satisfy. But it costs money to range-fire
guns. For example, this cost for a 12-inch
gun is of the order of $12,000 and for a 14-
inch naval gun $20,000. These amounts are
apt to be exceeded.
It would be a very great saving in time and
money if the range and trajectory of a
projectile could be determined with a known
powder charge without range firing. This
can only be done when the complete law of
air resistance is known. The modern prob-
lems connected with antiaircraft warfare and
with accurate barrage firing absolutely re-
quire such a law.
R
SCIENCE
223
Notwithstanding the fact that the law of
air resistance for modern projectiles is un-
known and that the ballistic coefficient merely
represents an approximate relation between
the theoretical and actual ranges, great con-
fidence has been placed in so-called experi-
mental determinations of this quantity. For
example, in the official manual for the U. S.
Rifle the value of the ballistic coefficient of
the ordinary service rifle bullet (.30-inch
caliber) is given as 0.3894075 “as determined
experimentally at the Frankford Arsenal.”
The experimental skill which can determine
to an accuracy indicated by seven places of
decimals a quantity as highly capricious as
the so-called ballistic coefficient, is of rather
questionable value.
Going back to the law of air resistance, it
is evident that Mayevski’s law is not satis-
factory either to mathematicians or to phys-
icists. There are abrupt changes when the
index n is changed. The mathematician can
not differentiate at these corners, the physicist
can not see the necessity for their existence.
The law as laid down by the Gavyre Com-
mission which is ordinarily written in the
form R=cv?B(v), where B(v) is a function
of v, is satisfactory in that it has no discon-
tinuities. But though it is satisfactory in
this respect it may still be incomplete.
The Gayre law or any other smooth law
lends itself to numerical integration by the
method of Gauss, who developed it one hun-
dred years ago. He used this method in the
problem of special perturbations in celestial
mechanics. It has since been presented in
some text-books in theoretical astronomy. An
early application to physics curiously enough
was made by an astronomer, John Couch
Adams, in the integration of an equation
occurring in the theory of capillarity. But
though Adams was thoroughly acquainted
with this method he apparently did not feel
that it was as satisfactory for computing a
trajectory as that of Euler. For in an article
on “ Certain Approximate Solutions for Cal-
culating the Trajectory of a Shot” (Collected
Works), he refers the motion to the angle
that the tangent to the trajectory makes with
224
1
1
L
u
{
t
I
t
!
f
1
I
i
f;
4
4
° 100
200 300 200
SCIENCE
500 600 700.
V IN METERS PER SECOND
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1314
! THE LAWS OF AIR RESISTANCE
GAVRE
MAYEVSKI ---~-~-~
600 900 1000 10d 1200
Fie, 1.
the horizontal and uses as a resistance law
R=A,V”, the constants being taken from
Bashforth’s experimental results.
The method of Gauss, 2. e., of using rectan-
gular coordinates, has been used by physicists,
to first order differences at any rate, for vari-
ous computations. In the case of a projec-
tile, if the retardation follows the square law
R=kv?, the equations of motion take the
well-known form
CH a) op WD OB
a at at"
ay os dy
A mnt wey a
or
z= — kg,
y = —g — hoy.
If we take as the law of retardation
R =cv?B(vy) =vF(v-y) where F= ue
the equations take the form
%= — zF(v-y),
y =—9 —9F 2, y).
The change in the retardation due to change
in density of the air with height y can be
taken account of in the function H(y). Asa
result of many meteorological observations
H(y) may be written
A(y) = 10-6,
y being measured in meters.
In the notation introduced by Professor
Moulton G (v), = vB(v), is computed directly
from the French tables giving B(v) as a
function of v. The form of the function
B(v) plotted against v is shown in Fig. 1, and
will be called the B curve.
Now if C the ballistic coefficient or pene-
tration coefficient, and the velocity and alti-
tude are known at any time, then x and y are
known. If these x and y retardations are
constant or nearly so, then the values of the
a and y velocities at any later time are known
if the time intervals be short. But the retar-
dation depends on the velocity, hence its value
for any interval will in general lie between the
retardations computed for the velocities at
the beginning and end of an interval. One is
soon able to approximate to the average—con-
sequently the values of the x and y velocities
at the end of the, first, and beginning of the
second, interval are known. Integration can
be performed to find the new x and y and the
process can be repeated for the next interval.
After x and y and their first and second
derivatives are tabulated for the first four or
five short intervals (of 4 or 4 second), first
and second differences are tabulated and the
computation can proceed in longer time inter-
vals, usually one or two seconds. The for-
mulas for extrapolation are made use of for
extending the computation, and the results
Marou 5, 1920]
are checked. Hence a trajectory can be com-
puted taking account of variations of air
density with height, and satisfying at all
points the assumed law of retardation.
Since the retardation depends on the rela-
tive velocity of air and projectile, winds can
be allowed for by considering the motion
relative to the air at every point. This in-
volves the principal of moving axes. It im-
plies however, that the projectile is a sphere
or that the retardation is independent of the
angle which the projectile presents to the air,
or else that the projectile always turns nose
on to meet the air. We know, however,
definitely that an air stream of a few miles
per hour at right angles to the axis of a
projectile may have several times as great
a foree as the same stream would exert
along the axis, and that a spinning projectile
can not turn quickly to meet every wind that
blows, even though the wind may have but
small influence upon the angle at which the
air meets the projectile.
It was this method of short arc computa-
tion which Professor Moulton applied to the
problem of exterior ballistics when he was
made head of that branch in the Ordnance
Department. For his courage in setting aside
the long-established, revered but rather em-
pirical method in use in the War Department,
and in introducing a logical, simple method
of computing trajectories, and for his energy
in initiating and pushing through certain ex-
perimental projects, he deserves great com-
mendation. Valuable contributions to the
method were made by his associates, notably
Bennett, Milne, Ritt. Professor Bennett de-
vised a method which has a number of points
of merit. It is the one now used at the
Aberdeen Proving Ground. Professor Bliss
gave an inclusive method of computing varia-
tions in range, altitude and time due to
changes in air density, winds, muzzle velocity.
Dr. Gronwall greatly simplified and extended
the work by Bliss, and made other important
contributions. In short, leaving out of ac-
count the question as to the correctness of the
law of air resistance, the variation of that
resistance with the angle of attack of air and
SCIENCE
225
projectile, leaving out the motion of pre-
cession and nutation which are dependent
upon the transverse and longitudinal moments
of inertia of the projectile and its rate of
spin—leaving out these factors the mathe-
matical basis for finding the trajectory of a
projectile is secure.
But the system of forces under which a
projectile moves is not the simple one implied
by the equations just given. For a projectile
is a body spinning rapidly about an axis prob-
ably nearly identical with its geometrical
axis. It emerges from the gun either with a
small yaw, or with a rate of change of yaw,
or both. (By yaw is meant the angle between
the axis and the direction of motion of the
center of gravity.) As in the case of a top,
precessional motion results. If the motion is
stable, precession accompanied by nutation
continues. If unstable, the axis is driven
farther from its original direction until the
projectile is “side on” to the air, or “base
on” to the air. In short, the projectile tum-
bles. Loss of range and great dispersion are
the results.
The condition for stability may be taken
the same as that for a top spinning about an
axis nearly vertical, viz.,
A?2N?2
S= Bu >1,
where
A=moment of inertia about the axis
of spin
B=wmoment of inertia about an axis at
right angles
N = frequency of spin in radians per sec.
# sin moment of force about an axis
through the C.G. at right angles
to the axis of spin, where @ is the
yaw 12. e., the angle between the
axis of the shell and the direction
of motion of the center of gravity.
The rate of orientation of the yaw or the
precessional velocity is given by
g = AN + B(+ cos 8).
The relation given for stability, viz., that
A?2N?
7a >1,
226 SCIENCE [N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
ScREEN C SCREEN: -E
TyPE I-1 Tree ve
Tyre I-l
MAJOR AXIS
Os 9.54.
MAIOR AXG
023.55
MAJOR AXIS
mae meas
Screen H screen I
Type I-l
Vee
PAID. AXIS
023.56
Fig. 2.
is based on the assumption that the torque
due to the air is proportional to sin @. Our
air stream experiments throw doubt upon this
assumption but the English experimenters,
who have made the most complete studies of
the rotational motions of projectiles that we
know of, seem to confirm it.
These motions of precession and nutation
of a projectile can be studied by firing
through a number of cardboard screens spaced
at equal distances along the line of fire. As
has been said, the English have been the fore-
most investigators in the work. At Aberdeen,
under the immediate supervision of Mr. R. H.
Kent, a very extended study, following in
general the English method, is being made
of the stability of projectiles. Cardboard
screens are placed at distances of 20 feet from
one another for some distance from the gun,
then at 100 feet, then at 20 feet again towards
the end of the path. A careful study was
made of cardboard so as to obtain a kind
which would give a clean cut hole. The
lantern slide (Fig. 2) shows the variation of
the major axis of the hole for eight con-
secutive 20-foot screens.
It will be seen from Fig. 2 that the major
axis of the hole in screens B and C made by
the 3.3 inch projectile is about 3.6 inches, and
between those screens the angle of the major
axis has turned through about 60°. At screens
D, H, F, the major axis is about 3.5 inches
and it turns rapidly. Here the yaw is a
minimum and the rapid motion of the axis is
in accord with the theory governing nutation.
If the projectile were moving in a vacuum
or if the air forces did not influence the
motion, the precessional velocity ¢’ (considered
uniform) would be given by
AN _ AN
Our B(l+.cos6) 2B’
For the projectile in question WV — 220 turns
per second.
A
Bo 1/6.
Hence ¢’= 220/12—18.3 turns per second.
Marce 5, 1920]
Since the muzzle velocity is 2,300 feet per
second and the screens are 20 feet apart, this
frequency is nearly equal to that of the pre-
cessional motion at maximum yaw.
The discussion just given shows what a
difficult matter it is to measure the retarda-
tion of a projectile by firing through screens.
For the retardation must be not only a func-
tion of the velocity but also of the yaw. As
the latter is periodic there will be a periodic
term superimposed on the general term.
While the ordinary law may lead one to sup-
pose that the retardation would continually
decrease as the velocity dies down it may
actually go through the cycle of decrease, in-
crease. For the same reason we may find that
the retardation for a shell fired from a gun
rifled 1 in 25 may differ from. that for the
same shell and velocity when the rifling is
1 in 50.
It has been indicated that previous to the
introduction of the method of short are com-
putation by Moulton there had been little
change in the field of exterior ballistics in
America for several years. In experimental
work there had been rather slow progress.
That the progress was slow was not so much
the fault of the Army as it was due to the
non-military policy of the country. When no
importance is attached to military affairs by
the people we can not expect our army officers
to place their service in a position of world
prominence.
Recently my attention was called to a letter
which may throw light upon one reason for
the fact that experimental work was very
limited. This letter was written in 1907 from
the Ordnance Board to the Chief of Ord-
nance, requesting that $40 be allowed for ex-
periments in determining the effect on range
produced by changing the points or ogives of
50 three-inch projectiles. The experiments
were authorized and the money allowed.
Trials with only 15 of the 50 projectiles
showed that the range was increased from
5,042 to 5,728 yards. It was reported that
the coefficient (Bc) had been changed from
.97272 to .68705. (Note again the extra-
SCIENCE
227
ordinary accuracy in measuring this quan-
tity!) The colonel in charge of the experi-
ment deemed further work unnecessary, for
he writes (9th indorsement) :
Having established the probable form of the
field projectile the board recommends that the re-
maining 35 experimental shells be made to con-
form to this design.
However, the Office of the Chief of Ord-
nance considered that the last word had not
yet been said concerning the best form of
projectile, and ordered certain other varia-
tions to be made in 10 of the remaining 35
projectiles. To provide for this further test
it was stated that “a sum of $25... has this
day been set aside on the books of this office
as a special allotment.” (And this was only
seven years before the World War started.)
It may be further stated that to this letter
authorizing $65 for experimental tests of shells
there were 15 indorsements. Those of you
who have been in the service will appreciate
what this must have meant in the time of
stenographers, messengers, filing clerks, and
high-salaried officers.
That perfection in the form of projectiles
had not been secured was made evident by a
series of experiments, rather crude as judged
by physical standards, begun at Sandy Hook
in 1917, and continued at Aberdeen in 1918.
It had been noticed that there was very large
dispersion of the shells of the 6-inch gun and
the 8-inch howitzer. Various book theories
were advanced to account for these disper-
sions, but finally upon an examination of some
recovered shells and as a result of the in-
formation obtained by firing through card-
board screens, the true explanation suggested
itself. The rotating band on these shells had
a raised portion, called a lip, at the rear of
the band (Fig. 3). The purpose which this
lip was supposed to serve was to act as a
choking ring to prevent the escape of the
powder blast past the projectile and to seat
the projectile at a definite place in the gun.
It was seen in the case of the recovered
projectiles, and it was evident by the hole
formed in the cardboard sereen through which
the projectile had passed, that these lips were
228
‘000 mEregs,
Omues
NO.3 MODIFIEO ROTATING. SAND:
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
ms 5
PROJECTILE We “25 £9 /0AND.
17000 MatERs
tf
10.6 M6:
© INCH. SEACOAST_.GUN.
ELEVATION 45° MUZZLE VELOCITY 2600 #.s.
WEIGHT OF PROJECTILE - 90 POUNDS,
‘TARGET RECORDS, — PROJECTILES WITH '-
MO. 2 BAND’ AND NO,3. BAND! — |
Fig, 3.
partly torn off in the passage of the projectile
through the gun. Experiments were then
begun in modifying the band. These modifi-
cations eonsisted of machining off the lip as in
Fig. 3. The results were very gratifying.
The 8-inch howitzer projectile had its range
increased by 700 meters and its dispersion
—
APPROXIMATE
8
I. ORIGINAL PROJECTILE
I. » » MODIFIED
I. NEW PROJECTILE BOAT -TAILED
NEW BAND AND _ OGIVE
IZ LATEST MARK VWI PROJECTILE
UNMODIFIED BAND $= 45°
TE) 2» » »
$= 45°
decreased in the ratio of 4 to 1, while the
6-inch shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet
per second and elevation of 45° had its range
increased from about 12,000 to about 16,000
yards, and its dispersion was divided by four.
A number of experiments of this kind were
carried on at Aberdeen, chiefly by Major
TRAJECTORIES FOR 6"
M V. = 3000 FT/S SEC.
GUN.
10.6 13 16 MILES
$= 35°
Fie. 4.
Marcu 5, 1920]
SCIENCE
229
Fie,
Veblen and Lieutenant Alger. In France,
similar work was done by Captain R. H.
Kent. It is seen that these experiments added
greatly to the effectiveness and therefore to
the value of the guns in question. The work
belongs to physics, notwithstanding the fact
that one of these civilian officers was and is
a professor of mathematics of the purest
quality. That he was able to bring himself
temporarily to neglect the fundamental con-
cepts of geometry, in which realm he is one
of our foremost thinkers, to enter into the
problems of the war with an eagerness for
close observation of actualities and a readi-
ness to try out new methods, is very greatly
to his credit. He is evidently a physicist by
intuition and a mathematician by profession.
It is to be noted (Fig. 4) that between the
summers of 1918 and 1919 the range of the 6-
inch seacoast gun had been increased from
about 14,000 yards to 28,000 yards? for a
_ 2 The range of 14,000 yards for the 6-inch gun is
computed for a muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per
second at 45° elevation, basing the computation on
the range obtained with a muzzle velocity of 2600
fs. It ought to be pointed out that the Army had
muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second, by
variations in the form of the projectile sug-
gested by crude experiments. In the case of
the last projectile (Mark VIII.) there was
rather large dispersion. Had the cardboard
test been made it could have been foreseen that
there would be this dispersion, for the projec-
tile is evidently not sufficiently stable. In
Fig. 5 it is seen that one projectile (6-inch
Mark VIII.) has acquired a large yaw not far
from the gun. This accounts for the fact
that the dispersion for this projectile was
large, of the order of 3,000 yards in 28,000.
It may be contended that some of the ex-
periments and tests here recorded are too
crude to be classed as belonging to the domain
of physics. But let me remind you that
Galileo, who may be regarded as the father
of our science, climbed the tower of Pisa and
let fall two weights, one large and one small,
to show that they fell in the same way. We
a 6-ineh shell which for a muzzle velocity of 2,600
feet per second had a range of 15,000 yards at 15°
elevation, but this was a heavy projectile—108 lbs.
—while that of the projectile experimented upon
was 90 lbs.
230
have made some progress since Galileo’s time.
We know that bodies are retarded by the air
but we have assumed, on some experimental
evidence, in the case of projectiles at any
rate except for a constant of proportionality,
that they are retarded in the same way. It
is evident that in the matter of the laws of
air resistance we are not far from the condi-
tion that the scientists of Galileo’s time were
in regard to gravitation.
It is evident from the results of these ex-
periments at Aberdeen that a very slight
ehange in the form of the projectile may
make a considerable change in the range ob-
tained. And it is equally clear that those
experiments merely touched the matter. The
entire subject is still open.
A number of years ago the Ordnance
Department made inquiries concerning the
possibility of using air streams of high
velocity in tests on projectiles. During the
war the project was submitted to the National
Research Council. It was found that air
streams one foot in diameter, with speed of
1,500 feet per second, requiring for their pro-
duction 5,000 kw., could be furnished by the
General Electric Company at their plant at
Lynn, Massachusetts. There, with the most
loyal support of the Bureau of Standards, and
with the effective collaboration of Dr. L. J.
Briggs of the bureau the Ordnance Depart-
ment has conducted experiments? which have
for their object the determination of the
forces of such air streams on projectiles of
various forms. Velocities of the air have, so
far, varied from 600 up to 1,200 feet per
second and temperatures from 0° to 180° C.
In these air streams, which are vertical, pro-
jectiles of various shapes can be held nose
down, and the forces on them and pressures
at various points on their surfaces, can be
measured. A number of important results
have been secured. First, for head-on resist-
ance there is no one curve similar to the
French B curve which gives the law of air
3 Without a knowledge on his part of other in-
quiries, negotiations fior these experiments were
carried on and pushed to a conclusion by Major
Moulton.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
resistance for all projectiles. For example, in
that law it will be seen by inspection (Fig. 1)
that F'/v? is multiplied by the factor 3 when
the velocity changes from 200 to 380 meters
per second. In our curves the corresponding
factor varies from 1.8 to 4 for the various
forms of projectiles. In other words the
force exerted on one projectile may be less at
one velocity and more at another than the
force for the corresponding velocity in the
case of another projectile. It follows that
there is no “best form” of projectile unless
we specify the approximate velocity with
which we are dealing.
Second, the results obtained indicate the
resistance introduced by the rotating band
and show where this band should be placed
to produce the least increase of resistance.
Third, it appears that the rapid rise of the
B curve in the neighborhood of V—840
meters per second is not entirely determined
by the velocity of the compressional wave, 2. e.,
by the velocity of sound in the air. In some
eases the force of air streams at 130° C. are
identical with those at 30°C. (Itis understood
that the density of the air is standardized, 2. e.,
that the forces plotted are those which an air
stream of equal speed and of density 0.001206
gms./em. would have exerted.) In other
cases, however, the results indicate that the
velocity of the compressional wave is one of
the factors determining the resistance. The
temperature relation seems to be a compli-
eated one and our results are not at all com-
plete on this point.
Fourth, though we have not made quantita-
tive measurements of the variation of force
with the angle of attack of air and projectile,
we have had some experimental evidence of
the large forces which are called into play
when this angle changes from “nose on” to
oblique. In one ease, the force of the air on
a fifty pound 4-inch projectile was of the
order of 44 pounds, so that there was still
about six pounds of down force. When the
projectile was being removed from the air
stream it was accidently tipped slightly. The
air stream forced it farther from the vertical,
bent off the steel rod holding it to the balance
Marcu 5, 1920]
arm and blew the projectile up several feet
over a railing into the yard. Jn another case,
when the up force due to the air on a two-
inch projectile was only about one third of
the weight, 7. e., about 1.5 pounds, an oblique
action at a slight angle drove the projectile
farther from the vertical, finally turned its
nose up, bending the steel spindle in the
process. It is evident that the oblique forces
of air streams on projectiles may be many
times the “nose-on ” force for corresponding
velocities. It is clear then that unless a pro-
jectile turns “nose-on” to a wind the method
now in use for finding wind corrections are
greatly in error.
Enough has been said to show that the
fundamental problem of the projectile is not
one of mathematics. There are various
mathematical methods of handling the prob-
lem. The English have a method highly
analytical and complete. The French have
a method rather tedious for computation but
they excel in the graphic representation of
results. The Italians still cling to the Siacci
method. There are at least three methods in
use in America, each one claiming points of
merit. The problem is one of experimental
science. We must first determine the com-
plete law of air resistance for every probable
form of projectile, then we must determine
the variation of force as the axis of the pro-
jectile changes in direction; the torque about
the center of gravity; the precessional and
nutational motions under these forces, and
the consequent effective lift and drag, as these
terms are used in aerodynamics. Mathe-
MIaticians may then find it necessary, using
these known facts, to formulate the differ-
ential equations of a twisted trajectory and
to evolve methods of integration. But it is
quite probable that simple physical methods
of integration may be devised.
It is evident even from a superficial study
of the matter that a gun is an inefficient
engine. An appreciable part of the energy of
the powder takes the form of heat and kinetic
energy of the gas developed. Of the initial
energy of the projectile a large part is used
in overcoming the resistance of the air. Per-
SCIENCE
231
haps in the warfare of the future we shall not
need guns, on land at any rate. Rather we
may hoist a carload of projectiles on a
dirigible, carry them over the enemy’s cities
or lines and drop them on earefully selected
spots. But if we are to drop projectiles or
bombs accurately we must know the laws
governing the motion of such bodies.
During the war, Drs. A. W. Duff and L. P.
Seig carried on a series of experiments at
Langley Field, in which the object was to
find by photography the path of a bomb
dropped from an airplane. By placing an
intense light in a bomb they were able to pho-
tograph its path, to measure its velocity at
any point, to obtain the speed of the airplane,
and the wind velocity. These important re-
sults were contributed to the Americal Phys-
ical Society at the April meeting.
At Aberdeen, Dr. F. C. Brown, then captain
later major in the Ordnance Department,
while flying over a shallow body of still water
observed the image of the airplane in the
water. To a casual observer this would have
excited no special interest. But, being a
physicist, knowing the meaning of a level
surface and a line of force, Dr. Brown saw
that he had with him a visible vertical line.
However the airplane tossed and pitched the
vertical direction could be identified. He
made use of this fact in a very skillful way.
Attaching to the airplane a motion picture
camera he was able to photograph a bomb
released from the plane at a height of about
8,000 feet during the whole course of the
projectile to the earth. Time can be obtained
either from the rate of motion of the camera
or from the photograph of a watch placed so
that its image also falls on the film. The
distance that the bomb has fallen and its
orientation in space can be determined from
the dimensions of its image. Its angle of lag
or its distance behind the vertical line from
the plane can be found by measuring the dis-
tance between the image of the bomb and that
of the airplane. Hence not only the complete
trajectory can be found but also the relation
of the trajectory at any point with the varia-
tion in direction of the axis of the bomb.
232
It is assumed here that the motion of the air-
plane has been kept constant. The motion
picture film which I shall show, which was
kindly loaned to us by the Aircraft Arma-
ment Section of the Ordnance Department,
will bring out clearly the tossing, pitching
motion of the bomb in its course to the earth.
INTERIOR BALLISTICS
In interior ballistics, there are a number
of unsolved problems. The first is concerned
with the pressure produced in a gun by the
exploding charge and its time rate of change.
The ordinary method which has been in use
has been to measure the so-called maximum
pressure by the shortening produced in a cop-
per cylinder. But experiments have shown
that the amount which a cylinder of copper is
compressed by an applied pressure depends on
the amount of the pressure, the time of appli-
cation, the previous history as regards temper-
ing, annealing, compression, ete. It is known
for example that an application of a pressure
of say 36,000 pounds per square inch will give
an extra shortening to a cylinder previously
compressed to 40,000 pounds per square inch.
But the ordinary procedure has been to place
in the gun a copper cylinder which had been
precompressed to an amount nearly that to be
expected. Obviously such a cylinder may in-
dicate a pressure in the gun in excess of
40,000 pounds when in reality it was less.
Moreover, the copper cylinder need not indi-
eate the maximum. Rather it indicates a
summation of the total effect of the gases
upon it. A smaller pressure applied for some
time may produce a shortening equal to that
due to a larger pressure for a shorter time.
Notwithstanding this uncertainty in the be-
havior of a copper cylinder, that is the kind
of gage which has been used to standardize all
the powder used in guns. It is clear that we
may doubt whether these powders have been
standardized at all. What is wanted evidently
is a gage which will register the pressure
accurately at a certain instant and therefore
which will give the complete variation of the
pressure with time.
Several gages have been devised which have
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1314
points of excellence as well as defects. In the
Petavel gage the compression of a steel
spring was registered on a revolving drum by
a light pointer. But the mechanical processes
were not well worked out. Colonel Somers
improved on Petavel’s design in the mechan-
ical details but neglected the optical. For
small arms, both mechanical and optical de-
tails have been worked out by Professor A. G.
Webster. In the gage the spring is a single
bar of steel about 5 mm. square and 20 mm.
long, which is bent by a plunger fitting into
a cylindrical opening through the wall of the
gun. Its moving parts have small mass and
high elasticity, and it seems capable of giving
an accurate record of the changes in pressure
even when the whole time is of the order of
a few thousandths of a second. But its use
appears to be limited to the cases of guns
which can be rigidly clamped during the
explosion.
In the Bureau of Standards, Drs. Curtis
and Duncan have been perfecting a gage
which has been used in the large naval guns.
Here a steel cylinder compresses a_ steel
spring. During the compression a metal
point makes electrical contact with conduc-
tors equally spaced. Consequently electrical
signals can be indicated by an oscillograph
for these equal steps. The time pressure
curve is then given if the spring can be
properly calibrated. There is however some
doubt on this point and there is also uncer-
tainty in electrical contacts and in the fric-
tion of the system.
What is needed is a method of calibrating
accurately any gage by means of a known
rapidly changing high pressure. Such a
method has been worked out by the technical
staff of the Ordnance Department, but the
mechanical and experimental work still has
to be done.
I have given you here some applications of
the older physics to old and new problems of
war. The list even in this limited field might
be easily increased. By means of the photo-
graphy of sound waves from a projectile we
may determine many facts concerning its
motion, the frequency of its precessional and
Marc# 5, 1920]
nutational motions, the nature of its stability
or instability. By means of motion pictures
taken from an airplane we may determine
facts of importance concerning the motion of
a rapidly rotating projectile dropped from the
plane. The recoil, jump and other motions of
guns may be studied by photographie methods.
By similar methods the times and positions
of high angle shell bursts may be obtained
from observational balloons. Gyro stabilizers,
microphones, string galvanometers, oscillo-
graphs, piezo-electric apparatus, vacuum am-
plifying tubes, Kenetrons, old and new devices
in physics—they all may be used to reduce
the problems which I have been discussing to
those of an exact science.
Gorpon F. Hutu
DaRTMOUTH COLLEGE
BOARD OF SURVEYS AND MAPS OF
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
On December 30, 1919, the President of the
United States by executive order created a
Board of Surveys and Maps to be composed of
one representative of each of the following or-
ganizations of the government:
1. Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.
2. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department
of Commerce.
3. U. S. Geological Survey, Department of In-
terior.
4, General Land Office, Department of Interior.
5. Topography Branch, Post Office Department.
6. Bureau of Soils, Department of Agriculture.
7. U.S. Reclamation Service, Department of In-
terior.
8. Bureau of Public Roads, Department of Agri-
culture.
9. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of In-
terior.
10. Mississippi River Commission, War Depart-
ment,
11. U. S, Lake Survey, War Department.
12. International (Canadian) Boundary Commis-
sion, Department of State.
13. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture.
14. U. S. Hydrographie Office, Navy Department.
The individual members of the board were
appointed by the chiefs of the several organi-
zations named. The board is directed, by the
SCIENCE
233
executive order, to make recommendations to
the several departments of the government or
to the President for the purpose of coordina-
ting the map-making and surveying activities
of the government and to settle all questions at
issue between executive departments relating
to surveys and maps, in so far as their decis-
ions do not conflict with existing law. The
board is also directed to establish a central in-
formation office in the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey for the purpose of collecting, classifying
and furnishing to the public information con-
cerning all mapping and surveying data avail-
able in the several government departments
and from other sources. The executive order
further directs that the board shall hold meet-
ings at stated intervals to which shall be in-
vited representatives of the map-using public
for the purpose of conference and advice.
All government departments, according to
the executive order, will make full use of the
board as an advisory body and will furnish all
available information and data called for by
the board.
The order of the President rescinds the ad-
visory powers granted to the U. S. Geographic
Board by the executive order of August 10,
1906, and transfers those powers to the Board
of Surveys and Maps. The executive order of
August 10, 1906, reads as follows:
EXECUTIVE ORDER -
The official title of the United States Board on
Geographic Names is changed to Unirep Srares
GEOGRAPHIC BOARD.
In addition to its present duties, advisory pow-
ers are hereby granted to this board concerning
the preparation of maps compiled, or to be com-
piled, in the various bureaus and offices of the
government, with a special view to the avoidance
of unnecessary duplications of work; and for
the unification and improvement of the scales of
maps, of the symbols and conventions used upon
them and of the methods representing relief.
Hereafter, all such projects as are of importance
shall be submitted to this board for advice before
being undertaken.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE Hovss,
August 10, 1906
234
The representatives of the federal organiza-
tions mentioned in ‘the executive order of De-
cember 30, 1919, met on January 16, 1920, and
perfected the organization by the enactment
of by-laws for the government of the Board of
Surveys and Maps.
The officers of the board are: Chairman, Mr.
C. O. Merrill, chief engineer of the Forest
Service; vice-chairman, Dr. William Bowie,
chief of the Division of Geodesy of the U. S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey; secretary, Mr. C.
H. Birdseye, chief geographer of the U. S.
Geological Survey.
Standing committees have been appointed to
care for the various phases of surveying and
mapping. Those committees are:
1. On coordination of work among the federal
bureaus.
2. On cooperation between federal and other
map-making and map-using organizations
and agencies.
. On technical standards.
On topographic maps.
On highway maps.
. On general maps.
On hydrographic charts.
. On control surveys.
. On photographie surveys.
10. On information.
OD AD NP
In addition to these commi'ttees there was
also organized the Map Information Office,
with headquarters at the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey, which was directed by the Executive
Order.
On all except a few of the standing commit-
tees of the Board of Surveys and Maps, repre-
sentatives of outside organizations will also
be appointed.
The public meetings of the board will be
held in Washington, D. C., on the second Tues-
day of January, March, May, September and
November of each year and there will be execu-
tive meetings held immediately after those
public meetings and also on the second Tues-
day of February, April, October and De-
cember.
It is interesting to know the steps by which
the Board of Surveys and Maps came into ex-
istence. The National Research Council had
SCIENCE
[N. S, Von. LI. No. 1314
its attention called to the desirability of hav-
ing an organization that would prevent dupli-
cation and provide for cooperation among the
federal map-making organizations. The mat-
ter was discussed by the National Research
Council and was then submitted to the Engi-
neering Council for consideration. On July
1, 1919, the chairman of the Engineering
Council, Mr. J. Parke Channing, wrote a
letter to the President of the United States
in which he ealled attention to the necessity
for the completion of the topographic map
of the United States at an early date fo
meet the needs of the country in its com-
merce, industries, ete. The Engineering
Council recommended the creation of a Board
of Surveys and Maps to consider the whole
question of coordination of the work of the
government in those branches of engineering.
On July 27, 1919, the President of the
United States directed the Secretary of War
to eall a conference of representatives of the
surveying and map-making organizations of
the government for the purpose of considering
the recommendation of the Engineering
Council.
This conference held a number of meetings
in September, 1919, and on the last of that
month sent a report ‘to the President, recom-
mending, among other things, that the Board
of Surveys and Maps be created. Added to
the report of the conference were a number of
exhibits which show the surveying and map-
making work carried on by each of the sev-
eral organizations of the government. The
executive order of the President and the or-
ganization of the board are considered in the
early part of this article.
It is believed that the creation of this Board
of Surveys and Maps is a step that will have
very far reaching consequences in completing
the topographic mapping of the country and
in planning standard methods for carrying on
work connected with the surveys and map ma-
king of various kinds employed in both gov-
ernment and other organizations and agencies.
Maps have been made in this country ever
since the colonists first landed but there has
never been any coordinating agency by which
Marcu 5, 1920]
standards of accuracy could be established for
the guidance of surveyors and map-makers.
In fact, such an organization as the American
Society of Civil Engineers, which is vitally in-
terested in surveys and maps, has no commit-
tee to consider these important matters.
It is hoped that the engineers and scientists
of the country will cooperate with the Board
of Surveys and Maps by making their wants
known. If they will do this the board will be
able to make the maps of the government of
even more use to the public than they have
been in the past.
WILLIAM Bowie
U. S. Coast AND GEODETIC SURVEY,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
THE CINCHONA TROPICAL BOTAN-—
ICAL STATION AGAIN AVAILABLE
Tue lease of the Cinchona Station by the
Smithsonian Institution on behalf of a group
of contributing American botanists was inter-
rupted by conditions existing during the war.
Tt has now been resumed and the laboratory
will be available for American botanists dur-
ing the coming year.
This tropical laboratory in a botanical gar-
den containing scores of exotic trees, shrubs
and vines and other scores of herbaceous per-
ennials from all quarters of the earth is located
within a half-hour’s walk of an undisturbed
montane rain forest, on the southern slope of
the rugged Blue Mountains of Jamaica. In
the well-kept garden of ten acres and on other
parts of the Cinchona plantation of six thou-
sand acres, the visiting botanist can find well-
developed specimens of many economic or
ornamental plants such as cinchona, tea, coffee,
tubber trees, silk oaks, ironwoods, several spe-
cies of eucalyptus and many others. The dry
ridges and sunny valleys of the south side of
the Blue Mountains offer many types of pe-
culiar ferns, of epiphytic bromeliads, grasses,
mistletoes and lianes. In the rain forest are
to be found scores of species of ferns ranging
from the very diminutive epiphytic polypo-
diums of but an inch or two in height to the
serambling pteridiums or gleichenias or climb-
ing lomarias of many yards in length, and to
SCIENCE
235
great tree ferns, forty feet in height. Mosses
and liverworts are present here in like pro-
fusion and grow on all sorts of substrata from
the damp soil of the forest floor, the trunk of
a tree fern, or even to the leathery surface of
the leaf of a climbing fig or fern. There are
also dozens of interesting native trees, shrubs
and vines and many herbaceous forms which
together make parts of the forest a practically
impenetrable jungle.
As the vegetation of the main ridge of the
Blue Mountains differs from that of the south-
ern ridges and valleys, so that of the beclouded
northern slope, especially the hot, moist lower
slopes differs from both. In the deep valley of
the Mabess River, five miles north of Cin-
chona, many peculiar mosses, ferns and seed
planits, including a wealth of interesting epi-
phytic species are to be found. ‘There are
whole square miles of these northern slopes of
the Blue Mountains within a day’s walk of
Cinchona that have never been explored by the
botanist, nor even by the collector.
Botanists wishing +o work on plants of the
lowlands or the sea coast can make their head-
quarters in Kingston. Such workers have al-
ways been granted the privilege of using the
library, herbarium and laboratory at Hope
Gardens. These gardens also contain a fine
collection of native and introduced tropical
plants offering much material for morpholog-
ical and histological study. Cacti, agaves and
other xerophytice plants of the sea coast and
the alge of the coral reefs along the shore af-
ford still other types of vegetation of great
ecological, developmental and cytological in-
terest. Castleton Garden, the third botanical
garden of tthe island, has a very different cli-
mate from either Cinchona or Hope, for it is
located in a hot, steaming valley, twenty miles
north of Kingston, where cycads, screw pines,
palms, orchids, figs, ebonies and the gorgeous
amherstias and other tropical trees grow lux-
uriantly.
All in all Jamaica probably offers the bot-
anist as great a variety of tropical conditions
within a day’s walk of Cinchona and a day’s
drive from Kingston as can be found anywhere
in an area of equal size. One of our botanists
236
who has collected ferns in many tropical re-
gions of both the old and new world says
“none equals Jamaica in either number of
species or of individuals.” Five hundred pteri-
dophytes are known on the island. Another
botanist, a student of the mosses, says “the
facilities for the study of these plants at Hope
Gardens and at Cinchona are probably un-
equaled anywhere else in the tropics except at
Buitenzorg.” It is thus evident that the op-
portunities for the study of many sorts of bo-
tanical problems are abundant at Cinchona,
Hope and Castleton. It is also clear that there
are many botanical problems of prime impor-
tance which can be studied only in such en-
vironments. There is then every reason to be-
lieve that this American tropical station, which
is now available, can be made as notable by the
work of our own investigators as the famous
Dutch garden at Buitenzorg in Java has be-
come in consequence of the work of the Dutch
and other European investigators.
Further details concerning the types of vege-
tation found and the opportunities for research
in Jamaica may be found in Sctencs, 43: 917,
1916, and in The Popular Science Monthly for
January, 1915.
Any American botanist wishing to work at
Cinchona may be granted this privilege by the
Cinchona Committee, consisting of N. L. Brit-
ton, J. M. Coulter and D. 8. Johnson. In-
quiries for this privilege and for information
regarding the conditions under which it may
be granted should be sent to the writer.
Dunean 8. JoHNSON
JOHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY,
BALTIMORE
ENTOMOLOGY IN THE UNITED
STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
Tue day has long passed when American
scientific activities can be restricted to a nar-
row field. Whether we regard the economic
needs or the intellectual development, we find
ourselves compelled to consider the whole
range of science, limited only by our resources
and the powers of the human mind. In the
field of entomology this involves, among other
things, access to adequate collections of in-
sects, including not only those found in North
SCIENCE
[N. &. Vou. LI. No. 1314
America, but the species of the whole world.
The leading European countries have long ap-
preciated such needs, and have built up col-
lections to which Americans have to make
pilgrimages when engaged in comprehensive
studies of insect groups. There is no reason
why we should not possess facilities for work
at least equal to those of any other country.
We have the greatest material resources of
any nation at the present time, and certainly
are not lacking in the ability to carry on the
work. ;
The species of insects are far more numerous
than those of any other group of animals; in
fact the described forms exceed those of all other
groups combined. Very many of them are of
supreme importance and interest to man, as de-
stroyers of our crops, carriers of the germs of
disease, enemies of other injurious insects, or
sources of some of our most important eco-
nomic products. All know the value of the
silkworm and the honey bee, but few realize
the services of the host of parasitic insects,
which keep down the enemies of our crops, and
without which agriculture would be impos-
sible. All are aware that numerous insects are:
injurious to plants, but comparatively few
know that many of the most harmful of
these have been introduced from abroad.
The great danger to our crops, or even to
our health, may arise from insects accidentally
brought from foreign countries through the
operations of commerce. The San José scale,
dangerous enemy of many fruits, came from
Asia; the cottony cushion scale, which once
threatened the extinction of the orange in-
dustry in California, came from Australia.
The gypsy moth, which has cost this country
hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight,
is European. The cotton boll weevil, even
more to be dreaded, invaded the United
States from Mexico and Central America.
For urgent practical reasons, therefore, as well
as in order to complete and organize our
knowledge, we need to know the insects of all
countries, and to have them represented in at
least one American collection.
This obvious requirement of a great collec-
tion representing the insects of all lands, can
Marcu 5, 1920]
not be met without Congressional aid. The
National Museum, under present conditions,
or better, limitations, can not possibly adopt
an adequate policy of entomological develop-
ment. The two prime obstacles are lack of
sufficient curators and lack of space. The
present force of curators, even with the aid
afforded by the members of the Bureau of
Entomology, can not arrange and classify the
collections already on. hand, incomplete as
these are. Some of the men work overtime
and on holidays, while help is sometimes ob-
tained from those not officially connected with
the museum. But all these activities lament-
ably fail to meet the whole need. The mu-
seum should have enough expert curators to
keep classified and in order, the available ma-
terial in every group of insects, and to furnish
identifications and other aid to economic ento-
mologists and other workers in every state.
_ Should a sufficient curatorial force be supplied,
however, it would be helpless in the present
crowded condition of the department. There
is hardly room to move around, and almost no
space for new cabinets. The only way out
seems to be through the erection of a new
building of suitable size; fireproof, but not
necessarily of any great architectural preten-
sions.
Granting the building and the curators,
with suitable rules and arrangements to en-
sure the proper care of all the collections, what
more should be demanded? Undoubtedly col-
lectors and students would present or be-
queath their materials on a scale previously
unheard of, because of the great services they
had received from the museum and their con-
fidence in it as a repository of types and other
priceless specimens. This, however, would not
suffice. Funds should be available for explora-
tions within the United States and abroad, to
discover insects hitherto unknown or unrepre-
sented in the museum.
With curators, building and adequate col-
lections, we are still confronted by another
urgent need. The results of the work done
must be made available to scientific men in
every part of the country. This can only be
brought about through the creation of ade-
quate publishing facilities, insuring the rea-
SCIENCE
237
sonably prompt appearance of each work com-
pleted. At the present time authors hesitate
to undertake large monographs not knowing
when they will see the light of publicity, nor
indeed whether they will ever do so.
Prepared by the committees to investigate
conditions and needs of the United States Na-
tional Museum.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
T. D. A. CocKERELL,
Professor of Zoology, University of
Colorado,
Herpert Osporn,
Research Professor, Dept. of Zool-
ogy and Entomology, Ohio State
University,
Wm. Barnes,
Surgeon, Decatur, Illinois,
Wm. M. WHEELER,
Dean, Bussey Institution, Harvard
University.
J. G. NEEDHAM,
Head, Dept. of Entomology, Cor-
nell University,
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS
Joun J. Davis,
In Charge, Japanese Beetle Project,
N. J. State Dept. of Agri.,
Vernon L. KeEttoce,
See’y National Research Council,
EK. P. Fert,
State Entomologist, New York,
HERBERT OSBORN,
Research Professor, Dept. of Zool-
ogy and Entomology, Ohio State
University,
E. D. Batt,
State Entomologist, Iowa,
Approved and adopted at St. Louis, Missouri,
by the Entomological Society of America on
December 30, 1919, and by the American
Association of Economic Entomologists on
January 2, 1920.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
MANGANESE IN COSTA RICA AND PANAMA
MaNGANESE deposits have been known in
Panama for many years, and some were ex-
‘238
tensively worked as early as 1871.. None were
recorded in Costa Rica, however, until 1915,
when American engineers found deposits in
western Costo Rica and, under the stimulus
of the prevailing high prices, explored many
of them. During 1916, 1917, and 1918 about
18,000 tons of ore was exported from Costa
Rica to the United States. In October, 1918,
the Geological Survey, taking advantage of
the presence in Costa Rica of an American
geologist, J. D. Sears, had the deposits ex-
amined. Dr. Sears afterward visited several
new deposits in Panama.
The deposits in Costa Rica are found at
several places on the Nicoyan peninsula, in
the Province of Guanacaste, which extends
along the Pacific coast. Most of the known
deposits, and all those which have been the
source of the shipments, lie within about 16
miles of Playa Real on the Pacific coast in
the northern part of the peninsula. Other
isolated deposits occur in the eastern part of
the peninsula, near the Gulf of Nicoya. As
the central part of the peninsula is covered
with dense forest and is difficult to cross,
further exploration may bring other deposits
to light.
Although deposits of manganese oxides
were examined at thirty-six places near Playa
Real, most of the ore shipped has been derived
from three deposits that lie in an area
searcely 1,000 feet square at Playa Real.
These deposits are owned by the Costa Rica
Manganese & Mining Co., and American com-
pany. At Playa Real, as at many other places
in the region, the manganese oxides form very
irregular masses, which appear to extend
along the crests of hills. The genesis of the
deposits is obscure, but sufficient work has
been done to show that only a few persist for
as much as 100 feet below the surface. KEsti-
mates of the size of the known deposits,
which, however, are based upon very inade-
quate data and are therefore probably low,
indicate that they might yield 10,000 to 15,-
000 tons in addition to the 18,000 tons already
shipped. The oxides are intimately mixed
with silica, so that careful sorting is nec-
essary to produce material containing more
SCIENCE
[N. &. Von. LI. No. 1314
than 45 per cent. of manganese. After the
oxides are sorted they are carried by lighters
to ships anchored near the shore.
The deposits in Panama lie in an inac-
cessible region along Boqueron River, about
20 miles northeast of Colon. They are about
12 miles southwest of the deposits at Nombre
de Dios, which were extensively explored from
1871 to 1902. These deposits are poorly ex-
posed and only a few of them have been ex-
plored, but the indications in two small areas
warrant an estimate that the deposits there
may yield 25,000 to 30,000 tons of high-grade
oxides. As there is considerable float along
the near-by streams other deposits may be
found. In order to export the material, how-
ever, roads or tramways must be constructed
at considerable expense.
THE CAMBRIDGE NATURAL SCIENCE CLUB!
THE Cambridge Natural Science Club,
founded in 1872, celebrated its 1,000th meet-
ing by a dinner in the combination room of
St. John’s College, Cambridge, on Saturday,
January 24. The president, Mr. J. M. Wordie,
was in the chair. There were eighty-three
members and guests, and the occasion was
taken to bring out a complete list of the mem-
bers of the club since its inauguration. This
shows that of the 330 members 52 are dead,
10 having been killed or died on active service
during the war, and that 55, or 16.7 per cent.,
had received the blue ribbon of science—the
F.R.S. Indeed, in returning thanks for the
guests, Sir J. J. Thomson, who, although
president of the Royal Society and master of
Trinity, had never been a member of the club,
thought that the proportion of fellowships of
the Royal Society was probably higher among
members of the club than among fellows of
colleges elected on account of their attain-
ments in natural science. He confessed that
he had never taken the Natural Science Tri-
pos, though he had often examined others for
it, and pleaded in defence that, like Professor
W. H. Bragg, also a guest, he had made some
vicarious amends by submitting a son to the
ordeal. It may be noted that Professor W. H.
1From the British Medical Journal.
Marca 5, 1920]
Bragg and his son divided the Nobel Prize in
1915 for work on X-rays. “The Club” was
proposed by Dr. J. G. Adami, the recently ap-
pointed vice-chancellor of the University of
Liverpool, who insisted on the educational
value of the club, which, as a past professor,
he seemed to rate higher than that of lectures;
that ideas struck out in a discussion were
often of great value was accepted as true by
Professor Marr, who, as one of the senior hon-
orary members, replied to the toast in an amus-
ing speech. On the cover of the menu there
was an attractive reproduction of Kneller’s
portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, painted in 1689,
two years after the publication of the Prin-
cipia, and apparently the only authentic por-
trait done in his prime. The original portrait
is in the collection of the Earl of Portsmouth,
but the reproduction was a photograph of the
Trinity College engraving executed about
1866 by Oldham Barlow.
FELLOWSHIP OF THE NEW ZEALAND
INSTITUTE
At the annual meeting in 1919 of the board
of governors of the New Zealand Institute it
was decided to establish a fellowship of the in-
stitute, since—apart from Hutton and Hector
Memorial Medals, which couuld only be gained
by very few—there were no honors attainable
in the Dominion for those engaged in scien-
tific research, the number of whom has greatly
increased in recent years, while more branches
of science are pursued than formerly. This
fellowship, which entitles the recipient to place
the letters “F.N.Z. Inst.” after his name, is
limited to forty fellows, and not more than
four from now on are to be elected in any one
year until the number is complete, after
which only such vacancies as occur may be
filled.
In order to make a commencement, and as
there were many who well deserved recogni-
tion for their long and valuable services to sci-
ence, it was resolved that in the first place
twenty original fellows be appointed, these to
consist of the living past presidents, together
with Hutton and Hector medallists—ten in
all, and of ten more members of the institute
SCIENCE
239
who were to be elected by the past presidents
and medallists from persons nominated by the
various aftiliated branches of the institute.
The fellowship is to be given only for re-
search or distinction in science, and it is plain
that the distinction even now is far from easy
of attainment, and that, as time goes on, its
value will greatly increase.
The election and appointment of the orig-
inal fellows took place at the close of 1919, and
has resulted as follows:
B, O, Aston, F.LC., F.C.S.
*tProfessor W. B. Benham, M.A., D.Sc., F.RS.,
F.Z.8.
tElsdon Best.
*+T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., F.Z.S.
*+Professor Chas, Chilton, M.A., D.Se., LL.D.,
M.B., C.M., F.LS., C.M.ZS.
*+#L, Cockayne, Ph.D., F.B.S., F.LS.
+Professor T. H. Hasterfield, M.A., Ph.D., F.1.C.,
F.GS.
Professor C. C. Farr, D.Se., F.P.S.L., A.M.1.C.E.
G. Hogben, C.M.G., M.A., F.G.S.
G. V. Hudson, F.E.S.
Professor H. B. Kirk, M.A.
+#P, Marshall, M.A., D.Sc, F.GS., F.R.GS.,
E.ES.
*D. Petrie, M.A., Ph.D.
tSir Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S., ete.
Professor H. W. Segar, M.A.
S. Perey Smith, F.R.G.S.
R. Speight, M.A., M.Se., F.G.S.
Professor A. P. W. Thomas, M.A., F.L.S.
*Honorable G. M. Thomson, M.L.C., F.L.S.
J. Allan Thomson, M.A., D.Sc., A.O.S.M., F.G.S.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Proressor ALBert A. MicHEtson, of the
University of Chicago, has been elected a for-
eign associate member of the Paris Academy
of Sciences to succeed the late Lord Rayleigh.
Tue Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific has been awarded to
Professor Ernest W. Brown, of Yale Univer-
sity, for “distinguished services to astron-
omy.” The award was officially announced at
the annual meeting of the society on January
31. It is hoped that Professor Brown may be
*Past President.
tHector Medallist.
tHutton Medallist.
240
able to go to California to receive the medal
in person at the meeting of the society which
will be held on March 27. This is the fifteenth
award of the Bruce Gold Medal. It will be re-
called that nominations for the medal are re-
ceived each year from the directors of six
great observatories of the world: the Cordoba
Observatory, Argentina; the Royal Observa-
tory, Greenwich, England; the Paris Observa-
tory, France, and the Harvard, the Lick and
the Yerkes Observatories in America. It is
on the basis of these nominations that the di-
rectors of the society make the annual award.
Ar a meeting of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia held on February 17,
the Hayden memorial geological medal for
distinguished work in geology or paleontology
for 1920 was awarded to Professor T. C.
Chamberlin, of the University of Chicago, on
the recommendation of a committee consisting
of R. A. F. Penrose, Jr., chairman, John Mason
Clarke, Henry F. Osborn, Charles D. Walcott
and Edgar T. Wherry.
THE William H. Nichols medal for the year
1919 was presented to Dr. Irving Langmuir by
Dr. Nichols at a meeting of the New York
Section of the American Chemical Society on
March 5. Dr. Langmuir made an address on
“ Octek theory of valence.”
R. H. Hooker has been elected president of
the Royal Meteorological Society. The vice-
presidents are J. Baxendell, F. Druce, Sir
Napier Shaw and F. J. W. Whipple.
ArtHur W. Gitpert, Ph.D., who was pro-
fessor of plant breeding at the New York
State College of Agriculture from 1911 to
1917, has been appointed state commissioner
of agriculture for Massachusetts.
Dr. W. A. SercHELL has a sabbatical year of
absence from his work as head of the depart-
ment of botany at the University of California
and is visiting botanical institutions in the
eastern states.
Dr. J. W. E. GuartreLp, assistant professor
of chemistry of the University of Chicago, has
been appointed temporary research associate
of the department of botanical research, Car-
negie Institution of Washington, and is
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
spending January, February and March at
Tucson, in cooperative work with Dr. H. A.
Spoehr, of the staff of the Desert Laboratory.
AccorDING to a press dispatch from Geneva
Burt Wolbach, of Harvard Medical School,
and Dr. John Todd, of McGill University, have
arrived there to confer with the general med-
ical director of the League of Red Cross So-
cieties concerning inquiries the league will
carry on in Poland in connection with the
study of typhus fever. Other members of the
mission are proceeding to Poland. Professor
George C. Whipple, of Harvard University,
has arrived there to take up his work as chief
of the sanitary department of the Red Cross
League.
Dr. Atonzo E. Tavtor, of the University of
Pennsylvania, sailed for Europe, February 14,
to make a study of food conditions on the con-
tinent.
THE Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation states that Drs. William J. Mayo,
Rochester, Minn., and Franklin H. Martin,
Chicago, who have been visiting South Amer-
ica in the interests of a Pan-American Col-
lege of Surgeons, started for home from San-
tiago, Chile, on February 14. In the course of
their tour they have visited Buenos Aires,
Montevido and Valparaiso, Chile.
Tue Government of South Africa has ap-
pointed an advisory committee to carry out
and supervise a botanical survey of the
territories included in the Union, with Dr.
J. B. Pole-Evans, chief of the division of
botany in the Department of Agriculture, as
director.
THE committee on Scientific Research of
the American Medical Association has made
the following grants for scientific work: Pro-
fessor G. Carl Huber, University of Michi-
gan, $400, for study of nerve repair. Pro-
fessor H. M. Evans, University of California,
$400, for study of the influence of endocrine
glands on ovulation. Professor E. R. Le-
Count, Rush Medical College, $200, for study
of extradural hemorrhage and of the h-ion
content of the blood in experimental strepto-
coccus infections. Dr. E. EK. Ecker, Western
Reserve University, $200, for a study of the
Marc# 5, 1920]
specifieness of anti-anaphylaxis. Dr. Henri-
etta Calhoun, Iowa State University, $400,
for a study of the effect of protein shock on
diptheria intoxication.
Tue Cornplanter silver medal, which is
awarded biennially by the Cayuga County
(N. Y.) Historical Society in recognition of
service to the historical study and the present
welfare of the Iroquois League or Six Nations
Confederacy, has been given this year to
Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson (Mary Clark
Thompson) in acknowledgement of her con-
tributions to the Iroquois collections of the
New York State Museum and to the con-
servation of the historical records of the
league. Mrs. Thompson’s contrbutions to
this object have been made in the name of
her father Myron H. Clark, a former gov-
ernor of New York state.
Tue seventh lecture of the Harvey Society
series will be given by Dr. Otto Folin, pro-
fessor of physiological chemistry, Harvard
University, on “ Blood chemistry” at the New
York Academy of Medicine on Saturday even-
ing, March 13.
AT a meeting of the American Philosoph-
ical Society held on March 5, the program was:
“ Across the Andes in search of fossil plants,”
by Edward W. Berry, assistant professor of
paleobotany, Johns Hopkins University, and
“Tnterrelations of the fossil fuels—the Paleo-
zoic coals,” by John J. Stevenson, professor
emeritus of geology, New York University.
Dr. Atrrep J. Moszs, professor of mineral-
ogy in Columbia University, has died at the
age of sixty-one years. :
Dr. Francois C. Puinuirs, professor of chem-
istry at the University of Pittsburgh for forty
years, died on February 16, at the age of
sixty-nine years. Professor Phillips was
known for his work in the chemistry of nat-
ural gas.
Sm James ALEXANDER GRANT, one of the
most distinguished surgeons of Canada, known
also for work in paleontology, died on February
6, at his home in Ottawa, aged eighty-nine
years.
SCIENCE
241
Tue department of geology and geography
at the University of Michigan is to have a
summer camp in the mountains of Kentucky
for field work in geology and geography.
This camp will open on August 30, and will
continue for four weeks. Professor C. O.
Sauer, in charge of geography at the univer-
sity, will be director of the camp and conduct
the work in geography. The work in geology
will be directed by Professor E. C. Case.
The number of students will be limited to
twelve in each course. Students from other
universities who have finished an elementary
course in geology will be welcome to the
camp. Full information can be obtained
from Professor Sauer.
Dr. JosePH GRINNELL, associate professor of
zoology and director of the California Museum
of Vertebrate Zoology, has presented his en-
tire private collection of scientific study skins
of North American birds to the University of
California. The specimens number 8,312 and
represent. collections during the period 1893
_to 1907. The total ornithological collections
in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zool-
ogy now amount to 39,659 specimens. The
study skins were secured from Los Angeles
county, the Colorado Desert, the Mohave Des-
ert, the San Bernardino Mountains, the Santa
Barbara Islands, Mt. Pinos in Ventura, Santa
Clara county, Los Coronados Islands, the
Stikan District in southeastern Alaska, and
the Kotzebue Sound District in arctic Alaska.
Twenty-seven types of subspecies newly de-
scribed, and specimens of at least three species
of birds now extinct, are included in the col-
lection. There are also many “record speci-
mens.” Large series of such birds as the wil-
low ptarmigan, specially selected to illustrate
processes of molt are included. There are also
long series of birds gathered from appropriate
territory to show facts in geographic varia-
tion.
Tur American Museum of Natural His-
tory has published in its Bulletin a full report
by Dr. Pilsbry on Land Mollusks of the Bel-
gian Congo, one of a series of reports on the
fauna of that region. These reports are
242
based on the collections made by the Amer-
ican Museum Belgian Congo Expedition in
cooperation with the Belgian government.
THE Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation states that the Société de Neurologie de
Paris has recently decided to inaugurate an in-
ternational exchange of views on neurologic
questions by inviting neurologists and psychia-
trists from other countries to attend a special
meeting to be held annually at Paris in July.
It is planned to have two days of work with
two sessions each day, and some subject is to
be appointed for discussion. The first meeting
it is announced will be organized in July, 1921,
and ‘the subject appointed for discussion at that
time is the clinical forms and the treatment of
syphilis of the nervous system. Professor J. A.
Sicard has been appointed to open the discus-
sion.
WE learn from the Journal of the American
Medical Association that a notable gathering
of members of the medical profession and
other friends of the late Sir William Osler
attended services in his honor on January 1,
in Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore. The
time was set on receipt by Dr. Henry Barton
Jacobs, of a cablegram from Lady Osler,
stating that the funeral services in England
would be held at that hour. The ceremony at
St. Paul’s was most impressive. The trustees,
faculty and student body of the Johns Hop-
kins University were represented, as well as
the nurses of the training school and officials
of Johns Hopkins Hospital. The medical
and chirurgical faculty of Maryland and the
Baltimore City Medical Society were repre-
sented by leading members of the medical pro-
fession. A memorial meeting of the staff of
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, was held on Decem-
ber 31.
VALUABLE data and records, covering two
years’ research in the cause and effect of in-
fluenza, made by Dr. Thomas M. Rivers, and
the laboratories of Dr. Bayne Jones and Dr.
Lloyd D. Felton, containing apparatus and
data of value, were destroyed in the fire which
recently broke out on the top floor of the
pathologie building in the Johns Hopkins
group.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1314
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tur General Education Board, founded by
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, announces an ap-
propriation of $1,000,000 as a contribution
toward a building fund of $3,000,000 for the
construction and endowment of a new library
and class room building for Teachers College,
Columbia University.
AN emergency grant has been made to the
University of Cambridge, by the government,
of £380,000, payable in two installments, the
first of which has been received. The council
of the senate has assigned £5,000 to the uni-
versity library, £4,100 to inerease the stipends
of various professorships, £1,400 to increase
the stipends of eight readers, and £2,575 for
various university lecturers.
Mr. S. B. Jorn and his brother, Mr. J. B.
Joel, have promised the sum of £20,000 for
the endowment of a chair of physics in the
Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London.
Arter thirty years of service in the depart-
ment of chemistry at the University of Iowa,
during the last fifteen of which he has been
head of the department, Professor EK. W.
Rockwood has resigned his administrative
duties. He will continue his teaching and
research.
Assistant Proressor C. N. Minus, of South
Dakota State College, has been appointed
professor of mathematics at Heidelberg Uni-
versity, Tiffin, Ohio.
Dr. Rocer C. SmirH, of the Virginia
Station, has succeeded Dr. M. CO. Tanquary
in the Kansas State Agricultural College,
entomological department. Dr. Tanquary re-
signed to accept the post of Texas state
entomologist.
Howarp M. Turner, a consulting engineer
of Boston, who recently has been connected
with the Turners Falls Construction Com-
pany, has been appointed lecturer on water-
power engineering at the Harvard Engineer-
ing School.
It is stated in Nature that Dr. Samuel
Smiles has been appointed to the Daniell
Marcu 5, 1920]
chair of chemistry at King’s College, London,
in succession to Professor A. W. Crossley.
Last year Dr. Smiles was appointed professor
of organic chemistry at Armstrong College,
Neweastle, and since 1913 he has been senior
honorary secretary to the Chemical Society.
Dr. T. F. Srpny, at present professor of
geology at Armstrong College, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, has been appointed principal of
the University College of Swansea.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
STRASBOURG
To THE Eprror or Science: I take pleasure
in transmitting to you a note recently re-
ceived from my friend and old schoolmate at
the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Maurice
Fréchet, concerning the opening under French
auspices of the University of Strasbourg.
From the extent of the mathematical cur-
riculum thereto appended it is clear that the
whole university will be on a very substantial
basis.
Many readers of ScmmenNcE may recall that
in 1914 just prior to the outbreak of the war
Professor Fréchet was planning to come to
America as lecturer at one of our large uni-
versities with a strong department of mathe-
matics. Students who now wish to study with
Fréchet that branch of mathematics in which
he is eminent by researches internationally
known will have to cross the Atlantic. I may
add that Dr. Fréchet speaks English fluently
and will doubtless make every endeavor to
render profitable to any young American
mathematician a sojourn at Strasbourg.
Epwin Bmweit Winson
THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG
It will be perhaps of interest for readers of
ScrENcE to hear that notwithstanding many diffi-
culties, the University of Strasbourg was re-
opened informally last January. It is in course of
reorganization and will be in full working order
for the formal reopening which will take place next
November, 1919.
As ‘‘the end of the University of Strasbourg’’
has been announced in some neutral papers, we
SCIENCE
243
give below the full program of its mathematical
department for the next academic year, such as it
has been decided upon, in the original French,
names being only given in full for men already in
Strasbourg.
Lectures are, of course, delivered in French.
The library has been considerably increased as far
as concerns books written in English, as well as
French books,
For further particulars, apply to Professor
Fréchet, 2 Rue du Canal, Robertsan, Strasbourg.
Mavrice FRecHET
The courses in mathematics offered during
1919-20 are: (1) Preparatory and general
mathematics, by Dr. Pérés and an instruc-
tor. (2) Differential and Integral Cal-
culus (unassigned). (8) Theoretical and ap-
plied mechanics, by Professor Villat and Mr.
Veronnet. (4) Astronomy by Professor Es-
celangon and Danjon. (5) Higher Analysis
(spaces of © dimensions, approximative func-
tions, functional calculus), by Professor
Fréchet. (6) Differential geometry (2d se-
mester), by Dr. Pérés. (7) Theory of
functions (integral functions, elliptic func-
tions with applications), by Professor Villat
and (2d semester). Furthermore as
preparation for the Agrégation a series of
courses (Math. spéciales, Math. élementaries,
Caleal diff. et int., mécanique rationelle) are
given. Dr. Pérés, director of the mathe-
matical laboratory, and an assistant will offer
work in that line, and Professor Fréchet will
conduct a colloquium to encourage original
research.
PROFESSOR PAWLOW
To tHe Epiror or Science: Knowing the
keen interest of all American men of science
and particularly physiologists in news from
Professor Pawlow, I hasten to send herewith
a paragraph from a letter recently received
from a well-known physiologist in the south
of Russia. For obvious reasons the place
and name had at this time best not be made
public.
In August of 1919 Professor J. P. Pawlow was
still alive in Petrograd. He begged his friends [in
Kieff] to send him some provisions, as he was stary-
ing. At the end of his letter he writes: ‘‘Instead
244
of science I am busy peeling potatoes.’’? I know
nothing about him at present (January 17, 1920),
as the north has been severed from the south by the
Bolshevick invasion.
Eyer since the false announcement of Pro-
fessor Pawlow’s death a few years ago all his
friends have been anxiously awaiting word
from him. The above is indeed pitiable but
at least indicates that he was living seven
months ago.
Francis G. Benepict
ANOPHELES QUADRIMACULATUS AND
ANOPHELES PUNCTIPENNIS IN
SALT WATER
WHILE it is well known that Anopheles
ludlowt and Anopheles chaudoyet may pass
their larval stages in brackish water, the re-
port? of Smith (1904) regarding the occur-
rence of Anopheles quadrimaculatus in brack-
ish water has been either ignored or dis-
credited. Anopheles crucians has been found
in salt water at times.
It seems desirable to record certain cases
of the distribution of larve of malarial
mosquitoes in brackish water which have
come to my observation. Although not
numerous these cases indicate that the Amer-
ican species of Anophelines may occur in
brackish water rather frequently.
During the summer of 1918, while in
charge of a malarial mosquito survey of the
zone around Camp Abraham Eustis, Lee
Hall, Va., the writer secured several imagoes
of Anopheles quadrimaculatus and Anopheles
punctipennis from larve taken in brackish
water. Later, (1919) a single imago of A.
quadrimaculatus developed from a collection
taken in a brackish pond near Hampton, Va.
On August 21, 1918, in company with Mr.
T. B. Hayne, a sanitary inspector in the
U. S. P. H. S., the writer was surveying the
draws leading off one of the tributaries to
Skiff’s Creek, near Camp Eustis, when a
large draw was encountered on which great
mats of alge (Spirogyra and Cdogonium)
were floating. Such algal mats ordinarily
1Smith, J. B., 1904, Report of the N. J. Ag.
Exp. Sta. upon the mosquitoes occurring within
the state, their habits, life history, ete.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 13814
afford protection to mosquito larvae and it
was therefore not surprising that we secured
two pup and several larve of the second and
third moults of Anopheles. Since the water
was slightly brackish, the expectation was
that the imagoes would be those of Anopheles
crucians. During the night, however, two
females of the species A. quadrimaculatus
emerged. On the next day a second trip was
made to the same draw and temperature and
specific grayity readings were taken, a number
of larvee of all ages being secured. The tem-
perature of the water supporting the algal
mats was 27° C. and the specifie gravity was
1.0048. From the second collection three
females of the species A. quadrimaculatus
emerged and with them two females of the
species A. punctipennis.
The source of the brackish water was from
tidal flow and the tributary from which the
draw led, had a temperature of 25° C. and a
specific gravity of 1.0058. The seepage was
not great. In this case there is no question
that the eggs of Anopheles furnished larve
which were able to resist a quite considerable
salinity. Except for the presence of salts, the
environment was one ordinarily exceedingly
likely to furnish malarial mosquitoes.
During the summer of 1919, while the
writer was making a survey of territory in
the vicinity of Newport News, Va., much of
which had been under the control of our sani-
tary engineers, a collection was made from a
pond between Hampton and Newport News,
which had been recently cut off by a dike from
the tidal water of a large creek. The specific
gravity of the pond water was 1.005 while
that of the tidal creek was 1.015. One imago
of Anopheles quadrimaculatus developed from
this collection.
It is quite evident from the cases here
recorded that future control work in con-
nection with Anopheline mosquitoes must in-
clude rather careful study of the slightly
saline waters. In all probability the adult
females of Anopheles select their breeding
places with more reference to favorable tem-
perature, light and vegetation than with
reference to the chemical conditions. Field
Marcu 5, 1920]
observations to be recorded elsewhere indicate
that this is the case and that many times,
eggs were deposited where they were unable to
survive.
F. E. CHmester
U. 8S. Pusitic HEALTH SERVICE
A PARAFFINE RULER FOR DRAWING CURVES
Sinvous lines of almost any form can be
drawn with the aid of a ruler constructed in
the following manner. Points are plotted on
a sheet of paper which is then placed on a
smooth board and slender nails somewhat
larger than pins are driven into the wood at
each point. A strip of any flexible material
such as whalebone, metal or bristol board is
bent around to fit the uprights and held in
place by other nails. The edges of the paper
are then turned up and melted paraftine
poured in to a depth of about a quarter of an
inch. When the paraffine is thoroughly hard-
ened the nails are draw out, their spaces filled
up by means of a hot metal point and the
sheet of solid paraffine broken in two along
the strip which is in the form of the line to
be drawn.
Such a ruler, of course, must be made for
each curve, although for a symmetrical one
only one half need be made. This method
gives an evenly modulated curvature which
can be trimmed: if necessary. When several
graphs are to be grouped together as many
trials as necessary can be made in a short
time until a good arrangement of them is
drawn.
A practical point of importance is to have
the liquid as cool as possible before pouring
otherwise it will penetrate the paper and be-
come fastened to the substratum. After a
little experience a mold can be made quickly,
although it requires some time for the cast
to harden. For those who do not have
oceasion to draw many arcuations a device of
this kind produces fairly satisfactory results
and takes the place of rather expensive
splines.
D. F. Jones
CoNNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT
STATION
SCIENCE
245
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALLS
OF UNIVERSITIES
A CORRESPONDENT sends us the following ex-
tract from Dr. Geoffrey Martin’s popular ex-
position of “ Modern Chemistry and its Won-
ders” (1915), suggesting that as it applies
very largely to American universities also, it
may be advisable to reprint it in SCIENCE.
The color industry started in England some fifty
years ago, flourished immensely for twenty years
and then passed away to Germany, where now gi-
gantie factories control the world’s markets.
This loss of supremacy in a world-industry is a
fact to make Englishmen sad and thoughtful, and
those who have lived, as I have lived, in Germany,
and have seen her numerous universities and great
technical schools filled with eager students, know
perfectly well the reason of this disaster. It is not
so much the fault of our practical men—who in
energy and judgment and general sagacity are,
despite all critics, splendid, full of bold enterprise
—as the fault of our universities, who have failed
entirely to get into touch with practical men. In-
stead of encouraging research—and it was this
that laid the basis of the German chemical indus-
try—our university senates have done their level
best by legislation to keep our best students off it,
or to make it so unprofitable that they prefer to
enter some other form of activity. Let me give an
instance of how the greatest difficulties are placed
by the universities before students attempting to
undertake scientific research.
When a student enters an English, and still
more a Scottish, university, he sees before him a
long series of oncoming examinations. Almost
every year he has to pass an examination of in-
creasing difficulty, and the only subjects that count
are the stereotyped ones, on which questions may be
asked at some forthcoming examination. In an
atmosphere of examinations he lives, breathes, and
has his being. Finally, after some four to six
years’ hard work, he passes the B.Sc. examination,
which is an examination of considerable difficulty.
Now mark, up to this point he has only been
learning what others have done before him. At
no time has he reached the confines of knowledge,
or advanced it in any way. His parents now step
in, The father says, ‘‘My son, we have given you
a good education; for four to six years we have
maintained you at a university, and you have shown
your ability by passing innumerable examinations
246
of a highly complicated nature, and it is now time
that you pass into the great world to earn your
own living.’’ And so the young man passes out of
the university without ever being even introduced
to methods of research, or ever touching the boun-
daries of human knowledge. Being a university
man, he hardly ever passes into the great world of
affairs, but retires into the badly paid and de-
spised teaching profession—and the worst of it is
that it is our very best students who invariably
turn to the sheltered ranks of the teachers. It ts
only students who fail to pass the Chinese-like wall
of examinations who join the business world and
enter factory or workshop. Perhaps, however, the
young man, in spite of every discouragement meted
out to him by the university authorities by means
of suppressive legislation, is resolved to remain
on in order to do research work. He works hard
for two years longer (for research work is diffi-
cult and laborious), and at the end of that time has
discovered enough to produce a small paper—noth-
ing more ean be expected after two years’ work.
Then as a rule this single little paper is not con-
sidered sufficient by the university authorities to
merit the highest academic recognition, and so he
leaves the university with no reward for his extra
work. The highest academic honors involving rec-
ognition of research work are thus in this country
confined to one class of men—namely, to university
teachers, who remain on in the laboratories working
out problems in science often for years; and the
business world, where the highest inventive and
practical ability is really needed, never or very sel-
dom receives men trained in methods of research.
The heads of factories or workshops, and even the
directors of huge industrial undertakings, have
neyer been introduced themselves either to the
spirit or practise of research, and so are entirely
out of sympathy with it. In Germany, however,
a different system prevails, and it pays a student
to remain on in order to undertake research, as it
helps him afterwards in obtaining a good position
in the industrial world. Such men gradually rise
to the top, become directors of firms, and hence a
sympathetic view of scientific work has become a
characteristic of the German industrial world. It
is all a matter of university legislation, and in
Great Britain it is hopeless for the average student
to attempt to obtain high academic honors involy-
ing research, and so he does not try. If any re-
search work is done in this country research stu-
dents must be paid to do it, the payment taking
the form of research scholarships! In Germany a
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
celebrated professor can have as many helping
hands as he desires to carry on his investigations,
his students forming willing and unpaid assistants,
who afterwards pass out into the industrial world,
carrying methods of research and influence there
also. Here, however, students in any numbers ean
not be got to undertake or assist research going on
in the university, for no good of it will come to
them. There is nothing fundamentally different be-
tween the natures of German and English stu-
dents. The difference in the enthusiasm for re-
search, however, is that the legislations of the Ger-
man and English universities are different, so that
in Germany research work helps a student in get-
ting a diploma, and so his living, whereas in this
country it is of no practical advantage for a stu-
dent to undertake research work.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
TWO DESTRUCTIVE RUSTS READY TO INVADE
THE UNITED STATES?!
THE application of the adage, “an ounce
of prevention is better than a pound of cure,”
to the spread of crop pests has now became
an established procedure for the United States
through the activities of the Federal Horticul-
tural Board. One of the difficult factors in se-
curing success is learning about pests before
they have been introduced or have attracted
much attention. The hollyhock rust did not
seem important in the mountainous regions of
Chili, but it spread over all the world between
1869 and 1886, reaching the United States
last, doubtless due to our “splendid isolation”
from South America in transportation facili-
ties. The Colorado potato beetle, as another
instance, had to leave its native home and
food plants to become a recognized menace to
erops. It seems worth while, therefore, to call
attention to two rust fungi that seem to
possess the possibilities of great harm, but
which have not yet invaded the United States
proper.
The peanut crop is a large and growing
industry of the southern states. There is a
trust of peanuts widely distributed in South
America, and becoming common in the West
India Islands. It is usually designated as
1 Presented to the American Phytopathological
Society at the St. Louis meeting, January 1, 1920.
Marcu 5, 1920]
Uredo Arachidis, although a single collection
from Paraguay would indicate that it should
be called Puccinia Arachidis. It has been
known to mycologists since 1884, but only very
recently has it attracted attention of the eculti-
vator. Specimens received by the writer from
W. Robson, of Montserrat, British West
Indies, show every leaf covered with the
abundant brownish-yellow powder of the
fungus. This was in September, 1916. Mr.
‘Robson reports that some seasons it is a
serious menace to the peanut crop in that
island. Experiments for its control with
Bordeaux mixture did not prove promising.
The life cycle of the rust has not been
worked out, but as in the case of the chrysan-
themum rust the cultivator will meet only
with the uredinial stage, for only one kind of
spore is produced on cultivated plants. The
rust appears to be working its way northward,
having been reported from Porto Rico in 1913,
and from Cuba in 1915. It has not yet been
reported from any part of the United States
proper.
The second rust, to which attention should
be called, is one on potatoes and tomatoes
(Puccinia Pittieriana). Little is yet known
about it. It was collected by H. Pittier on
the wild potato in 1903 and again in 1904
on the slopes of the voleano Irazi in Costa
Rica, at an altitude of about 10,000 feet, and
was found again in the same region by HE. W.
D. Holway in 1916. It is mentioned in
Pittier’s “Plantas Usuales de Costa Rica”
under the name Uredo Pittiert. More recently
specimens have been examined by the writer
sent by A. Pachano from Ambato, Ecuador,
where it was found in 1918 in the gardens of
the Quinta Normal on both potatoes and
tomatoes.
For this rust only one kind of spore, the
teliospore, is produced in the life-cycle, and
these spores germinate at once upon reaching
maturity, requiring no period of rest. The
habit of the fungus and its mode of distri-
bution are essentially those of the hollyhock
rust. In gross appearance, as well as in other
characters, it is very similar to the common
rust on eocklebur.
SCIENCE
247
The two rusts, to which attention is partic-
ularly called, have not yet demonstrated their
full capacity for harm, but from their appear-
ance, and from what we know of the intro-
duction and behavior of similar rusts that are
highly destructive, there seems little doubt
that if once established in a region where
suitable crops are extensively grown, they
will prove most unwelcome to the cultivator.
J. C. ARTHUR
PURDUE UNIVERSITY,
LAFAYETTE, IND,
THE FIXATION OF FREE NITROGEN BY
GREEN PLANTS
In spite of a considerable amount of nega-
tive evidence, the question of the ability of
chlorophyll-containing plants to utilize the
uncombined nitrogen of the air is still an
open one. A large number of experiments
with lower forms, especially the grass-green
alge, tend to disclaim any such ability and it
has come to be very generally accepted that
members of the Chlorophycee are not able to
use free nitrogen. However, the number of
species which have been investigated is small
and the culture methods employed have not
always been those which are most favorable
for the best growth of these organisms. Ac-
cordingly experiments were begun in this lab-
oratory a few years ago for the purpose of
extending our knowledge over a larger number
of species, under culture conditions which
would insure a rapid and vigorous growth.
Some of the results of these experiments are
presented in this brief preliminary note and
a more detailed account will appear elsewhere
within a few months.
Seven species of grass-green alge (Chloro-
phycee) were used in the experiments. With
the exception of one (Protococcus sp.), all
were isolated from soil and all species were
used in pure culture, understanding by this
term a single species free from all other
organisms. The cultures were grown in. 500
e.c. Kjeldahl flasks on approximately 150 gr.
of accurately weighed mineral nutrient agar.
Since previous experiments have shown that
these forms will not grow in the complete
248
absence of combined nitrogen, a definite
amount of combined nitrogen was supplied
in the medium. The full nutrient solution
employed contained 0.5 gr. NH,NO, per liter
and in the various series this source of nitro-
gen was replaced by (NH,),SO,, Ca(NO,),,
asparagine, glycocoll, and urea, the other con-
stituents of the solution remaining un-
changed. In all the culture media nitrogen
as such was present in approximately equal
quantities and each nitrogen source was set
up in duplicate series, with and without 1
per cent. glucose. NH,NO,, Ca(NO,),, and
(NH,),SO, were also used in the presence of
mannite. The culture flasks were arranged
in series according to the medium and con-
nected by glass and rubber tubing for aeration
with ammonia-free air. Three flasks of each
series remained uninoculated as checks and
two or three flasks in each series were in-
oculated with the same organism.
At the end of a growing period of from five
to seven months the cultures were analyzed
for total nitrogen. The Gunning-Kjeldahl
method was used for media free from nitrates
and where nitrates were present the Forster
modification was employed. The average of
the determinations of the three checks of a
series was taken as the nitrogen content of
that medium per unit weight, and any in-
crease in total nitrogen in the culture flasks
of that series was regarded as “ free nitrogen
fixation.” In the urea, glycocoll, asparagine,
and (NH,),SO, series no marked increase or
decrease occurred either in the presence or
absence of glucose or mannite. Marked in-
creases were found, however, in both NH,NO,
and Ca(NO,), media in the presence of glu-
cose, the amount of fixation ranging from 6
to 10 mg. per culture in the 1917-18 experi-
ments and from 4 to 13 mg. in the 1919 experi-
ments. Since the initial nitrogen content of
the medium was but 22 or 28 mg. per culture,
as shown by the checks, this fixation repre-
sents. an increase in total nitrogen ranging
from 17 to 55 per cent. Where mannite re-
placed glucose in the nitrate media, there was
no indication of fixation; and in the absence
of both glucose and mannite, there were only
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1314
slight inereases over the checks. Fixation
was not confined to any one species, appar-
ently all seven species showing ability to use
free nitrogen. The amount of fixation, how-
ever, varied somewhat with the different
species and seemed to be related to the in-
tensity of growth.
One species of the 1919 experiment exhib-
ited what is apparently a “denitrification” —
when grown on nitrate media in the presence
of mannite. The total nitrogen content of -
these flasks was from 2 to 9 mg. below that
of the checks. However, the same species in
the presence of glucose increased the total
nitrogen content of the culture. There was
also a slight indication of denitrification with
this species on nitrate media in the absence
of both glucose and mannite.
F. B. Wann
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY,
N. Y. Stare CoLLeGe oF AGRICULTURE
AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
REPORT OF THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL
MEETING
THe American Physiological Society held its
thirty-second annual session during the holidays at
Cincinnati, Ohio. The scientific and business ses-
sions were called at the school of medicine of the
University of Cincinnati. Six half-day sessions
were held on December 29, 30 and 31, 1919, for the
reading and discussion of scientific papers. In the
two business sessions a number of important meas-
ures were considered and voted, the most notable
of which was the establishment of a new journal
for the publication of periodical reviews of physio-
logical progress in subjects of dominant scientific
interest.
The important business acts of the council and
of the society at the several sessions during the
meeting are here enumerated:
1. The annual assessment was fixed at $1.00 for
the year 1920.
2. A grant of $125 was made in aid of the pub-
lication of the journal, Phystological Abstracts,
edited by the English Physiological Society in
which the American Physiological Society is a
collaborator.
3. Professor Donald R. Hooker, of Johns Hop-
kins University, was appointed managing editor of
Marcu 5, 1920]
The American Journal of Physiology for the year
1920. The society passed a vote of appreciation
to Dr. Hooker in recognition of his successful man-
agement of the Journal since the administration
of the Journal has been under the control of the
society.
4. Professor William H. Howell, of Johns Hop-
kins University, was nominated as representative
of the society on the Medical Division of the Na-
tional Research Council for the three-year term be-
ginning July 1, 1920.
5. The society at its thirty-first annual meeting
at Baltimore, April, 1919, voted approval of a
proposition by the council to establish a new jour-
nal under the auspices of the society for the publi-
eation of reviews of timely topics in the physio-
logical sciences. At the present meeting the per-
fected plan was announced. It was voted to
launch the new journal under the control of the
American Physiological Society. A tentative board
of seven editors was chosen to represent the bio-
logical field of the different societies constituting
the American Federation of Biological Societies.
Dr. Donald R. Hooker was appointed managing
editor for the year 1920, and the sum of $3,000
was set aside from the surplus funds of the Amer-
ican Journal of Physiology to guarantee the
initial expenses of the new journal. The board of
editors announced by the council include four mem-
bers from the Physiological Society and one each
from the Biochemical, Pharmacological and Patho-
logical Societies. The list follows:
Wm. H. Howell, The Physiological Society, Johns
Hopkins University.
J. J. R. Macleod, The Physiological Society, Uni-
versity of Toronto.
Frederic S. Lee, The Physiological Society, Co-
lumbia University.
Donald R. Hooker, The Physiological Society,
Johns Hopkins University.
L. B. Mendel, The Society of Biological Chemists,
Yale University. :
Reed Hunt, The Society of Pharmacologists and
Experimental Therapeutics, Harvard University.
H. Gideon Wells, The Society for Experimental
Pathology, University of Chicago.
6. The following new members were nominated
by the council and elected by the society at the
two business sessions:
Joseph C. Aub, A.B., M.D., instructor in physiol-
ogy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
Francis M. Baldwin, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., associate
professor of zoology, Iowa State College, Ames,
Towa.
SCIENCE
249
Stanley R. Benedict, A.B., Ph.D., professor of
chemistry, Cornell Medical College, New York
City.
Felix Chillingworth, M.D., assistant professor of
physiology and pharmacology, Yale University,
New Haven, Conn, —
Isabelo Conception, M.D., assistant professor of
physiology, University of the Philippines, P. I.
Care War Department, Insular Bureau, Washing-
ton, D. C., for 1920.
Chas. H. O'Donoghue, B.Se., D.Se., professor of
zoology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Canada,
Nathan B. Eddy, M.D., lecturer in physiology, Me-
Gill University, Montreal, Canada.
Andrew C. Ivy, Ph.D., professor in physiology,
Loyola University, Chicago, Ill.
Merkel Henry Jacobs, A.B., Ph.D., assistant pro-
fessor of zoology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa,
Theophile K. Kruse, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., assistant
professor of pharmacology, University of Pitts-
burgh, Pa.
Spencer Melvin, M.D., professor of physiology,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Walter R. Miles, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., research psy-
chologist, Nutrition Laboratory, Carnegie Insti-
tution, Boston, Mass.
Lillian Mary Moore, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., instructor
in physiology, University of California, Berkeley,
Calif.
Andrew Theodore Rasmussen, A.B., Ph.D., asso-
ciate professor of neurology, University of Min-
nesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
John Tait, M.D., D.Se., professor of physiology,
McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Geo. A. Talbert, B.S., assistant in physiology, Uni-
versity of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
Homer Wheelon, A.B., M.S., M.D., assistant pro-
fessor of physiology, St. Louis University
School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.
7. The officers elected by the society for the year
1920 are:
President, Warren P. Lombard, University of
Michigan.
Secretary, Charles W. Greene, University of Mis-
souri,
Treasurer, Joseph Erlanger, Washington Uni-
versity.
Councillor for the 1920-23 term, Carl J. Wig-
gers, Western Reserve University.
8. Article IX. of the Constitution was amended
to enable the society to control and publish jour-
250
nals other than the American Journal of Physiol-
ogy. The amended article reads:
Article 1, Section 1. The official organs of the
society shall be the American Journal of Physiol-
ogy and such other journals as the society shall
from time to time establish. These the society
shall own and manage.
Section 2. The management of the journals shall
be vested in the council. The council shall make a
full report to the society at each annual meeting
on the financial condition and the publication pol-
icy of the journals.
9. The following resolutions were passed:
(1) That this society concurs in the opinion that
the present multiplicity and duplication of work in
respect to abstracts of the literature in its field is
unsatisfactory.
That we are in general sympathy with the ef-
fort along the general lines suggested by the Con-
cilium Bibliographicum to simplify and coordinate
such work on an international basis in respect to
lists of titles and brief abstracts, while retaining
t-. each national society complete freedom in re-
spect to publications in the fields of review and
eritique.
(2) That the Council of the American Physio-
logical Society extends its very great appreciation
of the hospitality of the Daniel Drake Society
which contributed so largely to the pleasures and
convenience of the members at the council meet-
ings.
(3) That the cordial thanks of this society be
extended to the authorities of the University of
Toronto and to its local committee for their invi-
tation to meet at Toronto at the present time and
for their preparations for such meeting, which un-
foreseen circumstances prevented; that it is the
hope of this society that another and early oppor-
tunity may be given to meet at the University of
Toronto.
(4) That the American Physiological Society
hereby expresses its very great appreciation of the
courtesy and hospitality extended to its members
and guests by the officers and faculty, and partic-
ularly by the local committee, of the college of
medicine of the University of Cincinnati which
have gone far to make this meeting an unusual
success.
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
The society met in joint session with the Amer-
ican Federation of Biological Societies for two of
its six scientific meetings and one very profitable
demonstration session was held on the second after-
noon. The program which follows contains 58
papers that were read and discussed beside 19
papers announced by title only.
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
Observations on the physical efficiency tests used
by the Royal Air Force of England: Epwarp C.
ScHNEDER, Wesleyan University. :
Observations on the distribution of glycogen in
some invertebrates and fishes: J. J. R. Mactrop,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
L. Kivsorn and R. S. Lane, University of To-
ronto.
Further observations on ether hyperglycemia in the
absence of the adrenals: G. N. Stewart and J.
M. Rogorr, Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland.
Further observations on the relation of the central
nervous system to epinephrin secretion: G. N.
Srewarr and J. M. Rocorr.
The etiology of ricketts: E. V. McCotuum.
The réle of fat soluble vitamine in human nutrition.
Its suggested relationships to rickets: A. F.
HEss.
Preliminary observations on the relation of bac-
teria to experimental scurvy in guinea-pigs: M.
H. Givens and G. L. Horrman, Western Penn-
sylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh.
Further studies on the use of water soluble B in
the treatment of infant malnutrition: WALTER
H. Eppy, New York City.
Is fibrinogen formed in the liver? A, P. MaTHEws,
University of Cincinnati.
Anaphylactoid phenomena: Paut J. HANzLIK and
Howarp T, KARSNER, Western Reserve Univer-
sity.
Further studies in experimental excitation of in-
fections of the throat by chilling the body sur-
face: Stuart Mupp, Samurt B. Grant and AL-
FRED GOLDMAN, Harvard Medical School.
Some observations on dark adaptation of the
peripheral retina: M. DresBacH, JoHN EH. Sut-
TON, JR. and S. R. Burnage, Albany Medical
College.
Paradoxical pupil dilation following lesions of af-
ferent paths: JOSEPH BRYNE, Fordham Univer-
sity.
The interpretation of certain muscle phenomena in
terms of ‘‘all or none’’: T. K. T. Krause, Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh.
Heat production in the Cardia Sphincter of the
turtle: C. D. SnypER, Johns Hopkins Medical
School,
Some remarks on catalase: THos. C. BURNETT, Uni-
versity of California.
Adrenal secretion in pain and asphyxia: W. B.
Cannon, Harvard Medical School.
The cardio-respiratory metabolic function: R, G.
Pearce, Akron, Ohio.
Character of the sympathetic innervation of the
retractor muscle in the dog: C. W. EpMuNDs,
University of Michigan,
A comparison of the physiological effects of Alpha
and Beta rays; AurRED C. REDFIELD, University
of Toronto.
Marca 5, 1920]
On the origin of the muscular tremors, clonic and
tonic spasms, in parathyroid tetany: A. B.
LuckHarp?, M. SHERMAN and W. B. SERBIN,
University of Chicago.
The réle of catalase in the organism: W. E.
Boures, University of Illinois.
Significance of concentration as applied to sub-
stances in the blood plasma: R. T. Woopyatt.
Alkaloid diffusion in physical and biological sys-
tems: G. H. A. Chowzs and A. L, WALTERS.
The adjustment to the barometer of the hemato-
respiratory functions in man: YANDELL HENDER-
son and H. W. HaGecarp.
A convenient permanent urease preparation: OTTO
FOuIn.
Relation of
TASHIRO.
New methods for the study of blood pressure in
man and in the dog. a. Continuous systolic
tracings in man. 0b. Indirect determination of
blood pressure in the unanesthetized dog: AL-
FRED C. Kouts, Washington University, St. Louis.
Determination of the circulation time in man and
animals: A, S. LoEVENHART, BeNJ. H. ScHLOM-
ovitz and EH. G. SryBoup, University of Wiscon-
sin,
The critical level as blood pressure falls: WALTER
B. Cannon and McKeen Carteiu, Harvard Med-
ical School.
Basal metabolism during traumatic shock: JOSEPH
C. Aus and DonaLD CUNNINGHAM, Harvard Med-
ical School.
The effects of some anesthetics in shock: MCKEEN
CaATTELL, Harvard Medical School.
Acidosis as a criterion of shock: B. RAYMOND, Uni-
versity of Chicago.
The blood in clinical shock: G. C..We and C. C.
GUTHRIE, University of Pittsburgh.
The réle of the vagi and the splanchnic nerves in
the genesis of shock from abdominal operations:
A. C. Ivy, Loyola University.
Microdissection studies on the fertilization of the
star fish egg: RoBErt CHAMBERS, Cornell Uni-
versity Medical College.
Further studies on the action of Acacia and asso-
ciated colloids: T. K. T. Krusr, University of
Pittsburgh.
Studies on the responses of the circulation to low
oxygen tension. II. The electrocardiogram dur-
img extreme oxygen want: CHAS. W. GREENE and
Newton C. GinBert, Medical Research Labora-
tory, Air Service.
anesthesia to respiration: SHIRO
SCIENCE
251
The influence of low oxygen tensions on venous
blood pressure in man: EDWARD C. SCHNEIDER,
Wesleyan University.
Observations on the pathological physiology of
chronic pulmonary emphysema: R. W. Scort,
Western Reserve Medical School.
Electron tube amplification with the string galvan-
ometer: ALEXANDER FORBES and CATHERINE
THACHER, Harvard Medical School.
Observations on the capillary blood pressure im
man with demonstration of apparatus: D. R.
Hooker and C. S. Danzer, Johns Hopkins Med-
ical School.
Some cardiac and vascular reactions to small
hemorrhages: WAuTER J. Mrrek and J. A. E.
EysteEr, University of Wisconsin.
Time relations of the heart cycle as shown by the
carotid pulse: W. P. Lomparp and Oris M.
Copr, University of Michigan.
Further experiments on the effect of warming and ~
cooling the sino-auricular node in the mammalian
heart: Beng. H. ScuuLomovitz, University of
Wisconsin.
Studies on catalase: R. J. SryMour, Ohio State
University, Columbus.
Further results on the physics of sphygmography:
A. M. Burms and Ciypz Brooks, Ohio State
University.
Effects of breathing dry and moist air: HE. P.
Lyon and ESTHER GREISHEIMER, University of
Minnesota.
Vascular reactions to epinephrine in solutions of
various concentrations of hydrogen ions: C. D.
SnypErR and W. A. CAMPBELL, JR.
The effect of the subcutaneous injection of adre-
nalin chloride on blood pressure, pulse rate and
the basal metabolic rate in man: WALTER M.
Bootuspy and IRENE SANDIFORD, Mayo Clinic.
Removal of the duodenum: F. C. Mann, The Mayo
Clinic.
The experimental production of edema as related
to protein deficiency: EMMA KoHMAN, Univer-
sity of Chicago.
Susceptible and resistant phases of the dividing
sea-urchin egg when subjected to various lipoid-
solvents especially the higher alcohols: F. M.
BaLpwin, Iowa State College.
Effect of glutamine production on urinary nitrogen:
Cart P. SHeRwin, M. Wour and W. Wo tr,
Fordham University.
The excretion of a red pigment in the sweat by
man: M. H. Givens, V. L. ANDREWS and H. B.
McCuiueace, Western Pennsylvania Hospital,
Pittsburgh, Pa.
252
Urochrome excretion as influenced by diet: CARL
PELKAN, University of California.
The chemistry of gar roe: CHas. W. GREENE and
Erwin E. Neuson, University of Missouri.
On the protection against eosin hemolysis afforded
by certain substances: C. L. A. ScHmMmpT and
C, FE. NorMAN.
PAPERS READ BY TITLE
The regeneration of the vagus nerve in the dog:
F. T. Rogers, Marquette School of Medicine.
The action of prostatic extracts on the tonicity and
contractions of isolated genitourinary organs:
D. I. Macur and S. Matsumoto, Johns Hop-
kins Medical School.
Nervous regulation of respiration: F. H. Scorr
and C. C. Gauxt, University of Minnesota.
Recent developments in the field of industrial hy-
giene: A. H. Ryan, Waterbury, Conn,
The influence of internal secretions on blood pres-
sure and the formation of bile: ARDREY W.
Downs, McGill University.
The physiology of reproduction in the opossum:
Cart HarTMAN, University of Texas.
A study of the effect of massage and electrical
treatment on denervated mammalian muscle:
¥F. A. Hartman and W. E. Buatz, University of
Buffalo.
Function of the Coxal plates of amphipoda: JOHN
Tait, University of Toronto.
Keratin: JoHN Tart, University of Toronto.
The effect of pituitary extracts on the absorption
of water from the intestine: M. H. Rrzs, Uni-
versity of South Dakota.
Observations on the thyroid: WALTER B. CANNON
and Puimuie HE, Smiru, Harvard Medical School,
The effect of pituitary feeding on egg production
in chickens: SUTHERLAND SIMPSON, Cornell Uni-
versity.
The theory of physiological overstrain of the pan-
creas as the cause of diabetes: A. J. CARLSON
and V. W. JENSEN, University of Chicago.
The nature of the light producing reaction of
luminous animals: E. NEwTON HARVEY.
Observations on volume-flow of blood: Rosrrt
GESELL, University of California,
Blood flow measurements through the hands: N. B.
TayLor, University of Toronto.
On the reality of nerve energy: D. FRASER HARRIS,
University of Toronto.
The respiratory quotient and its uncertainties: J.
A. Fries, State College, Pennsylvania.
The subcortical tract for masticatory rhythm: F. R.
Minter, Western University.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1314
DEMONSTRATIONS
Apparatus for gas analysis, etc.: J. J. R. Mao-
LEOD, University of Toronto.
A method for determining the rate of oxygen ab-
sorption by blood: W. S. McEuiroy and C. C.
GUTHRIE, University of Pittsburgh.
A non-leakable and quantitative volume change re-
corder: ROBERT GESELL, University of Cali-
fornia.
Foods and food substitutes used in western Russia,
and in parts of Poland during the winter 1918—
1919: A. J. CarRLSoNn, University of Chicago.
A convenient stop cock needle cannula: Paun J.
HANZLIK, Western Reserve University.
Demonstration of method for determining tne cir-
culation time: A. S. LorvenHarT, BEnJ. H.
ScHLoMoviTz and EH. G. SEYBOLD, University of
Wisconsin,
Blood pressure apparatus. (a) For continuous
systolic tracing in man; (b) for indirect deter-
minations of pressure in the unanesthetized dog:
ALFRED C, KoLLs, Washington University, St.
Louis.
The scientific papers called forth spirited dis-
cussion, especially the papers on the secretion of
epinephrin by Drs. Stewart and Rogoff, on the one
hand, and Dr. Cannon, on the other; and the papers
by Dr. McCollum and by Dr. Hess, on the prob-
lem of nutritional diseases.
The program, as a whole, was very strong and
general satisfaction was expressed at the evidence
of promptness with which American physiologists
have returned to their scientific investigations.
The executive committee of the federation voted,
the Council of the Physiological Society concur-
ring, to hold the next annual meeting at Chicago,
in conjunction with the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.
CHas. W. GREENE,
SCIENCE
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SCIENCE
Fripay, Marcu 12, 1920
CONTENTS
Hinstein’s Law of Gravitation: Prorgessor J.
SL VAISS) Sed maseplaninibes aq Kconoomooecon to 253
Learned Societies, Old and New: Dr. P. A.
DPV ABSY, Ges boduaconcceuaudnoodcoon OULD 261
A Bust of the Late Professor E. D. Cope: Dr.
lyst 12%, ONAN oscocesnoosdo0oudodouE 264
Scientific Events :—
The Henry Phipps Institute; The Award of
the Boyle Medal; In Honor of William H.
UL ALINE RUS ORCA A Celta se BOBS ceanteee 265
Scientific Notes ond News ................ 267
University and Educational News .......... 270
Discussion and Correspondence :—
An Odd Problem in Mechanics: Dr. WALTER
HD) TAMIR BBM so ereverare cara cay craysisioueelciee, otal 271
Quotations :—
Federations of Brain Workers ............ 272
Scientific Books :—
The Productivity of Invertebrate Fish Food
on the Bottom of Oneida Lake: Prorrssor
CHANCE Va UD AYaree ner henner iseriticices 273
Special Articles :—
The Antiscorbutic Property of Dehydrated
Meat: Drs. Maurice H. Givens AND Harry
BMC Cru GAGES: Uaencis ste an saleclaenaien 273
The American Meteorological Society: Dr.
CHARDESPREBROOKS eee eee ene ee 275
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
Mi AD - ad
EINSTEIN’S LAW OF GRAVITATION!
TuE by-laws of our society make it one of
the duties of its president to deliver an ad-
dress before its members. This fact renders
it necessary for the president to select a sub-
ject; and this year the selection is to a
certain degree forced by the public press.
When a daily newspaper considers Einstein’s
work on gravitation a topic of sufficiently
general interest to devote to it valuable space
and cable funds, surely here is justification
for my selection of this as the subject of my
presidential address.
Einstein’s original memoirs upon gravita-
tion appeared in the years 1916 to 1918; and
there are two excellent papers in English ex-
pounding and explaining his method, one by
Professor deSitter, of Leyden, and one by
Professor Eddington, of Cambridge. While
Einstein’s work may be known to many of
you either in its original form or in one of
the two papers mentioned, I fear that the
attention of most of us was first directed
seriously to the matter by the articles in the
newspapers to which I have referred. I con-
fess that I was one of those who had post-
poned any serious study of the subject, until
its immense importance was borne in upon
me by the results of the recent eclipse expedi-
tion. I have all the enthusiasm of the dis-
coverer of a new land, and feel compelled to
describe to you what I have learned.
Albert Einstein, although now a resident
of Berlin and holder of a research professor-
ship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, is
legally a Swiss. He is forty-five years old
and was for some time a professor in the
Zurich Technical School, and later in the
University of Prague. He is a man of liberal
tendencies, and apparently one whom any of
1 Presidential address delivered at the St. Louis
meeting of the Physical Society, December 30,
1919,
}
7
254
us would be glad to welcome- for personal
reasons in our international meetings of the
future. He protested against the famous
manifesto of the German professors in 1914
and was one of the eager supporters of the
German Republic when it arose from the
wreck of the Empire.
But, in presenting the subject of Hinstein’s
study of the law of gravitation, I must begin
many years ago. In the treatment of Max-
well’s equations of the electromagnetic field,
several investigators realized the importance
of deducing the form of the equations when
applied to a system moving with a uniform
velocity. One object of such an investiga-
tion would be to determine such a set of
transformation formule as would leave the
mathematical form of the equations unaltered.
The necessary relations between the new
space-coordinates, those applying to the mov-
ing system, and the original set were of
course obvious; and elementary methods led
to the deduction of a new variable which
should replace the time coordinate. This
step was taken by Lorentz and also, I believe,
by Larmor and by Voigt. The mathematical
deductions and applications in the hands of
these men were extremely beautiful, and are
probably well known to you all.
Lorentz’ paper on this subject appeared in
the Proceedings of the Amsterdam Academy
in 1904. In the following year there was
published in the Annalen der Physik a paper
by Einstein, written without any knowledge
of the work of Lorentz, in which he arrived
at the same transformation equations as did
the latter, but with an entirely different and
fundamentally new interpretation. Hinstein
called attention in his paper to the lack of
definiteness in the concepts of time and space,
as ordinarily stated and used. He analyzed
clearly the definitions and postulates which
were necessary before one could speak with
exactness of a length or of an interval of
time. He disposed forever of the propriety
of speaking of the “true” length of a rod or
of the “true” duration of time, showing, in
fact, that the numerical values which we
attach to lengths or intervals of time depend
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1315
upon the definitions and postulates which we
adopt. The words “absolute” space or time
intervals are devoid of meaning. As an
illustration of what is meant Einstein dis-
cussed two possible ways of measuring the
length of a rod when it is moving in the
direction of its own length with a uniform
velocity, that is, after having adopted a scale
of length, two ways of assigning a number
to the length of the rod concerned. One
method is to imagine the observer moving
with the rod, applying along its length the
measuring scale, and reading off the positions
of the ends of the rod. Another method
would be to have two observers at rest on the
body with reference to which the rod has the
uniform velocity, so stationed along the line
of motion of the rod that as the rod moves
past them they can note simultaneously on a
stationary measuring scale the positions of
the two ends of the rod. Einstein showed
that, accepting two postulates which need no
defense at this time, the two methods of
measurements would lead to different numer-
ical values, and, further, that the divergence
of the two results would increase as the
velocity of the rod was increased. In assign-
ing a number, therefore, to the length of a
moving rod, one must make a choice of the
method to be used in measuring it. Ob-
viously the preferable method is to agree that
the observer shall move with the rod, carrying
his measuring instrument with him. This
disposes of the problem of measuring space
relations. The observed fact that, if we
measure the length of the rod on different
days, or when the rod is lying in different
positions, we always obtain the same value
offers no information concerning the “real”
length of the rod. It may have changed, or
it may not. It must always be remembered
that measurement of the length of a rod is
simply a process of comparison between it
and an arbitrary standard, e. g., a meter-rod
or yard-stick. In regard to the problem of
assigning: numbers to intervals of time, it
must be borne in mind that, strictly speaking,
we do not “measure” such intervals, 7. ¢.,
that we do not select a unit interval of time
Marow# 12, 1920]
and find how many times it is contained in
the interval in question. (Similarly, we do
not “measure” the pitch of a sound or the
temperature of a room.) Our practical in-
struments for assigning numbers to time-
intervals depend in the main upon our agree-
ing to believe that a pendulum swings in a
perfectly uniform manner, each vibration
taking the same time as the next one. Of
course we can not prove that this is true, it
is, strictly speaking, a definition of what we
mean by equal intervals of time; and it is
not a particularly good definition at that.
Its limitations are sufficiently obvious. The
best way to proceed is to consider the concept
of uniform velocity, and then, using the idea
of some entity having such a uniform veloc-
ity, to define equal intervals of time as such
intervals as are required for the entity to
traverse equal lengths. These last we have
already defined. What is required in addition
is to adopt some moving entity as giving our
definition of uniform velocity. Considering
our known universe it is self-evident that we
should choose in our definition of uniform
velocity the velocity of light, since this selec-
tion could be made by an observer anywhere
in our universe. Having agreed then to illus-
trate by the words “uniform velocity” that
of light, our definition of équal intervals of
time is complete. This implies, of course,
that there is no uncertainty on our part as to
the fact that the velocity of light always has
the same value at any one point in the uni-
verse to any observer, quite regardless of the
source of light. In other words, the postulate
that this is true underlies our definition.
Following this method Einstein developed a
system of measuring both space and time
intervals. As a matter of fact his system is
identically that which we use in daily life
with reference to events here on the earth.
He further showed that if a man were to
measure the length of a rod, for instance, on
the earth and then were able to carry the rod
and his measuring apparatus to Mars, the
sun, or to Arcturus he would obtain the same
numerical value for the length in all places
and at all times. This doesn’t mean that any
SCIENCE
255
statement is implied as to whether the length
of the rod has remained unchanged or not;
such words do not have any meaning—re-
member that we can not speak of true length.
It is thus clear that an observer living on the
earth would have a definite system of units
in terms of which to express space and time
intervals, 7. e., he would have a definite sys-
tem of space coordinates (x, y, 2) and a
definite time coordinate (¢); and similarly an
observer living on Mars would have his sys-
tem of coordinates (2’, y’, z', t’). Provided
that one observer has a definite uniform
velocity with reference to the other, it is a
comparatively simple matter to deduce the
mathematical relations between the two sets
of coordinates. When Einstein did this, he
arrived at the same transformation formule
as those used by Lorentz in his development
of Maxwell’s equations. The latter had shown
that, using these formule, the form of the
laws for all electromagnetic phenomena main-
tained the same form; so Hinstein’s method
proves that using his system of measurement
an observer, anywhere in the universe, would
as the result of his own investigation of
electromagnetic phenomena arrive at the same
mathematical statement of them as any other
observer, provided only that the relative
velocity of the two observers was uniform.
Einstein discussed many other most im-
portant questions at this time; but it is not
necessary to refer to them in connection with.
the present subject. So far as this is con-
cerned, the next important step to note is that
taken in the famous address of Minkowski,
in 1908, on the subject of “ Space and Time.”
It would be difficult to overstate the impor-
tance of the concepts advanced by Minkowski.
They marked the begining of a new period in
the philosophy of physics. I shall not at-
tempt to explain his ideas in detail, but shall
confine myself to a few general statements.
His point of view and his line of development
of the theme are absolutely different from
those of Lorentz or of Hinstein; but in the
end he makes use of the same transformation
formule. His great contribution consists in
giving us a new geometrical picture of their
256
meaning. It is scarcely fair to call Min-
kowski’s development a picture; for to us a
picture can never have more than three
dimensions, our senses limit us; while his
picture calls for perception of four dimen-
sions. It is this fact that renders any even
semi-popular discussion of Minkowski’s work
so impossible. We can all see that for us to
describe any event a knowledge of four
coordinates is necessary, three for the space
specification and one for the time. A com-
plete picture could be given then by a point
in four dimensions. All four coordinates are
necessary: we never observe an event except
at a certain time, and we never observe an
instant of time except with reference to space.
Discussing the laws of electromagnetic phe-
nomena, Minkowski showed how in a space of
four dimensions, by a suitable definition of
axes, the mathematical transformation of
Lorentz and Einstein could be described by
a rotation of the set of axes. We are all
accustomed to a rotation of our ordinary
cartesian set of axes describing the position
of a point. We ordinarily choose our axes at
any location on the earth as follows: one
vertical, one east and west, one north and
south. So if we move from any one labora-
tory to another, we change our axes; they
are always orthogonal, but in moving from
place to place there is a rotation. Similarly,
Minkowski showed that if we choose four
orthogonal axes at any point on the earth,
according to his method, to represent a space-
time point using the method of measuring
space and time intervals as outlined by Ein-
stein; and, if an observer on Arcturus used a
similar set of axes and the method of meas-
urement which he naturally would, the set of
axes of the latter could be obtained from
those of the observer on the earth by a pure
rotation (and naturally a transfer of the
origin). This is a beautiful geometrical re-
sult. To complete my statement of the
method, I must add that instead of using as
his fourth axis one along which numerical
values of time are laid off, Minkowski defined
his fourth coordinate as the product of time
and the imaginary constant, the square root
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von, LI. No. 1315
of minus one. This introduction of imagi-
nary quantities might be expected, possibly,
to introduce difficulties; but, in reality, it is
the very essence of the simplicity of the geo-
metrical description just given of the rotation
of the sets of axes. It thus appears that
different observers situated at different points
in the universe would each have their own set
of axes, all different, yet all connected by the
fact that any one can be rotated so as to
coincide with any other. This means that
there is no one direction in the four dimen-
sional space that corresponds to time for all
observers. Just as with reference to the
earth there is no direction which can be
ealled vertical for all observers living on the
earth. In the sense of an absolute meaning
the words “ up and down,” “before and after,”
“sooner or later,” are entirely meaningless.
This concept of Minkowski’s may be made
clearer, perhaps, by the following process of
thought. If we take a section through our
three dimensional space, we have a plane, 2. e.,
a two-dimensional space. Similarly, if a sec-
tion is made through a four-dimensional
space, one of three dimensions is obtained.
Thus, for an observer on the earth a definite
section of Minkowski’s four dimensional space
will give us our ordinary three-dimensional
one; so that this section will, as it were,
break up Minkowski’s space into our space
and give us our ordinary time. Similarly, a
different section would have to be used for
the observer on Arcturus; but by a suitable
selection he would get his own familiar three-
dimensional space and his own time. Thus
the space defined by Minkowski is completely
isotropic in reference to measured lengths
and times, there is absolutely no difference
between any two directions in an absolute
sense; for any particular observer, of course,
a particular section will cause the space to
fall apart so as to suit his habits of measure-
ment; any section, however, taken at random
will do the same thing for some observer
somewhere. From another point of view,
that of Lorentz and Einstein, it is obvious
that, since this four dimensional space is
isotropic, the expression of the laws of elec-
Marca 12, 1920]
tromagnetic phenomena take identical mathe-
matical forms when expressed by any observer.
The question of course must be raised as
to what can be said in regard to phenomena
which so far as we know do not have an
electromagnetic origin. In particular what
can be done with respect to gravitational
phenomena? Before, however, showing how
this problem was attacked by Einstein; and
the fact that the subject of my address is
Hinstein’s work on gravitation shows that
ultimately I shall explain this, J must empha-
size another feature of Minkowski’s geometry.
To describe the space-time characteristics of
any event a point, defined by its four coordi-
nates, is sufficient; so, if one observes the life-
history of any entity, e. g., a particle of mat-
ter, a light-wave, etc., he observes a sequence
of points in the space-time continuum; that
is, the life-history of any entity is described
fully by a line in this space. Such a line was
called by Minkowski a “ world-line.” Further,
from a different point of view, all of our
observations of nature are in reality observa-
tions of coincidences, e. g., if one reads a
thermometer, what he does is to note the
coincidence of the end of the column of
mercury with a certain scale division on the
thermometer tube. In other words, thinking
of the world-line of the end of the mercury
column and the world-line of the scale divi-
sion, what we have observed was the inter-
section or crossing of these lines. In a
similar manner any observation may be
analyzed; and remembering that light rays,
a point on the retina of the eye, etc., all have
their world lines, it will be recognized that it
is a perfectly accurate statement to say that
every observation is the perception of the in-
tersection of world-lines. Further, since all
we know of a world-line is the result of ob-
servations, it is evident that we do not know
a world-line as a continuous series of points,
but simply as a series of discontinuous points,
each point being where the particular world-
line in question is crossed by another world-
line.
It is clear, moreover, that for the descrip-
tion of a world-line we are not limited to the
SCIENCE
257
particular set of four orthogonal axes adopted
by Minkowski. We can choose any set of
four-dimensional axes we wish. It is further
evident that the mathematical expression for
the coincidence of two points is absolutely
independent of our selection of reference
axes. If we change our axes, we will change
the coordinates of both points simultaneously,
so that the question of axes ceases to be of
interest. But our so-called laws of nature
are nothing but descriptions in mathematical
language of our observations; we observe only
coincidences; a sequence of coincidences when
put in mathematical terms takes a form which
is independent of the selection of reference
axes; therefore the mathematical expression
of our laws of nature, of every character,
must be such that their form does not change
if we make a transformation of axes. This is
a simple but far-reaching deduction.
There is a geometrical method of picturing
the effect of a change of axes of reference, 7. e.,
of a mathematical transformation. To a man
in a railway coach the path of a drop of water
does not appear vertical, 2. e., it is not parallel
to the edge of the window; still less so does it
appear vertical to a man performing mancyvres
in an airplane. This means that whereas with
reference to axes fixed to the earth the path of
the drop is vertical; with reference to other
axes, the path is not. Or, stating the conclu-
sion in general language, changing the axes of
reference (or effecting a mathematical trans-
formation) in general changes the shape of any
line. If one imagines the line forming a part
of the space, it is evident that if the space is
deformed ‘by compression or expansion the
shape of the line is changed, and if sufficient
care is taken it is clearly possible, by deforming
the space, to make the line take any shape de-
sired, or better stated, any shape specified by
the previous change of axes. It is thus possible
to picture a mathematical transformation as a
deformation of space. Thus I can draw a line
on a sheet of paper or of rubber and by bending
and stretching the sheet, I can make the line
assume a great variety of shapes; each of these
new shapes is a picture of a suitable transfor-
mation.
258
Now, consider world-lines in our four dimen-
sional space. The complete record of all our
knowledge is a series of sequences of intersec-
tions of such lines. By analogy I can draw in
ordinary space a great number of intersecting
lines on a sheet of rubber; I can then bend and
deform the sheet to please myself; by so doing
I do not introduce any new intersections nor
do I alter in the least the sequence of intersec-
tions. So in the space of our world-lines, the
space may be deformed in any imaginable man-
ner without introducing any new intersections
or changing the sequence of the existing inter-
sections. It is this sequence which gives us the
mathematical expression of our so-called ex-
perimental laws; a deformation of our space is
equivalent mathematically to a transformation
of axes, consequently we see why it is that the
form of our laws must be the same when re-
ferred to any and all sets of axes, that is, must
remain unaltered by any mathematical trans-
formation.
Now, at last we come to gravitation. We can
not imagine any world-line simpler than that of
a particle of matter left to itself; we shall
therefore call it a “\straight” line. Our experi-
ence is that two particles of matter attract one
another. Expressed in terms of world-lines,
this means that, if the world-lines of two iso-
lated particles come near each other, the lines,
instead of being straight, will be deflected or
bent in towards each other. The world-line of
any one particle is therefore deformed; and we
have just seen that a deformation is the equiva-
lent of a mathematical transformation. In
other words, for any one particle it is possible
to replace the effect of a gravitational field at
any instant by a mathematical transformation
of axes. The statement that this is always pos-
sible for any particle at any instant is Hin-
stein’s famous “ Principle of Equivalence.”
Let us rest for a moment, while I call atten-
tion to a most interesting coincidence, not to
be thought of as an intersection of world-lines.
It is said that Newton’s thoughts were directed
to the observation of gravitational phenomena
by an apple falling on his head; from this
striking event he passed by natural steps to a
consideration of the universality of gravita-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1315
tion. Einstein in describing his mental proc-
ess in the evolution of his law of gravitation
says that his attention was called to a new
point of view by discussing his experiences
with a mam whose fall from a high building he
had! just witnessed. The man fortunately suf-
fered no serious injuries and assured Einstein
that in the course of his fall he had not been
conscious in the least of any pull downward on
his body. In mathematical language, with
reference to axes moving with the man the
force of gravity had disappeared. This is a
case where by the transfer of the axes from the
earth itself to the man, the force of the gravi-
tational field is annulled. The converse change
of axes from the falling man to a point on the
earth could be considered as introducing the
force of gravity into the equations of motion.
Another illustration of the introduction into
our equations of a force by means of a change
of axes is furnished by the ordinary treatment
of a body in uniform rotation about an axis.
For instance, in the case of a so-called conical
pendulum, that is, the motion of a bob sus-
pended from a fixed point by a string, which is
so set in motion that the bob describes a hori-
zontal circle and the string therefore describes
a circular cone, if we transfer our axes from
the earth and have them rotate around the ver-
tical line through the fixed point with the
same angular velocity as the bob, it is neces-
sary to introduce into our equations of motion
a fictitious “force” called the centrifugal
force. No one ever thinks of this force other
than as a mathematical quantity introduced
into the equations for the sake of simplicity of
treatment; no physical meaning is attached to
it. Why should there be to any other so-called
“ force,” which, like centrifugal force, is inde-
pendent of the nature of the matter? Again,
here on the earth our sensation of weight is
interpreted mathematically by combining ex-
pressions for centrifugal force and gravity; we
have no distinct sensation for either separately.
Why then is there any difference in the essence
of the two? Why not consider them both as
brought into our equations by the agency of
mathematical transformations? This is Ein-
stein’s point of view.
Marcy 12, 1920]
Granting, then, the principle of equivalence,
we can so choose axes at any point at any in-
stant that the gravitational field will disappear;
these axes are therefore of what Eddington
calls the “Galilean” type, the simplest pos-
sible. Consider, that is, an observer in a box,
or compartment, which is falling with the ac-
celeration of the gravitational field at that
point. He would not be conscious of the field.
If there were a projectile fired off in this com-
partment, the observer would describe its path
as being straight. In this space the infimitesi-
mal interval between two space-time points
would then be given by the formula
ds? = da, + dx*, +- da, + das,
where ds is the interval and «,, x,, %,, X,, are co-
ordinates. If we make a mathematical trans-
formation, 2. e., use another set of axes, this
interval would obviously take the form
ds? = 9,407, + Gx0%72 + Jegd@s + Jud,
+ 29,.dx,da, + etc.,
where %,, x,, , and x, are now coordinates re-
ferring to the new axes. This relation involves
ten coefficients, the coefficients defining the
transformation.
But of course a certain dynamical value is
also attached to the g’s, because by the transfer
of our axes from the Galilean type we have
made a change which is equivalent to the in-
troduction of a gravitational field; and the
g’s must specify the field. That is, these g’s
are the expressions of our experiences, and
hence their values can not depend upon the
use of any special axes; the values must be the
same for all selections. In other words, what-
ever function of the coordinates any one g is
for one set of axes, if other axes are chosen,
this g must still be the same function of the
new coordinates. There are ten g’s defined by
differential equations; so we have ten covariant
equations. Hinstein showed how these g’s
could be regarded as generalized potentials of
the field. Our own experiments and observa-
tions upon gravitation have given us a certain
knowledge concerning its potential; that is, we
know a value for it which must be so near the
truth that we can properly call it at least a first
approximation. Or, stated differently, if Ein-
SCIENCE
259
stein succeeds in deducing the rigid value for
the gravitational potential in any field, it must
degenerate to the Newtonian value for the
great majority of cases with which we have
actual experience. instein’s method, then,
was to investigate the functions (or equations)
which would satisfy the mathematical condi-
tions just described. A transformation from
the axes used by the observer in the following
box may be made so as to introduce into the
equations the gravitational field recognized by
an observer on the earth near the box; but this,
obviously, would not be the general gravita-
tional field, because the field changes as one
moves over the surface of the earth. A solu-
tion found, therefore, as just indicated, would
not be the one sought for the general field; and
another must be found which is less stringent
than the former but reduces to it as a special
ease. He found himself at liberty to make a
selection from among several possibilities, and
for several reasons chose the simplest solution.
He then tested this decision by seeing if his
formule would degenerate to Newton’s law for
the limiting case of velocities small when com-
pared with that of light, because this condi-
tion is satisfied in those cases to which New-
ton’s law applies. His formule satisfied this
test, and he therefore was able to announce a
“law of gravitation,” of which Newton’s was a
special form for a simple case.
To the ordinary scholar the difficulties sur-
mounted by Hinstein in his investigations ap-
pear stupendous. It is not improbable that
the statement which he is alleged to have
made to his editor, that only ten men in the
world could understand his treatment of the
subject, is true. I am fully prepared to be-
lieve it, and wish to add that I certainly am
not one of the ten. But I can also say that,
after a careful and serious study of his papers,
I feel confident that there is nothing in them
which I can not understand, given the time to
become familiar with the special mathematical
processes used. The more I work over Hin-
stein’s papers, the more impressed I am, not
simply by his genius in viewing the problem,
but also by his great technical skill.
Following the path outlined, Einstein, as
260
just said, arrived att certain mathematical laws
for a gravitational field, laws which reduced
to Newton’s form in most cases where observa-
tions are possible, but which led to different
conclusions in a few cases, knowledge concern-
ing which we might obtain by careful observa-
tions. I shall mention a few deductions from
Einstein’s formule.
1. If a heavy particle is put at the center of
a circle, and, if the length of the circumference
and the length of the diameter are measured,
it will be found that their ratio is not 7
(3.14159). In other words the geometrical
properties of space in such a gravitational
field are not those discussed by Euclid; the
space is, then, non-Euclidean. There is no
way by which this deduction can be verified,
the difference between the predicted ratio and
™ is too minute for us to hope to make our
measurements with sufficient exactness to de-
termine the difference.
2. All the lines in the solar spectrum should
with reference to lines obtained by terrestrial
sources be displaced slightly towards longer
wave-lengths. The amount of displacement
predicted for lines in the blue end of the
spectrum is about one hundredth of an Ang-
strom unit, a quantity well within experimen-
tal limits. Unfortunately, as far as the testing
of this prediction is concerned, there are sev-
eral physical causes which are also operating
to cause displacement of the spectrum-lines;
and so at present a decision can not be rend-
ered as to the verification. St. John and other
workers at the Mount Wilson Observatory have
the question under investigation.
3. According to Newton’s law an isolated
planet in its motion around a central sun
would describe, period after period, the same
elliptical orbit; whereas Einstein’s laws lead to
the prediction that the successive orbits tra-
versed would not be idenitically the same.
Each revolution would start the planet off on
an orbit very approximately elliptical, but
with the major axis of the ellipse rotated
slightly in the plane of the orbit. When calcu-
lations were made for the various planets in
our solar system, it was found that the only
one which was of interest from the standpoint
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1315
of verification of Hinstein’s formule was Mer-
eury. It has been known for a long time that
there was actually such a change as just de-
scribed in the orbit of Mercury, amounting to
574” of are per century; and it has been shown
that of this a rotation of 532” was due to the
direct action of other planets, thus leaving an
unexplained rotation of 42” per century. Hin-
stein’s formule predicted a rotation of 438”, a
striking agreement.
4, In accordance with Einstein’s formule a
ray of light passing close to a heavy piece of
matter, the sun, for instance, should experi-
ence a sensible deflection in towards the sun.
This might be expected from “general” con-
siderations. A light ray is, of course, an il-
lustration of energy in motion; energy and
mass are generally considered to be identical
in the sense that an amount of energy H has
the mass H/c* where c is the velocity of light;
and consequently a ray of light might fall
within the province of gravitation and the
amount of deflection to be expected could be
calculated by the ordinary formula for gravi-
tation. Another point of view is to consider
again the observer inside the compartment
falling with the acceleration of the gravita-
tional field. To him the path of a projectile
and a ray of light would both appear straight ;
so that, if the projectile had a velocity equal
to that of light, it and the light wave would
travel side by side. To an observer outside the
compartment, e. g., to one on the earth, both
would then appear to have the same deflection
owing to the sun. But how much would the
path of the projectile be bent? What would
be the shape of its parabola? One might apply
Newton’s law; but, according to Hinstein’s
formule, Newton’s law should be used only for
small velocities. In the case of a ray passing
close to the sun it was decided that according
to Ejinstein’s formula there should be a de-
flection of 1.75 whereas Newton’s law of
gravitation predicted half this amount. Care-
ful plans were made by various astronomers.
to investigate this question at the solar eclipse
last May, and the result announced by Dyson,
Eddington and Crommelin, the leaders of as-
tronomy in England, was that there was a de-
Marcu 12, 1920]
flection of 1”.9. Of course the detection of
such a minute deflection was an extraordinar-
ily difficult matter, so many corrections had to
be applied to the original observations; but
the names of the men who record the conelu-
sions are such as to inspire confidence. Cer-
tainly any effect of refraction seems to be ex-
cluded.
It is thus seen that the formulze deduced by
Einstein have been confirmed in a variety of
ways and in a most brilliant manner. In con-
nection with these formule one question must
arise in the minds of everyone: by what proc-
ess, where in the course of the mathematical
development, does the idea of mass reveal it-
self? It was not in the equations at the be-
ginning and yet here it is at the end. How
does it appear? As a matter of fact it is first
seen as a Constant of integration in the dis-
cussion of the problem of the gravitational
field due to a single particle; and the identity
of this constant with mass is proved when one
compares Einstein’s formule with Newton’s
law which is simply its degenerated form.
This mass, though, is the mass of which we
become aware through our experiences with
weight; and Einstein proceeded to prove that
this quantity which entered as a constant of
integration in his ideally simple problem also
obeyed the laws of conservation of mass and
conservation of momentum when he investi-
gated the problems of two and more particles.
Therefore Hinstein deduced from his study of
gravitational fields the well-known properties
of matter which form the basis of theoretical
mechanics. A further logical consequence of
Hinstein’s development is to show that energy
has mass, a concept with which every one now-
adays is familiar.
The description of Einstein’s method which
I have given so far is simply the story of one
success after another; and it is certainly fair
to ask if we have at last reached finality in our
investigation of nature, if we have attained to
truth. Are there no outstanding difficulties?
Is there no possibility of error? Certainly, not
until all the predictions made from Hinstein’s
formule have been investigated can much be
said; and further, it must be seen whether any
other lines of argument will lead to the same
SCIENCE
261
conclusions. But without waiting for all this
there is at least one difficulty which is ap-
parent at this time. We have discussed the
laws of nature as independent in their form of
reference axes, a concept which appeals
strongly to our philosophy; yet it is not at all
clear, at first sight, that we can be justified in
our belief. We can not imagine any way by
which we can become conscious of the transla-
tion of the earth in space; but by means of
gyroscopes we can learn a great deal about its.
rotation on its axis. We could locate the posi-
tions of its two poles, and by watching a Fou-
eault pendulum or a gyroscope we can obtain a
number which we interpret as the angular ve-
locity of rotation of axes fixed in the earth;
angular velocity with reference to what?
Where is the fundamental set of axes? This
is a real difficulty. It can be surmounted in
several ways. Einstein himself has outlined a
method which in the end amounts to assuming
the existence on the confines of space of vast
quantities of matter, a proposition which is
not attractive. deSitter has suggested a pe-
euliar quality of the space to which we refer
our space-time coordinates. The consequences
of this are most interesting, but no decision
can as yet be made as to the justification of the
hypothesis. In any case we can say that the
difficulty raised is not one that destroys the
real value of Hinstein’s work. ‘
In conelusion I wish to emphasize the fact,
which should be obvious, that Einstein has not
attempted any explanation of gravitation; he
has been occupied with the deduction of its
laws. These laws, together with those of elec-
tromagnetic phenomena, comprise our store of
knowledge. There is not the slightest indica-
tion of a mechanism, meaning by that a pic-
ture in terms of our senses. In fact what we
have learned has been to realize that our desire
to use such mechanisms is futile.
J. S. Ames
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
LEARNED SOCIETIES, OLD AND NEW:
It would tax the younger men of science
beyond the compass of their imagination, if
1 President’s address at the fourth meeting of
the Annual Conference of Biological Chemists, held
262
for a moment they should stop other activities
in order that they might weigh the magnitude
of their indebtedness to the scientific societies
. of the past. It would reduce them below any
level of humility if they compared the service
of the contemporary societies with those of
their ancestors, from whom they are separated
by many centuries.
What a glorious record of devotion, sacri-
fice, and heroism is the history of the early
days of the Accademie del Cimento of Italy,
of the Royal Society of England, of the
Académie des Sciences of France, of the
Scientific Societies of Germany.
Somewhere remote in your memory, vaguely
and hazily, perhaps, there still lingers a
recollection that the bearers of the illustrious
names of Copernicus, Gallileo, Toricelli, nay
even of Newton, were viewed by their con-
temporaries with profound suspicion, as dan-
gerous troublemakers; and if the vocabulary
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had
been as luxuriant as is ours today, those
illustrious men might have been disposed of
as Bolshevyiki.
In the days when those societies came to
life, experimentation was a dangerous busi-
ness. Scholasticism, philosophy, and all classes
of organized society, nobility, gentry, clergy
were hostile to experimental science. And
in spite of these obstacles the result of the
efforts of the great pioneers of the seven-
teenth and of the early eighteenth centuries
were preserved and further developed, and
made the foundation of our present civiliza-
tion. In a great measure the success was
attained through the activities of the learned
societies of those days.
One is filled with astonishment and admira-
tion reading about the great vision of the
founders of those academies. They saw
clearly all the needs of the new science and
of the new times and they grouped together
by joint effort to accomplish what they could
not do individually. Indeed, so much were
in affiliation with the American Biochemical So-
ciety, in the lecture room of the department of
biochemistry in the medical school of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati, December 30, 1919.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1315
they permeated by their desire to serve sci-
ence, rather than the individual scientist,
that often the personalities of the investiga-
tors were completely submerged in that of the
institution as a whole. In the Accademia del
Cimento, as an instance, all the work was
published anonymously in the name of the
academy. This is perhaps the most sublime
example of self-obliteration in the service of
an ideal ever known in the history of science.
This oldest of all European societies more
than any other emphasized the preeminence
of experiment, of creation of instruments,
establishment of standards of measurements,
over theory and hypotheses. ‘“ Probando et
Reprobando” was their motto. And indeed
the academicians have discharged their task
admirably. The number of instruments they
constructed is endless, the scientific facts
they discovered still stand among the founda-
tions of our present sciences. And Poggen-
dorf, referring to the Accademia del Cimento,
says: “ Few bodies have so well fulfilled their
aims... ,” and further, “we stand to-day on
their shoulders.”
The aims of the Accademia del Cimento
were adopted by the younger European Society
which later received its charter from Charles
II. as the Royal Society of England.
This society furthered all the ambitions of
its Italian forerunner and amplified on it by
its program of social activities. As the
Cimento, the members of this society were
encouraged through cooperation to improve
the tools of the scientists. Thus their mem-
bers perfected the telescope, devised a spring
for watches, improved the microscope. They
were constructing laboratories, organizing col-
lections, and by every means were improving
the equipment and facilitating the task of the
investigator. In a letter to Boyle, Hooke
writes:
We are now undertaking several good things,
such as the collection of a repository, the setting
up of a chemical laboratory, a mechanical opera-
tory, an astronomical observatory, and an optic
chamber.
The great effort made by the society to
furnish the English workers with the in-
_Marce 12, 1920]
formation acquired outside of England is
demonstrated by the creating of the office of
a special secretary whose aim it was to main-
tain correspondence with the scientific men
of other lands, to collect foreign publications,
to translate them, ete.
In those days when bringing out a book
was quite an enterprise the society often
undertook the publication of the important
works of its members and of other scientists.
Indeed through the activity of the Royal
Society the world became acquainted with the
work of Newton. Writes Newton to Olden-
burg, one of the secretaries of the society:
At reading your letter I was surprised to see so
much care taken about securing an invention to
me of which I have hitherto had so little value.
And therefore, since the Royal Society is pleased
to think it worth patronizing, I must acknowledge
it deserves much more of them for that than of me,
who, had not the communication of it been de-
sired, might have let it still remain in private as
it hath already some years.
Indeed to such an extent was the society
concerned with the interests of investigators
that Secretary Oldenburg devised a way of
securing rights of priority even in unfinished
investigations.
The emphasis of the Royal Society on social
and practical service is seen from the follow-
ing lines taken from the writings of Sprot,
one of the historians of the Royal Society.
They have propounded the composing of a cata-
logue of all trades, works and manufactures,
taking notice of all physical receipts or secrets, in-
struments, tools and engines. .. . They have rec-
ommended advancing the manufacture of tapestry,
eilkk making. ... They have compared soils and
clays for making better bricks and tiles. .. . They
started the propagation of potatoes and experi-
ments with tobacco oil.
Indeed one could continue for hours if he
made it his task to enumerate all the im-
portant functions undertaken by the Royal
Society of England. The history of the
French “Académie des Sciences” is only a
repetition with variations of the histories of
the two forerunners, and very much the same
may be said of the early history of the Ger-
SCIENCE
263
man learned societies, though they came to
life many decades later.
And now let us pass decades and centuries
and let us make an attempt to write the cur-
tent history of our own learned societies.
What is their social function? What is their
contribution to the end of facilitating the
task of individual workers? What initiative
do they take in introducing scientific methods
in the practical activities of our social life?
I fail to find the data on which to write
this current history. True, the high special-
ization of science of to-day makes modern
presentations less comprehensive and less
thrilling than in the times of Newton and
of Leibnitz. True, all the activities of the
old scientific societies have been appropriated
by special institutions: the university, the
technical institution, the research institution,
the government bureaus, by the laboratories
in the industries, and true it is that present
societies can not resume the activities of the
old academies. Should the societies of to-day
then hibernate 362 or 863 days a year and
awaken only for the remaining two or three
days in order that the members may be bored
by listening to communications which they
comprehend not, nor are desirous to com-
prehend? No, hibernate they need not unless
they choose to do so by preference.
The great emergency of the past war has
demonstrated how capable of initiative, of
achievement, of inventiveness the modern
American scientist is, once his interest is
aroused, when he is called to join hands with
his fellow workers.
The old problems are gone, but new ones
are coming up every day. Ours is a large
country with great natural resources. It is
customary to refer to them as endless. The
word is a misnomer, an invention of those in
whose interest it is to use the resources reck-
lessly. Human energy is needed to exploit
these resources; and human energy is not
boundless. Who shall devise methods to pre-
serve our natural resources from devastation?
Why not a scientific body, and particularly
one composed of biochemists? Nearly two
years ago the American Chemical Society
264
initiated a campaign for the establishment of
a research institute of chemotherapy. For
the last year the propaganda has painlessly
died. Why this lack of perseverance? I can
see the need of another institute which would
embrace the study of all the materials em-
ployed in the industries engaged in the manu-
facture of agricultural and natural products.
True, the industries have undertaken a con-
siderable share of this work, but industries
work for the profit of to-day and not for the
preservation of national wealth of the future.
Referring again to the biological chemist
who interests us particularly, I see his need
for better laboratories, of better methods, of
better standards; I see the needs that have
been pointed out by several members of this
eonference, and which are placed on the pro-
gram for discussion, and of a great many
more needs. Surely the biological chemist is
not the most favored son of society, of the
university, or of the medical school.
I am glad that Dr. Gies brought you all
together? and gave you the opportunity to
inaugurate a new type of society, the aim of
which is to enhance the social usefulness of
the biological chemist, on the one hand, and,
on the other, to improve his facilities for
work, whether his work be teaching or in-
vestigating. Will this new society live to
record important service, or will it vegetate
a pale, colorless existence? This will depend
on the spirit in which you join it. The
prospect for service is before you. Once
more I wish to compliment Dr. Gies on his
vision.
P. A. LEvVENE
THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE FOR
MEDICAL RESEARCH
A BUST OF THE LATE PROFESSOR
E. D. COPE
A Bust in plaster of the late Edward Drinker
Cope, who, at the time of his death in Phila-
delphia, on April 12, 1897, was professor of
zoology and comparative anatomy in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, has been purchased by
2 An allusion to the fact that the conference was
organized at Dr. Gies’s suggestion.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1315
the subscriptions of some twenty-seven of his
former colleagues, associates and students and
presented to the zoological laboratory of the
university. (
This bust is the work of Mr. Eugene Castello,
of Philadelphia, and is the one represented in
half tone in the number of The American Nat-
uralist for May, 1897. Mr. Castello writes:
I had been engaged on portrait busts, of Dr.
Matthew Woods, president of the Browning So-
ciety, and of Dr, William Mountain, author of
“*Saint Cecilia.’’? The study of individual char-
acter in these portraits, followed by the produc-
tion of a number of heads of racial types: Ameri-
can Indians, Russian moujiks, Arabs and French-
men, directed my attention to the very unusual fea- —
tures of Professor Cope’s head. That he was quite
aware of the interesting subject he was for a
sculptor was soon evident, for he humorously de-
scribed himself as ‘‘gimber-jawed,’’ that is, he
meant that the lower jaw was slightly undershot,
having much the form of a skate runner extending
from ear to chin.
In reference to the circumstances connected with
the modelling of the bust, now the property of the
university, I consulted a diary that I kept at that
time and find that he gave me six sittings for it,
beginning October 22, 1896, and the last one on
January 6, 1897. At the final sitting he expressed
himself as satisfied that I had succeeded in ob-
taining a good likeness. After Professor Cope
passed away, his friend, Dr. Persifor Frazer, saw
the bust and invited me to place it in the hall of
the American Philosophical Society, May 7, 1897,
where it remained for some time. Later it was
again exposed there on the occasion of the Cope
Memorial meeting [November 12, 1897], where it
received favorable criticism from Professor Os-
born of the American Museum of Natural His-
tory, Dr. Minis Hays and others. . . . Dr, Nolan,
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of this city,
also has taken occasion to express his appreciation.
The work of constructive modelling of the head
was aided to a considerable extent by the sitter
himself, who seemed to be familiar with the ana-
tomical points that differentiated it from any
others and which attracted my attention when I
met him for the first time. Artists delight in in-
dividual character, such as was evident in his
head, and upon my expression of interest Pro-
fessor Cope consented to give me some sittings,
although suffering at the time with an incurable
Marcu 12, 1920]
malady. He collapsed on one occasion during a
sitting and I was obliged to administer stimulants
to revive him. He was a very patient sitter, al-
though I knew he was suffering from disease, and
had never before given a sitting to a sculptor.
I think the university is to be congratulated on
obtaining possession of the work and I can assure
you and the other subscribers that nothing could
be more pleasing to me. It is an exact duplicate
of the head even in measurement, every feature be-
ing transferred and reproduced in the clay by
means of calipers, such as are used by sculptors,
so that the work has a sort of scientific value as a
human document. I used calipers with points espe-
cially protected with little cork balls. This seemed
to amuse Professor Cope and yet he showed consid-
erable fear that I might do some damage to his
features with the instrument. The plaster bust was
made from the clay by myself in a matrix of plas-
ter which was destroyed in the process known to
sculptors as the ‘‘ waste mould process. ’’
As far as known, this bust of Professor Cope
is the only one in existence modelled from life,
although a death-mask was taken and is pre-
served in the University Museum. Although
he never saw the present zoological laboratory
of the University of Pennsylvania, it seems
fitting that this building, which houses his
osteological collection and many of his books,
should also be enriched by this bust.
Puinie P. CALvertT
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE HENRY PHIPPS INSTITUTE
Tur Henry Phipps Institute for the study
and prevention of tuberculosis, a part of the
University of Pennsylvania, is engaged in a
campaign to raise $3,000,000 to enable it to
continue its work. Dr. Charles J. Hatfield is
executive director; Dr. H. R. M. Landis, di-
rector of the clinical and sociological depart-
ments, and Dr. Paul A. Lewis, director of the
pathological department. The text of the in-
stitute’s appeal is in part as follows:
WHEREAS, The support which has been so gen-
erously contributed during the past 16 years by
Mr. Henry Phipps can no longer be extended;
WHEREAS, The board of trustees of the Univer-
SCIENCE
265
sity of Pennsylvania see no prospect of being able
to support the work of the Henry Phipps Insti-
tute from the funds at present available;
WHEREAS, It is deemed important that the work
of the Henry Phipps Institute be continued upon
an even larger scale:
The directors of the departments of the Henry
Phipps Institute announce a campaign to raise a
Foundation Fund of $3,000,000.
It is confidently expected that America will rally
to the support of this enterprise which has already -
accomplished so much for the betterment of hu-
manity in so difficult a field of endeavor.
The Henry Phipps Institute was the first or-
ganization brought into existence for the express
purpose of eradicating tuberculosis through inten-
sive and scientific research.
The institute was conceived when Dr. Lawrence
F. Flick, about to start a tuberculosis clinie with
a total backing of $1,000, met Mr. Henry Phipps
by appointment and discussed the venture with
him. Mr. Phipps at once offered to underwrite a
much more extensive enterprise aimed at the exter-
mination of tuberculosis.
On February 1, 1903, the institute began work
in an old remodeled building equipped with 52
beds, a small laboratory and facilities for opera-
ting a large dispensary.
During the ten years that followed, its work was
so successful that Mr. Phipps not only agreed to
continue his support over another stipulated period
of time, but also supplied funds for the purchase
of land and the erection of the splendid property
in which the institute is now housed.
In order that the standing of the institute might
be assured and the integrity of the enterprise guar-
anteed, it was on July 1, 1910, placed in charge of
the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania,
with the contractual understanding that Mr. Phipps
would be responsible for its support over a stipu-
lated period of time.
The new building erected at Mr. Phipps’ expense
provided adequate facilities for every branch of
medical and sociological research bearing upon-the
problem of tuberculosis.
The period for which Mr. Henry Phipps had
agreed by contract to support the work of the in-
stitute came to an end in May, 1919. Because of
ill health Mr. Phipps is not able to continue his
interest and support. Other means of maintenance
must be found or the institute must close. In this
event one of man’s strongest defenses in the battle
against tuberculosis will be abandoned,
266
THE AWARD OF THE BOYLE MEDAL
THE presentation of the Boyle Medal to H.
H. Dixon on January 23, 1917, by Lord Rath-
donnell is now a matter of somewhat ancient
history to his colleagues of the Royal Dublin
Society. Due to delay in transmission of
periodicals, however, the account of the presen-
tation and the bibliography of Dr. Dixon’s
more than three score contributions to science
have only just reached America in printed
form.1 Because of the widespread interest in
Dixon’s work on the rise of water in trees, the
writer is hastening at this late hour to do honor
to a brilliant career and a gentleman of scien-
tific vision.
The tension theory of the ascent of sap in
trees was published in 1894 in collaboration
with Dr. John Joly. The latter, also, is favor-
ably known in America as a physical geolo-
gist and mineralogist and a graceful writer of
essays on scientific topics, ranging all the way
from the “Birth-Time of the World” to
“ Skating ” and “Pleochroic Halos.” He also
visited the United States as a member of the
British Education Commission two years ago.
Many of Dr. Dixon’s earlier researches were
undertaken with Dr. Joly. Dr. Dixon’s prin-
cipal scientific labors may be classed under
three main heads: Cytology and genetics, the
path of the transpiration current, and cryo-
scopy and thermo-electric methods.
Contributions to cytology include fertiliza-
tion of Pinus sylvestris and some significant
work on reduction division and mitosis which
aided about a decade later in the rediscovery
of Mendel’s law. However, transpiration soon
began to be Dixon’s chief topic of experiment
and research and his results will doubtless re-
main one of the great contributions to botan-
jeal science. During the interval between 1894
and 1914 investigations concerning the resist-
ance experienced by the transpiration stream
and theories to account rationally for the up-
ward movement of water were developed. Most
of the methods employed in these researches
were devised by Dr. Dixon and only a few were
1 Award of the Boyle Medal to Professor Henry
Horatio Dixon, Se.D., F.R.S., Sct. Proc. Roy. Dublin
Soc., 15: 179-184. Anon,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1315
in collaboration with students. It is, then al-
most entirely due to his genius and patient ef-
fort that the epochal discoveries come into
being. His records of this work are contained
in the monograph “ Transpiration and the As-
cent of Sap,” published about 1914. Previ-
ously he had been invited to contribute to
Progressus Ret Botanice on the same subject.
The third line of investigation has been largely
in collaboration with Dr. W. R. G. Atkins.
Osmotic pressure changes and cryoscopic and
conductivity measurements on saps have been
particularly dealt with. These researches are
still continuing and have been amplified re-
cently by new attacks on the many problems
of photosynthesis, especially the increase of
sucrose rather than the hexoses following inso-
lation. There is no doubt but that much valu-
able information will result from this field of
investigation.
The closing sentences of the biographical
note (loc. cit.) seem to indicate that Professor
Dixon has been accomplishing this magnificent
amount of experimental work at the same time
that he was teaching “large classes” of med-
ical students. The more honor to him. One
can not help feeling, however, the stupidity of
university organization which permitted his
time to be occupied during the best years of
his life in work which was relatively unproduc-
tive for the science of botany. If such an in-
spired worker can not impress the governing
board of the school with the importance of
fundamental research, the outlook for most of
us is indeed dark.
A. E. WALLER
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
IN HONOR OF WILLIAM H. WELCH
On Apritn 8 Dr. Welch reaches his seven-
tieth birthday. Such an occasion ought not
to pass without some new expression of affec-
tion and admiration on the part of the med-
ical profession of America to one who has
long stood as its leader. To many of his
friends it has seemed that an expression
worthy the master would be the preservation
in suitable form of the chief contributions
from his pen.
Marcu 12, 1920]
Dr. Welch’s writings are scattered through
a great variety of publications and are more
or less inaccessible. It has accordingly been
decided to bring together and to publish in
three volumes his papers and addresses which
strikingly reveal the great part he has played
in the development of medical science and
medical education.
In order that the project may be assured it
has been decided to invite his friends and
former pupils to unite in making possible the
publication of his work.
The volumes will be issued by the Johns
Hopkins Press under the editorial supervision
of the undersigned committee. The set of
three volumes, bound in linen, is offered to
the subscribers at $16.50, which is less than
the estimated cost. Each copy will be num-
bered, and assigned in the order of subscrip-
tion. The edition will be restricted to the
number subscribed.
Committee: John J. Abel, Lewellys F.
Barker, Frank Billings, Walter ©. Burket,
William T. Councilman, Harvey COushing,
John M. T. Finney, Simon Flexner, William
S. Halsted, William H. Howell, John How-
land, Henry M. Hurd, Henry Barton Jacobs,
William W. Keen, Howard A. Kelly, William
G. MacCallum, William J. Mayo, Ralph B.
Seem, Winford H. Smith, William S. Thayer,
J. Whitridge Williams, Hugh H. Young.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Sik AUCKLAND GEDDES, who was formerly
professor of anatomy in McGill University,
and is now a member of the British cabinet as
president of the board of trade, has been
named as British ambassador to the United
States.
Dr. W. S. Hatstep, of the Johns Hopkins
University, has been elected to honorary for-
eign membership in the Royal Academy of
Medicine of Belgium.
THE following are the officers of the Asso-
ciation of American Geographers for the year
1920: President, Herbert E. Gregory; Vice-
presidents, Harlan H. Barrows and Charles F.
Brooks; Treasurer, George B. Roorback; Coun-
SCIENCE
267
cilors, Walter S. Tower, Eliot Blackwelder and
Ray H. Whitbeck; Secretary and Editor, Rich-
ard E. Dodge.
Masor H. E. Wimprris has been transferred
from the office of the British Crown Agents for
the Colonies to the Air Ministry, to take up
the position of head of the air navigation re-
search section.
Mr. Atrrep SmeTHam, chemist to the Royal
Lancashire Agricultural Society, has been
elected president of the British Society of
Public Analysts in succession to Dr. Samuel
Rideal.
Dr. Lion Bernarp, professor of hygiene in
the faculty of medicine, Paris, a well-known
writer on tuberculosis, has been elected a mem-
ber of the Academy of Medicine. Dr. Lesbre,
of Lyons, and Dr. Ligniéres, of Buenos Aires,
have been elected correspondents.
Tue Christian Fenger fellowship for 1920
has been awarded to Dr. Harry Culver, of the
University of Illinois Medical School, Chi-
cago. He will continue his studies on Infec-
tions of the Kidney.
Dr. ALBERT ERNEST JENKS, professor of an-
thropology and director of the four-year
Americanization training course at the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, has been made president
of the newly organized National Council of
Americanization Workers.
JoHN WAGNER, JR., civil engineer, eldest son
of Samuel Tobias Wagner, chief engineer of
the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Co., has
been elected a member of the board of trustees
of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, to fill
the vacancy caused by the death of Joseph
Willcox.
Dr. NatHanieL L. Brirron, director of the
New York Botanical Garden, is engaged in
botanical work in Trinidad.
Dr. J. Percy Moors, professor of zoology in
the University of Pennsylvania, has been
given leave of absence for one year to study
abroad.
Proressor EMiLio OppDONE, ‘an Italian seis-
mologist, arrived recently in New York from
268
Naples on his way to Mexico to study recent
earthquakes there for his government.
Freperic H. Langer, formerly professor of
geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, and since the latter part of 1918 asso-
ciate geologist for the Sun Oil Co., of Dallas,
Tex., will take charge of the geological depart-
ment of the Twin State Oil Co., at Tulsa,
Okla., while still maintaining his connection
with the Sun Co.
Mr. Roun OC. Dean, who for the last eight
years has represented the Bausch and Lomb
Optical Co. among the universities and col-
leges of the east, will become connected with
The Rockefeller Foundation.
Dr. Mary J. Erickson has arrived at the
University of Iowa to take charge of the re-
search work in the state board of health under
the recent appropriation from the federal gov-
ernment for investigation in the field of ven-
ereal diseases.
Proressor ©. E. SEASHORE, of the psychology
department of the State University of Iowa,
lectured on the “ Psychology of Musical Tal-
ent ” at the University of Kansas on March 1.
Dr. Curistine Lapp-FRANKLIN lectured re-
cently before the Research Club of the Harvard
Medical School on the theory of color sensa-
tion.
J. Moorr, of the de-
of the University of
Buffalo, spoke before the Buffalo Society of
Natural Sciences on February 3, on “The
Einstein Gravitation Theory.”
Proressor Epwarp
partment of physics
Proressor Doucuas W. JOHNSON, of Colum-
bia University, addressed the faculty and stu-
dents of Mount Holyoke College on February
18, on “ The Work of the Geographer and the
Geologist in the War.”
Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, of the University of
Cambridge, will lecture on “ Ethnology: its
Aims and Needs” at Columbia University
on the evening of March 15. It will be a
general meeting of the New York Academy
of Sciences arranged by the Section of An-
thropology and Psychology and the American
Ethnological Society.
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von, LI. No. 1315
Herpert RatpH WERNER, assistant pro-
fessor of zoology in the Iowa State College,
died on February 14, at the age of thirty-one
years, of pneumonia following influenza.
Dr. CHarRLES Gorpon Hewitt, Dominion
entomologist and consulting zoologist, died
at Ottawa on March 1. He had resided in
Canada since 1909, having been born in Scot-
land in 1886.
Sir Tuomas AnpERson Sruart, professor of
physiology and dean of the faculty of medi-
cine in the University of Sydney, died on
April 3. He was born in Scotland in 1856.
Tue U. S. Civil Service Commission an-
nounces an examination for assistant fuel
engineer. A vacancy in the Bureau of Mines,
Department of Interior, at Pittsburgh, Pa., at
$4,200 a year, will be filled from this examina-
tion.
House tariff measures fixing duties on
optical glass, laboratory apparatus, surgical in-
struments and glass and porcelain articles for
laboratory use have been ordered favorably
reported by the Senate Finance Committee.
TuHrouGH the courtesy of the American
Geographical Society the spring meeting of
the Association of American Geographers
will be reinaugurated this year. The meet-
ing will be held in New York City at the
American Geographical Society’s hall, April
16 and 17, 1920. All interested are most
cordially invited to attend.
Tue Iowa Academy of Science will hold its
thirty-fourth annual meeting at the Univer-
sity of Iowa on April 30 and May 1, under
the presidency of Professor T. C. Stephens,
of Morningside College. It is expected that
fully one hundred papers on scientific subjects
will be presented.
Tue next annual meeting of the British
Medical Association will be held in the Uni-
versity of Cambridge at the end of June
under the presideney of Sir Clifford Allbutt.
It was intended to hold the 1915 meeting at
Cambridge under his presidency, but the war
intervened and he has remained president of
the association.
Marcu 12, 1920]
Yate University has recently received from
Bayard Dominick, of the class of 1894, Yale
College, gifts amounting to $40,000 for sci-
entifie exploration in the Southern Pacific
Ocean. Professor Herbert E. Gregory, of
Yale, is the active head of the expedition,
and the funds will be disbursed by the Bishop
Museum of Honolulu. It is expected that the
work of the expedition will extend over a
period of two years and that it will be carried
on by a group of distinguished men of science.
Professor Gregory has been granted leave of
absence for the balance of the year by Yale
and is now in Honolulu.
A NEW museum has been opened at Yellow-
stone Park, Wyoming, for the preservation
and exhibition of natural history specimens of
the region.
Tuer fortieth annual report of the United
States Geological Survey, made public, com-
pares the present scope of the work with that
of the work done during the first year of this
organization. The growth of the survey is
suggested by a comparison of the appropria-
tions for the present year, which comprise
items amounting to $1,437,745, with the total
appropriation of $106,000 for the first year,
1879-80. During the 40 years the number
of employees has been increased from 39 to
967.
THE arrangements for the amalgamation of
the four existing British meteorological sery-
ices are practically completed, and it is ex-
pected that at an early date the reorganiza-
tion, which will combine the Meteorological
Office with the weather services of the Air
Ministry, the Navy, and the Royal Engineers,
will be effected under the Department of the
Controller-General of Civil Aviation, and will
be directed by Sir Napier-Shaw, the present
Director of the Meteorological Office at South
Kensington. The headquarters of the amal-
gamated services will be at the Air Ministry,
Canada House, Kingsway. It is understood
that the forecasting department and other de-
partments of the Meteorological Office will be
transferred from South Kensington to the
Air Ministry, while the statistical department
and the library will remain at the present
SCIENCE
269
office in Exhibition Road. The British Rain-
fall Association, which was founded in 1860,
and which has been a very successful private
enterprise, will come under the director of
the Meteorological Office, but it is expected
that its special work will continue to be
carried on at Camden-square. The combined
services will be in close touch with all the
colonial and foreign observatories and the Air
Minister will assume Parliamentary responsi-
bility for the new combined department.
Tue Advisory Committee at the American
Chemical Society, on recommendation of
Editor E. J. Crane, has passed the following
vote:
That Chemical Abstracts be empowered to loan to
members in good standing of the American Chem-
ical Society, copies of current publications upon re-
quest; that each such request must be accom-
panied by twenty-five (25) cents for each issue
requested to cover cost of packing, mailing and
correspondence, and must further be accompanied
by an undertaking on the part of the requesting
member to replace such issue or issues, should they
not be returned to Chemical Abstracts in good
order, less reasonable wear and tear; Chemical
Abstracts to notify the loaning member of receipt
in good or bad order, as the case may be, of the
loaned issue and then to close the transaction ac-
cordingly.
Tue Oberlin College Research Committee,
affiliated with the National Research Council,
met recently for dinner and the transaction
of business at the Faculty Club. The present
committee consists of men engaged in ex-
perimental scientific work, but a recommen-
dation was adopted to include those from the
mathematics department. Discussion centered
around possible methods of stimulating and
financing research in those departments which
eare to do such work, and also the develop-
ment of research spirit as a definite college
policy. It was definitely expressed as the
opinion of those present that a college of the
standing of Oberlin must abandon the policy
that teaching is the sole business of the
faculty members, and that productive work
must be given the prominence it merits.
Tue United States Committee on the
Ramsay Memorial Fund has transmitted
270
£3,500 which it has collected; £263 have been
sent direct by contributors; approximately
£100 yet remain in the hands of the treasurer,
Mr. W. J. Matheson. Professor Baskerville,
the chairman, hopes that the total American
contribution which is £3,868, may be raised to
£4,000, and that the American subscriptions
may then be closed. The total fund now
amounts to £51,274. Professor H. Kamerlingh
Onnes reports contributions of £1,571 given
or promised by donors in Holland.
Rosert W. Lawson writes to Nature from
the Physics Laboratory, the University of
Sheffield, quoting a letter of Professor Ein-
stein as follows: “Zwei junge Physiker in
Bonn haben nun die Rot-Verschiebung der
Spektral-Linien bei der Sonne so gut wie
sicher nachgewiesen und die Griinde des bis-
herigen Misslingens aufgeklirt.”
Mr. Turopore W. Rosinson, of Chicago,
has given $500 to be used in purchasing mu-
seum material for the Oriental Institute of
the University of Chicago; and a donor whose
name is withheld gives $25,000 for the same
purposes. These funds will be used by Pro-
fessor James Henry Breasted, who is now in
Egypt on his way to Mesopotamia.
Tue National Research Council has re-
ceived a gift from the Southern Pine Asso-
ciation of $10,000 to pay for the incidental
expenses of a coordinated scientific study by a
number of investigators of the re-growth of
trees or cut-over forest lands with the aim of
determining the best forestry methods for ob-
taining the highest productivity. The in-
vestigation will be conducted under the advice
of the Research Council’s special committee
on forestry and will not duplicate any present
government or other undertakings along sim-
ilar lines.
On the invitation of the council of the sen-
ate of the University of Cambridge, the chan-
cellor, the vice-chancellor, Mr. Rawlinson, Pro-
fessor Sir Joseph Larmor, Professor Sir J. J.
Thomson (master of Trinity), Dr. Hobson, and
Professor Sir Ernest Rutherford, have con-
sented to serve as representatives of the uni-
versity on a joint committee of the Royal So-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1315
ciety and university for the purpose of taking
steps to secure an appropriate memorial to the
late Lord Rayleigh.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Proressor WILLIAM H. Walker, chairman
of the administrative committee of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, since the
death of President Maclaurin, has resigned
to devote his time to the division of industrial
cooperation and research. The new chairman
is Professor H. P. Talbot, chairman of the
faculty. Professor E. B. Wilson, of the
physies department has been appointed a
member of the committee, on which is also
Professor Edward Miller, of the department
of mechanical engineering. Professor Walker
is succeeded as head of the course of chemical
engineering by Professor Warren K. Lewis.
As has been already noted here, Professor
Arthur A. Noyes, head of the research depart-
ment, has handed in his resignation as of
January 1, to go to the California Institute
of Technology.
Arter thirteen years of service as professor
of medicine and ten years as dean of the Yale
School of Medicine, Dr. George Blumer has
resigned to resume consultation practise, but
he will not wholly sever his connection with
the school and the hospital.
Dr. ArtHuR B. Lamp has been promoted to
a professorship of chemistry at Harvard Uni-
versity.
Dr. ApotpH Knorr, of the U. S. Geological
Survey, has been appointed lecturer in geol-
ogy in Yale University for the second term
of the present academic year. He has in
charge the undergraduate and graduate
courses in petrology formerly taught by the
late Professor Pirsson. Additional appoint-
ments in the geological department are those
of Dr. Carl O. Dunbar (B.A. Kansas 1913,
Ph.D. Yale 1917) as assistant professor of his-
torical geology, and Mr. Chester R. Longwell
(B.A. Missouri 1915, M.A. 1916) as assistant
professor of geology.
Marcu 12, 1920]
TuHE trustees of Cooper Union, New York
City, have authorized the organization of a
four-year day course in industrial chemistry
to be started in September of the present year.
This course will aim to train men as analysts,
research chemists, foremen and superintend-
ents in manufacturing plants, and _ sales
agents. Mr. Maximilian Toch, has been ap-
pointed adjunct professor of industrial chem-
istry.
Dr. H. E. Roar has been appointed to the
university chair of physiology tenable at the
London Hospital Medical College, and Pro-
fessor T. Swale Vincent to the university
chair of physiology tenable at the Middlesex
Hospital Medical School.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
AN ODD PROBLEM IN MECHANICS
To tur Epitor or Scmnce: The following
statements are intended to throw light on the
questions raised by Dr. Hering in his letter
entitled “An odd problem in mechanics” in
Science for January 9, 1920.
The statements in the second paragraph of
the letter are correct: a body travelling east-
ward on the ground along the equator will
exert less pressure on the ground than one at
rest relative to the earth’s surface, and still
less pressure than a body travelling westward.
The correctness of this statement was verified
experimentally in connection with obserya-
tions to determine the intensity of gravity at
sea by determinations of the boiling point
compared with readings of the mercury
barometer. In the spring of 1909 the Russian
government placed a war ship at the disposal
of Professor Hecker, who was engaged in this
work, and tests were made in the Black Sea
by comparing the gravity obtained when the
ship was running east with gravity at the
same point when the ship was running west.
The correction in question is of the order of
0.100 dyne for a vessel of fair speed, and
the reality of the expected effect and the
necessity of applying a correction for it were,
of course, verified. It should be mentioned
that the rolling, pitching and lifting of the
ship, which occur on all courses, were such
SCIENCE
271
that the total effect of the ship’s motion did
not necessarily reverse in sign when the ship’s
course was reversed.
In the third paragraph it is assumed that
the “ gyroscopic tendency (of a rotating hori-
zontal flywheel) to get into the vertical plane
has been counteracted and may be neglected.”
But the forces Dr. Hering has been describing
in this paragraph are exactly the gyroscopic
forces themselves that tend to make the axis of
the flywheel parallel to the earth’s axis. At the
equator, since the celestial pole is in horizon,
the plane of the flywheel would tend to become
vertical. If the gyroscopic tendency is coun-
teracted, there is, of course, no shifting of the
axis of rotation.
In the cases supposed in the fourth para-
graph, there are gyroscopic forces arising from
the earth’s rotation that Dr. Hering has not
considered. When the plane of rotation is
north and south, that side of the disk which is
descending will tend to move eastward, and
the side that is ascending will tend to move
westward, thus tending to turn the plane of
the disk out of the meridian into the prime
vertical, so that its axis shall be parallel to the
axis of the earth. The apparatus will there-
fore not be dynamically balanced as Dr. Her-
ing states. At the equator there is no twisting
effect due to the horizontal motion of the par-
ticles on the edge of the disk, for this effect
varies as the sine of the latitude. At the
equator, when the plane of the disk is east and
west, its axis is parallel to the earth’s axis, and
the apparatus is dynamically balanced.
The nature of the general question raised
may be stated in a few words as follows. For
a body at rest on the earth, it is sufficient to
consider only the attraction of the earth and
the centrifugal force due to the earth’s rota-
tion. For a body in motion relative to the
earth, there are additional apparent forces to
be considered, the so-called gyroscopic forces,
or compound centrifugal forces. These ap-
parent forces arise from the fact that our axes
of reference are not fixed in direction in space,
but are rotating. These forces are all propor-
tional to the product of the earth’s angular ve-
locity of rotation by a component velocity
272
along one of the moving axes; furthermore, all
eomponents of relative velocity, northward,
eastward, or upward (and their opposites) give
rise to these forces. Dr. Hering’s argument
from the varying centrifugal force due to the
east and west motion of a particle brings to
light the gyroscopic forces due to the east-and-
west components of velocity, but it does not tell
the whole story. Vertical components, and
horizontal components in the meridian must
also be allowed for.
There is nothing very new in the results
stated above. Problems of moving axes and the
effect of the earth’s rotation are treated in
much detail in advanced treatises like Routh’s
“Rigid Dynamics.” The equations of motion
for these cases can be conveniently ground out
by Lagrange’s method, but it is always inter-
esting and instructive to obtain each term in
the result directly, and to examine its geo-
metrical and mechanical meaning.
Water D. LAMBERT
U. S. Coast AND GEODETIC SURVEY
QUOTATIONS
FEDERATIONS OF BRAIN WORKERS
In the discussion on the better adjustment
of the relations between employers and em-
ployed which have occupied so much space in
the public press during the last year or so
attention has been almost exclusively directed
to the relations of industrial employers and
manual workers. The interests of other
classes of persons whose work is essential to
industry have been almost ignored, although
the Labor Party has declared its willingness
to accept recruits from among brain workers.
At the industrial conference summoned by the
Prime Minister last April employers’ asso-
ciations and trade unions considered a pro-
posal for a joint industrial council, and the
Society of Technical Engineers at this con-
ference moved an instruction to the council,
when it should come into existence, to con-
sider the position of unions composed exclu-
sively of members of technical, management,
and administrative grades, and to determine
how such unions should be represented on
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1315
the council. The industrial council has not
yet come into existence, but meanwhile the
Labor Research Department has been making
inquiries into the position of professional
classes in relation to the labor movement, and
at a meeting in London on February 7, a
National Federation of Professional, Tech-
nical, Administrative, and Supervisory Work-
ers was formed. The bodies represented at
this conference included the Civil Servants
Union, the Association of Local Government
Board Officers, the National Union of Clerky
the National Federation of Law Clerks, the
National Union of Journalists, representa-
tives of scientific, technical, engineering, and
chemical workers, together with the Actors’
Association and the National Orchestral As-
sociation. A representative of the Labor Re
search Department said that it was not pro-
posed that the Federation should affiliate with
the Labor Party or the Trade Union Con-
gress. Among the professions inyited to
join the new Federation medicine and the law
are not included. It appears, however, that
for some months past certain technical and
scientific professional workers have been
taking steps to form themselves into a con-
federation, and that representatives of these
bodies and several others, after full discussion,
have prepared a memorandum proposing that
the various societies concerned should be
formed into an industrial group, a financial
group, a group for the public services, and a
group for the other professions. Hach group
would form a federation, and the four would
be combined into a confederation for which
draft rules are being prepared. The General
Secretary of the Society of Technical Engi-
neers last week published a long letter on the
subject in The Times, in the course of which
he observed that the assumption that a
salaried official must ally himself either with
the employers or with the work-people ought
not to be accepted without further investiga-
tion. The position of medicine and the law
are similar to each other and differ funda-
mentally from that of the intellectual workers
represented by such bodies as the Society of
Technical Engineers. The medical profession
Marcu 12, 1920]
will be disposed to watch with sympathetic
interest the movement for a federation of
scientific and technical workers; but until
their plans are more fully known it will be
premature to say that medicine should have
any direct concern.—British Medical Journal.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
The Productivity of Invertebrate Fish Food
on the Bottom of Oneida Lake, with Special
Reference to Mollusks. By Frank CoLuins
Baker. Technical Publication No. 9, New
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse
University, Syracuse, N. Y. 1918. Pp.
233, Figs. 44.
This valuable contribution to the general
subject of limnology is based upon a numer-
ical study of the bottom fauna of a portion of
Oneida Lake, New York, which was made
during the month of July, 1916. Lower South
Bay and two smaller areas, all at the south-
western corner of the lake, were covered in
the survey; they constitute an area of 1,164
acres, or a little less than two square miles
out of a total lake surface of about 80 square
miles. The maximum depth of the water in
the area under consideration is about 19 feet
as compared with a maximum of 55 feet for
the entire lake.
In the area covered by this survey the
greatest development of plant and animal life
was found in the zone extending from the
shoreline out to the six-foot contour line.
Numerically, about 88 per cent. of the in-
vertebrate animals were obtained in this area.
The second zone lay between the six-foot and
the twelve-foot contour lines and the popula-
tion of this belt was very much smaller than
in the first zone. A still further decline in
the density of the population was noted be-
tween the twelve-foot and the eighteen-foot
eontour lines, which constituted the third
zone.
Various types of bottom were found in the
area studied, ranging from boulders to clay
and mud. Of those represented, the sand
bottom was richest in animal life while the
boulder bottom was poorest.
A classification of the animals on the basis
SCIENCE
273
of their feeding habits showed that herbiv-
orous and detritus feeders greatly predomi-
nated over the carnivorous forms; the latter,
in fact, constituted only 0.29 per cent. of the
total population. Of the various groups of
animals represented, the mollusks yielded a
much larger number of individuals than any
other group; they even exceeded in numbers
all of the associated animals combined.
CHANCEY JUDAY
MapIson, WISCONSIN
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE ANTISCORBUTIC PROPERTY OF DEHY-
DRATED MEAT
THE present conception of a perfect diet de-
mands that the intake contain adequate pro-
teins, sufficient fats, carbohydrates, inorganic
salts, bulk, and the three vitamines designated
as water-soluble B, fat-soluble A, and anti-
scorbutic. For some time we have used to pro-
duce experimental scurvy in guinea-pigs a
combination which meets all of these require-
ments except that of the antiscorbutic vita-
mine. A mixture of soy bean flour, whole milk,
dried yeast, paper pulp, sodium chloride and
ealcium lactate is dried down into a cake.
This is fed as the basal ration supplemented
with a definite amount of the product whose
antiscorbutic potency it is desired to deter-
mine. By this procedure we have demon-
strated that dried cabbage, dehydrated toma-
toes? and desiccated orange juice? retain some
of their original content of antiscrobutic
vitamine.
The indications are that each foodstuff ought
to be studied individually. Meat being one of
the most staple articles of our dietaries it has
therefore seemed highly important to deter-
mine if it retains any antiscorbutic potency
after drying.
Stefansson‘ states that “the strongest anti-
1Givens, M. H., and Cohen, B., J. Biol. Chem.,
1918, 36, 127.
2Givens, M. H., and McClugage, H. B., J. Biol.
Chem., 1918, 37, 253.
3 Givens, M. H., and McClugage, H. B., Am. J.
Dis. Chil., 1919, 18, 30.
4Stefansson, V., J. A. M. A., 1918, 71, 1715.
274
400
350 |}—___+
300
SCIENCE
7
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1315
200
HH
Fie. 1. Growth curves of guinea-pigs on different diets,
Animal No, 932 is representative of a number of
guinea-pigs receiving the soy cake diet without any
supplement. Clinical signs of scurvy were first
noted on the 14th day; death from seurvy occurred
on the 19th day. Animal No. 390 receiving soy
cake plus 30 gms. of raw cabbage daily never
showed any signs of scurvy up to the 120th day,
when it was transferred to other experiments.
These two groups serve as controls to show that
the soy cake diet alone will not prevent scurvy but
that it is satisfactory if supplemented with a good
scorbutic qualities reside in certain fresh
foods and diminish or disappear with storage
by any of the common methods of preservation
—canning, pickling, drying, ete. Meat and
fish slightly or well advanced in the process of
ordinary putrefaction seems to be as good an
antiscorbutic as fresh flesh or nearly so.”
Notwithstanding the above statements Stefan-
sson used some dried meat on one of his polar
expeditions. However, circumstances were
such as not to permit a long usage of the dried
antiscorbutic agent as, in this case, raw cabbage.
Animal No, 348 is typical of a group on the soy
diet plus a daily supplement of dehydrated beef.
Animal No. 354 is one of a number of guinea-pigs
receiving the soy cake diet plus an allotment of
desiccated beef cooked for 15 minutes at 100° C.
In these two groups the development of scurvy has
not been prevented nor death from the disease de-
layed.
S signifies first appearance of scurvy.
S -+ death from seurvy.
products and therefore no direct evidence is
available in his cases as to the antiscorbutic
value of this material.
Chick, Hume and Skelton® found that 10
e.c. of raw fresh beef juice daily did not pre-
vent scurvy in a guinea-pig on a diet of oats
and bran ad lib.
Pitz® has offered experiments to show that
6 Chick, H., Hume, E. M., and Skelton, R. F.,
Biochm. J., 1918, 12, 131.
6 Pitz, W., J. Biol. Chem., 1918, 36, 439.
Marc# 12, 1920]
5 per cent. of dried meat does not delay the
onset of scurvy but does greatly prolong the
life of tthe animals, while 10 per cent. of this
meat delays the onset of the disease and greatly
prolongs the life of the animals. He also
thinks that calcium and chloride cause delay in
the development of scurvy.
Dutcher’ and his associates claim that raw
lean beef does not possess antiscorbutic prop-
erties. They think the favorable influence
from dried meat claimed by Pitz is in reality
due to the fact that the animals in those ex-
periments were consuming milk ad lib.
The dried meat used in our experiments was
lean beef freed of fat and dehydrated in vacuo
at a temperature never higher than 65° C. for
a period of twelve hours. The meat was then
air dried for several days, during which time
‘it gave up a little more moisture. This dried
product was ground to a powder and offered
as such to the animals. The guinea-pigs did
not care for tthe food in this form and the only
satisfactory consumption obtained was through
intimately blending the meat with the soy cake
food by grinding the two together. By this
manipulation an average consumption of fifty
per cent. or better of the 3 gm. of meat of-
fered daily, was obtained from all animals.
The actual daily amount of dried meat eaten
was about 1.5 gm. per guinea-pig; represent-
ing approximately 15 per cent. of the total
solids ingested.
The dried meat was fed uncooked and cooked
for fifteen minutes at 100° C. In neither case
was there any protection against the onset of
scurvy nor was death therefrom delayed. A
graphic presentation of the above results is
given in the chart by a curve of growth of a
typical animal from each group.
The findings in these animal experiments are
in accord with those of Chick, Hume and
Skelton and of Dutcher and ‘associates on the
value of raw meat juice and raw meat and a
7 Dutcher, R. A., Pierson, EH, M., and Biester, A.
Scr., N. S., 1918, 50, 184.
8 Our thanks are due Dr. K. Geo. Falk, of the
Harriman Laboratories, Roosevelt Hospital, New
York City, for kindly supplying us with the meat
used in these experiments.
?
SCIENCE
275
watery extract of raw meat. The results sup-
port Stefansson’s contention, in so fas as meat
is concerned, that foodstuffs preserved by
desiccation are deficient in their antiscorbutic
property.
The meat used by Pitz in his experiments
was dried over steam coils. Our results are in
direct opposition to his. The explanation of
this is undoubtedly due, as Dutcher believes,
to the amount of milk consumed by the guinea-
pigs in Pitz’s experiments. His results in all
likelihood would have been the same as ours
had the intake of milk been controlled quanti-
tatively. Maurice H. Givens,
Harry B. McCiucace
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL
SOCIETY
Tue American Meteorological Society was or-
ganized in St. Louis, on December 29, 1919 (cf.
preliminary announcements, SciENCE, August 22,
1919, pp. 180-181, and December 12, 1919, pp.
546-547). Following the organization, the Council
of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science granted affiliation. The officers elected
for 1920 are: R. DeC. Ward, president; W. J.
Humphreys, vice-president; Robert E. Horton,
treasurer, and Charles F. Brooks, secretary. Fif-
teen councilors representing the various phases of
theoretical and applied meteorology were also
elected. They are: Lieutenant Colonel W. R. Blair,
Meteorological Service, Signal Corps, Washington;
HE. H. Bowie, Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C.;
Professor H. J. Cox, Weather Bureau, Chicago,
Ill.; A. W. Douglas, Simmons Hardware Co., St.
Louis, Mo.; Professor Ellsworth Huntington, Yale
University, New Haven, Conn.; Lieutenant C. N.
Keyser, Aerology Division, U. 8. Navy, Washing-
ton, D. C.; Professor C. F. Marvin, Weather Bu-
reau, Washington, D. C.; Major General C. T.
Menoher, Air Service, Washington, D. C.; J. C.
Millas, Meteorological Service, Habana, Cuba;
James H. Searr, Weather Bureau, New York, N.
Y.; Professor J. Warren Smith, Weather Bureau,
Washington, D. C.; Sir F. Stupart, Meteorological
Office, Toronto, Canada; Professor C. F. Talman,
Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C.; Dr. F. L.
West, Utah Agricultural College, Logan, Utah;
Professor W. M. Wilson, Cornell University, and
Weather Bureau, Ithaca, N. Y. Eleven committees
276
were formed to carry out the objects of the society.
These with their chairman are: Research, C. F.
Marvin; Public Information, C. F. Talman; Metro-
logical Instruction, W. M. Wilson; Membership, C.
F. Brooks; Physiological Meteorology, Ellsworth
Huntington; Agricultural Meteorology, J. Warren
Smith; Hydrological Meteorology, R. E. Horton;
Business Meteorology, A. W. Douglas; Commercial
Meteorology, H. J. Cox; Marine Meteorology, J. H.
Searr; Aeronautical Meteorology, Major General
C. T. Menoher,
On December 30 and 31, in St. Louis, and on
January 3, in New York, 29 papers were presented
in five sessions, There was one joint session with
the American Physical Society, and one with the
Association of American Geographers and Na-
tional Council of Geography Teachers. Since brief
abstracts of each paper are published in the Jan-
uary issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteo-
rological Society, and more extensive abstracts, ex-
cerpts, or the papers in full, covering all but nine,
in the December Monthly Weather Review, only the
titles and authors will be given here:
Progress of American meteorology in 1919: C. FB.
BROOKS.
Some meteorological paradoxes: W. J. HUMPHREYS.
How the American Meteorological Society can
serve geography teachers: C. F. Brooks.
Use of laws in teaching climatology: S. S. VISHER.
Motion pictures of weather maps: a report of prog-
ress: J. WARREN SMITH.
The work of the Weather Bureau in the West In-
dies: O. L. FAssia.
Aims and achievements of the Blue Hill Observa-
tory: A. McAniz.
Aerological work in the U. S. Navy: C. N. Kryser.
Plans for establishing a network of meteorological
stations in Palestine: P, W. ETKES.
Determination of the normal temperature by means
of the equation of the seasonal temperature varia-
tion and of a modified thermograph record: F. L.
West, N. EH. EDLEFSEN and S. P. Ewine.
The roaring of the mountain: W. J. HUMPHREYS.
Some applications of radio-telegraphy to meteorol-
ogy: J. C. JENSEN,
Sunshine in the United States: R. DEC. Warp.
Cloudiness in the United States: R. DEC. Warp.
Weather conditions in the orchard regions of the
North Carolina mountain slopes: H. J. Cox.
The effect of a ‘‘lid’’ on the temperature and
transparency of the lower air: J. W. REDWAY.
Preliminary steps in making free-air pressure and
wind charts: C, L. MEISINGER.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou, LI. No. 1315
The prevailing winds of the north Pacific coast: A.
E. CASWELL.
Evaporative capacity: R. E. Horton.
A device for measuring maximum and minimum
temperatures of reservoir surfaces: R. E. Hor-
TON,
Clouds and their significance: C. F. Brooxs.
Difficulties in the theory of rain formation: W. J.
HUMPHREYS.
Cultwation does not increase rainfall: J. WARREN
SMITH.
Predicting minimum temperatures: J. WARREN
SMITH. i
Seasonal distribution of maximum floods in the
United States: A. J. HENRY.
Weather and business: A. W. DouGuLas.
Explanation of peculiarities in flying in the wind:
J. G. Corrin,
Determination of meteorological corrections on the
ranges of guns: W. Nout.
Evidence of climatic effect in the annual rings of
trees: A. EK, DOUGLASS.
On January 21, the society was incorporated in
the District of Columbia. The membership of the
society, elected up to the end of January, was 586.
The next meeting of the American Meteorological
Society will be held in Washington, D. C., prob-
ably, Thursday, April 22, immediately preceding
that of the American Physical Society, on Friday
and Saturday, April 23 and 24. Plans are being
made for meetings with the Pacific Section of
the American Association for the Advancement
of Science next summer and with the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in
Chicago next December.
CHARLES F. Brooks,
Secretary
WEATHER BUREAU,
WasuIneTon, D. C.
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y;
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattex
Shae. NAGE
New SERIES RID SINGLE CoPriEs, 15 CTs.
Vou. LI, No. 1316 F AY, Marcu 19, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
The Royal Road
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{|
SSS SS =
Fray, Marcu 19, 1920
CONTENTS
Constructive Scientific Research by Coopera-
tion: PROFESSOR BurtToN E. LIVINGSTON... 277
Suggestions for Hcologic Investigations im
Vertebrate Zoology: WALTER P, TAYLOR... 283
The Attainment of High Levels in the At-
mosphere: PROFESSOR ALEXANDER McADIE. 287
The Separation of the Element Chlorine into
Chlorine and Meta-chlorine: PROFESSOR
\yVanri die IDL IEUNTAERS) Sa gooqcocnuedc0o00b 289
Tea TeyGifars Eo Ua 126 soncosooscgccdo0n 291
Scientific Events :—
The Organization of Scientific Work in In-
dia; Portland Cement in 1919; The Investi-
gation of Fatigue Phenomena in Metals ... 292
Scientific Notes and News ................ 294
University and Educational News .......... 295
Discussion and Correspondence :-—
Ionization and Radiation: Proressor H. M.
DapouriAn. How did Darwin work? Pro-
Fressor T. D, A. CocKERELL. A Convenient
Demonstration Mounting for Jellyfishes: N.
NDE GRTBR hepattercoserey stave el slaratotest aval iat shave lor0\6 =e 296
Organization of the American Geophysical
Union: Dr. Harry O. Woop ............. 297
Special Articles :—
Is Unpalatable Food Properly digested?
RaupH C, Houper, CLarEeNce A. SMITH,
IE PENTTS EPS HHEWAS WIS fac) ates) aed reveheysusieley ss en siisievenw 299
The Western Society of Naturalists: JoHN F.
IBOVARD HS Nets citer o ris cial avait cial tohere oaiele 299
The American Mathematical Society: Pro-
RESSORp Ham NER COLE ps iereisyerejeisre rr rarctele elite 300
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
CONSTRUCTIVE SCIENTIFIC RE-
SEARCH BY COOPERATION!
Ir has been occasionally suggested that one
of the reasons for the slow advance of science
lies in the fact that scientific research prob-
lems are still generally attacked by individuals
or by small, local groups of workers influenced
by a single individual, rather than by planned
cooperation among a number of workers in
different institutions. Individualistic research
has been characterized, by the late Professor
C. E. Bessey, as a kind of guerilla warfare
upon the unknown. As in other lines of hu-
man activity, it seems highly desirable to out-
grow this kind of attack, just as rapidly as
the appeal of well-planned campaigns and the
desire for a maximum of service to race ad-
vancement makes itself felt by scientific work-
ers. Commercial research is now frequently
carried on in this way, different individuals
being actually paid for studying certain as-
pects of a broad problem and for bringing
their minds to bear upon it in a cooperative
way. The more fundamental aspects of scien-
tifie investigation and the clearing up of
the broader, general principles of science have
not usually been approached in this manner;
the extremely individualistic methods of the
Middle Ages seem still to be in vogue.
This state of affairs in science is sometimes
thought to be due to the supposed fact that an
investigator can not confine himself to what
he starts out to study, but that he is con-
strained, by the nature of investigation itself,
to follow his evanescent interests and caprices
wherever they may lead. But the scientific re-
searches undertaken and carried out by large
commercial establishments and also, especially,
those that were so remarkable furthered by pre-
liminary planning and a division of work,
1 Prepared by request of the chairman of the Di-
vision of Biology and Agriculture of the National
Research Council.
278
under the governmental auspices of the na-
tions recently at war, seem to furnish convinc-
ing argument against this view. When work-
ers have been paid for solving a specific prob-
lem that fits itself into a general scheme of
scientific progress—whether payment has been
in money or in the approval of their contem-
poraries or in their own satisfaction in worthy
service—it appears that they have been able to
perform their separate parts of a broad plan
and that they have often accomplished the al-
most impossible. One prime reason for the
medieval methods followed by fundamental re-
search seems to be that significant money
rewards are not generally offered for this sort
of work and that popular approval still goes to
the guerilla rather than to the unit of an or-
ganization. The motive of worthy and con-
structive service to nation and race seems
often to be thrust into the background, except-
ing in so far as the “bias of happy exercise”
—with the satisfaction of doing just what one
likes to do from day to day, unhampered by
previously made plans—gives a person to feel
that his own activities must be greatly worthy
and outstandingly constructive. It seems, how-
ever, that all of us are strongly moved at
times by the idea of communal service; for
the most part we are glad to consider ourselves
as doing our best to be worthy parts of a
worthy whole, and therein lies the substratum
out of which the morale of an army’s research
division or of an industrial laboratory is or-
ganized.
The cooperative instinct is strong in most
scientists, as in other people, but the practical
lack of means whereby constructive coopera-
tion might be planned and arranged makes it
very difficult indeed for any single worker to
break away from medieval individualism in re-
search. To cooperate, it is necessary to find
several others with whom to plan and work
and with whom the detailed operations may
be divided and shared; in short, to organize a
cooperation or to find one already organized.
Tf an individual feels the impulse for coopera-
tive service so strongly as to lead him to act,
he must first give up his actual investigations
for a time, until the needed organization may
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
be created; he does not generally find it in ex-
istence. He may approach his colleagues in
either of two ways, both of which are apt to
lead to bitter disappointment, as things are to-
day. First, he may seek workers who will join
with him in attacking a fundamental problem
already partly planned in his own mind.
Without some money to expend on the work,
or some position to offer, he may be met with
the suspicion that his motives are ordinarily
selfish, that lhe desires someone else to “ pull
his chestnuts from the fire.” Second, he may
offer this services to those who have plans for
constructive research problems in mind, but
here also he may often be suspected of ulterior
motives of low-grade selfishness, and his offers
may be responded to by increased secretiveness,
so that he may not receive the encouragement
he sought. The whole idea of cooperation in
such things is so novel that to propose it with-
out money payment seems almost to argue an
idealism that verges toward insanity. And yet
the conception of cooperation among human
beings forms the central strand about which
has been braided the cable of most forms of
human faith.
It appears that the democratic cooperation
that is obviously needed requires an organiza-
tion that shall not depend on the autocratic
leadership of some individual enthusiast, who
might soon get looked upon by his followers
as a “super-man” or as possessing some sort
of divine right (even though he himself might
lay no claim to such attributes) and against
whom opposition might grow ever stronger be-
eause of this very fact. A suitable motto for
the organization needed might be that of the
French republic, there being as much liberty
and equality as is possible with true fraternity
(which is cooperation). If such organizations
as are here suggested are to be formed they
should be cooperative from the very start and
should center around several individuals.
They should be democratic in nature. It
must be clearly understood that the original
group have merely tried to plan the work so
as to bring about the greatest advancement,
and that the original plan is but a temporary
scaffold, to be modified from time to time and
Marca 19, 1920]
finally replaced by other plans, as the work
progresses and as new ideas are brought to
light. This feature apparently requires re-
peated emphasis, to offset the mistaken thought
that any free thinker is to be hampered in his
scientific progress if he joins in with a group
of others who already have in mind a broad,
although always tentative, plan. On the other
hand, it is especially essential that any or-
ganization for cooperation should exhibit a
strong esprit du corps, and if a prospective co-
operator feels that his entrance into the or-
ganization may result in too great modifica-
tion of his own ideas of what he should do, if
he does not respond to the general aims and
motives of the group, he should consider care-
fully before he joins.
Given the needed organization, safeguarded
against autocracy or ‘bureaucracy, around
which and in which cooperative research might
develop—more as a coagulation due to the in-
ternal conditions of an emulsion than as a
precipitate forced by a reagent from without—
it really seems possible for beginnings to be
made, even without considerable financial sup-
port. According to the writer’s experience
with his colleagues it is not true that scien-
tific research workers do not generally wish to
cooperate. A number of able workers can be
found who will gladly join hands in the prose-
cution of almost any problem that may be men-
tioned. It is of course not to be expected that
all workers will unite on any particular por-
tion of the vast realm of science; if the project
in question is concrete enough to be ready for
actual attack there will, of necessity, be only
relatively few who will take part. Further-
more, the more fundamental is the nature of
the problem, the fewer will be the number of
possible cooperators; many would join to-
gether to find ways of reducing the cost of liv-
ing, while only a few could be found to work
conjointly on the ultimate nature of life itself!
Clearly, the function of the original organiza-
tions for cooperative scientific research must
be to find the cooperators and to prepare a way
by which these may cooperate. To accomplish
this, the preliminary organization will of
course require time and thought from several
SCIENCE
279
persons, and some funds must be available for
assistance and for travel. Scientists are not
generally able to command even such small
funds as will be needed; they will rightly feel
that, if they devote time and serious thought
to this matter of organization (thus tempor-
arily setting aside their own investigations),
the small amounts of money needed should
come from elsewhere. It is not necessary,
however, to pay for the time and thought of
the cooperators themselves, these may be had
for the asking; but mechanical and clerical
assistance must be furnished to the prelimi-
nary organizations if they are to be successful.
‘Without funds for this (and for travel, also,
in many eases) such organizations ought not to
be started, for without such funds they can
do little more than distract the attention of
their members from their own researches. An
active guerilla warfare seems much better than
mere social gatherings that would be unable
to act upon a decision even if they should
reach one, as to what is needed and what
ought to be done. This consideration assumes
special importance when it is remembered that
the individualistic and non-cooperative method,
poor as it confessedly is, is the only one that
has been really tested in fundamental research,
and that discussions within groups that are
without adequate power to act are apt ‘to de-
tract from the volume of individual research,
while they may add but little to true accom-
plishment.
To determine whether cooperators may be
found for a given project it seems desirable to
begin the organization in an experimental
way. The preliminary organization will need
widespread publicity among the proper public.
Tentative plans for the problem in hand will
need to be submitted to many minds, will need
to be repeatedly modified or remade, until a
sufficient group of workers are willing to enter
into the proposed cooperation. Diversity of
geographical location and of temperament and
interest among scientists, make the prelimi-
nary testing of any cooperative project an
operation that must necessarily consume much
time; several years may generally elapse be-
fore a true decision can be reached as to
280
whether the project itself is really fitted for
cooperation. It is clear that men who are
busy with other matters will not generally be
able to perform this sort of preliminary serv-
ice unless adequate funds for assistance and
travel are available.
In the preceding paragraphs the need and
the apparent possibility for cooperation in
productive fundamental research has been em-
phasized, but it is not to be forgotten that there
are other lines of cooperative endeavor ito
which the attention of scientists might turn,
lines along which larger numbers of coopera-
tors might be willing to unite. Practical re-
search, for example, which always holds forth
hopes of financial return, is more generally at-
tractive than fundamental research. Applied
science readily finds financial support, either
from individuals or from commercial organiza-
tions, while fundamental science is not so
generally and practically appreciated. Another
field of cooperation in which large numbers
of scientists would surely cooperate is that in
which lies the problem of suitable publication
and dissemination of the results of research.
This field also commands considerable support,
partly on account of the fact that publications
frequently pay their way in the commercial
sense and partly because research institutions
of various kinds (especially governmental
ones) may hope to gain prestige through the
publication and distribution, of good scien-
tific contributions. Still another example may
be mentioned, in the field of bibliography,
with which the writer has dealt to some de-
gree in other places.2 A great cooperation of
this kind, involving hundreds of workers, has
recently been inaugurated in the new botan-
ical abstract journal. Finally, there are possi-
bilities for valuable cooperation in making the
facilities for experimental research available
to more workers than is now the case. Thus
a number of workers might unite to find the
needed buildings and apparatus for a research
laboratory in which any scientist might work;
2 See Science, 49: 199-207. 1919. The remark
in the text refers also to some unpublished memo-
randa presented to the Division of Biology and
Agriculture of the National Research Council.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
this has been done in several instances.
These and many other lines of cooperative en-
deavor that might be mentioned are all surely
worthy of the best that we find in us, and it is
not the intention of the writer to maintain
that constructive, fundamental research is
more important than any other line. This
paper, however, is planned to deal especially
with cooperation in fundamental scientific re-
search itself, in the solving of the actual prob-
lems of science, and so other fields for coopera-
tion are not here dwelt upon. The following
paragraphs will set forth some of the appar-
ently possible ways by which the organization
of actual cooperative research might be at-
tempted under the auspices of the National
Research Council; there is no doubt that such
activity lies within the prerogative of the
council or of any of its divisions, should they
see fit to undertake it.
POSSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS FOR COOPERATIVE
PROJECTS
Since actual research deals with somewhat
definite and concrete things, it is clear that a
separate organization is required for each
project and that a project must be relatively
narrow in order to be suitable. A committee
on the general subject of cooperation in re-
search, without a specific problem, might be
valuable in other ways—mainly educational—
but it could not further research cooperation
unless it narrowed its purview. General com-
mittees might be formed (some are already in
existence) to canvass the various scientific
fields and prepare, from time to time, lists of
projects that seem promising for cooperation.
Before it can be decided whether or not
a given project for research cooperation is
to be undertaken, that project must of course
be presented in a rather complete, though
preliminary, way. Scientists might be en-
couraged to present plans for _ projects.
These plans should show clearly what sort
of work is contemplated, how it may be
divided up among the cooperators, how the
results may be handled so as to bring them
into the permanent structure of fundamental
science, what funds will be required for
Marcu 19, 1920]
assistance, travel, etc., and such other es-
sential features as might enable an executive
committee, or other similar board, to make a
rational decision. After a set of preliminary
plans had received the approval of a division
of the council, the most promising course to
follow might be to establish a special prelimi-
nary committee on the given project. This
committee might be instructed to proceed to
get the work started if funds are already avail-
able, or to attempt to procure these if they are
not. It can not be too strongly emphasized
that some funds are necessary, even for the ac-
tivities of such a preliminary committee, for
it is neither safe nor desirable to ask research
workers to donate money, as well as time and
energy, to this sort of endeavor. After the
needed funds have become available the pre-
liminary committee may proceed to consult or
correspond with all probable cooperators, ask-
ing first their aid in completing and elabora-
ting the details of the preliminary plan in such
a way that it may be feasible. As this work
goes on it should gradually become apparent
how many cooperators may be hoped for, and
when the preliminary committee judges that
the project has reached a feasible stage the
committee may enlarge itself so as to include
all those of its correspondents who are willing
to cooperate. This enlarged committee (which
would be the organization mentioned above, as
needed before a cooperative project may be
actually started) may then reconsider the de-
tailed plan and divide the work up among its
members. A project may fail at any stage,
even after the enlarged committee has been
formed, but it seems probable that a good
measure of success may be regarded as fairly
assured when this stage shall have been
reached. Haste is not desirable, to do good
work much time must be allowed, but the pre-
liminary committee would report the project
as impossible at present, if it were found im-
practicable to obtain a reasonable number of
cooperators, or the necessary funds for its
work,
A cooperative organization started in some
such way as this would almost surely be
successful, but the contemplated measure of
SCIENCE
281
its success must not be too large. It must
be remembered that this sort of cooperation,
if begun, would tread on new ground and
would surely encounter unexpected difficul-
ties. No considerable concrete results need
be looked for at the end of a single year
and the financial support available at the
start ought to give promise of remaining
available for several years at least. Never-
theless, the very idea of such cooperative en-
deavor in research fields is so extremely novel
that much discussion and publicity in the
proper circles would be needed before it might
be realized, and each preliminary plan sub-
mitted, each preliminary committee appointed
and each letter or publication or conference
produced by such a committee, would help to
build up the spirit of cooperation. It should
be recognized that the fact of cooperation itself
is vastly more important than cooperation on
any special project; if one project should fail
others should be attempted, the work must be
regarded as experimental. It would make
little difference just what particular problems
were undertaken in this way, but it seems
highly desirable that some problems might be
so attacked. Once applied in a concrete case
or two, the general idea would surely spread
more rapidly than ever could be the case if it
were held indefinitely in the phase of a priori
discussion. As in the prosecution of experi-
mental research itself, it is only by actual
trials that it can be found out what degree of
success might attend such cooperative organi-
zations as are here suggested.
SOME SPECIAL FEATURES OF COOPERATION IN EX-
PERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Several features of cooperative research have
been impressed on the writer during a number
of years’ experience with this sort of attempt.
First, there appear to be a large number of
good experimenters who do not have well-se-
lected problems in mind, who work on that
which lies close to them rather than on that
which seems to be most fundamental, most far-
reaching or most imperatively needed for the
growing structure of knowledge. These work-
ers are generally the younger men, and they
282
almost always prove to be glad to join a co-
operation that appeals to them as well
planned. Of course they can not usually afford
to finance such work and they are not always
able to obtain financial support from their in-
stitutions, but they are generally very willing
to work with great enthusiasm on a cooperative
project if the actual expenses can be met. For
example, about forty workers joined heartily
in an experimental study of evaporation in the
United States in 1907 and 1908, and all that
was needed was that the requisite apparatus
and materials should be furnished, together
with postage for their reports. Similarly,
about eight persons, none of them professional
scientists, cooperated very successfully in an
experimental study of the climatic conditions
of Maryland im 1914. In this ease all appa-
ratus was furnished, and each station was
visited fortnightly by the scientist who had
the work in hand. For the most part, those
who have been cooperating in the project on
the Salt Requirements of Plants (Division of
Biology and Agriculture, National Research
Council) have provided their own apparatus,
but it has been necessary to supply some equip-
ment in a few cases and to furnish report
blanks, seed, ete. Experience seems to indi-
cate that many people are glad to cooperate if
a project is well presented and if it has prom-
ise of being continued long enough to produce
results. In the cooperations with which the
writer has previously had to do, a definite
time limit was set from the start and enthusi-
astic cooperation lasted through the period;
indeed, in one case the work was continued by
many cooperators for more than a year after
the agreement came to an end, but it was pos-
sible to find the small amount of needed funds
for this extension from sources other than the
original one.
To maintain enthusiasm among a group of
cooperators it would of course be necessary
for the committee to see to it that an active
correspondence should be kept up. Every one
appreciates being written to about his work,
being told of what others of the organization
are accomplishing, being able to ask for sug-
gestions and advice when difficulties arise,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1316
ete. This means that a central office for each
cooperative organization should be main-
tained, and that some competent person
should act as secretary and custodian of
records. Here is the main limit placed, by
the nature of the work, upon the extent of
cooperation in actual, conerete research. The
number of cooperators would be limited by the
amount of time and the amount of assistance
that were available to the person acting as
secretary. For obvious reasons formal letters
would not be satisfactory, and each cooperator
should be treated individually. In actual ex-
perimentation of an intricate kind it appears
that a single individual, with adequate assist-
ance, can care in this way for not more than
perhaps a dozen cooperators. With a much
larger group the work of the central office
would have to be divided and the personal
nature of the correspondence would be largely
sacrificed. Of course a larger cooperative or-
ganization might be arranged in sections,
each with its central office, but where all the
work interlocks intimately with all the other
work such subdivision would probably intro-
duce difficulties requiring much special study.
Furthermore, the experimental results ob-
tained by the various cooperators would re-
quire very thorough study, tabulation and
presentation in other ways, before they might
take their place in the planned whole. This
work can not generally be accomplished by
the cooperators themselves, though each
worker would always make his own interpre-
tations as he proceeds. The central office
would carry on the work of correlation and
would keep the cooperators informed as to
new developments coming from the work of
others and from combinations of results from
several sources. This feature of productive
cooperation in research also sets a limit to
the number of cooperators that may profitably
work together on a concrete problem. Finally,
it needs to be emphasized that the work as a
whole would require adequate presentation in
some suitable form of publication and that
individual publications of the cooperators—
although these might form a basis for this
treatment of the whole problem—would not
Marcu 19, 1920]
suffice. What seems most needed are con-
structive and progressive contributions toward
the solution of definite problems that are
ready for experimental attack, and the central
office of such an organization as is here con-
sidered would plan to undertake these. Pre-
liminary presentations might be prepared and
submitted to all cooperators. Out of the
correspondence thus developed would eventu-
ally come a presentation that might meas-
urably approach a truthful one, whereas single
individuals could not hope to do more than
make incomplete and more or less one-sided
contributions in the desired direction, their
papers being similar to most of those that
now appear in the scientific publications.
From the last paragraph it will be appre-
ciated that the writer’s idea of cooperation in
research involves the union of a number of
minds in planning the attack on a problem,
in working out the different parts, and in
bringing the several component results to-
gether into a well-considered presentation
that might really mark a tangible advance in
scientific knowledge. Cooperations of this
sort would bring it about that many of the
experimental mistakes that cause so much
discussion in scientific literature might be
avoided at the start (through cooperative
planning) and that most of the adverse criti-
cism that leads to such wasteful polemics in
many scientific fields might be already past
before the main publication occurred, for each
cooperator—and perhaps others also—would
act as critic regarding the general presenta-
tion while it was still in manuscript form.
Burton E. Lryineston
THE JOHNS HoprKINS UNIVERSITY
SUGGESTIONS FOR ECOLOGIC IN-
VESTIGATIONS IN VERTEBRATE
ZOOLOGY}
In a recent message transmitted to local ad-
ministrators throughout the country praising
them for their efforts during the war Food
Administrator Hoover declared that the Amer-
1 Read before the Ecological Society of America,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, December 28,
1918.
SCIENCE
283
ican people now “are summoned to a still
larger task—to provision the Allies and the
liberated nations of Europe, which face not
their civilization together unless a steady
stream of food supplies can be kept flowing to
hunger alone, but the collapse of all that holds
them to repair their gravest deficiencies, and
in far greater volume than by utmost stress
was sent last year.”
As is well known to everyone, under the con-
tinuous and effective stimulus of the United
States Department of Agriculture there has
taken place a speeding-up process on the
farms throughout the nation, a process which
must apparently be continued and even aug-
mented if we are to succeed in our wrestlings
with the problem of world food shortage.
It is obvious that one very practical way in
which to increase food production is to cut
down the losses due to plant or animal pests.
The department has addressed itself with ex-
traordinary vigor to this problem and a com-
prehensive program in pest control is being
administered by the different bureaus. That
portion of the program concerned with re-
duction of losses due to rodents and other
mammalian or bird pests devolves upon the
Bureau of Biological Survey. ;
Current estimates place damage done to the
carrying capacity of the open range and to
cultivated crops generally by rodents in the
western states at $300,000,000 annually. Add
to this the destruction of live stock by pre-
datory mammals, estimated at some $20,000,000
every year, and the damage done to goods in
warehouses and stores throughout the United
States by rats and mice, an additional $200,-
000,000, and we have an impressive total.
Particular interest attaches to these figures at
this time in view of the comprehensive plans
for the reclamation of arid and other lands in
behalf of returned soldiers recommended by
the Secretary of the Interior and given favor-
able mention by the President of the United
States in his latest address to Congress.
Potential or actual rodent pests exist on nearly
every acre of the arid land which it is pro-
posed to reclaim. In some sections effective
284
rodent control will be an absolute prerequisite
to successful dry land agriculture.
Important as this side of the work undoubt-
edly is, the destructive or pest-control aspect
of the work is not the only one to which
attention is given. Constructive measures
under consideration include such items as
game protection, with its multitudinous per-
plexities, biological and legislative; further
domestications of wild species, as ducks and
other game birds, deer, elk, buffalo and fur-
bearing mammals; possible use for food of
available wild animals not now so utilized;
artificial stimulation and increase of beneficial
wild species of birds and mammals; intro-
duction and acclimatization of birds and mam-
mals; administration of bird and mammalian
resources of zoological parks, national forests,
game preserves, bird reservations and national
parks.
It will be readily realized that problems of
extreme difficulty arise in connection with
both the program of pest eradication and that
of the development and increase of beneficial
species, problems the solution of which de-
pends upon a much more adequate knowledge
of and control of the balance of nature than
man has yet been able to acquire.
Years ago Spencer F. Baird called attention
to the fact that the only rational basis for
fisheries administration is the complete knowl-
edge of aquatic creatures to be acquired by
intimate investigation. He emphasized the
fact that it would be of doubtful value to
study only the major forms which supported
fisheries and that “useful conclusions must
needs rest upon a broad foundation of investi-
gations purely scientific in character.” This
generalization applies with at least as much
force to the terrestrial vertebrate fauna as it
does to fishes. With this thought in mind,
the Biological Survey has for more than thirty
years been carrying forward investigations in
North America dealing primarily with the
geographical distribution and habits of birds
and mammals.
It seems to be clear that this work should
not only be continued but should be expanded;
and that expansion may well take place in the
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
direction of a more intensive investigation of
the relation of animal to environment on a
dynamic as well as static basis.
The expansion of ecologic activities by the
Biological Survey and other agencies engaged
in biologie researches does not, of course, ex-
elude the prosecution of the faunal natural
history investigations. On the other hand
work in ecology implies a fairly thorough
knowledge of faunas and floras. It is not un-
_ likely that new methods of the ecological type
may be utilized profitably in connection with
natural history surveys. In addition to this
the ecologic point of view should be tried out
in the interpretation of distributional data.
As compared with the plant ecologist, the
animal ecologist is working at a considerable
advantage. Though many problems of method
and approach peculiar to the animal side of
the work are bound to present themselves,
much of the way over which the animal ecolo-
gist must go has been traversed already by
his botanical colleague; and by virtue of this
fact it should be possible for him to avoid
many missteps and false leads. Instrumental
studies of the environment have been carried
forward to a very considerable extent by the
botanist, thus relieving the zoologist of some,
at least, of this fundamental labor. Further-
more, many of the guiding principles for re-
search work in plant ecology, already enun-
ciated by the botanist, can be adapted to the
field of animal ecology.
Of course, with animals, the factor of men-
tality introduces a host of new problems into
the study which are almost wholly lacking
with plants. To a certain extent the new
difficulties resulting from this factor neutral-
ize the advantages derived from the fact that
the botanists have done pioneer work.
The comprehensive demands of the ecologic
program peculiarly emphasize the desirability
of cooperative effort. The association of in-
dividual investigators who are specialists in
botany, chemistry, geology and meteorology,
as well as in zoology, will often be necessary
to the adequate organization of the work; and
it may often be advantageous for institutions
as well as individuals to work together. It is
Marcu 19, 1920]
obvious that many universities and colleges,
by virtue of their locations and resources, have
abundant opportunity to perform valuable
work in the ecology of vertebrates.
Although for some of the more detailed re-
searches in the physiology, chemistry, habitat
relations and psychology of animals a con-
siderable amount of apparatus is necessary,
investigations of the highest importance may
be carried forward with relatively simple
equipment. The field is sufficiently compre-
hensive to afford promising opportunities to
any sincere and resourceful student with
proper training.
Suggestions as to equipment needed in the
different lines of work indicate the wide lati-
tude of choice open to the prospective investi-
gator. For the prosecution of field work there
should be provided camp outfit, traps and col-
lecting materials, photographic apparatus, bal-
ances and if possible, equipment for field study
of habits, such as shovel, axe, trowel or large
-gspoon, brush cutter, tape-line, sketch pad, co-
ordinate paper, and writing materials. For
more detailed study of the habitat apparatus
such as thermometers and thermographs, wet-
bulb thermometers and psychrographs, rain
gauges, geotomes, etc., are required. Investi-
gations of the chemistry and physiology of the
animals in question eall, of course, for special
equipment; and in connection with many of
the studies it is necessary to provide some
cages, pens, yards or other enclosures for
breeding and keeping terrestrial vertebrates
under close observation.
The richness and attractiveness of the field
may be amply demonstrated through the sim-
ple device of a tentative program of work.? It
is fully realized, I may add, that a program of
research may be outlined with comparative
ease, but that it is often relatively difficult to
get results. But the drawing up of this pro-
gram, embracing, as it does, material for many
investigations, is doubtless justified in that it
indicates the immensity of the field, implies
the necessity for widespread cooperation in
2T am indebted to Dr. Frederic E. Clements, of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, for help-
ful suggestions in this connection.
SCIENCE
285
the exploration of its resources, and points
out some comparatively neglected fields of re-
search in vertebrate zoology which are full of
promise.
I. Close analysis of the animal community.
1. Community reactions.
(a) Origin,
(b) Migration,
(ce) Invasion and reinvasion.
(d) Establishment.
(e) Competition.
(f) Dominance.
(g) Extinction, ;
2, Primary and secondary succession in the
animal community.
(a) Primary succession as_ illus-
trated by zonation in se-
lected localities.
(1) In deserts.
(2) In areas of moderate hu-
midity.
(8) In regions of excessive hu-
midity.
(b) Secondary , succession as illus-
trated by results of inter-
ference with the natural
balance by man.
(1) Permanent changes in ani-
mal population.
(2) Reinvasions of abandoned
areas,
(3) The animal assemblages
of over-grazed areas; of
areas denuded by de-
forestation; of forest
burns; of flooded areas;
of drained areas; of re-
claimed areas in gen-
eral.
(c) Climax assemblages of animals.
(1) Significance for game pro-
tection.
(2) Significance in
control.
(ad) Factor control of distribution
and succession among ani-
mals,
(1) Physical factors.
(2) Biotie factors.
3. The animal community and climatic
eycles.
(1) Interrelations with forest repro-
duction.
animal
286 SCIENCE
(2) Interrelations with forage pro-
duction on the open range.
(8) Interrelations with crop produc-
tion,
(4) Climate and fluctuations in ani-
mal populations.
II, Analysis of relation of individual animal to
its environment,
. Breeding habits.
. Migration.
. Hibernation and estivation.
. Nests, shelters and other structures.
. Interrelationships of species.
. Adaptation of particular life forms to
the environment.
. Controlled investigations.
(1) In the laboratory.
(a) Behavior.
(b) Food.
(c) Adaptation and response.
(d) Domestication,
(2) In the field.
(a) Fenced areas for special
study, e. g., of
damage done to
forage.
(a) Rodent inclosures;
exclosures.
(b) Eradication plots;
reinvasion plots.
(ce) Census and burrow
investigation areas.
(d) Reseeding plots.
(b) Comparison of animal re-
sponses in different
measured habitats.
III. Analysis of broad movements of animal popu-
lations through time.
(1) The paleontologie record.
(2) Present distribution.
(3) Relationships of animals to the envir-
ments of the past.
(4) Successional communities of animals.
Iv. Analysis of data of geographical distribution
of higher vertebrates.
1. Realms, regions, life zones, faunal areas,
formations, associations, animal com-
munities in general.
V. Economie aspects of analysis of the animal
community.
1. Animals and products of the farm.
(1) Rodents and crops.
(2) Relation of birds to agriculture.
anrwndreH
qq
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
(38) Predatory animals and the stock
industry.
(4) Economies of fur bearing ani-
mals.
2. Animals and reforestation.
(1) Effect of rodents on natural or
artificial seeding.
(2) Big game and the forest.
(8) Birds and insect tree enemies.
(4) Animals and forest burns.
(5) Animals and logged over areas.
3. Animals as related to the grazing prob-
blem.
(1) Effects of rodents on carrying
capacity of the range.
(2) Elucidation of the relations of
cattle, sheep, goats, big game,
predatory animals, rodents and
plants in the disturbed condi-
tions now prevailing on the
open ranges of the West.
(a) Comparison with condi-
tions in northern
Africa, Europe, Asia,
Australia.
(3) Permanent vegetative changes
produced by the unrestricted
grazing of eattle and rodents,
and their significance from the
standpoint of range mainte-
nance and the future maximum
productivity of the land.
4, Further domestications of wild species
of animals,
(1) Ducks and other game birds.
(2) Deer and elk.
(3) Fur bearing mammals.
5. Statistics of animal economics.
(1) Estimates of numbers of rod-
ents and other mammals and
birds of economic significance
in different types of country.
(2) Estimates and determinations of
extent of different types of
country in the United States.
(3) Estimates of benefits or losses
conferred by different species
of vertebrates.
(a) As individual animals.
(b) Aggregate for species
as a whole.
(4) Estimates of total losses from
rodents and other harmful
mammals in the United States.
Marca 19, 1920]
(5) Estimates of cost of complete
control of noxious species, to-
gether with amount of prob-
able saving that would result.
6. Beneficial animals and their preservation.
(1) What animals are beneficial?
(2) Relation of age of species to
problem of its preservation.
(3) Effect of occupation by man on
animal community.
(4) Essentials for conservation.
(a) Maintenance of seed-
stock; determination of
annual toll permissible;
unfair methods of de-
struction; effect of leg-
islation on game conser-
vation.
7. Noxious animals and their destruction.
(1) What animals are noxious?
(2) Methods of. control; rodents,
predatory animals, other
groups.
(8) Effeets of extirpation of wild
species on the natural balance.
By way of summary, may I repeat that pres-
ent day world politics emphasize in unmis-
takable terms the vital necessity of increase
in food production. For permanent increase
in the productivity of the land further study
is called for of the scientific fundamentals on
which agricultural practise is based. The
ecologic method of approach promises much of
value. The problems are vast and lead in-
evitably to the stressing of the strategy of co-
operation as an essential to their successful
solution.® Watter P. TayLor
BIoLoGicaAL SURVEY
3 The symposium on the relations between gov-
ernment and laboratory zoologists held in connec-
tion with the meeting of Section F at the sessions
of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
December 28, 1918, emphasized the desirability of
better coordination and cooperation between these
two large and active bodies of scientific investiga-
tors. In this connection the Bureau of Biological
Survey solicits correspondence from all who con-
template researches in the ecology of the higher
vertebrates, and will be glad to assist with sug-
gestions, advice, or otherwise as opportunity may
be given.
SCIENCE
287
THE ATTAINMENT OF HIGH LEVELS
IN THE ATMOSPHERE
Ir is a far ery from January 7, 1785, to
February 27, 1920. On the earlier date Dr.
John Jeffries ascending from the cliffs at
Dover, made his way ‘through the air over the
English Channel to France, landing after an
eventful three hours, on the French coast in
the forest of Guines.
During the flight his barometer ranged
from 1,006 kilobars (29.70 inches) to 789 kilo-
bars (23.30 inches) indicating at the lower
reading a height of nearly 2,012 meters (6,600
feet).
On Friday, February 27, this year, Major
R. W. Schroeder, chief test pilot of the Air
Service, rose from McCook Field at Dayton,
Ohio and reached an elevation of 10,979
meters (36,020 feet).
Jeffries of course used a balloon; Schroeder
an airplane designed for climbing, and with
a supercharger, 7. e., a gas turbine centrifugal
compresser to offset the loss at the carbureter
due to diminished density of the air at such
heights.
The history of the attack upon the high levels
of the atmosphere may then be said to ex-
tend over a period of one hundred and thirty-
five years. Various methods and agencies
have been employed. Within twenty years
from the time of the first ascension, heights
of 4,000 meters had been attained. Indeed
Gay-Lussac made certain scientific observa-
tions at a height of 7,400 meters in 1804.
On September 5, 1862, Glaisher and Cox-
well reached a height of 11,200 meters or
practically the same level as that reached by
Schroeder with an airplane. Three other
noteworthy records by manned balloons are
those of Tissandier, Spinelli and Sivel, acting
for the French Academy, who reached a
height of 8,530 meters, on April 15, 1875;
Dr. A. Berson who on December 4, 1894,
reached 9,600 meters; and later (1901) Ber-
son and Siiring to a known elevation of
10,500 meters and probably 10,800 meters, both
men being unconscious at the higher level. In
all of these high balloon flights, the observers
became unconscious, and this even in the
288
later attempts when recourse to oxygen in-
halation was had. In the airplane and Zep-
pelin ascensions to be referred to later, the
observers were provided with oxygen, and
what is equally important, body heating
devices to enable them to withstand extremely
low temperatures.
While not, strictly speaking, a manned
balloon, it must be noted that in the famous
Zeppelin raid of October 19, 1917, the baro-
graphs of the flagship L 49, superdread-
naught, indicated that at least for a short
period the airship had attained a height of
6,200 meters. The crew were provided with
oxygen tubes and wore electrically heated
mittens and boots. There is some doubt, how-
ever, concerning the height, owing to the
speed of wind and ship.
A brief summation! of the extreme eleva-
tions attained, up to 1917 is:
By kites, 7,044 meters, Mt. Weather, Va.,
Oct. 3, 1907.
By manned balloons 10,800 meters, Berson
and String, July 31, 1901.
By Zeppelin, rigid dirigible, 6,200 meters,
October 20, 1917.
By airplane, 7,950 meters, G. Guidi, Nov. 7,
1916.
By sounding balloons, 37,000 meters, 1912.
By pilot balloons, height determined by
theodolite, 39,000 meters.
The airplane record has been steadily
developed. In 1909 Latham made 161 meters;
which was soon surpassed. Drexel in 1910
made 1,829 meters and then in rapid suc-
cession Macrane 2,582 meters, Wynmalen 2,800
meters, Drexel 2,880, Johnston 3,193, Loudan
3,280, Parmelee 3,304, Brindley 3,585, and
Legagneux, 5,718, a noteworthy jump.
Perreyou on March 11, 1913, attained a
height of 6,000 meters.
The war gave a tremendous impetus to the
development of the plane; and the necessity
of quick and high climbing was fully ap-
preciated by all the belligerents.
Major (then Captain) Schroeder on Sep-
tember 18, 1919, reached a height of 8,809
meters (28,000 feet) at Wilbur Wright Field.
1 From ‘‘Principles of Aerography,’’ p. 19.
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
Captain Lang and Lieutenant Blowers of the
Royal Air Service, in the brief space of 66
minutes, reached an elevation of 9,295 meters
(30,500 feet); to be in turn surpassed by
Roland Rohlfs at Roosevelt Field, Mineola,
who made 9,357 meters (80,700 feet) on July
30, 1919, and again on September 18, of the
same year when in the short space of 78
minutes he rose 10,516 meters (34,500 feet)
and fluttered back to earth as gently as a
snowflake drops.
Mention should also be made of the flights
of Adjutant Casales on May 22, 1919, to 9,449
meters, June 8, 9,495 meters, and on June 14,
to 10,100 meters (33,136 feet).
The record now stands Schroeder, February
27, 1920, 10,979 meters. Thus in a period of
ten years the heavier than air machine has
been so improved that elevations have in-
creased from 500 to practically 11,000 meters.
We are told that the goal of American ayia-
tors is 12,000 meters or approximately 40,000
feet, but it is of course, possible that this
ceiling shall be lifted still higher, and that
a height of 15 or even 16 kilometers (10
miles) may be reached, provided suitable pro-
tection (so-called diving suits) for the air-
man is available.
In Schroeder’s latest ascent, the oxygen
supply was exhausted and the results were
tragic but fortunately not fatal.
The fact that heavier than air machines
can be driven to the 10-km. level means much
to the aerographer, particularly in connection
with forecasting weather changes at the sur-
face. This is the most important level for
studying not only pressure, temperature and
water vapor content, but the air flow and
structure of cyclone and anticyclone. The
10-kilometer level is the bottom of the strato-
sphere or isothermal region and at the same
time the top of the troposphere or convec-
tional region. As a postulate to Dines’s statis-
tical studies we know that in the stratosphere
or region above 10 kms. it is colder in an
anticyclone than in a cyclone at the same
level, while on the other hand in the tropo-
sphere, 7. e., from 9 kms. down to 1 or 2 kms.
Marca 19, 1920]
it is warmer in the anticyclone than in the
low. This holds for Europe but is not en-
tirely confirmed for the United States. The
height of the base of the stratosphere varies
in Europe with cyclonic and anticyclonic
weather from about 8 to 13 kms. It also
varies with latitude, averaging 9.6 at Petro-
grad; 10.6 in England; 11 in Italy; and 11.7
in Canada.
Thus it can readily be predicted that at a
height of 10 kms. in the latitude of New York
an airman rising on an afternoon in the early
fall will experience a temperature lapse or
vertical decrease amounting in all to 200 kilo-
grads, 7. e., from 1,050 to 850 kilograds, using
a scale on which the absence of all molecular
heat is represented by 0 and the ordinary
freezing point by 1,000. On the Centigrade
scale this would be from 14° above freezing to
41 degrees below freezing.
If our atmosphere were homogeneous, we
should reach its top at a height of 8,000
meters. There would then be no need of
superchargers; and oxygen tanks would be
advantageous but not absolutely indispensable.
But this does not occur in nature and the
density of our aerial envelope at 8,000 meters
is actually 40 per cent. of what it is at the
surface. At 10,000 meters it is just 33 per
cent. of the surface density.
Kn. Kk. Kb. gm/ms,
20 783 55 87
19 787 63 102
18 783 74 121
17 772 87 144
16 772 102 169
15 7712 120 198
14 776 142 233
13 783 167 268
12 790 195 314
11 802 228 365
10 816 266 415
9) 838 309 470
8 864 358 528
a 890 413 592
6 920 475 662
5 945 543 733
4 967 618 815
3 989 703 905
2 1,008. 798 1,011
1 1,018 903 1,134
0 1,033 1,017 1,258
SCIENCE
289
The preceding table somewhat modified
from the data given by Dines in his recent
paper on the “ Characteristics of the Free At-
mosphere” indicates the average temperature,
pressure, and density of the air at various
heights. The height is in kilometers, tem-
perature in kilograds, pressure in kilobars and
density in grams per cubic meter.
Schroeder’s thermograph indicated a min-
imum temperature of —55 degrees C. (or 99
degrees below freezing on the Fahrenheit
scale). This on the new temperature scale
is 799. It will be seen that this temperature
indicates a height of about 11,000 meters.
In one of Rohlf’s ascents he went beyond
the top of the troposphere or above what
might be called the temperature lid. On
that date, the base of the stratosphere was
below 10 kilometers and, therefore, he passed
into a somewhat warmer level even though at
a greater elevation. ALEXANDER McApir
BLvuE Hint OBSERVATORY,
THE SEPARATION OF THE ELEMENT
CHLORINE INTO CHLORINE AND
META-CHLORINE
ALTHOUGH many attempts have been made
to separate an element into two or more
different atomic species, in no case have the
experiments met with success. In my opinion
this has been due largely to the fact that in
all cases where it is known that isotopes exist,
as in the element lead, the conditions imposed
upon the experiments by the relative atomic
weights of the different atomic species are
such as to be extremely difficult to meet.
For this reason, when five years ago I decided
to make a separation of an element into
isotopes, it seemed that it would be easier to
separate the isotopes in an element where
isotopes were not known to exist, than to meet
the extremely arduous conditions of the
known eases.
In 1915 I gave conclusive evidence that
chlorine, magnesium, and silicon (in addition
to neon as discovered by Thomson), among
the light elements, are mixtures of isotopes,
and that the atomic weight of the lighter
isotope is 35.0 for chlorine, 24.0 for mag-
290
nesium, and 28.0 for silicon. Among the
heavier elements there are probably few ele-
ments which are not mixtures of isotopes.
Thus there is excellent evidence in the atomic
weights that the following elements are mix-
tures: nickel, copper, zine, and practically all
of the other elements form atomic number 28
to atomic number 80. The radio-elements
from thallium (No. 81) to uranium (92)
were at that time known to be mixtures of
isotopes.
Experiments on the diffusion of chlorine
gas were begun by Dr. W. D. Turner and my-
self in 1916, and early in 1917 slight differ-
ences in density were detected, but the
chlorine was not entirely pure. Chlorine was
used because it could be obtained in cylinders,
and its flow was therefore very easy to con-
trol. However if chlorine consists of two
isotopes, chlorine (Cl) and meta-chlorine
(Cl), there are three forms of molecular
chlorine: Cl-Cl, Cl-Cl, and Cl-Cl, and this is
unfavorable to the diffusion. For this reason
we have carried out most of our work by the
use of hydrogen chloride gas, which, while
unfortunately not obtainable in this country
compressed in cylinders, at least has the ad-
vantage that its molecules contain only one
atom of chlorine each, and that the hydrogen
of the molecule has little effect in increasing
the molecular weight.
This work was interrupted by the war, but
by the summer of 1919 about ten thousand
liters of gas had been diffused, a part of this
diffusion being done by T. H. Liggett. In
October, 1919, I interested Mr. C. E. Broeker
in this problem. He has diffused about eight
thousand liters of this gas and we hope soon
to have an enlarged apparatus capable of
diffusing a thousand liters per day, in. the
first section. At present we have five large
units in operation or ready for operation.
The separation by diffusion of gases whose
molecular weights lie close together is, accord-
ing to the diffusion theory of Lord Rayleigh,
an extremely slow process. Up to the present
time we have concentrated our efforts upon
the diffusion itself, and have spent little time
in analytical work. The preliminary analyses
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1316
indicate that the density of the fraction
which remains inside the diffusion tubes, is
increasing at about the rate predicted by the
Rayleigh theory of diffusion, if we consider
35.0 as the atomic weight of chlorine, and
37.0 as the atomic weight of meta-chlorine.
We have tested for most of the impurities
which might be present except arsenic tri-
chloride. The hydrogen chloride gas is gener-
ated from C. P. hydrochloric acid by the
action of C. P. sulphuric acid. The next step
in our work of proving that a separation has
been effected is to secure larger quantities of
diffused material, since our final fractions
are still small, so that we may be more
certain of our purification of the material,
and then to make precise atomic weight deter-
minations. If on such further purification
we obtain an atomic weight for the heavy
fraction as high as that already obtained in
our preliminary analyses, we will have definite
evidence that we have separated chlorine into
a heavier and a lighter isotope. This will be
of importance in two ways, first, it will be the
first experimental separation of an element
into parts, and second, it will be one of the
strongest links in the proof that the nucleus
of the hydrogen atom is actually the positive
electron.
As stated above, I gave in a series of papers
published five years ago! a system of atomic
structure which gave very strong indications
that chlorine, magnesium, silicon, and the
other elements specified, are mixtures of
isotopes. In fact this system of structure,
for which there was much evidence, depended
for its validity upon the existence of these
isotopes, and in 1916 I published a prelim-
inary notice? stating that we were working,
on the separation of chlorine into isotopes.
It is of great interest that Aston in a prelim-
inary note written to Nature in December,
1919, states that his results obtained by posi-
tive rays indicate that both chlorine and mer-
eury are mixtures of isotopes, with atomic
1 Journal of the American Chemical Society, 37,
1367-96, especially pages 1390, 1391, 1387.
2 Ibid., 38, p. 19.
Marcu 19, 1920]
weights 35 and 37 for chlorine, thus confirm-
ing to this extent my theory with respect to
the light elements and also for the heavy
elements. Also in accord with the theory pre-
sented in my papers on atomic weights, he
finds that the atomic weights on the oxygen
basis are practically whole numbers.
The details of our experimental work on
the separation of chlorine will be published as
soon as we have collected enough material to
enable us to make a more careful purification
of our material, and when in addition the
accurate atomic weight determinations have
been completed. We expect to make the final
separations by thermal diffusion. The theory
of this method has been worked out by Chap-
man. Mr. Broeker and I are also beginning
preparations for an extensive attempt to
separate hydrogen into hydrogen and meta-
hydrogen, the latter with an atomic weight
of 3.0. While there was sufficient evidence
for the existence of a meta-chlorine in
ordinary chlorine to be found already in
the atomic weights, there is no such evi-
dence that ordinary hydrogen contains meta-
hydrogen. However, there is evidence that
the meta-hydrogen nucleus of a formula
h,e,*, where h is the hydrogen nucleus
and e is the negative electron, is the most
important unit in the building of atomic
nuclei, with the exception of the alpha
particle (h,e,*+). The nucleus of an isotopic
atom of higher atomic weight differs from the
nucleus of the normal atom by the presence
of a mu group (h,e,) which carries no net
charge, and which, if it were alone, would
have an atomic number zero. Isotopes of
higher atomic weight are also formed by the
addition of alpha groups (h,e,**), each alpha
group being attached by two cementing elec-
trons. This is equivalent to the addition of
an h,e, group. The details of this system
will be found in a paper now in print in the
Physical Review.
It should have been noted in the above
paper that neon, magnesium, and silicon, the
even numbered light elements which contain
isotopes, lie adjacent in the even numbered
series, since their numbers are 10, 12, and 14.
SCIENCE
291
It is possible that a third isotope of chlorine
exists.
Wititam D. Harkins
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO,
February 28, 1920
WILHELM PFEFFER
WILHELM Prerrer, with Sachs the founder
of plant-physiology as it has been studied for
more than a generation, died in Leipzig on
January 31, of this year. A long line of
Americans, as well as many other foreigners,
resorted to him, in addition to the Germans
who studied with him. He probably shared
with Strasburger the distinction of having a
larger number of foreign students of botany
than any other German university professor.
By these men, and many others, he will be re-
membered as a striking personality as well as
a great leader in the science to which he de-
voted his life.
The details of his life are probably known
to few Americans, but the general outlines
may well be set down. He was born March 9,
1845, in Grebenstein near Cassel, the son of
an apothecary. The elements of science, and
scientific curiosity, he probably acquired from
his father; for the old-time German Apotheker
was a very different sort of person from the
American drug-store proprietor of to-day. He
studied at the universities in Gottingen, Mar-
burg, Berlin and Wiirzburg, taking his doctor’s
degree at Gottingen in 1865. He began his
teaching career as Privatdocent in Marburg,
going thence as Ausserordentlicher to Bonn
and as Ordentlicher Professor to Basel, Switz-
erland. In 1878 he removed to Tiibingen
where, I believe, the first Americans worked
with him, Goodale of Harvard, Wilson of Phil-
adelphia, Campbell of Stanford, and perhaps
others. In 1887 he went to Leipzig, where he
stayed for the rest of his life, in spite of calls
to what, to others, might have seemed more
‘attractive posts. But in the Botanisches In-
stitut in Leipzig he had a laboratory fitted to
his ideas and desires, with a garden adjacent
in which the material which he and his associ-
ates used could be readily grown, a garden of
such size, position, and plan that it took the
292
minimum of time for administration. The
university and state administrations were able
and willing to give him cordial support, and
he made his laboratory the resort of all who
were pursuing plant-physiological studies or
were interested in them.
His long list of publications, beginning with
one on mosses, plant-geographical in character,
and one or two embryological papers, not only
opened the way for plant-physiological work by
many others, but directed and to a great ex-
tent molded their studies. He not only in-
fluenced botanical study, but his osmotical in-
vestigations were and are of fundamental im-
portance in physical-chemistry. As friends and
neighbors for years, Pfeffer and Ostwald con-
versed and thought together, to the correspond-
ing advantage of the sciences to which they
were devoted.
Two publications stand out from the many
because of their general, rather than special,
botanical interest, namely the Handbuch der
Pflanzenphysiologie, which passed through two
editions and in the second was translated by
Ewart into English, and was the great refer-
ence book in plant-physiology for two genera-
tions; and the Jahrbiicher fiir wissenschaftliche
Botanik, founded by Pringsheim, and con-
tinued after Pringsheim’s death and until
Strasburger’s, in collaboration with him. The
Untersuchungen aus dem botanischen Institut
zu Tiibingen, which lasted only during Pfeffer’s
stay at the south German university, gave him
experience in the mechanical detail as well as
in the editorial work of serial publication.
Pfeffer is survived by his widow, his daugh-
ter-in-law, and a grandson. He had one child,
a son who was of age to be one of the direct
sacrifices of the war, and presumably was. But
he himself, a man of deep feeling and clear
vision, must also have been a sacrifice.
Just as the war began, a jubilee volume was
being prepared to celebrate the fiftieth anni-
versary of his doctorate and his seventieth
birthday. Contributions had been promised
by his students all over the world. With the
coming of war many found themselves pre-
vented from sending their papers, and in con-
sequence the Jubilee Volume which appeared
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von. LI. No. 1316
in 1915, as part of the Pringsheim series of
Jahrbiicher, contained only a fraction of the
contributions to science which his students had
‘planned to make in his honor.
Belonging to an age in Germany in which
ideas were more sought than discipline, when
scholarship was more honored than military
rank, when a professor was more likely than a
tradesman to become a Geheimrath, his life
lasted through the fall of German imperialism
and came to an end before German reconstruc-
tion was more than begun. Honors, national
and international, were conferred upon him;
and we who had the privilege of studying under
his direction will continue to honor him as an
inspiring teacher and a great example of schol-
arly devotion and productiveness.
G. J. P.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC WORK IN
INDIA?
THE reorganization and development of sci-
entific work in India are now under considera-
tion, and important and far-reaching decisions
on these questions will shortly be made by the
Secretary of State. It has already been de-
cided, both by the government of India and by
the Secretary of State, that large sums of
money must be found at the earliest possible
moment for the purpose of fostering the devel-
opment of the Indian empire by means of sci-
entific research. The principle of state aid on
a generous scale has been accepted, but the im-
portant question of the best method of utilizing
this form of assistance in the future develop-
ment of India remains to be settled. These
matters were referred to by the Viceroy on
January 30 last in his speech opening the pres-
ent session of the Imperial Legislative Council
at Delhi. It is evident from the report of Lord
Chelmsford’s remarks which appeared in the
London Times of February 6 that the govern-
ment of India is now considering large schemes
of expansion in regard to the scientific activi-
ties of the state.
Two policies at present hold the field: (a)
Centralization under a proposed Imperial De-
1¥From Nature, February 19, 1920.
Marcu 19, 1920]
partment of Industries of the government of
India in which chemists, botanists, zoologists,
and so on will be formed into distinct, water-
tight, graded services, each under the control
of ia departmental head; and (6) decentraliza-
tion under which the scientific workers at the
various universities and research institutes will
be given as free a hand as possible.
The policy of centralization and the crea-
tion of graded scientific services have been
strongly advocated iby the Indian Industrial
Commission, which was presided over by Sir
Thomas Holland, formerly director of the Geo-
logical Survey of India. It is favored by a
number of administrators in India who con-
sider that some measure of official control is
necessary for all scientific investigators, and it
has ‘also received the support of several of the
scientific witnesses examined by the commis-
sion. The arguments advanced by Sir Thomas
Holland and his supporters in favor of cen-
tralized scientific services are set out in detail
in Chapter IX. of the Report of the Indian
Industrial Commission, published last year.
PORTLAND CEMENT IN 1919
PRELIMINARY estimates compiled by the
United States Geological Survey, Department
of the Interior, indicate that the production
and shipments of Portland cement in 1919
increased 13 and 21 per cent., respectively,
over those in 1918 and that the stocks
decreased 52 per cent., so that at the end of
1919 less than 5,000,000 barrels of Portland
cement was in stock at the mills. The Port-
land cement industry was set back consider-
ably in 1918, when war restrictions reduced
the shipments from the 90,703,474 barrels
shipped in 1917 to 70,915,508 barrels, but it
is now regaining its lost ground. Early in
1919 the business was even poorer than in
1918, and practically all the increase reported
was made during the latter part of 1919, so
that 1920 started with favorable prospects for
the cement industry. During 1919 the ship-
ments from some mills were limited by the
lack of freight cars. The increase in the
value of the cement shipped in 1919 over
that shipped in 1918 was about 28 per cent.
SCIENCE
293
The shipments of Portland cement in 1919
amounted to 85,485,000 barrels, valued at
$144,461,000; the production amounted to
80,287,000 barrels; and the stocks at the mills
at the end of the year amounted to 4,976,000
barrels.
One new plant produced Portland cement
in 1919—the Indiana Portland Cement Co.,
at Greeneastle, Ind. The total number of
plants that produced cement in 1919 was 110,
and the total number of plants that shipped
cement was 113. The average factory price
per barrel for Portland cement in bulk in
individual states in 1919 ranged from $1.57
in Kansas to $2.03 in Utah. The average
factory price for the whole country in 1919
was $1.69, an increase of only 6 per cent. over
1918.
The exports of hydraulic cement from the
United States in 1919 amounted to 2,463,689
barrels, valued at $7,516,019, or $3.05 per
barrel, increases of about 9.27 and 16 per
cent., respectively, over 1918.
THE INVESTIGATION OF FATIGUE PHE-
NOMENA IN METALS
In 1915 Mr. Ambrose Swasey gave a fund
of several hundred thousand dollars, the in-
come of which was to be used “for the ad-
vanecement of arts and sciences connected
with engineering and for the benefit of man-
kind.” The income of this fund has been
given in small amounts to various engineer-
ing investigations by the Engineering Foun-
dation, which is the body organized to ad-
minister the fund. Last spring the govern-
ing board of the foundation decided that it
would be advisable to give the bulk of the in-
come for the support of one major research,
and they asked the National Research Coun-
cil to recommend some piece of research to
be supported.
During the war the National Research
Council had organized a committee to study
the failure of crank shafts of airplane
engines, of welded ship plates, and of other
metal parts of machines under the repeated
loads applied to them in service. The com-
mittee on fatigue phenomena in metals was
294
the title of the committee. Its chairman was
Professor H. F. Moore, of the department of
theoretical and applied mechanics, of the
University of Dllinois, and during the war
and afterward some small pieces of research
work were carried out under the auspices of
the committee, mainly in the materials test-
ing laboratory of the college of engineering
of the University of Illinois by the chairman
of the committee, and by W. J. Putnam, and
A. G. Gehrig. The National Research Coun-
cil recommended that the bulk of the income
of the Engineering Foundation be given to
the support of an extensive investigation of
the resistance of metals to fatigue under
repeated loading, and that Professor Moore be
asked to take charge of the investigation.
Engineering Education, from which these
facts are quoted, states that the formal ar-
rangements have been completed for the
active prosecution of this work, with head-
quarters and a laboratory at the University
of Illinois. The financial support for the in-
vestigation will amount to $30,000, and it
is expected to extend over a period of two
years. Material for study and apparatus is
already arriving, and a room is being fitted
up for the installation of the score or more of
special testing machines which will be re-
quired for the investigation.
The investigation is under the joint
auspices of the Engineering Foundation, the
University of Illinois Engineering Experi-
ment Station, and the National Research
Council, the last-named body being repre-
sented by an advisory committee of nine
members, of which Professor Moore is chair-
In addition to the funds supplied by
the Engineering Foundation, the university
furnished Professor Moore’s services, light,
heat, power, a laboratory room, and the use
of the standard testing equipment of the
materials testing laboratory.
man.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
THE degree of doctor of laws was conferred
on Professor Theodore W. Richards, director
of the Wolcott Gibbs Laboratory of Harvard
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
University, at the University Day exercises of
the University of Pennsylvania.
_ Proressor Anton J. Carson, chairman of
the department of physiology at the University
of Chicago, has been made an honorary M.D.
by the University of Lund, Sweden. Professor
Carlson has also been made a corresponding
member of the French Biological Society.
Proressor J. M. T. Finney, of the Johns
Hopkins University, and Dr. Charles H. Mayo,
of Rochester, Minn., have been elected honor-
ary fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons
of England.
Mr. Girrorp Pincuot, of Milford, Pa.,
former chief forester of the United States, has
been appointed commissioner of forestry of
Pennsylvania by Governor Sproul to succeed
Robert S. Conklin, of Columbia, who resigned
to become a member of the State Water Sup-
ply Commission.
Dr. Henry Graves, chief of the U. S. Forest
Service, and Albert F. Pottee, associate for-
ester, have resigned.
Proressor Ropert B. Rices, for thirty-three
years professor of chemistry at Trinity Col-
lege, will retire at the close of the present col-
lege year.
Mr. R. M. Brown, formerly librarian of the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, has accepted an
appointment with Rand, McNally and Com-
pany, to prepare and edit material for a new
edition of their atlas of the world.
Mr. Greorce A. RANKIN, formerly with the
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and captain
in the Chemical Warfare Service during the
war, has joined the staff of the Geophysical
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of
Washington.
Juuius Marz, formerly with the Florida
Agricultural Experiment Station and for the
past year assistant plant pathologist at the
Insular Experiment Station of Porto Rico, has
been appointed chief of the division of botany
and plant pathology at the Insular Experiment
Station, Rio Piedrus, P. R., beginning on Jan-
uary 1, 1920.
MarcH 19, 1920]
Mr. Paut A. Murpuy, field laboratory of
plant pathology, Charlottetown, P. E. I. has
resigned his position as officer in charge of
potato disease investigation under the Domin-
jon Department of Agriculture and will take
up work on April 1, as assistant with Dr.
Pethybridge in the division of seeds and plant
diseases in charge of plant pathological work
in Ireland. His new address will be Royal
College of Science, Dublin.
_ Associate Curator W. R. Maxon, of the U.
S. National Museum, and his assistant, Mr.
Killip, are making the Cinchona Tropical Bo-
tanical Station their base during March and
April, while carrying on botanical explora-
tion of the northern slopes of the Blue Moun-
tains of Jamaica. Only small areas of this
region have been actually explored by botan-
ists, and it is to be expected that many inter-
esting types of ferns and angiosperms are
yet to be discovered in the primeval forest
which covers this region.
We learn from the Journal of the American
Medical Association that Dr. Victor G. Heiser,
of the Rockefeller Foundation, has returned to
New York after a trip to Porto Rico with Dr.
Grant to make a study of sanitary conditions
of the island, especially as regards hookworm
disease. Dr. Louis Shapiro, of the Rockefeller
Institute, is now in Colombia at the request of
the Colombian government, making a study of
the prevalence of leprosy, malaria and hook-
worm disease.
Tur Puget Sound Biological Station will
hold its annual session, beginning June 21
and continuing for six weeks with the class
work. The station, however, is open several
weeks longer. The staff, exclusive of assist-
ants, this year will consist of Dr. B. M.
Allen, embryology, University of Kansas; Dr.
Nathan Fasten, morphology, University of
Washington; Dr. T. C. Frye, director, alge,
University of Washington; Professor F. W.
Gail, alge, University of Idaho; Dr. E. J.
Lund, physiology, University of Minnesota;
Dr. V. E. Shelford, ecology, University of
Tllinois, and Professor A. R. Sweetser, plant
taxonomy, University of Oregon.
SCIENCE
295
Proressor Apert M. ReEeEsg, of West Vir-
ginia University, lectured upon “The Work
of the Tropical Biological Station of British
Guiana,” with special reference to Crocodilia,
on March 5, at Oberlin College.
Proressor ArrHur Keira delivered the
Galton lecture before the Engineers’ Educa-
tion Society on February 16, the anniversary
of Sir Francis Galton’s birth.
At a public meeting held on March 7, at
Oxford University, it was decided to form the
“Osler Institute of General Pathology and
Preventive Medicine” as a permanent memo-
rial to the late Sir William Osler.
Proressor Otro Biscuit, of Heidelberg,
distinguished for his contributions to cytology
and other departments of experimental zool-
ogy, died early in February, aged seventy-two
years.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
THe General Education Board has appro-
priated $250,000 to an endowment fund of at
least $500,000 to be used by Howard Uni-
versity for medical education, “the income
from the appropriation to be made available
pending the completion of the full amount.”
Puans have been completed for a new
chemical laboratory at Cornell University,
and work will start immediately upon the
closing of the spring term. The increased
facilities which the new laboratory will afford
will enlarge the scope of the department and
will make possible the opening of new
branches, in particular a department of in-
dustrial research for chemists.
Accorpine to plans now being considered
by the authorities of the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, the libraries of the hospital, the
school of hygiene, and the medical school ulti-
mately will be collected under one roof in a
new library building to be erected in the hos-
pital group.
Girton CoLLEGE, Cambridge, has received a
gift of £10,000, the capital and interest of
296
which are to be applied during the next
twenty years for the encouragement of sci-
entific research by women in mathematical,
physical and natural sciences.
Dr. G. Cansy Rosrinson, dean of Washing-
ton University Medical School, St. Louis, has
resigned to accept a position as dean and
professor of medicine in Vanderbilt Univer-
sity, Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Artur M. Parpegr, professor of chem-
istry at Washington and Jefferson College,
has been appointed professor of chemistry and
head of the department at the University of
South Dakota to take effect next September.
Tue British Medical Journal states that
in the appointment of professors to German
universities precedence is at present being
given to university teachers who have left
towns which have passed out of Germany’s
possession. The anatomist, Professor Hugo
Fuchs, who had recently been appointed to
Konigsberg, has thus been transferred to
Gottingen as Merkel’s successor.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
IONIZATION AND RADIATION
Recentiy I came across a communication
by Professor R. A. Houstoun! in which it was
proposed to explain ionization of gases by
X-rays on the basis of the classical concep-
tion of electrodynamics, by considering the
intereference of spherical wavelets in which
the phases are distributed at random. Pro-
fessor Houstoun stated:
When X-rays pass through a gas, only a very
small fraction of the molecules—in favorable eir-
cumstances, one in a billion—is ionized by them,
and the extent of this ionization is unaffected by
temperature. Writers on radiation seem to have
difficulty in reconciling this with the wave theory of
light. I venture to suggest that the difficulty
arises from an imperfect comprehension of what
the wave theory requires.
After applying Rayleigh’s solution of the
problem of the phases at random to ioniza-
tion, he arrived at the conclusion:
1 Nature, April 24, 1919.
SCLENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1316
Thus it is not necessary to assume that X-rays
consist of neutral atoms, or that the ether has a
fibrous structure, or to take refuge in the nebulous
phraseology of the quantum theory; the explana-
tion follows naturally from the principle of inter-
ference as expounded by Fresnel.
This explanation of ionization occurred to
me some ten years ago but I had soon to
abandon it because it led to results which are
at variance with facts.
Let I/r? denote the intensity in a wavelet
at a distance 7 from the source, and n be the
number of wavelets coincident at that distance.
Then the probability of a resultant intensity
greater than J is given by
e—(Jr2[nI).
Therefore if J equals the minimum intensity
necessary to ionize the molecules of a gas, the
number of molecules ionized is proportional
to this expression. Thus on this theory the
intensity of ionization of a gas falls off ex-
ponentially as its distance from the source
of X-rays is increased—a result which is con-
trary to the experimental fact that the in-
tensity of ionization varies inversely as the
square of the distance.
H. M. Dapnourmn
TRINITY COLLEGE
HOW DID DARWIN WORK?
Last year Professor Francis B. Sumner
published a very suggestive and interesting
paper in The Scientific Monthly for March,
dealing with “Some Perils which confront us
as Scientists.” In it he quoted with approval
an indignant query: “ Under what project did
Darwin work?”—and again, “one wonders
what institution or organization Newton or
Darwin belong to.” ‘The solitary worker of
Down seems the incarnation of scientific
genius illuminating the world with the prod-
ucts of its own combustion. On closer in-
spection, however, this conception is seen to
be illusory. In the whole history of science
there has perhaps never been a man who
worked more faithfully and persistently on a
project. It was his own project to be sure;
but none the less a definite project. So also,
Marcu 19, 1920]
there has rarely been a man who so constantly
sought the cooperation of all who could and
would render him assistance. The “ Origin of
Species” is full of acknowledgements to his
friends and correspondents, without whom he
would have been comparatively helpless.
From a close study of Darwin’s life, we arise
with the conviction that it is precisely the
man of genius who should be the center of a
cooperating group, and that it is through such
cooperation that human knowledge, at least
in the biological sciences, is chiefly advanced.
To-day the adequate study of even a simple
species of plant, as I have found in dealing
with Helianthus tuberosus, requires not only
a general botanist, but a plant physiologist, a
taxonomist, a chemist, a soil physicist, an
entomologist and others. Who is so versatile
that he can perform all these functions? Yet
our institutions are so constituted that each
department stands by itself, and cooperation
is no part of the regular program. We must
not permit ourselves to be dictated to by per-
sons who can not understand our aims or the
conditions under which we must work, but
the state has a right to demand efficiency.
Are we sure ourselves, and can we convince
others, that we are not overdoing our individ-
ualism? The world needs to be made wise
and honest: can we afford to refuse to work
together to this end?
T. D. A. CockERELL
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
A CONVENIENT DEMONSTRATION MOUNTING
FOR JELLYFISHES
THE writer has found the following method
of mounting jellyfishes (Scyphozoa), both con-
venient and satisfactory besides permitting
the observation of many structures usually
only clearly seen when specimens are removed
from the preserving jar.
Choose from the material on hand a jelly-
fish whose diameter is approximately that of
a Petri dish in which it then may be placed,
enough 4 per cent. formalin being added to
cover the specimen. After the dish has been
covered, it may be forced down in a mold of
fresh plaster of Paris until the space between
SCIENCE
297
the upper and lower halves of it is sealed, and
the top of the upper half is flush with the
surface of the mold. When the mold has
firmly set, any obscuring plaster of Paris may
be scraped from the glass, or the mold itself
suitably shaped up with a scalpel. Formalin
solution condensing at any time on the upper
lid may be displaced by manipulation.
Perhaps the most convenient molding frame
is a paper box of a size adaptable to that of
the Petri dish, although it may be of any
shape. It is best to vaseline the interior of
the box, in order that the hardened material
may come away freely. With some care, a
clean-cut looking mount may be secured. If
desired, the plaster of Paris part may be given
a coat of shellac, making it more durable
from the laboratory standpoint. Data con-
cerning the specimen may then be placed
upon it with India ink.
It is seen that the above procedure is a
modification of an old laboratory trick
whereby odd bits of natural history specimens
such as corals, sponges, specimens in vials,
‘ete., may be given a convenient and useful
mounting.
N. M. Grrr
HOou.ins, Va.
ORGANIZATION OF THE AMERICAN
GEOPHYSICAL UNION
At its meeting on June 24, 1919, the
“American Section of the proposed Inter-
national Geophysical Union” passed the fol-
lowing motion:
Moved: That the members of the Section who go
to the Brussels meeting be constituted a committee,
with power to add to its membership, to consider
permanent organization of the Section—the com-
mittee, after completing a plan for such organiza-
tion, to report to a meeting of the Section, to be
called ‘at the discretion of the acting chairman of
the Section, for the purpose of perfecting the per-
manent organization. Adopted.
The Brussels meeting referred to is that
which was held from July 18 to July 28, 1919,
to organize the International Research Coun-
cil, and International Unions affiliated with it.
At this conference the International Geo-
298
detic and Geophysical Union was formed,
with six sections, as follows: (a) Geodesy,
(b) Seismology, (c) Meteorology, (d) Ter-
restrial Magnetism and Electricity, (e) Phys-
ical Oceanography, and (f) Volcanology.
Officers elected were listed in Scmnce! of
October 31, 1919.
The delegates who went on behalf of the
geophysical sciences from the United States
to these meetings at Brussels, were Messrs.
William Bowie, Chairman, L. A. Bauer, G.
W. Littlehales, and Rear-Admiral Edward
Simpson. At Brussels Messrs. C. E. Menden-
hall and H. S. Washington who were already
abroad were added to this delegation.
At the eall of the chairman of the “ Amer-
ican Section,” on October 31,1919, an informal
conference of these delegates, constituting the
committee on organization authorized on June
94, with other members of the “ American
Section ” who reside in and near Washing-
ton, was held at the offices of the National
Research Council. At this meeting, after a
general exchange of views, a subcommittee
or organization to draft proposals for statutes, ”
was designated by the committee of delegates
—to consist of Messrs. L. A. Bauer, Chair-
man, William Bowie, W. J. Humphreys, G.
W. Littlehales, and H. O. Wood. This sub-
committee held several meetings early in
November, at some of which it had the benefit
of further extended conference with Messrs.
Mendenhall and Washington, who were pres-
ent at Brussels. As an outcome, a draft of
“Proposals for the Permanent Organization
and Statutes of the American Geophysical
Union” was drawn up, approved by the com-
mittee of delegates charged with the duty of
preparing for permanent organization, and
since it was not considered expedient to call
a meeting of the section in Washington this
draft was submitted for a vote by mail ballot
to all members of the “American Section.”
An affirmative vote was returned by a con-
siderable majority of the members prior to the
date set for the count of ballots and subse-
1 Bauer, L. A., ‘‘Geophysies at the Brussels
Meeting,’’ July 18-28, 1919, Science, October 31,
1919, 1296, pp. 399-403.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1316
quent affirmative ballots delayed in transit
were received from nearly all members.
There were no dissenting votes.
These statutes of the American Geophysical
Union, thus approved by the “ American Sec-
tion,” were then submitted to the executive
board of the National Research Council and
were approved by that body on December 20,
1919, and on February 14, 1920, the American
Geophysical Union was made a Committee
of the Executive Board
This action established the American Geo-
physical Union as a permanent organization
superseding the “American Section of the
proposed International Geophysical Union.”
As thus constituted the American Geophysical
Union serves as “the American ‘ National
Committee’ of the International Geodetic and
Geophysical Union, and as the Committee on
Geophysics of the National Research Coun-
cil.” Its initial membership is the member-
ship of the “ American Section” as this stood
on July 1, 1919, together with the Chairman
of the Division of Physical Sciences, the
Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and
Chemical Technology, and the Chairman of
the division of Geology and Geography of the
National Research Council, and the American
officers of the International Geodetic and Geo-
physical Union and of its sections, as mem-
bers ex-officio. Its general administration is
delegated to an Executive Committee made
up of the chairman and secretary of the
union, and the chairman of each of its sec-
tions which, initially, are the same as those
in the International Union, viz: (a) geodesy,
(b) seismology, (c) meteorology, (d) terres-
trial magnetism and electricity, (e) physical
oceanography, and (f) voleanology.
At its first, regular, annual meeting officers
will be elected in accordance with the terms
of the statutes. Meanwhile, by action of the
“ American Section” taken on June 24, 1919,
the chairman and secretary of that organiza-
tion continue to serve.
By action of the provisional executive com-
mittee of the “ American Section ” an election
of acting chairmen for each of the newly con-
stituted sections was held in January, 1920,
Marce 19, 1920]
by mail ballot counted on February 2, in
order to constitute an acting executive com-
mittee conforming in organization with the
statutes, to prepare the way for the first
annual meeting. As a result of that election
the following acting chairmen were elected:
Section (a) William Bowie, Section (6)
Harry Fielding Reid, Section (c) C. F. Mar-
vin, Section (d) L. A. Bauer, Section (e)
G. W. Littlehales, and Section (f) H. S.
Washington.
Harry O. Woop,
Secretary, American Geophysical Union
SPECIAL ARTICLES
IS UNPALATABLE FOOD PROPERLY
DIGESTED?!
It is well known that different psychic
stimuli promote or retard the secretion of
digestive juices. The following experiment
was conducted to determine whether the ulti-
mate return to the body from unpalatable
food was different from that of the same food
palatably served.
SCIENCE
299
dirty dishes. A little indol was sprinkled
about under the table. The subjects were
kept in ignorance of the constituents of the
unpalatable mixture. The food was so un-
palatable that one subject vomited his first
meal shortly after he had eaten it.
The table shows the finding, on the other
subject.
The differences in utilization of the pala-
table and unpalatable foods were quite small
as were the variations in nitrogen retention.
This short test indicates that flavor is not the
outstanding dietetic asset that some people
would have us believe. If the stomach and
intestine can only be cajoled into making the
proper effort, the unsavory concoction can be
digested just about as satisfactorily as can
the food mixture which makes a stronger ap-
peal. If the things we eat have proper food
value, we need not worry unduly as to their
digestion, absorption, and utilization by the
normal body. This ought to be good news to
millions of people who eat unpalatable food
in untidy surroundings, in spite of the fact
Nitrogen
No. of Ingested Excreted Balance
Period Days Percentage
Daily, Period, Urine, Feces, Total, Period, Daily, Utilization
Grams Grams Grams Grams Grams Grams Grams
Palatable ...... | 7 | 10.75 75.25 62.95 10.06 73.01 2.24 +0.32 86.7
Unpalatable... . 2 10.75 21.50 17.03 3.09 20.12 +1.38 +0.63 85.7
The experimental procedure was simple. A
7-day period during which the subjects were
on a uniform diet, served palatably and amid
pleasant surroundings, was followed by a 2-
day period during which the same diet was
fed in an unpalatable condition and in dirty
and unpleasant surroundings. The food was
rendered unpalatable and unappetizing by the
following treatment. All the food ordinarily
used for each meal (meat, biscuits, jelly,
cornstarch, pudding, oleomargarine, etc.) was
stirred together in a large, flat porcelain dish.
The dish itself was smeared with animal char-
coal, as was the beaker used as a drinking
glass. The table was dirty and strewn with
1 From the Laboratory of Physiological Chemis-
try, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.
that one of our leading physiologists says
“What man likes best he digests best.” This
experiment simply shows how insulting we
can be to the normal stomach and get away
with it but does not necessarily prove this
to be the wisest policy.
Ratpo C. Hower,
CuarENcE A. SMITH,
Puinre B. Hawk
JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE,
PHILADELPHIA
THE WESTERN SOCIETY OF
NATURALISTS
Tue Northwestern Division of the Western
Society of Naturalists held its holiday meet-
ing on January 2, in Portland, Oregon.
300
There were present delegates from the states
of Oregon and Washington. The afternoon
program was taken up with a discussion of
“The Réle of Research in the Development
of Northwest Colleges” and also with a dis-
cussion of special papers. The evening pro-
gram was given over to a symposium on pre-
medical education. The following papers
were read:
‘‘The premedical education as a surgeon sees
it,’’ by Dr. Richard B. Dillehunt, of Portland.
“<The premedical education as the medical school
would like it,’’ by Dr. H. B. Myers, University of
Oregon Medical School.
‘*A premedical education and chemistry,’’ by
Dr. W. C. Morgan, of Reed College, Portland.
“*A premedical education and biology,’’ by Dr.
H. B. Torrey, of Reed College, Portland.
“‘A premedical education as a university
course,’’ by Dr. J. F. Bovard, University of Ore-
gon.
The papers were followed by a general dis-
cussion. At the business meeting Dr. G. B.
Rigg, of the University of Washington, was
elected Divisional Secretary for the ensuing
year.
Joun F. Bovarp,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL
SOCIETY
THE two hundred and eighth regular meeting of
the American Mathematical Society was held at
Columbia University on Saturday, February 28,
1920, extending through the usual morning and
afternoon sessions. The attendance included
twenty-eight members. Vice-president R. G. D.
Richardson occupied the chair. The following new
members were elected: F. J. Burkett, Pennsylvania
State College; A. D. Campbell, Cornell University ;
Y. R. Chao, Cornell University; R. E. Gilman,
Brown University; D. ©. Kazarinoff, University
of Michigan; Norman Miller, Queen’s University;
G. M. Robison, Cornell University; Jung Sun,
Pekin Academy; W. H. Wilson, State University of
Iowa; S. D. Zeldin, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Six applications for membership were
received,
Professor Oswald Veblen, of Princeton Univer-
sity, was appointed to succeed Professor E. W.
Brown, resigned, as representative of the society in
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1316
the division of physics of the National Research
Council.
Steps were taken to submit the question of the
incorporation of the society to the vote of the
members at the April meeting.
The following papers were read at this meeting:
Joseph Lipka: ‘‘On the general problem of dy-
namics. ’?
A. R. Schweitzer: ‘‘On the iterative properties
of the algebra of logic.’’”
A. R. Schweitzer: ‘‘On improper pseudogroups,
with application to the abstract field.’’
G. H. Hardy: ‘‘On the representation of num-
bers as sums of squares and in particular of five
and seven.’’
J. W. Alexander: ‘‘On the representation of any
n-dimensional two-sided manifold as a generalized
Riemann surface.’’
J. W. Alexander: ‘‘On the equilibrium of a
fluid mass at rest.’’
T. H. Gronwall: ‘‘Qualitative properties of the
ballistic trajectory (second paper).’’
T. H. Gronwall: ‘‘On the distortion in con-
formal mapping.’’
A. A. Bennett: ‘‘ Fictitious matrix roots of the
characteristic equation. ’?
Pierre Boutroux: ‘‘On multiform functions de-
fined by differential equations of the first order.’’
B. H. Camp: ‘‘The significance of a difference,
and the value of a sample.’’
J. H. M. Wedderburn: ‘‘On division algebras.’’
Edward Kasner: ‘‘Geodesics of surfaces and
higher manifolds. ’’
The next meetings of the Society will be at Chi-
eago, April 9-10; San Francisco, April 10, and
New York, April 24. The summer meeting and
colloquium of the society will be held at Chicago.
F. N. Coz,
Secretary
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattex
CIENCE
NEw SERIES SINGLE Copizs, 15 Crs.
Vou. LI, No. 1317 Fripay, Marcu 26, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSOBIPTION, $6.00
E&A Bulletin No. 268
The Hortvet Cryoscope
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A Manual on the |
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The Hortvet Cryoscope shows accurately the amount of
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PITTSBURGH BRANCH
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ii SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
OUGHTRED’S
Mathematical Symbols
By FLORIAN CAJORI
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
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On the History of Gunter’s Scale and the
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Treatment of Harmonics in Alternating Cur-
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A New Morphological Interpretation of the
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Berkeley, California 280 Madison Ave., New York
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BARNETT. The Preparation of Organic
Compounds. 2d Edition, Revised. 54 Illus.
Cloth $3.25 postpaid. By E. DE BarRRyY BAR-
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BRUBAKER. Textbook of Human Physi-
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Cloth $4.25 Postpaid. By A. P. BRUBAKER,
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SCIENCE
Fripay, Marcu 26, 1920
CONTENTS
Résumé of Observations concerning the Solar
Eclipse of May 29, 1919, and the Einstein
IAG Wyk, 1b, INS LYNN ob oeeGbebouOKKoG 301
Unity and Balance in the Zoology Course:
Proressor A. FRANKLIN SHULL ........ 312
A Forerunner of Evolution: Dr. MAyNArD
SHU R Wanye tert tore teherotci er cbebenletsta| tieterelalcler 315
Scientific Events :—
The Preservation of Natural Conditions;
The National Committee on Mathematical
Requirements; The New York State College
of Agriculture and the New York State Ex-
periment Staton... 222. sene ness =o 316
Scientific Notes and News ............++5. 318
University and Educational News .......... 319
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Modern Interpretation of Differentials:
PROFESSOR EDWARD V. HUNTINGTON. Weight
and Centripetal Acceleration: PROFESSOR
Burt L. Newkirk. The Situation of Sci-
entific Men in Russia: Dr. S. Moreutis.
Russian and American Scientific Men: A
MEMBER OF THE EXPLOITED CLASSES .... 320
Quotations :—
Nitrogen from the Air and the British Gov-
GMGLE 6 koa biodologo uo OC Ooo SOOO DDO UE OOS 323
Notes on Meteorology and Climatology :—
Rainfall (and Snowfall) of the United
States: Dr. CHARLES EF. BROOKS ........ 324
Special Articles :—
Intersexes in Drosophila simulans: Dr. A.
1s, SRUMBUAPZNE Goo oonogouMoooamoUdbo des 825
The Illinois State Academy of Science: Dr. J.
Thy HEROD a Gay's attic t Sine os aes GE REEL CRE 327
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
—§$<—3
RESUME OF OBSERVATIONS CON-
CERNING THE SOLAR ECLIPSE
OF MAY 29, 1919, AND THE
EINSTEIN EFFECT!
1. A ToTat eclipse of the sun is of more than
passing interest, not merely to the astronomer
but also to the geophysicist. Indeed, by
reason of the supposed verification of the so-
ealled Einstein effect during the solar eclipse
of May 29, 1919, which, in consequence, may
make that eclipse the most famous of all
eclipses observed thus far, an eclipse of the
sun has become of profound interest also to
the physicist, to the mathematician, and to
the philosopher, in general.
In the following brief account of the chief
phenomena observed during the solar eclipse
of May 29, 1919, the path of totality for
which is shown in Fig. 1, the attempt will be
made to bring out succinctly the various
points of interest to men of science.
2. To give a personal touch let me first
briefly state the results of my own expedition
to Cape Palmas, Liberia, where totality was
longer (6 minutes and 33 seconds) than at
any other accessible station, where the sky
was comparatively clear, contrary to all good
meteorological predictions, and where totality
1 Abstract of papers presented before the Philo-
sophical Society of Washington (October 11, 1919
and January 3, 1920), Royal Astronomical Society
of Oanada, Toronto (December 2, 1919), Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston (Jan-
uary 14, 1920), American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia (February 6, 1920) and American
Physical Society (New York, February 28). Also
basis of public lectures delivered at the follow-
ing universities: Toronto (December 2, 1919), Col-
lege of the City of New York (December 4, 1919),
Johns Hopkins (January 12), Yale (January 13),
Brown (January 15), Columbia (January 16),
Swarthmore (February 7) and Middletown
Scientifie Association of Wesleyan University
(March 9).
302
“SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
Weat of
:
SS
mee
60 Greaowich 30.
halt |
ae na
PACIFIC: Ne
4N@ PS
i
\s S.
aS
SS,
O Longitude 30 East of 60 Grosnwich
Note:- The hours of beginning and ending are expressed in Greenwich Mean Time.
Fig. 1.
occurred at about one p.m. local mean time.
The purpose of my expedition was not to
make astronomical but geophysical observa-
tions, the chief of which were to be observa-
tions to detect, or verify, a possible effect on
the earth’s magnetic field such as has been
shown by observations made under my di-
rection, since the solar eclipse of May 28,
1900. Though it is not necessary for the
detection of this magnetic effect to have a
clear sky, as no layer of cloud could screen it,
it has been my good fortune now three times?
2Manua, Samoan Islands, April 28, 1911;
Corona, Colorado, June 8, 1918; Cape Palmas, Li-
beria, May 29, 1919. In addition I made observa-
tions at Rocky Mount, North Carolina, of the total
solar eclipse, May 28, 1900.
to have a clear sky when others whose work
absolutely depended upon clear weather were
not so fortunate.
3. When I left Washington early in March,
1919, it had been arranged that I should
occupy conjointly with Dr. Abbot of the
Smithsonian Institution, La Paz, Bolivia, in
order that I might have there the conditions
encountered during the eclipse. of June 8,
1918, at my station, Corona, Colorado, the
elevation of which is 12,000 feet. As Dr.
Abbot intended to look after the photographic
work, I did not provide myself with appli-
ances for purely astronomical work. Upon
arrival in England, it was found imprac-
ticable to reach a South American station
in time for the eclipse; accordingly, it was
Marco 26, 1920]
decided to proceed to Cape Palmas, Liberia,
instead.
4. The station at Cape Palmas, Liberia,
was one of five principal stations at which
magnetic and allied observations were carried
out by the Department of Terrestrial Mag-
netism of the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington in connection with the solar eclipse
of May 29, 1919. Two of these stations were
inside the belt of totality: Sobral, Brazil, in
charge of Mr. D. M. Wise, assisted by Mr. A.
Thomson; and Cape Palmas, in charge of
the author, assisted by Mr. H. F. Johnson.
A third station, at Huayao, Peru, north of
the totality belt, was in charge of Dr. H. M.
W. Edmonds; the fourth station, south of the
belt of totality, at Puerto Deseado, Argentina,
was assigned to Mr. A. Sterling; and the
fifth, about 100 miles north of the belt of
totality, at Campo Cameroun, was assigned
to Mr. Frederick Brown. Observations were
also made at a secondary station, Washington;
outside the zone of visibility, by Mr. C. R.
Duvall. In addition to these stations, special
magnetic observations were made at the De-
partment’s magnetic observatory at Watheroo,
Western Australia, and at observatories all
over the globe, both inside and outside of the
region of visibility of the eclipse, according
to the department’s program.? The reports
already received from many of the foreign
observatories indicate that the magnetic con-
ditions were ideal for the detection of a pos-
sible magnetic effect. There were clear indi-
cations at Cape Palmas of a magnetic effect
8 The general scheme of work consisted in simul-
taneous magnetic observations of any or all of the
elements every minute from May 29, 1919, 9°58™
A.M, until 4°32™ P.M., Greenwich civil mean time,
thus for an interval of time from 35 minutes be-
fore the beginning until 48 minutes after the end
of the eclipse on the earth. Similar observations
for the same interval of time as on May 29 were
to be made, if possible, on May 28 and 30 to afford
the necessary means for determining the undis-
turbed course of the magnetic elements. Special
continuous registrations were called for at mag-
netic observatories. Furthermore, special atmos-
pheric-electrie and meteorological observations
were included in ithe program.
SCIENCE
303
in accordance with the results obtained during
previous solar eclipses. Since Cape Palmas
was nearly on the magnetic equator, the effect
was especially noticeable in the vertical com-
ponent of the earth's magnetic field intensity,
or upon the magnetic dip.
5. Our observation program at Cape Palmas
(latitude, 4° 22’ N.; longitude, 7° 43/.7 or
0™55s West of Greenwich) included mag-
netic and electric observations, meteorological
observations, shadow-band observations, times
of contacts and photographs such as could be
obtained with a small kodak camera. This
comprehensive program was carried out suc-
cessfully, excepting the atmospheric-electrice
work which, owing to the deterioration of the
dry-cell batteries purchased in England, had
to be abandoned. Sir Napier Shaw had
kindly loaned us a Benndorf electrograph.
Although I had stationed three observers, no
shadow-bands were observed this time, even
greater precautions having been taken than
at Corona during the eclipse of June 8, 1918,
where they were observed.
The full geophysical program, including
complete atmospheric-electrie observations, was
carried out by our party in charge of Mr.
Wise at Sobral, where shadow-bands were
clearly observed by his assistant, Mr. Thom-
son.
6. The eclipse of May 29 as observed at
Palmas, was not nearly as dark, in spite of
its long duration, as the much shorter one of
June 8, 1918, which I had observed at the
mountain station, Corona, Colorado. There
was a marked difference in light, both as seen
visually and as shown by the photographs,
between the inner corona and the outer exten-
sions. The intense brightness of the inner
corona may have been the cause of the fact
that the eclipse of May 29, 1919, was not as
dark as had been expected. Dr. A. C. D.
Crommelin, the British astronomer at Sobral,
Brazil says: “The darkness during totality
was not great; we estimated that the illumi-
nation was about the same as that 25 minutes
before sunrise. The corona was very brilliant,
4 The Observatory, London, October, 1919, pp.
370-371.
304
probably at least three times as bright as the
full moon.”
7. The large crimson prominence, appear-
ing at Cape Palmas on the southeast limb of
the sun, turned out to be the largest prom-
inence thus far photographed; it was a most
conspicuous and startling object, projecting
about 100,000 miles out from the sun’s disk
and having a base of 300,000 miles. On the
southwest limb was a striking V-shaped rift
in the solar corona which showed marked
equatorial extensions to the west and east.
The corona was approximately of the inter-
mediate type between that which is seen dur-
ing years of minimum sun-spot activity, when
there are great equatorial extensions of the
corona, and that shown during years of max-
imum sun-spot activity, when streamers of
about the same length extend from the sun in
every direction.
8. I succeeded in obtaining with my small
camera, which is provided with an excellent
lens, two sharp photographs of 10 and 20
seconds exposure, which when enlarged show
well the chief features of the corona and of
the prominence. In addition, as the result
of the interest aroused by a lecture which I
was requested to give in the Methodist Church
at Cape Palmas the day before the eclipse, a
number of free-hand sketches of the corona
were made for me by white merchants and by
Americo-Liberians; these sketches, while not
one of them is complete, show a number of
interesting details.
9. The results of the meteorological obser-
vations at Cape Palmas will be of interest
in connection with one of the theories sug-
5 During the duration of totality it was neces-
sary for the author, (a) to take and record the
readings of the magnetic-intensity variometer and
attached thermometer at one- or two-minute inter-
vals, and to check every fifth minute the Liberian
assistant, Professor G. W. Hutchins, who had vol-
unteered to take the declinometer-readings every
minute; (b) to observe the times of contacts,
obtain photographs, and give any required addi-
tional directions to the shadow-band observers.
Thus though totality lasted at Cape Palmas 6%
minutes, it was none too long for a strenuous pro-
gram in a tropic region.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
gested for the explanation of the bending of
light rays, to which reference will be made
later. Through the courtesy of Sir Napier
Shaw and Colonel H. G. Lyons the British
Meteorological Office loaned us a complete
outfit of self-recording meteorological instru-
ments, which were kept in operation by my
assistant, Mr. Johnston, as long as the con-
ditions permitted during our month’s stay at
Cape Palmas. On the day of the eclipse
there was a steady decrease in temperature
from 12 G.M.T., 0.7 minute after the first
contact, to 12.75 G.M.T., and then a more
rapid decrease until the minimum tempera-
ture of 79°.4 F. was reached at 14" G.M.T.,
which was approximately 0.45 later than the
middle time of totality. The temperature
drop during the time of the eclipse was, ac-
cordingly, about 2°.5 to 3°.0 F. The increase
in temperature after 14" was rapid, the max-
imum 82°.7 F. being reached at 14.9 G.M.T.
The hygrogram for May 29 showed the fol-
lowing effect: the humidity, which was 71 per
cent. at 12 G.M.T. steadily increased to 78
per cent. at 14" G.M.T. There was a more
rapid decrease from 14" G.M.T. to 155 G.M.T.,
when the humidity was 66 per cent. The
maximum humidity, therefore, occurred at 14,
or approximately 0.4 hour later than the
middle time of totality. The barogram
showed nothing marked during the time of
the eclipse.
At Sobral, Dr. Crommelin states :7
The eclipse day opened very unpromisingly, the
proportion of cloud at first contact being about
0.9. . . . The cloudiness during the early stages
was doubtless the cause of the fall of temperature
during totality being unexpectedly small; perhaps
this latter fact was connected with the dead calm
that prevailed during totality.
COMPLETE SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS
10. There was next shown in my lectures a
complete series of photographs taken by the
various observing parties, namely: C. G.
6Mr. Johnston was also entrusted with the
earth-inductor work.
7 The Observatory, London, October, 1919, pp.
370-371.
Marcu 26, 1920]
Abbot, of The Smithsonian Institution, at La
Paz, Bolivia; H. Morize, in charge of the
Rio de Janeiro Observatory party at Sobral,
Brazil; the British Astronomical Party (C.
Davidson and A. C.D. Crommelin) at Sobral;
L. A. Bauer at Cape Palmas, Liberia; and the
British Astronomical Party (A. 8S. Edding-
ton and Mr. Cottingham) at the Tle of Prin-
cipe in the Bight of Africa. Also slides of
the great solar prominence of May 29, 1919,
as photographed at the Yerkes Observatory,
were exhibited. Grateful acknowledgement is
here made to the Astronomer Royal of Eng-
land, Sir Frank W. Dyson, and to those just
mentioned, for copies of the photographs
taken by their expeditions, as also to Dr.
W. W. Campbell, who supplied slides showing
how the corona changes its shape during the
sun-spot cycle.
11. The chief features of the solar corona
and prominence, as shown by the series of
slides exhibited, have already been stated in
paragraphs six and seven, where the observa-
tions at Cape Palmas were described. Care-
ful measurements have been made between the
various prominent features, as shown on the
photographs taken along the belt of totality
from Bolivia to the French Congo. From all
the data supplied it is found that the mean
heliographie latitude of the prominence dur-
ing the time of the eclipse was about 18°
south, and on the east limb, whereas the pro-
nounced V-rift was about 45° south, and on
the west limb. Practically diametrically op-
posite the V-rift was a less-pronounced rift,
which I have called the U-rift. The solar
prominence during the average time (11548™
G.M.T., civil) of totality at the two South
American stations and the average time (13"
55™ G.M.T., civil) of the two African stations
changed comparatively little, though later in
the day, according to the Yerkes Observatory
photographs, kindly supplied by Professor
Frost and Mr. E. Pettit, very great changes
took place; thus, for example, at 20523™
G.MT., civil, the prominence had shot up to
the height of 472,000 miles from the sun’s
limb.§
8 See Mr. Edison Pettit’s account in the Astro-
physical Journal, for October, 1919, pp. 206-219.
SCIENCE
305
12. A distinct purpose was had in mind in
exhibiting first the various features of the
solar corona and prominence, which persisted
for four rotations of the sun and filled por-
tions of the solar atmosphere with the prod-
ucts of eruptions, in order that one might be
the better prepared to pass judgment upon
the results concerning the deflection of light
rays. For the same reason was given an ac-
count, though incomplete, of the results of
our geophysical observations. We shall find
that all the various phenomena though appar-
ently unrelated have, indeed, an important
bearing upon our next topic.
13. Altogether the solar eclipse of May 29,
1919, as observed at Oape Palmas, Liberia,
was the most magnificent one of the four® it
has been my good fortune to observe. Sim-
ularly Dr. Abbot with reference to what he
saw at La Paz, Bolivia, says:1°
Taking into account the great length and beauty
of the coronal streamers, the splendid crimson
prominence throwing its glory over all, and the
fact that the eclipse was observed so near sunrise
from so great an elevation as 14,000 feet, with a
snow-covered range of mountains upwards of 20,-
000 feet high as a background for the phenomenon,
it seemed to the observers to be the grandest eclipse
phenomenon which they had ever seen.
RESULTS OF OBSERVATIONS FOR DEFLECTION OF
LIGHT
14. The most important result, undoubtedly,
of the observations made by the astronomical
parties during the solar eclipse of May 29,
1919, is the disclosing of the fact that the
rays of light coming from stars, which ap-
peared on photographs taken of the eclipsed
sun and surrounding region, were bent by a
measurable amount. No matter what the
cause of the bending actually was, the fact is
of profound interest and is bound to advance
our knowledge. The chief possible causes
which have been advanced thus far are:
(a) Newton-Maxwell Effect—Deflection of
the rays of light by the sun’s gravitational
9 See footnote 2.
10 Abbot, C. G., and A. F. Moore: ‘‘Observa-
tions of the Total Solar Helipse for May 29, 1919,’’
Smithsonian Collections, Vol. 71, No. 5, p. 3,
Washington, January 31, 1920.
306
action, just as the path of a projectile fired
ito the air ts bent by the earth's gravitation
pull upon the projectile, the amount of deflec-
tion being in accordance with Newtonian
mechanics and Mazwell’s electromagnetic
theory of light. [If we assume, as did New-
ton, that light consists of corpuscles of matter
traveling at great velocity, then it is easy to
see why light should be bent under the action
of gravity, for a cubic foot of light would
in this case differ from a cubic foot of other
ponderable material only in matter of weight.
Newton in fact, had predicted such bending.
But as our knowledge of light advanced we
were forced to abandon Newton’s theory for
the undulatory or wave theory of light—a
wave motion in the ether supposed to fill all
space, the vibrations being electromagnetic
ones according to our latest theory (Max-
well’s). Light then consisting of some sort
of wave motion possesses energy, or the power
to do work, and it was furthermore shown
about 20 years ago, by a Russian physicist,
Lebedew, and by two American physicists,
Nichols and Hull, that light exerts a meas-
urable pressure when it falls upon a surface
just as would material particles when fired at
that surface. That light exerts pressure was
in fact predicted by Maxwell a half century
ago, but it was an open question whether light
also had weight. The pressure of light re-
sulted from the electromagnetic energy in-
herent in light, by which it is endowed with
inertia just as is a body of material mass.
Would gravity act upon something having
electromagnetic inertia in the same way as
upon a body of material mass? If so, the
precise gravitational effect upon light could
be predicted.] If a ray of light from a dis-
tant star just grazed the sun’s edge (limb),
it would be bent inwards (towards the sun)
by 0”.44, as viewed by a solar observer. As
the ray of light passed out of the sun’s gravi-
tational field on its journey to the earth it
would suffer another deflection of about 0”.44,
and in such a way that the final and total
bending as perceived by an observer on the
earth, would be away from the sun 0”.87—
the angle which an object one inch high would
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
subtend at a distance of three and three fourth
miles.
(b) Einstein Effect—Twice the deflection
of the rays of light predicted in (a), this time
again by the sun’s gravitational action, but
according to the principles of Einstein’s gen-
eralized relativity theory. (These principles
are tersely stated by Professor A. G. Web-
ster) :11
Hirst, that of the constancy of the velocity of
light with respect to all directions and to any sys-
tem moving with any velocity whatever with re-
spect to any other system; second, a relation be-
tween time and distance such that either of two
bodies seem shortened in the direction of their
relative motion by an observer attached to the
other; third, that it is impossible to distinguish a
gravitational field from the acceleration of the
frame of reference; and fourth, that everything
that has mass, as determined by inertia, has mass
of the sort determined by weight or attractability.
According to the Einstein law of gravita-
tion, the deflection of a ray of light which
grazed the sun’s limb would be away from the
sun by 17.7412, as we, or anyone outside the
sun’s gravitational field, might perceive it.
(c) Refraction in the Solar Atmosphere —
Bending of rays of light by refraction in
passing through the sun’s atmosphere, which,
in more or less attenuated form, is known to
extend out so far that the rays from all the
stars concerned in the measurements would
have to pass through it on their way to the
earth1% [Such bending of light actually
takes place all the time as the rays from the
sun and other celestial bodies pass through our
own atmosphere; the amount of atmospheric
11 The Review, January 31, 1920, p. 116.
12 See A. S. Eddington’s ‘‘Report on the Rela-
tivity Theory of Gravitation,’’ London, 1920, p. 55.
13 See Dr. H. F. Newall’s suggestive note in -
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical So-
ciety, Vol. LXXX., No. 1, November, 1919. Mr.
Jonck-heere (The Observatory for August, 1919,
Vol. XLI., p. 216) suggested that refractions may
be caused by ‘‘a hypothetical condensation of ether
near the sun.’’ This hypothesis is treated by L.
Silberstein in connection with the theory of Stokes-
Planck’s ether in the Phil. Mag., Vol. 39, pp. 161-
170, February, 1920.
Marcu 26, 1920]
refraction of light depends upon the atmos-
pherie conditions (temperature, pressure, hu-
midity) and decreases with altitude of the
celestial body above the horizon. Adequate
correction of the observed deflections because
of this known source of bending in the earth’s
atmosphere had to be made.]
(d) Terrestrial Refraction Effects.—Distur-
bance refraction effects as rays of light from
the distant stars passed through the region
of the earth’s atmosphere affected by the solar
eclipse, especially during totality. This cause
would give a deflection in the right direction
but apparently not of sufficient magnitude to
account for the observed effects.14
15. The law of decrease in the amount of
deflection of light for causes (a) and (6) is
a very simple one, namely, inversely as the
distance of the ray from the sun’s center
when it passes through the solar gravitational
field. For cause (c) the law may or may not
be as simple as that just stated, depending
among other things on the variation of the
density and distribution of the solar atmos-
phere with distance from the sun.15 For our
own atmosphere the law of atmospheric re-
fraction is a somewhat complicated one.
Sufficient has been said to show how intensely
interesting a full discussion of the observed
deflections of light will prove to be. Even
had no deflections been observed a valuable
contribution to science would have resulted.
16. Table I. contains the deflections of light
rays observed by the British Astronomical Ex-
14 This hypothesis was suggested by Dr. J. Sat-
terly at the close of the author’s lecture at the
University of Toronto, December 2, 1919. It had
also occurred to Dr. Alexander Anderson, of the
University College, Galway, and has been dis-
cussed by him and others (Eddington, Cromelin,
Cave, Dines and Schuster) in various issues of
Nature, December 4, 1919-January 29, 1920.
15In the discussion of the author’s paper be-
fore the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
January 14, 1920, Dr. E. B. Wilson, of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, suggested that
if the density of the solar atmosphere varied in-
versely as the square of the distance from the
sun’s center, a refraction law would result similar
to the one for causes (a) and (6b).
SCIENCE
307
pedition, equipped and sent to Sobral, Brazil,
under the direction of the Astronomer Royal
of England, Sir Frank W. Dyson. Let a be
the total deflection of a light ray coming from
a star, S, and passing through the sun’s gravi-
tational field and finally reaching the observer
on the earth. Suppose a, be the value of a if
the ray grazed the sun’s limb, and p, the radius
vector or distance from the sun’s center to the
ray of light passing the sun. (The values of
p for the various stars are given in units of the
sun’s radius in the third column of the table.)
Then
a=a,/p. (1)
As already stated, according to the Newton-
Maxwell law, a,= 0.87, and according to the
Einstein law, a,—=1".74. As the observed ef-
fects appear to agree better with the Einstein
law, the comparison is made in the table with
those computed from that law. The main tab-
ular quantities have already been given in
various publications. Detailed data were also
courteously furnished by the Astronomer
Royal for my lectures; these data gave the re-
sults separately for each of the seven stars and
for each of the seven plates obtained by the
observer, Dr. A. OC. D. Crommelin, using a 4-
inch lens of 19-foot focus and an 8-inch
celostat. From the detailed data members of
my staff computed the probable errors found in
the last three columns of the table. From the
coordinates furnished we also were able to
compute the angle A, which the radius vector,
P, to any star made with the declination axis,
counting it from the north end in the direc-
tion east or west; these values are contained
in the fifth column. The computed effects in
right ascension and declination were obtained
by multiplying the value of a from (1) by
sin A and cos A, respectively. From the fourth
column it will be seen that the photographic
magnitudes of the stars ranged from 4.5 to 6.0.
The British astronomers were thus exceed-
ingly fortunate in being able to make their ob-
servations during a solar eclipse when there
was an exceptionally rich field of bright stars,
the Hyades, close to the sun.
17. It will be observed that from the figures
308
in the three columns headed O-E (Observed-
Einstein value that), relatively. the observed
right-ascension deflections depart more mark-
edly from the computed ones than do the ob-
served declinations-deflections. The observed
total deflections in every case, except for star
11, exceed the Einstein values.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Von. LI. No. 1317
nomical Expedition, at the Tle of Principe,
west coast of Africa, where the weather condi-
tions were unfortunately not as favorable as
at Sobral, showed only a few stars and the
seale could not be directly determined as it
was not possible to remain at Principe the re-
quired time. Instead, plates of another region
TABLE I
Comparison of Deflections of Light Rays Observed by the British Astronomical Expedition at Sobral,
Brazil, May 29, 1919, with Values Computed according to the Hinstein Theory
(Instruments: 4-inch lens of 19-foot focus and 8-inch coelost at.
Observer: A. C. D. Crommelin)
‘ Right Ascension Declination Total Probable Error
Dist.in] phot. is ses
ant a Radi Mag.| Angle A Ops'a | Ein | OE} ops'a | EM- | O_E |obs'a| Ein- | O_—E |R. A.| Dec.| Tot.
| stein | steln stein
fe) “ a“ ad “ “a “l “a “ ia ad “a
3lxke Tauri | 1.99] 5.5) 8.2W|/—0.20|—0.12 |—0.08/+1.00 |-+0.87 |+-0.13 | 1.02} 0.88|+0.14| .02| .02| .02
2/Pi. IV. 82) 2.04] 5.8] 96.2E |+-0.95 |-++0.85 |+0.10}—0.27 |— 0.09 |—0.18 | 0.99} 0.86 /+-0.13| .04] .05|] .04
4\x Tauri | 2.35] 4.5| 8.6W/—0.11|—0.10 |—0.01/-+-0.83 |-+-0.74 |+-0.09 | 0.84] 0.75/+0.09} .03) .03| .03
5|Pi. IV. 61] 3.27] 6.0 |144.8W|—0.29 |—0.31 |+0.02|—0.46 |—0.43 |—0.03 | 0.54| 0.53 /+0.01] .04} .05| .05
6|v Tauri 4.34] 4.5| 6.3E |—0.10 +0.04 |—0.14/++0.57 |-++0.40 |+-0.17 | 0.58} 0.40/+0.18] .04| .04) .04
10/72 Tauri | 5.19} 5.5] 14.9F |—0.08 |+0.09 |—0.17/-+-0.35 |-+ 0.32 |-+-0.03 | 0.35| 0.34/-++0.01| .04] .05| .05
11/56 Tauri | 5.38] 5.5| 86.6W|—0.19 |—0.32 |++0.13]-+0.17 |--0.02 |-+-0.15 | 0.25! 0.32 |—0.07| .06| .02] .05
18. From the observational results in Table
I., the resulting value of the deflection, a,, at
the sun’s limb, as published by Dr. Crommelin,
is 1’’.98,1° thus agreeing with the Einstein pre-
dicted value, 1”.74, within 14 per cent. The
result from the astrographic plates taken by
the other British observer at Sobral, Mr. C.
Davidson, using the astrographic object glass
of the Greenwich Observatory in conjunction
with a 16-inch celostat, was not so satisfactory,
the star-images being diffuse on account of a
probable change in figure of the ccelostat mir-
ror; the discordance between the mean results
from the individual plates was said to be rather
large, but from the whole series an outward
deflection reduced to the limb, of 0”.93, or
0.99, according to the method of treatment,
was found, with a probable error of about
07.38.18
19. The plates taken by Dr. A. S. Eddington
and Mr. Cottingham, the second British Astro-
16 See Nature, November 13, 1919, p. 281. The
probable error as given by Dr. Crommelin is 0.12,
whereas Dr. H. Spencer Jones, of the Greenwich
Observatory, in his summary (Science Progress,
January, 1920, p. 372) gives 0/7.06.
of the sky taken at the same altitude were used
and compared with plates of the same region
and of the eclipse-field obtained previously at
Oxford. The determination of scale was there-
fore somewhat weak, though the uniformity of
temperature at Principe was in its favor. The
final result of the discussion of the plates gave
an outward deflection of 1”.61 with a probable
error of 0.3.17
20. Except then for the unsatisfactory So-
bral astrographic plates, the general conclusion
to be drawn is that deflections of light were ob-
served by the British astronomers that agree
better with the Hinstein law of gravitation
(Cause b) than with the Newton-Mazwell law
(Cause a). This is well shown by Fig. 2, con-
structed by the Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism, giving a graphical representation
of the law of variation with distance followed
by the observed deflections for each star, as
well as by the computed ones on the basis of
causes aand b. It is seen at once that, except-
ing the most distant star (56 Tauri), each star
shows a deflection agreeing better with the
Einstein value than with the Newton-Maxwell
17 See reference to Dr. Jones’s article in previous
footnote.
Marcy 26, 1920]
one. Though the result from 56 Tauri is dis-
cordant, it still is about midway between the
two computed curves (Causes a and Db). It
should be noted also that the probable error of
observation, as shown by the size of the circle
around each star, is largest for 56 Tauri, so
Deflection of Light Resulting from Observations During Solar Eclipse at |
Sobral, Brazil, May 29,1919, Compared with Predicted Values.
| T
DIUS OF CIRCLE = PROBABLE ERROR OF OBSERVATION
0
[yan
v b aie froin ereec row.
TOTAL
Ls bie i Cs Vea
aah
Us
!
\
oo =. TAL eC)
S S| Ding
5 iS Mee
89-8
8 rons
© 40 1 iS
a) LS =
NS 1S
% 39} —_1 > — |
ser} \ rales
is 1D i =
Xs} Cy
236 ve
= ee
3S q sm, \e
% ¥ es
ly a 1S Y
Q 3 ¢- Pi.IV. 61 (No.5)
= \ (Mgg.6.0)
NEG Ty
St EE
\ ‘
jc as saa
3 Rae ul
Dey \
28 = = ma)
tes B/S
EX \e
26
=
yn
pe A.
Neu AN woa)|
\
22 =
\a
ad aS 2)P2.I0 82 eg:
“ v ; (No.3), 4) TavRy
\ (Mag 55)
Os”
a0 SE SNE OT: Os
LIGHE QEFLECT/ON
Fig. 2.
that no wholly safe inference as to cause of
its departure from the Einstein value may be
made.
In view of the recognized difficulties of the
observations and the conditions under which
they had to be made, and recalling, further-
SCIENCE
309
more, that the preparations and securing of
the requisite instrumental equipments were
undertaken during the stress of the great war,
every one will surely agree that the Astronomer
Royal of England and the British observers
are heartily to be congratulated upon the
splendid results of their labors.
ANALYSIS OF OBSERVED LIGHT DEFLECTIONS
21. In conclusion an analysis was sketched
of the observed light deflections and some evi-
dences were pointed out showing that while the
simple law (1) was followed to the greater ex-
tent, the effects in addition to varying in-
versely as the distance from the sun’s center
also apparently depended in some measure
upon the heliographic latitude, %, of the star.
As a consequence the observed effects are not
strictly radial, the departures from radiality
occurring in a strikingly systematic manner,
and not in the accidental manner that would
be the case if the non-radial effects were at-
tributable wholly to errors of observations.
When such trigonometric functions are added
to law (1) as would arise from forces similar
in effect to centrifugal ones, the additional
effects are largely accounted for. This pos-
sible additional cause, whatever it turns out
to be, is designated as e. In complete allow-
ance for differential atmospheric refraction
effects in the earth’s atmosphere may also be
the cause of non-radial effects. Resolving
the observed actual deflections into two com-
ponents, radial (along radius vector) and the
other non-radial (perpendicular to radius
vector), preliminary computations were made
with the aid of the expanded law.
a +f(p, $). (2)
A value resulted for a, agreeing better
with the Einstein value of 1”.74, than the
value 1.98 stated in paragraph 18. A future
paper will give further account of this interest-
ing matter.18 JI must not fail to record here
18 The possibility of non-radial effects arising
from cause € was announced at the meeting of the
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Feb-
310
the assistance received in the construction of
diagrams and in the computational work from
members of my staff, viz.. W. J. Peters, H. B.
Hedrick, C. R. Duwall and C. C. Ennis.
22. It is, of course, impossible without
further analysis to state at present just what
portion of the observed effects may be ac-"
counted for by the various causes described in
paragraphs 14 and 21. Dr. Newall, for ex-
ample, see reference in footnote 13, is ready
to accept an effect from cause a (the Newton-
Maxwell effect), but prefers considering the
possibility of accounting for the greater por-
tion of the remaining effect by cause ¢ (Re
fraction in the Solar Atmosphere).
93. If it should prove to be the case that the
observed light deflections are the result of a
combination of the causes mentioned, the
way may be open to explain the results
obtained by Dr. W. W. Campbell’s eclipse
expedition of June 8, 1918, at Goldendale,
Washington. Using two 4-inch photographic
objectives photographs were taken of the sun
and its surroundings, the exposures being 110
seconds, 50 stars to the ninth magnitude being
recorded. He states his results as follows:??
The measurement of photographs, 14 inch X 17
inch in size, is a difficult problem even with suit-
able apparatus: we found it necessary to con-
struct a special measuring machine, and this was
made in our own shops. Duplicate photographs
of the eclipse field were secured at Mount Hamil-
ton seven months after the eclipse. As the dif-
ference of latitude between Mount Hamilton and
the eclipse station is only a few degrees, no errors
were introduced by not obtaining the comparison
field at the eclipse station. These were taken at
the proper altitude to avoid the chief refraction
troubles in the comparison with the eclipse plates,
so that second differences of differential refrac-
tion alone entered into the comparison. The
plates were measured right and left. The same
scale-divisions were used for corresponding pairs
ruary 6, 1920, and slides were shown exhibiting
the systematic character of these effects. The
matter was gone into more fully at the New York
meeting of the American Physical Society, Feb-
ruary 28, 1920.
19 The Observatory, London, Vol. XLII., No.
542, August, 1919 (298-300).
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
of stars. As far as possible the measures were
freed from any known source of error. The cor-
rected differences of position were measured along
radii from the sun to each star and were arranged
in order of distance from sun to star. Dr. Curtis
was not able to say that there was anything syste-
matic about these differences, which showed no
change of the order required by Hinstein’s second
hypothesis. The probable error of one star posi-
tion was the order of 0.5, regrettably large when
we are dealing with the differences of small quan-
tities—the difference between the expected dis-
placements of the nearest and furthest stars only
being 0.26. A telescope of great focal length
would have been of great help in this work. For
the one we used the stars were too faint and in
the long exposure required we suffered from the
increased extent of coronal structure. Curtis di-
vided his stars into inner and outer groups. The
differential displacement between the two groups
should have been 0.08 or 0.15, according to which
of Einstein’s hypotheses was adopted. The mean
of the results came out at 0.05 and of the right
sign. After getting this result Curtis looked over
the collection of 40-foot coronal plates. In the
1900 eclipse there were six stars fairly bright, but
not well distributed. It is useless to take a dupli-
eate photograph now owing to uncertainty in the
values of the proper motions. Reference has been
made to the Paris plate in the Carte du Ciel, but
Curtis was unable to say from the comparison that
the innermost star showed a displacement due to
the Hinstein effect.
“Tt is my own opinion,’ concludes Dr.
Campbell, “that Dr. Curtis’s results preclude
the larger Einstein effect, but not the smaller
amount expected according to the original Bin-
stein hypothesis.”
24. It will be observed that although Dr.
Campbell was not so fortunate as the British
astronomers in the matter of bright stars close
to the sun, he obtained an effect at more than
twice the distance from the sun of the farthest
star (56 Tauri), shown in Fig. 2, in the right
direction and of about the same amount as
that given by cause a (Newton-Maxwell Ef-
fect). It is of interest to note here that the
farthest star, 56 Tauri, in Fig. 2, also gave a
deflection approaching that given by cause a,
though since that star gave the largest prob-
able error, not much weight is to be attached
Marcy 26, 1920]
to the fact. It would be of great importance
to know, of course, whether as the distance of
a star from the sun greatly increases, the de-
flections of light will correspond more and
more closely with that given by cause a. There
is no possibility that the Einstein effect with
increased distance will merge into the New-
ton-Maxwell effect, since theoretically the
former should always be twice the latter.
However, if the main cause of light deflections
should prove to be a, c and e, or a and eé, or
similar ones in effect, it may be possible, as
already stated, to harmonize Dr. Campbell’s
results with those of the British observers. As
a caution it may be well to bear in mind that
Dr. Campbell unfortunately was obliged to
get his results from very distant stars and
hence had to look for quantities very much
smaller than those concerned in the British
observations of the solar eclipse of May 29,
1919.
OUTSTANDING MOTION OF MERCURY’S
25. As a further proof of the Einstein
theory of gravitation has been cited the very
satisfactory way2? in which the theory ac-
counts for the outstanding motion of the peri-
helion of mercury, characterized by the late
Professor Simon Newcomb as one of the
greatest of astronomical puzzles. Dr. Charles
L. Poor, of Columbia University, at the close
of my lecture there on January 16 suggested
that the outstanding motion of Mercury’s
perihelion could also be fully accounted for
if the equatorial radius of the sun were found
to exceed the polar radius by 0”.5, so that the
sun would not be truly spherical. Seeliger
advanced the hypothesis®1 “that the scattered
zodiacal-light materials, if condensed into one
body might have a mass fairly comparable to
that of the little planet Mercury, “ and he has
concluded that the attractions of the zodiacal
light materials upon the planet Mercury could
explain the deviation of that planet from its
20See A. S. Eddington’s Report on The Rela
tivity Theory of Gravitation, London, 1920, p. 52.
21 W. W. Campbell, ‘‘The Solar System,’’ pub-
lished in The Adolfo Stahl Lectures, p. 10, San
Francisco, 1919.
SCIENCE
dll
computed orbit. This problem can not yet be
regarded as definitely settled.”
EINSTEIN DISPLACEMENT OF LINES OF SPECTRUM
26. Dr. Einstein appears to regard as es-
sential to this theory the verification of the
shifting towards the red of the lines of the
spectrum of light from the sun and stars.
However, Sir Joseph Larmor, according to a
paper presented before the Royal Society on
November 20, 1919, does not apparently agree
with him. The predicted effect has not yet
been successfully observed, or, as Professor
Joseph S. Ames in his concluding remarks
at the end of my lecture at the Johns Hopkins
University put it, “has not yet been disen-
tangled from the various possible other causes
for shifts of the spectrum lines.”
CONCLUDING REMARKS
97. The endeavor has been to set forth im-
partially all the facts pro and con with refer-
ence to the question of the verification of the
Einstein theory of gravitation by the recent
astronomical observations, so as to enable the
reader to form an independent judgment and
reach his own decision. Though we may
differ as to whether the Einstein theory has
been definitely verified, or not, one result of
fundamental importance appears to have been
established with fair certainty, upon which
perhaps chief emphasis should be laid, viz.:
that light has weight—just how much depends
upon whether the Newtonian or the Einstein
principles will ultimately be found correct.
Possibly the best attitude to take is that of
open-mindedness and to let no opportunity
pass by for further experimental tests. The
British astronomers are already zealously pre-
paring to make observations during the solar
eclipse of September, 1922, which will occur
in Australia. Perhaps one of the most satis-
factory results of the discussion aroused by
the subject has been the stimulus imparted
to further research in many fields, which is
bound to bear fruit. Louis A. Bavrr
DEPARTMENT OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM,
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON
312
UNITY AND BALANCE IN THE ZOOL-
OGY COURSE
In an earlier number of this journal,t
apropos of an article by Professor Bradley
M. Davis upon the botany course of the
future, I briefly described the introductory
course in zoology in operation for several
years at the University of Michigan, and
pointed out some of the advantages which a
course centered around biological principles
possessed over the usual course based on the
dissection of types. Many inquiries concern-
ing this course were received from all over
this country, and several from the other side
of the world, indicating a feeling of unrest
and dissatisfaction with the present prevail-
ing type course. Some of the writers of
these letters clearly recognized the defects of
the present method of teaching, and had
striven to remedy them without completely
reorganizing their courses. Others, while
perceiving that something was wrong, had
failed, it seems to me, to discern wherein lay
the difficulties. In the hope that a clear
understanding of the fundamental mistakes
of the type course will assist in removing
these difficulties, I have undertaken to pre-
sent herewith what appear to me to be the
requisites of the beginning course.
The nature of the first course in science
should not be a matter of untrammeled opin-
ion, it should be determined by certain prin-
ciples. If those principles can be agreed
upon, the details may perhaps be varied with-
out harm. I submit two propositions which
I regard as almost axiomatic, namely, that the
course should be representative, and that it
should possess unity. If these propositions
are valid, the remainder of this article may
have some value.
To apply the first of these rules, it is
necessary to have in mind the content of the
subject. On this question there may be
differences of opinion, but most of these opin-
ions can probably be arranged into two fairly
well-defined groups. Zoology consists either
(1) of a knowledge of Protozoa, Porifera,
Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, ete., or (2) of
1 ScreNcE, December 27, 1918.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
a body of principles that may be brought
under such rubrics as morphology, physiology,
ecology, taxonomy, geographical distribution,
paleontology, and evolution. Between these
views the teacher must make a choice, if he
is to make his course representative, and the
nature of the course will depend upon his
decision. If the first of these views of the
content of zoology should prevail, he who
studies cell permeability in Paramecium is to
be regarded as a protozoologist, not as a phys-
iologist, or else he is not a zoologist at all;
the student of heredity in Drosophila is a
dipterist, not a geneticist; and one who traces
the origin of the horse is a mammalogist,
not a paleontologist or evolutionist. Very
few of the scholars mentioned would be con-
tent with the proposed appellation.
If the second conception of the content of
zoology be entertained, as has been done in
the preparation of our first course, the incon-
gruities just referred to disappear. Other
difficulties are also removed, for the seven
divisions of zoology named above are not
mutually exclusive, but overlap, a circum-
stance which, far from being a misfortune,
is of much value in connection with the
second proposition to be developed later.
Genetics might fairly be added as an eight
division, but its main features are either mor-
phological, or physiological, or evolutionary.
The beginning course must contain the ele-
ments of each of these branches of the sub-
ject, if it is to be a general course. Whether
the course should be general or not may be
debated, but if it is to be general it must
include something from each field.
The classical course in zoology is morpho-
logical, a dissection of types of the chief ani-
mal groups. Very little even of physiology
has been included in it, until in recent years
in a very few institutions. Such a course
was the proper course once upon a time, when
zoology was an almost purely morphological
subject. But as the subject grew, the type
course became a misfit. It has been a misfit
for a long time.
Good teachers have attempted to ameliorate
this growing inaptness of their courses by
Marcu 26, 1920]
putting the non-morphological phases of zool-
ogy into their lectures and recitations. But
the laboratory work has- inevitably put an
over-emphasis on the morphological side, and
may even have over-emphasized the physio-
logical. The seven branches of the science
need not, of course, be treated equally. Mor-
phology deserves a greater share than any of
the others, for each of the divisions is partly
morphological. But a course on morphology
alone (or nearly alone) can scarcely be repre-
sentative. Unprotesting use of the type
course means either that the teacher regards
the content of zoology as Protozoa, Porifera,
Celenterata, ete., or that he is satisfied to
administer an unbalanced ration to his
students.
Quite independent of the foregoing con-
sideration of the content of zoology is the
question of unity of the first course. Whether
the type course or the topic course be em-
ployed, that course should be unified. It
should proceed step by step, one thing leading
up to and necessarily following others. Unity
has not been ignored by those who employ ‘the
type method, but they have justified their
zourse by the evolutionary series which the
animal scale is supposed to present. When
the animal series was thought to be single
and continuous, that was a fair assumption.
But this notion of the phylogenetic tree has
been largely abandoned, it is recognized that
the animal series is a disjointed one. At
least if there are connections everywhere,
they are so attenuated in places that even a
superior student is unable to detect them.
The step from an echinoderm to an annelid
is not an easy one, nor the step from a mol-
lusk to an arthropod.
The lack of unity consequent upon the
employment of type dissections has long been
recognized, and has led to the widespread
notion, referred to above, that something is
wrong with the beginning courses in biology.
One can not converse long with teachers of
biology who are interested in the pedagogy
of their work, without encountering the
question, what is to be done about the begin-
ning course? Sometimes the unrest is vague,
SCIENCE
313
sometimes it is not recognized that lack of
unity is the fundamental defect, but in few
quarters is the present course regarded as
satisfactory.
Various proposals haye been made for
remedying the defect. One plan offered by a
botanist for the beginning course in botany
is frankly to make the course practical, utili-
tarian. Since there may readily be a counter-
part of this plan on the zoological side, it is
worth considering. The author of this pro-
posal does not recognize lack of unity as the
thing to be overcome. He would, for ex-
ample, study wheat: where it is grown, the
proper kinds of soil, its uses, its markets, ete.;
then potatoes, their soils, geography, indus-
trial uses, diseases and so on. However
desirable a course in agriculture may be,
little can be said for the above plan with
regard to its unity. One plant may, it is
true, unify soils and markets after a fashion,
but the gap between wheat and potatoes can
hardly be bridged in the same arbitrary man-
ner. The proposed course is simply a type
course of another kind, the types being no
more closely connected than are the taxo-
nomic groups of organisms to which they
belong.
One experienced teacher of zoology proposes
that the history of the development of the
biological sciences be employed. This teacher
has detected the fundamental defect of the
present course, and his plan is avowedly an
attempt to secure unity. His plan could be
successful if the historical development of the
science were steadily from the simple to the
related complex. If one could learn the his-
tory of the rise of a subject by the same steps
as he learned the content of the subject, then
history would be a unifying study. But were
that done in zoology, one would study the
development of the chick before he learned
of the existence of cells: and he would know
of the parthenogenesis of the honey bee before
he knew the existence of germ cells. Whereas
theoretically simple things should be dis-
covered before complex ones, many circum-
stances, such as the lack of microscopes, has
prevented that order from being followed.
314
Are we to forget that we now have micro-
scopes, in order to let history unify our sub-
ject for us? History may explain a good
many discrepancies, especially in earlier biol-
ogy, but it does not unify anything. History
unifies only subjects that are essentially his-
torical in their nature, like political develop-
ment, or philology. I do not mean that his-
tory is uninteresting or unimportant, for it is
neither; but it unifies only the history, not
the content, of biology. Only the facts of a
science can unify the science itself.
Unity can be acquired only by arranging
subjects, placing the simple first, and laying
thereby a foundation for related subjects that
are more complex. Each subject should lead
to another, and rest upon those that precede.
Such unity a course based on the dissection
of types can have only in small degree.
Otherwise one teacher could not begin with
Protozoa, another with vertebrates, or another
with Arthropoda which are followed by Pro-
tozoa, leaving the vertebrates to the last.
Did types insure unity, we would not have
that interesting chapter on “animals of un-
certain affinities” squarely in the middle of
the course. Nematodes do not lead naturally
to the Bryozoa, nor do the annelids obviously
follow the echinoderms. There is no mani-
fest necessity for having the mollusks precede
the arthropods. The teacher of the type
course may claim unity for his course, on the
ground that he goes from the simple to the
complex. A grindstone, a bicycle, a type
writer and a calculating-machine may be
arranged in order of complexity, but the
unity permeating the series still not be very
obvious.
Homology, on the contrary, does lead to
taxonomy, taxonomy and ecology to distri-
bution, distribution in space to distribution
in time. Cell division leads to cell aggrega-
tion, and reproduction to embryology. The
connections stated are not merely obvious,
they are necessary.
The study of topics entails certain difficul-
ties, one of them being the larger amount of
diverse material required in the laboratory.
Some may think that this use of many differ-
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
ent animals is confusing, rather than unify-
ing. Our experience indicates that such is
not the case. Using many animals to demon-
strate the truth of the cell doctrine is not
more confusing than the study of profit and
loss in arithmetic by problems involving
vinegar, woolen goods, automobiles, and
ostrich feathers. What would be thought of
an arithmetic that employed problems re-
lating to vinegar for addition, division, profit
and loss, compound interest and cube root,
before woolen goods were used to illustrate
the same operations? Or what of a school
system in which vinegar was studied chem-
ically, biologically, and industrially before
woolen goods were studied from the same
points of view? Those would be type studies,
type arithmetics, type school systems.
In only one other science, so far as I am
aware, do teachers as consistently use the type
method as we have done. Whether another
method would do as well in that subject I am
not qualified to say. Biology is, then, one of
the few sciences which have allowed their
wealth of material to obscure their subject
matter. i
How do the students react to the treatment
I have described? Perhaps, although the
course has been given seven times, we have
not been using the new method long enough
to speak authoritatively; but some things
seem to be observable. I have seldom heard
students ask that question formerly not in-
frequently heard, not only in our own lab-
oratories but in those of other institutions,
“How much of all this are we expected to
remember?” Students now recognize for
themselves that the things which they study
are important, for they draw conclusions from
them. They have perhaps been quicker than
teachers to see the advantages of the new
method. Verily, these things were hid from
the wise and prudent, and were revealed unto
babes.
If culture be measured by the number of
ways one has of entertaining himself, cer-
tainly the knowledge of biological principles
far outweighs from the cultural standpoint
Marcu 26, 1920]
an acquaintance with the details of structure
of selected forms. For a knowledge of ani-
mals, as members of taxonomic groups, is not
lacking in those who pursue zoology in the
way I have outlined; and about these animals
there is always something besides structure
that is worth knowing. In order that these
worth-while things may be known adequately,
they must be the subject matter of the labora-
tory exercises as well as the recitations.
Nothing in this article is intended to imply
that advanced courses should be of the kind
deseribed for beginning students. It is rec-
ognized that to become a zoologist, or to pre-
pare for certain professions, it is necessary to
have a systematic knowledge, not only of
taxonomic groups, but of several other fields
of zoology as well. In the acquisition of such
knowledge there must be courses in which
facts seem to outweigh principles. But to
attempt to gain such knowledge in the ele-
mentary courses, even for those who must later
acquire it, is neither necessary nor desirable.
A. FRANKLIN SHULL
UNIVERSITY of MICHIGAN
A FORERUNNER OF EVOLUTION
BICENTENARY OF CHARLES DE BONNET, NATURALIST
AND PHILOSOPHER
Marcu 13, 1920 marks the two hundredth
anniversary of the birth of one of the most
interesting of eighteenth century scientists,
whose researches in entomology and botany
were of solid and permanent importance in
the history of these branches of learning, and
whose philosophy, if superseded, was at least
interesting and to some extent prophetic; yet
who is comparatively seldom spoken of to-day.
Charles de Bonnet on that date was born in
Geneva, the sometime home of one against
whom he wielded most fiercely his philosophic
pen—Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rather curi-
ously, de Bonnet’s birth and death dates
anticipate by an exact century those of a
pioneer of evolutionary science, John Tyn-
dall. The earlier master died on May 20,
1793, after a life almost uneventful except
for its mental activities.
SCIENCE
315
One of the most striking facts about de
Bonnet’s career is the extreme precocity of
his talent. His entire work in natural his-
tory is crowded into the first twenty-five years
of his life; after which failing eyesight, in-
duced by close work with the imperfect micro-
scopes of the day, turned him perforce from
laboratory research to theoretical speculation.
At sixteen he read Réamur’s work on “ Tn-
sectology.” It proved the turning-point of
his life. Born of a Huguenot exile family,
all of whom were accustomed to hold high
offices in the Swiss government, de Bonnet
was studying law with the expectation of
following in the footsteps of his kinfolk. His
introduction to entomology ended his interest
in law; although ‘he persevered in his studies
until he attained the degree of Doctor of
Laws, he never practised, but devoted the rest
of his life to the science which had become
his passion.
Two years after he first read Réaumer and
Pluche, he sent to the former a long list of
“additions” to his works, based on further
investigations. What was Réaumur’s aston-
ishment to discover that his valuable collab-
orator was a boy of eighteen! By the time
he was twenty, de Bonnet had established the
fact of at least usual, and probably invariable,
parthenogenesis in aphides. Before he was of
age, he had been appointed a corresponding
member of the Academy of Sciences. Two
years later he successfully demonstrated the
reproduction of some forms of worms by
simple fission; and in the same year he dis-
covered the pores, or “stigmata,” by which
caterpillars and butterflies breathe, and made
important studies in the structure of the
tapeworm.
Turning to botany, and newly appointed a
fellow of the Royal Society, the youthful
scientist next experimented in plant physiol-
ogy with special reference to the functions of
leaves, and attempted to prove that all
chlorophyllic plants are endowed with sensa-
tion and what he termed “ discoverment.” It
was at this stage of his career that threatened
blindness diverted his studies into an entirely
different field.
316
De Bonnet’s philosophical theories were
largely influenced by the time in which he
lived; he wrote a work on the “Proofs of
Christianity” to defend Revelation, and
valiantly opposed the teachings of Voltaire
and Rousseau, and the epigenesis theory of
Buffon. On the other hand, he advanced the
purely materialistic idea that all thought is
due to vibrations of the nerves. Bodily
activity, he said, is a necessary condition of
thought.
Following Cuvier and Leibnitz in the doc-
trine of original creation by a Deity, de
Bonnet then premised a “germ” of perfect-
ing evolution in every living thing. In his
“Contemplation of Nature,” he taught that
all beings in nature form a graduated and
unbroken scale from lowest to highest, with
no gaps from the lowest atom of matter
to “ Archangels”; though the flaw in his per-
fectability theory appears when he denies
that the highest of his heirarchy can ever
exactly equal Deity itself. In “ Philosophie
Palingenesis,” he elaborated this doctrine to
show the survival not merely of man, but of
all animals, and the perfecting of their fac-
ulties in the future state. Man, he said, is
composed of a material body and an ,immate-
rial mind, resident in his brain; but he carries
within himself the germ of a more attenuated
body which will clothe his mind in the next
stage after life on earth—a curious approxi-
mation to some of the teachings of modern
Spiritualism. What he does not make clear
is whether he expects each individual to carry
within himself the germ of his own perfect-
ability, or whether it is only races of men and
kinds of animals that are perfected en masse.
De Bonnet’s philosophy is chiefly interesting
as a commentary on his scientific attain-
ments. If he had died at twenty-five, he
would have left his most valuable achieve-
ments already accomplished; but if, two hun-
dred years ago, he had never been born, the
world of science even to-day would have been
a great deal the loser.
Maynarp SHIPLEY
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1317
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE PRESERVATION OF NATURAL CONDITIONS
For three years the Ecological Society of
America has had a committee composed of
about twenty-five interested persons, investi-
gating the question of preserving natural con-
ditions for scientific study. The work to date
has been concerned with (a) listing and de-
scribing preserved areas and areas desirable
for reservation, (b) determining the policies
governing existing reservations and the desir-
ability of reserving natural areas within them,
(c) collecting arguments in favor of pre-
serves, (d) determining lines of research and
education, scientific, artistic and historical
which require or can make use of reservations,
and (e) methods which have been successfully
employed in securing reservations. The mat-
ter in hand includes a list of more than six
hundred areas in United States and Canada
which are preserved or are desirable for pre-
servation. It is evident that some types of
natural conditions are not represented and for
some localities no areas have been brought to
our attention. Persons having information
regarding areas desirable for preservation or
already preserved or knowledge concerning
any of the subjects noted above, especially
methods employed in securing reservations,
are requested to send information, which will
be fully credited, to the chairman or any mem-
ber of the committee. The present committee
is composed of C. W. Alvord (history), Univ.
of Ill; H. C. Cowles (plant communities),
Uniy. of Chicago; R. T. Fisher (forest prac-
tice), Harvard Univ.; S. A. Forbes (ento-
mology), Univ. of Ill., A. S. Pearse (aquatic
preserves), Univ. Wis., C. F. Korstian (graz-
ing), Ogden, Utah; R. B. Miller (forest laws),
Univ. of Ill.; T. C. Stephens (bird preserves),
Sioux City, Ta.; R. H. Wolcott (fires), Univ.
of Nebr.; F. B. Sumner, La Jolla, California;
M. J. Elrod, Univ. of Mont.; F. J. Lewis, Univ.
of Alberta; John Davidson, Univ. of Br. Co-
lumbia; G. B. Rigg, Univ. of Washington;
F. Ramaley, Univ. of Colo.; G. A. Pearson,
Flagstaff, Ariz.; G. W. Goldsmith, Univ. of
Nebr.; J. R. Watson, Univ. of Fla.; J. W.
Harshberger, Univ. of Pa.; W. L. Bray, Syra-
Marcu 26, 1920]
euse Uniy.; C. D. Howe, Univ. of Toronto;
F. E. Lloyd, McGill Univ.; C. O. Rosendahl,
Uniy. of Minn.
VY. E. SHenrorp, Chairman
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON MATHE-
MATICAL REQIREMENTS
At the last meeting of the General Educa-
tion Board in New York on February 28, the
sum of $25,000 was appropriated for the use
of the National Committee on Mathematical
Requirements to continue its work for the year
beginning July 1, 1920.
A preliminary report on “ The Reorganiza-
tion of the First Courses in Secondary School
Mathematics” was published for the Com-
mittee by the U. S. Bureau of Education about
the middle of February. It has been distrib-
uted widely. Copies of the report have gone
to all the state departments of education, to
all county and district superintendents in the
United States and to all city superintendents
in cities and towns of over 2,500 population.
It has been sent to all the normal schools in
the country, to some 1,500 libraries and to
almost 300 periodicals and newspapers. In
addition it has been sent to about 4,500 indi-
viduals, the names and addresses of which were
furnished the Bureau of Education by the
National Committee. This list of individuals
consists chiefly of teachers of mathematics and
principals of schools throughout the country.
Additions to this mailing list to secure future
copies of the reports of the committee can
still be made. Individuals interested in secur-
ing these reports should send their names and
addresses to the chairman of the committee
(J. W. Young, Hanover, N. H.).
A subcommittee consisting of Professor C.
N. Moore, of the University of Cincinnati,
Mr. W. F. Downey, of Boston, and Miss Eula
Weeks, of St. Louis, has been appointed to
prepare a report for the Committee on Elective
Courses in Mathematics for Secondary Schools.
Any material or suggestions for this report
may be sent directly to the chairman of the
subcommittee.
The recent work of the national committee
SCIENCE
317
had a place on the program of the organiza-
tion meeting of the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics held in Cleveland
on February 24 in connection with the meeting
of the Department of Superintendence of the
National Education Association. The meet-
ing for the organization of the National Coun-
cil was enthusiastically attended. A con-
stitution was adopted and officers and an ex-
-ecutive committee elected. Mr. J. A. Foberg,
of the National Committee on Mathematical
Requirements, was elected secretary-treasurer
of the National Council.
Recent meetings of teachers at which the
reports of the national committee have been
discussed have taken place in New York City,
Cincinnati, San Francisco, Cleveland, Okla-
homa, Philadelphia, Springfield (Mass.), Prov-
idence (R. I.). Meetings in April will take
place in Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan
and Kentucky.
THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICUL-
TURE AND THE NEW YORK STATE
EXPERIMENT STATION
THE State College of Agriculture at Ithaca
and the State Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion at Geneva have now become formally
affiliated. Each will retain its separate organi-
zation and carry on its own appropriate
work; in addition provision is made for some-
what closer correlation, for ready exchange
of all facilities of research and experimenta-
tion, and for more frequent conferences. To
these ends the trustees of Cornell University
have appointed to the staff of the college eight
persons on the staff of the station at Geneva:
Whitman H. Jordan, director; R. J. Ander-
son, chemist; Robert S. Breed, bacteriologist;
R. ©. Collinson, chemist; U. P. Hendrick,
horticulturist; Percival J. Parrott, ’06, ento-
mologist; Fred C. Stewart, 98, botanist; and
L. L. Van Slyke, specialist in fertilizers. And
reciprocally the board of control has appointed
to the Geneva staff six members of the agri-
cultural faculty: Professors Chandler, Emer-
son, Herrick, Lyon, Reddick, and Stocking.
The Cornell Alumni Weekly says: “ This
closer relationship promises benefits not only
to the college, particularly in enlarging the
318
regular opportunities of graduate students and
investigators, but also to the farming interests
of the state, to whom the combined efforts and
results are valuable. The affiliation, thus
bringing a mutual extension of privileges, is
characterized by the authorities as a gain to
both institutions without cost or loss to either.”
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Tue next meeting of the American Astron-
omical Society will be held at Smith College
Observatory, Northampton, Massachusetts, be-
ginning on September 1. ‘The society will
also visit the observatory at Mt. Holyoke
College.
Tur American Association of Anatomists
will hold their annual meeting at the National
Museum, Washington, D. C., from April 1 to
3. The program contains about sixty titles
for papers and fifty demonstrations.
THE second annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Society of Mammalogists will be held in
the American Museum of Natural History,
New York City, May 3-5, 1920. There will
be opportunities to visit the New York Zo-
ological Park, the Brooklyn Museum, the New
York Aquarium, and other institutions of in-
terest to members. Headquarters will be at
the Hotel York, 7th Avenue and 36th Street,
three blocks north of the Pennsylvania
Station.
Dr. JoHn CuHartes Hesster has been ap-
pointed assistant director of the Mellon Insti-
tute of Industrial Research of the University
of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hessler, who is now sery-
ing as president of James Milliken Univer-
sity, Decatur, Tll., will enter upon his new
work at the close of the present academic
year. As a member of the administrative
staff of the Mellon Institute, he will be in
supervisory charge of certain of the researches
in organic chemistry, a field in which he has
specialized during the past twenty years.
Dr. Joun W. MacrarLane, professor of
botany and director of the Botanical Labora-
tory and of the Botanic Gardens of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, has tendered his
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
resignation after twenty-eight years of serv-
ice, to take effect on June 30.
Dr. WaLnEMar T. SCHALLER has resigned as
chemist in the division of physical and chem-
ical research, United States Geological Sur-
vey, and has accepted a position with the
Great Southern Sulphur Co., Inc., of New
Orleans, La., operating at Orla, Texas.
Tue French government has conferred the
decoration, “ Officier de VInstruction Pub-
lique,” upon Professor E. B. Van Vleck, of
the department of mathematics of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, in recognition of his
services as teacher and investigator and for
his work during the war.
Prorgessor Warren H. Lewis, of the Johns
Hopkins Medical School, has been elected an
honorary member of the Society of Medicine
of Gand.
AT its meeting held on March 10, the Rum-
ford Committee of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences appropriated the sum of
$250 to Professor Julius Stieglitz in aid of
the publication of Marie’s “Tables of Con-
stants.”
At a meeting of the Royal Society of the
Medical and Natural Sciences of Brussels
held on December 1, Dr. John J. Abel, profes-
sor of pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins
University, was elected an associate member
of the society.
THE Committee on Scientific Research of
the American Medical Association has made
these grants for scientific work: Professor G.
Carl Huber, University of Michigan, for study
of nerve repair, $400. Professor H. M. Evans,
University of California, for study of the in-
fluence of endocrine glands on ovulation, $400.
Professor E. R. LeCount, Rush Medical Col-
lege, for study of extradural hemorrhage and
of the hydrogen-ion content of the blood in
experimental streptococcus infections, $200.
Dr. E. E. Ecker, Western Reserve University,
for a study of the specifieness of antianaphy-
laxis, $200. Dr. Henrietta Calhoun, Iowa,
State University, for a study of the effect of
protein shock on diphtheria intoxication, $400.
Marcu 26, 1920]
THE council of the Royal Society has recom-
mended the following: Dr. Edward Frankland
Armstrong, Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose, Dr.
Robert Broom, Professor Edward Provan
Catheart, Mr. Alfred Chaston Chapman, Dr.
Arthur Price Chattock, Mr. Arthur William
Hill, Dr. Cargill Gilston Knott, Professor
Frederick Alexander Lindemann, Dr. Francis
Hugh Adam Marshall, Dr. Thomas Ralph
Merton, Dr. Robert Cyril Layton Perkins,
Professor Henry Crozier Plummer, Professor
Robert Robinson, and Professor John William
Watson Stephens.
Av the annual meeting of the Optical So-
ciety, London, Mr. R. S. Whipple was elected
to the presidency; the vice-presidents are:
Professor F. J. Cheshire, Sir Herbert Jackson,
and Mr. H. F. Purser.
Proressor B. A. Houssay, of the University
of Buenos Aires, has been elected correspond-
ing member of the Société de Pathologie ex-
otique at Paris in token of appreciation for
his extensive research on snake venom and on
scorpion and spider poisons.
Dr. CuHatMeRS MircHEeLtL, the English
zoologist, under the auspices of the London
Times, undertook to make a flight from Cairo
to the Cape with special reference to scientific
observations, leaving Cairo in a Vickers-Vimy
machine with a crew of four pilots and me-
chanics on February 6. A forced descent
after delays by engine troubles at Tabora, in
the Tanganyika territory damaged the machine
so that the flight could not be continued.
Mr. Cart L. Hupss, assistant curator of
ichthyology and herpetology in the Field
Museum of Natural History, has resigned to
accept the position of curator of fishes in the
Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan.
ASSISTANT ProFEssOR GERALD L. WENDT, of
the department of chemistry at the University
of Chicago, has been appointed associate edi-
tor of the Journal of the Radiological Society
of North America.
Frank H. Resp, Ph.D. (Chicago, 717), has
been made supervisor of Industrial Research
for the Butterworth-Judson Corporation of
Newark, New Jersey.
SCIENCE
319
Dr. E. P. WicutTman, recently of Parke
Davis and Co., of Detroit, has accepted a posi-
tion as research chemist with the Eastman
Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y.
Limutenant Scuacune Isaacs, formerly in-
structor in psychology at the University of
Cincinnati, and at present psychologist in the
Air Service, Medical Research Laboratory,
Mitchell Field, Long Island, has been awarded
the fellowship in psychology offered by the
Society for American Fellowships in French
universities. This enables the holder to do
graduate work in the French universities for
two years. The purpose of the society is to
develop an appreciation among American
scholars of French achievements in science
and learning.
Dr. Cuartes R. Stockard, professor of
anatomy at Cornell University Medical
School, New York City, read a paper on
“ Growth Rate and its Influence on Structural
Perfection and Mental Reactions” before the
Philadelphia Psychiatrie Society, on March
12.
A sprcrAL meeting of the College of Physi-
sians of Philadelphia was held March 19, as
a memorial to Dr. Horatio C. Wood. Dr.
George E. de Schweinitz read a memoir to Dr.
Wood. “Recollections of a Pioneer in Phar-
macology in the United States,” was read by
Dr. Hobart A. Hare; “ An Appreciation,” by
Dr. Francis X. Dercum, and “ Reminiscences,
Chiefly Neurological and Medico-Legal,” by
Dr. Charles K. Mills.
Dr. Grorce D. ALLEN, instructor in zoology
in the University of Minnesota, died from
pneumonia on March 11.
Dr. K. A. J. Mackenzin, dean of the medi-
cal department of the University of Oregon, a
surgeon of national reputation, is dead at
Portland, Ore., from heart disease superin-
duced by influenza.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tue University of Michigan has received
an anonymous gift of one million dollars.
320
Rentals amounting to $2,367,000 will go to
the university under the terms of a lease ar-
tanged by Levi L. Barbour, the Detroit manu-
facturer, with the stipulation that the money
shall be used for educating women of the Far
East.
Cornett Untversity has received a gift of
$100,000 for a new dormitory, to be named for
the donors’ parents, from W. G. Mennen and
his sister, Mrs. Emma Mennon Williams, of
Detroit.
Bates Coniece is to receive $500,000 from
the fund to be raised by the Northern Baptist
Convention.
On recommendation of the medical faculty
of Cornell University, women who are stu-
dents in medicine may hereafter take the first
year’s work at the Medical College in New
York City.
Proressor Water Epwarp McCourt, head
of the department of geology of Washington
University, has been appointed dean of the
schools of engineering and architecture of
Cornell University. He will assume the
duties of his new position at once. The ap-
pointment was made to fill the vacancy caused
by the resignation of Professor A. S. Langs-
dorf.
Proressor BE. T. BarTHoLromew, of the de
partment of botany of the University of Wis-
consin has accepted a research professorship
in the Graduate School of Tropical Agricul-
ture at Riverside, Cal., in connection with the
University of California. His special work
will be the investigation of the diseases of
lemons and other citrus fruits.
Sm Arcurpatp KE. Garrop has been ap-
pointed to be regius professor of medicine in
the University of Oxford in succession to the
late Sir William Osler.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
MODERN INTERPRETATION OF DIFFER-
ENTIALS
To tHe Epiror oF Scrence: Without at-
tempting to discuss the historical questions in-
volved, I wish to point out that the theory of
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
“ differentials” given by Professor A. S.
Hathaway in Sotpnce for February 13, 1920,
would prove highly misleading to the modern
student.
Professor Hathaway defines A’y as NAy,
where WV is some multiplier and Ay a simple
increment, and then defines dy as the limit of
A’y as Ay approaches zero. The inevitable
consequence of such a definition is that dy =0,
which is obviously futile.
In view of the continual recrudescence of
such fallacies (with or without a historical
background), it may be worth while to repeat
here the modern interpretation of the differen-
tial, though this may be found correctly stated
in any good text-book of calculus.
Consider the graph of a function y=f(2),
with the tangent line drawn at the point
G—x, y=y, Give x an arbitrary increment
ae,
x, x; +Ax
Nie. 1.
which, since a is the independent variable, may
be denoted indifferently by Az or dx. Corre-
sponding to any such increment in « we have
the inerement of y, called Ay, extending up to
the curve, and the differential of y, called dy,
extending up to the tangent. Now when Ax
(or dx) is made to approach zero, the ratio
dy/dx remains constant, being the slope of the
tangent line, while the ratio Ay/A is a vari-
able, approaching the slope of the tangent as
a limit. But the limit of Ay taken by itself is
zero, and the limit of dy taken by itself tis
also zero.
There are thus two very good reasons why
MarcH 26, 1920]
we can not say that “dy is the limit of Ay.”
First, dy is a variable and therefore can not be
the limit of anything; secondly, zero is the
limit of Ay, and therefore nothing else can be.
A list of similar fallacies, which still persist
in some books (and, apparently, in some class-
rooms also), may be found in a paper by the
present writer on “ The proper use of the dif-
ferential in calculus.” +
The word derivative means, of course, the
ratio dy/da.
Epwarp V. Huntincton
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
WEIGHT AND CENTRIPETAL ACCELERATION
To THE Eprror or Science: Mr. Carl
Hering’s suggestion for a new form of dy-
namic compass! ought to be challenged before
some one organizes a company to work the
idea out on a commercial basis. The fact is,
of course, that the change in weight which
Mr. Hering refers to occurs only when the
motion is im a circle having its center in the
earth’s axis. My. Hering’s disk is a plane
tangent to the earth’s surface and motion in
this plane does not, on the basis of Newtonian
mechanies, affect the weight of a body. It is
understood of course, that the disk is not
forced to remain tangent to the earth as the
earth rotates. This would complicate the
situation by introducing the gyroscopic effect.
If the disk is mounted in gimbals so that the
earth in turning does not force a change in
direction of the shaft there would, as stated
above, be no tendency of the shaft to set itself
parallel with the earth’s axis.
The suggestion that the light disk with
equal weights at extremities of a diameter
would rotate in balance when in a north and
south plane, but out of balance in an east
and west plane is equally mistaken. Any
change in the weight of a body on the basis
of Newtonian mechanics must be due to an
acceleration of the body, part of the gravita-
tional force being used to produce the accel-
1 Society for the Promotion of Engineering Edu-
cation: Bulletin, Viol. 4, pp. 19-28, 1914, or Pro-
ceedings, Vol. 22, pp. 118-124, 1915.
1Screncez, Vol, LI., p. 46.
SCIENCE
321
eration. We may, therefore, examine the ac-
celerations of these bodies to see whether they
could produce the effect described. Each of
the weights on the light disk has an accelera-
tion composed of two components.2 One of
these components is directed toward the center
of the disk. This component is due to the
rotation of the disk, and may be called the
disk component. Since the two weights are
at opposite extremities of a diameter the disk
components of their acceleration are equal in
magnitude and opposite in direction, and their
only effect is to produce the well-known cen-
trifugal stress in the disk. The other com-
ponent of acceleration is common to the two
weights. It is the acceleration of the center
of the disk due to the earth’s motion. It is
altogether independent of the rotation of the
disk. This acceleration will affect the weights
of the two bodies, but the effect will be the
same for both bodies in all positions of the
disk, and cannot therefore, produce un-
balanced rotation.
Curiously enough there is another cause
that would produce a minute unbalance in a
disk of the sort just considered when rotating
in any vertical plane at any point on the
earth’s surface. When the line of the weights
is in a horizontal position let the weight of
each be represented by w. Then neglecting
the weight of the disk and shaft the down-
ward pressure on the bearings is 2 w. When
the line of the weights has turned through
90° to a vertical position one of the bodies
has approached the earth and consequently its
weight is increased. The other has receded
from the earth but its weight has decreased
less than the other increased since the attrac-
tion varies as the inverse square of the dis-
tance. Consequently the pressure on the bear-
ings is greater when it is horizontal. This
would produce a minute effect of unbalance
which, however, would be just as great when
the disk rotates slowly as when it rotates at
high speed.
Burt L. Newkirk
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
2 Gimbal mounting is assumed again to eliminate
gyroscopic effect.
o22
THE SITUATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEN IN
RUSSIA
To THE Eprror or Science: The informa-
tion about Professor Pavlov conveyed in a
letter to Scrmnce (March 12) is somewhat
puzzling in its purport. It is customary to
make announcement of events which actually
occurred; as for instance birth, deaths, mar-
riages, etc. It would be a most unique pro-
cedure to treat the public to news items like
these: so-and-so has not yet been born, has
not yet died, married, got an imerease in
salary. Why then this item that on a certain
date a.p. Professor Pavlov was not yet dead?
It seems likely, therefore, that the only ob-
ject of the note was to give publicity to a
quotation from a letter of Pavlov to some
other party to the effect that he was starving
and instead of engaging in scientific pursuits
was oceupied in peeling potatoes. Now, this
alleged quotation bears earmarks of a spuri-
ous nature. It undoubtedly belongs to that
class of hoaxes which the daily press has been
imposing upon its innocent readers with an
invidious design. It is impossible to recon-
cile the two statements in the quotation, that
Professor Pavlov is starving, and that he has
so many potatoes to peel as to be obliged on
that account to forsake his science. Hven one
not versed in the theory of nutrition would be
skeptical about the probability of starvation
in the midst of plenty of potatoes. (Consult
Hinhede on the nutritional value of the
potato.)
Like all statements intended primarily to
force public opinion into a preformed mould,
it is not what is actually said but what is in-
directly implied that really matters, The
quotation from Pavlov’s letter is obviously
caleulated to rouse in us indignation over the
sufferings of the distinguished physiologist.
But does it not also insinuate a suggestion
that the genius which was the man’s great
asset under the benign and enlightened gov-
ernment of the Czar of all the Russians has
under the new régime become a crushing lia-
bility on him? So, ere we are moved to deep
pity over Pavlov’s unfortunate lot, let us re-
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
flect if with our well-meant sympathy we may
not cause him more distress than comfort.
It so happens that I have some news of
another venerable savant, Professor Timi-
riazey, distinguished botanist of the Uni-
versity of Moskow, an Se.D. of Cambridge, a
fellow of the Royal Society. As I have no
“ obvious ” reason for hiding my informant, I
may say that he is Arthur Ransome, whom I
herewith quote:
He [Timiriazev] is about eighty years old. His
left arm is paralyzed, and, as he said, he can only
work at his desk and not be out and about and
help as he would wish. A venerable old savant,
he was siting with a green dressing gown about
him, for his little flat was very cold. He spoke
of his old love for England and for the English
people. Then speaking of the veil of lies drawn
between Soviet Russia and the rest of the world, he
broke down altogether and bent his head to hide
his tears. I suffer doubly—he said—I suffer as
a Russian, and, if I may say so, I suffer as an Eng-
lishman. My grandmother was actually English.
I suffer as an Englishman when I see the country
I love misled by lies, and I suffer as a Russian be-
cause those lies concern the country to which I
belong, and tthe ideas which I am proud to hold.
The old man rose with difficulty, for he, like
every one else in Moskow, is half starved. ‘‘If I
could let them know the truth—he said—those
friends of mine in England, they would protest
against actions which are unworthy of the Eng-
land we have loved together.’’
S. Moreutis
THE CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY
RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC MEN
To tHe Eprror or Science: In Scmnce of
March 5, I have noticed the report that Pro-
fessor Payloy, still alive in Petrograd last
summer, was peeling potatoes when last heard
from. Without wishing to jest on this truly
pitiable situation, it may not be amiss to sub-
mit also the report that no small portion of
the professors of this country are now like-
wise engaged in peeling potatoes or similar
menial work, at any rate for a large part of
their time. Under present conditions they
ean not get others to do such work for them.
Marcu 26, 1920]
The cause, here as in Russia, is the glorifica-
tion of “labor ’—apparently synonymous with
cessation of labor, at any rate for a price pro:
portioned to its value.
When a professor does not actually “ quit
his job,” the public supposes he is giving the
same service as formerly. In fact he may
be simply meeting his classes as before, some
ten or twenty hours in the week; the rest of
his active time, which should be spent in prep-
aration, study and research, is under present
conditions too often dissipated in chores of
house and garden, for which “help” is no
more to be had. In effect the professor has
“quit his job,” for half time and in that
half is situated somewhat like Professor
Pavlov.
The irony of it is that the professor is the
last man in the world to shirk his professional
work, which is also his pleasure; but the topsy-
turvy economies of the day are forcing many
to do so.
A MerMBER oF THE ExPLoITeD CLASSES
QUOTATIONS
NITROGEN FROM THE AIR AND THE BRITISH
GOVERNMENT
THE report of the Nitrogen Products Com-
mittee has at last been allowed to emerge from
the seclusion of the government pigeon-hole, in
which it has reposed, in type, for at least seven
months. It is a voluminous document of over
350 pages, containing the results of nearly
three years’ work, largely voluntary, on the
part of a number of scientific men, who in
that period explored in great detail the statis-
tical and economic aspects of the nitrogen
problems and also supervised much experi-
mental research. The latter was devoted espe-
cially to the Haber process for the synthetic
manufacture of ammonia by the direct union
of its elements, nitrogen and hydrogen—a
process which, coupled with the oxidation of
the ammonia to nitric acid, undoubtedly en-
abled Germany, cut off from supplies of ni-
trate from Chile, to continue the war longer
than would otherwise have been possible. The
general principles of that process were fami-
liar enough in this country, but acquaintance
SCIENCE
323
with the technique of its operation was con-
fined to Germany. However, the committee
made such progress towards remedying this
deficiency that in their report they feel justi-
fied in recommending the immediate estab-
lishment of the process on a “ commercial
unit” scale in this country and its extension
up to a minimum of 10,000 tons of ammonia
annually.
For this purpose they suggest the utiliza-
tion of a factory at Billingham-on-Tees. The
Explosives Department of the Ministry of
Munitions decided to start this factory in a
hurry, and perhaps in advance of the tech-
nical knowledge available at the time, towards
the end of 1917; but their attitude towards
it was somewhat Laodicean, and it has not
been finished. Its completion would cost a
considerable sum, but the committee’s view is
that, as a matter of national insurance, we
ought to be in a position to manufacture ni-
trates artificially in this country, since, from
the military aspect, we cannot afford the risk
of being dependent on saltpeter imported from
Chile for the nitrogen compounds which are
indispensable for modern high explosives.
Perhaps the best solution would be for private
enterprise to take over and equip the factory,
with some measure of government control and
interest; and the appearance a few weeks ago
of an advertisement inviting offers for it sug-
gests that this is the direction in which events
are moving. Jt is believed, indeed, that an
important group of firms is in negotiation
for the place. In this connection it must be
remembered that nitrates are as essential in
peace, for fertilizing purposes and the manu-
facture of mining explosives, as they are in
war.
A cheap and abundant supply of electric
power being essential for the commercial suc-
cess of some of the processes of fixing atmos-
pheric nitrogen, the committee considered very
fully the question whether this condition can
be met in the United Kingdom. In particu-
lar, they investigated the possible advantages
of employing preliminary processes of carbon-
ization and gasification in connection with
large electric power stations, instead of firing
324
the coal direct into the furnaces of steam
boilers. Such methods offer the attraction
that they permit the recovery of by-products
that are lost with direct firing, and it is, there-
fore, disappointing to find that the com-
mittee’s conclusions are adverse. They con-
clude that, in the present state of knowledge,
the direct burning of coal under steam boilers
forms the cheapest method of generating elec-
tricity on a large scale from coal, even when
the indirect processes are credited with the
revenue obtainable from the sale of the re-
covered by-products. What is still more un-
fortunate—from the point of view of those
who hope for an increased supply of home-
produced liquid fuel, as well as cheaper elec-
tricity from capital power stations with gas-
fired boilers—they make out that the advan-
tage of direct firing increases with rising costs
of coal and labor.—The London Times.
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND
CLIMATOLOGY
RAINFALL (AND SNOWFALL) OF THE UNITED
STATES?
Tue Weather Bureau has just issued a re-
print from the Monthly Weather Review en-
titled “ Seasonal distribution of precipitation
and its frequency and intensity in the United
States,’? by Joseph B. Kincer. Three reviews
and abstracts are included in the reprint:
“Some characteristics of the. rainfall of the
United States,”? by R. DeC. Ward; “ New sea-
sonal precipitation factor of interest to geog-
taphers and agriculturalists,’* by R. M.
Harper; and “The snowfall of the United
1 Cf, notes on this subject in ScrENcE, July 19,
1918, N. S., Vol. XLVIII., pp. 69-72 (snow,
Science, February 11, 1916, N. S., Vol. XLIII.,
pp. 212-214).
2 September and October, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 624—
633, 695-696, 7 graphs, 30 maps—13 in text and
17 full-page lithographs. (For copies, apply to
‘“‘Chief, U. S. Weather Bureau, Washington,
1D), Ch”)
3 Scientific Monthly, September, 1919, Vol. 9,
pp. 210-223.
4Scrence, August 30, 1918, N. S., Vol. XLVIII.,
pp. 208-211.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
States,”> by R. DeC. Ward. Since these three
papers are easily available, this note will cover
only Mr. Kineer’s article and the graphs added
to the reviews of Professor Ward’s two papers.
Here are published, for the first time, reli-
able and detailed maps of the average rainfall
of the whole United States for each month.
The topographic (hachured) base-map used
shows at once the close dependence of rainfall on
topography as it affects precipitation of mois-
ture from the prevailing westerly winds. We
have long known of the marked spring and
early summer rainfall maximum in the prairies
and Great Plains; but these monthly maps
give us almost a moving picture of the wave
of rainfall which spreads northward and west-
ward as the warm southerly winds blow in day
after day from the Gulf of Mexico. From its
February position across east Texas, northwest
Arkansas and southern Illinois, the 3-inch
monthly rainfall line in March has moved
westward into Oklahoma, central Missouri and
northern Illinois; in April, to central Texas,
central Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and central
Iowa; in May, to the 101st meridian in south
Texas, across the Panhandle into northeastern
New Mexico, through western Kansas, west
central Nebraska, the Dakotas and northern
Minnesota, and in June still farther westward
in the central and northern Great Plains—in
Montana even to the Rockies. By June in the
southern Plains and by July in the northren
Plains the spring-time flood of moist air has
spent itself, and the rainfall lines are begin-
ning to retreat—eastward as the summer
passes, and southward as the coldness of the
oncoming winter renders much precipitation
impossible. The four maps of precipitation by
seasons summarize this same movement of the
isohyets. With such a series of maps before
one it is obvious that the Gulf of Mexico and
the open country to the north and northwest
allow our prairies and plains to be so produc-
tive.
If the conditions year after year were like
those shown on these maps of average rain-
fall, we should not have been experiencing or
> Scientific Monthly, November, 1919, Vol. 9, pp.
397-415, map.
Marcu 26, 1920]
reading of the great droughts, recently exawis}
which were at their worst in west Texas and
the northern Great Plains. The flood of warm,
moist air from the Gulf is variable in size and
duration. These variations are felt most near
its western and northwestern limits, where
farmers have learned to look on partial crop
failures as normal. This variability, which is
the most important aspect of rainfall, aside
from the average amount, is clearly brought
out by Mr. Kincer in a number of graphs and
maps. In drought years as well as in years of
plenty, farmers are inclined to believe in stor-
ies of progressively decreasing or increasing
rainfall: comparisons of rainfall averages by
successive 20-year periods show, however, that
in this region there is no perceptible progres-
sive change in rainfall.
In years of decreasing rainfall, real-estate
agents for the semi-arid lands of western Kan-
sas explain to prospective buyers that although
the total rainfall is decreasing, the decrease is
mostly confined to the washing and flooding
downpours, and that the proportion of rains of
beneficial amount is increasing. They are dis-
cussing another essential element which must
be considered in comprehensive rainfall dis-
cussions. Mr. Kincer presents maps showing
the average annual number of days with pre-
cipitation 0.01 to 0.25 inch, 0.26 to 1.00 inch,
and 2.00 inches or more. Further details of
rainfall intensity are given on maps showing
the average annual number of days with pre-
cipitation more than 1.00 inch in an hour, and
the maximum precipitation in 24 hours. Two
more maps which might be called “ drouth
maps” show the percentage of years with 30
consecutive days or more without 0.25 inch of
rainfall in twenty-four hours from March 1 to
September 30, and the greatest number of
consecutive days without 0.25 inch of rainfall
from March 1 to September 80. These are all
based on the rainfall data for the 20-year
period, 1895-1914.
There are ‘three snow maps presented. A
large one shows the average annual snowfall of
the United States, 1895-1914, drawn on a
topographic base-map with close attention to
the effects of altitude and exposure. The other
SCIENCE
325
two maps show the average annual number of
days (1) with measurable snowfall, and (2)
with snow cover. In the eastern United States
(except near the Atlantic) the line of one day
with snow cover (the average of several days
in one winter, with no days in several years) is
near the 33d parallel of latitude; that of 30
days with snow cover lies close to the 39th
parallel; that of 60 days near the 42d; that of
90 days near the 43d, and that of 120 from
near the 44th in the East to the 47th in Min-
nesota.. Asa broad generalization, the number
of days with snowfall is about half the number
of days with snow cover.
The publication of these interesting precipi-
tation maps with the discussion makes us hope
that still another year will not pass before the
issue of the long-expected precipitation sec-
tion of the Atlas of American Agriculture,
with its colored maps, carefully made graphs .
and detailed discussion. Still later, the folio
on temperature and the other climatic elements
are to come.
Cuaries F. Brooks
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
INTERSEXES IN DROSOPHILA SIMULANS
On the first day of January, 1920, a stock
of Drosophila simulans Sturtevant! from
Rochester, Minn., was found to contain inter-
sexual individuals. Over 200 such inter-
sexual specimens from this stock and deriva-
tives of it have now been examined. About
a dozen of them have been dissected and about
the same number have been cleared in KOH
and examined in balsam. All these specimens
apparently belong to a single type. Male and
female parts are both present, as will appear
from the following table.
The intersexes are sterile, inasmuch as their
gonads are almost, if not quite, absent. Their
sexual behavior seems to agree best with that
of the normal females. They are courted by
males, but mating has not been seen.
1For a description of this species see Psyche
(1919), 26, p. 153.
326
Males Females Intersexes
Sex combs on fore
eH os UIE ogee ter ste Present) Absent Absent
Number of dorsal ab-
dominal tergites. . 5 1 7
Ovipositor ........ Absent | Present Present
Spermathece ...... None 2 2
Penis? 43: Aes es Present) Absent Absent
First genital tergite. | Present} Absent Present
Anal plates........ Lateral) Dorsal and| Lateral
ventral
Claspers .......... Present) Absent Present
Tip of abdomen....| Black | Banded Black
(Gonadseereeeeae Testes | Ovaries Very minute
if present
Crosses of normals from the intersex stock
have made it possible to study the character.
The intersexes are modified females—2. e.,
they have two X-chromosomes. This is shown
by the fact that in cultures in which half of
the males show sex-linked recessive characters
but all the females are wild-type, the inter-
sexes néver show these sex-linked characters.
This relation has been found to hold true for
three sex-linked characters that are not closely
linked to each other; and the intersex gene
itself has been found not to be sex-linked (see
below). Therefore the relation just noted
ean not be due to linkage between the intersex
gene and the sex-linked genes in question.
Numerous crosses of the intersex stock to
unrelated stocks have never given intersexes
in F,, but have frequently produced them in
F,. The intersex character is therefore re-
cessive.
Pair matings that have produced intersexes
have given a total of 5102: 165 intersex: 7540.
There is an excess of males, but this is evi-
dently a 3:1 ratio of females to imtersexes,
indicating not only that the gene is recessive
but also that it is not sex-linked. The final
proof of the latter point has been obtained
through the discovery that the intersex gene
is linked to the autosomal recessive gene for
“plum” eye-color. Three F, pairs from a
mating between the intersex stock and the
plum stock have given in F,:
Females Intersexes Males
Wild-type Plum Wild-type Plum j|Wildtype| Plum
198 91 87
0 | 293 | 65
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
'Thes@S absence of the intersex plum class
shows that the two genes are linked; and plum
is known to be an autosomal recessive.
It has been shown by Morgan and Bridges?
that individuals of D. melanogaster? that are
partly male and partly female are produced,
though only rarely, by most stocks. These
“synandromorphs” have been shown, by gen-
etic evidence, to have two X-chromosomes in
their female parts and only one X in their
male parts. They are sex mosaics, and each
part develops as it would in a whole animal
of the same genetic constitution. There is
strong evidence that the intersexes described
here are not of this nature. The male and
female parts in them probably both possess
two X-chromosomes. This has been shown as
follows. A total of 104 intersexes have been
produced by females heterozygous for the sex-
linked gene for “yellow” hairs and bristles.
Half of these intersexes—about 50—must then
themselves have been heterozygous for yellow.
If the intersexes are really gynandromorphs,
the male parts at the posterior end of the
abdomen should have contained a single X-
chromosome, and in about half of the speci-
mens that were heterozygous for yellow (1. e.,
in about 25 individuals) this should have
been the yellow-bearing X. As Morgan and
Bridges have shown, these parts should then
have borne yellow hairs and bristles. The
104 intersexes were all carefully examined for
this point, and none of them had yellow male
parts.
We may conclude that the intersexes are
females, modified by a recessive autosomal
mutant gene that causes them to show male
parts, though these parts themselves still have
The normal sex-deter-
mining mechanism is not affected at all, but
the end result is modified by a gene that is
not even in the sex chromosomes. It has
two X-chromosomes.
2 Carnegie Inst. Washington (1919), publ. 278,
pp. 3-122.
3 I have unpublished data on exactly similar cases
in D. simulans itself.
Marcu 26, 1920]
been assumed by Goldschmidt, Hertwig,®
Banta,* and others working with intersexes
that in their animals the normal sex-deter-
mining mechanism itself was failing to func-
tion as usual. The present example shows
that such an assumption can not be accepted
without proof. A. H. Sturtevant
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION
THE ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF
SCIENCE
THE thirteenth annual meeting of the Illinois
State Academy of Science was held at Danville,
Illinois, February 20 and 21, 1920, under the presi-
dency of Dr. Henry B. Ward, of the University of
Tilinois.
The principal items of business transacted were
the following: The academy voted unanimously to
become affiliated with the American Association
for the Advancement of Science under the terms
adopted by the council of the association at the
St. Louis meeting. It was voted that one half-day
session of the next annual meeting be devoted to
section meetings and the following sections were
provided for: medicine and public health; biology
and agriculture; geology and geography; chemis-
try and physics; mathematics and allied sciences;
the science of education and education in science.
It was voted that the council of the academy be
empowered to select chairmen for these sections.
The committee appointed last year to secure affilia-
tion of science clubs in high schools with the acad-
emy reported five such clubs which had accepted
the terms of affiliation, two of these taking na-
tional membership under the plan of affiliation
with the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science.
In addition to the regular program of scientific
papers, Dr. Henry B. Ward, president of the acad-
emy delivered an illustrated lecture on Alaska.
The following officers were elected for the en-
suing year: Dr. Henry C. Cowles, University of
Chicago, president; Dr. Chas T. Knipp, University
of Illinois, vice-president; J. L. Pricer, State Nor-
mal University, Normal, secretary; Dr. W. G. Wat-
4 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (1916), 2, pp. 53-58;
Jour. Exper, Zool. (1917), 22, pp. 593-611, and
elsewhere.
5 Biol. Zentralbl. (1912), 32,
elsewhere.
6 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (1916), 2, pp. 578-583,
and (1918) 4, pp. 373-379.
p. 65-111, and
SCIENCE
327
erman, Northwestern University, treasurer. Dr, A.
R. Crook, State Museum, Springfield, is ex-officio
librarian of the academy, in charge of the sale of
back numbers of the transactions and of the ex-
change of current issues.
One hundred and five new members were elected
to the academy.
The following are the titles of the papers pre-
sented at the different sessions:
Development of smokeless fuel from Illinois coal:
Proressor S. W. Parr, University of Illinois,
Urbana.
Tastes and odors in the Danville water supply in the
summer of 1919: Dr. EDwarD Bartow and RB. E.
GREENFIELD, Illinois State Water Survey, Ur-
bana, and H. N. Eny, Superintendent, Interstate
Water Co., Danville.
A new test indicator for water analysis: R. EB.
GREENFIELD, Illinois State Water Survey, Ur-
bana,
The founding of sanitary districts: Dr, EDwarD
Bartow, Illinois State Water Survey, Urbana.
Some comments on the present status of tubercu-
losis: Dk. WALTER G. Bain, St. John’s Hospital,
Springfield. During the war, chief of the labora-
tory service of the U. S. Army General Hospital
No, 8.
Statistical study of the incidence and mortality of
influenza in Illinois: Dr. Henry B, HEMENWAY,
Division of Vital Statistics, State Department of
Public Health, Springfield.
Report of progress at Illinois State Museum: Dr.
A. R. Croox, chief of Division of State Museum,
Springfield.
Gaining and losing power: C. L. REDFIELD, Chi-
cago.
The progress of barberry eradication in Illinois:
L. R. TrHOoN, assistant pathologist, U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture.
Road oil and its uses: Dz. A. F. GmuMan, Illinois
Wesleyan University, Bloomington.
The absorbtion of oxides of nitrogen formed in si-
lent discharge: Dr. F. O. ANDEREGG, Purdue Uni-
versity, Lafayette, Ind.
A possible standard of sound; a further study of
wave form and operating conditions: Dr. CHAS.
T. Kyiep and C. J. Lapp, University of Llinois.
Evidence that catalase is the enzyme im animals
and plants, principally responsible for oxidation:
Dr. W. E. Burce, University of Illinois, Urbana.
New species of fossils from the Devonian lime-
stone in Rock Island County, Illinois: Dr. T. E.
SavaGE, University of Illinois, Urbana.
328
The formation of clay balds in arid lands: Dr. W.
H. Haas, Northwestern University, Evanston.
The intercision of Pike River near Kenosha, Wis.:
JouNn R. Batu, Northwestern University, Evans-
ton,
The effect of sewage and other pollution on animal
life of rivers and streams: Dr. FRANK COLLINS
Baker, curator of Natural History Museum, Uni-
versity of Illinois, Urbana.
A possible interpretation of the synchronous flash-
ing of fireflies: Dr. CHRISTIAN A. RUCKMICK,
University of Illinois, Urbana.
Animal physiological life histories and modern
methods of representing climate: Dr. V. E.
SHELFORD, Natural History Survey, University
of Illinois, Urbana.
Sexual dimorphism in the Acanthocephala: Dr. H.
J. VAN CLEAVE, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Notes on the life history of the Crane-fly of the
genus Geranomyia Haliday: C. P. ALEXANDER,
University of Illinois, Urbana.
A review of the species of water mites: Dr. RuTH
MarsHALL, Lane Technical High School, Chi-
cago. :
The morphology of the antorbital process in the
Urodeles: Gro. W. Hiecins, University of Illi-
nois, Urbana.
Some controlling factors in the use of fungous dis-
eases in combatting insect pests: Dr. R. D.
Guascow and C. §. Spoonrer, University of Illi-
nois, Urbana. °
A comparison of soil temperature in up-land and
bottom-land forests: Dr. W. B. McDoueau, Uni-
versity of Illinois, Urbana.
An effect of topography and exposure on plant dis-
tribution: Dr. H. S. PEroon, Lake View High
School, Chicago.
Topographic relief as a factor in plant succession:
Dr. Gro. D. Futter, University of Chicago, Chi-
cago.
On the plant ecology of Ogle County, Illinois: H.
DE Forest, introduced by Dr. Gro. D. FULLER,
University of Chicago, Chicago.
A note on the distribution of oaks in LaSalle
County: Dr. Gro. D. FuLLER, University of Chi-
cago,
Preserves for ecological study. (The work of the
Ecological Society of America’s committee) :
Dr. V. E. SHELFORD, University of Illinois, Ur-
bana,
Distribution of oaks on Lake Chicago beaches in
Evanston and New Trier Townships: Dr. W. G.
WATERMAN, Northwestern University, Evanston.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. LI. No. 1317
Forest distribution in northern Evanston and
southeastern New Trier Townships: LiLu1AN
MarGarITE Simmons, Northwestern University,
Evanston. (Introduced by Dr. W. G. WATER-
MAN.)
A probable cause of foot rot of wheat: Dr. F. L.
STEVENS and EH. DUNGAN, University of Illinois,
Urbana,
The sooty blotch of pome fruits: A. C. Cousy,
University of Illinois, Urbana.
The genus Septoria, presented in tabulation, with
discussion: PHILIP GARMAN and Dr. F. L.
STEVENS, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Forest types and forest associations: (a) From the
ecologist’s point of view: Dr. HENRY C. CowLEs,
University of Chicago, Chicago. (6b) From the
forester’s point of view: R. B. MiuuER, state for-
ester of Illinois, Urbana. General discussion, by
Dr. Gro. D. FULLER and Dr. A. G. VESTAL.
The cause of increased oxidation in the fertilized
egg: Dr. W. E. Burger, University of Illinois,
Urbana.
Notes on the life history of Psithyrus, an inquiline
in the nests of Bumblebees: THEODORE H. FRI-
son, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Cnidosporidia in the vicinity of Urbana: Dr. R.
Kuno, University of Illinois, Urbana.
The cultivation of Spirocheta Novyi without the
use of tissues from animal organs: C. H. BrH-
RENS, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.
The relation of legibility of the printed page to
reading: MADISON BENTLEY, University of Illi-
nois, Urbana,
The cumulative effects of rational wmcrements:
CoLEMAN R, GRIFFITH, University of Illinois, Ur-
bana,
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THE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF
MEDICINE
THAT all is not well with medical education
is obvious from the number of investigations,
addresses, polemics, plans and schemes which
at present center about this subject. In the
writer’s opinion the root of the difficulty lies
in tthe extremely close association which has
always existed and exists to-day between med-
ical education and practise, and in the idea
which generally prevails that the problems re-
lating to medical education and those having
to do with the practise of medicine are insep-
arable. While many persons admit for pur-
poses of discussion that a line of separation
exists between the science of medicine and the
art of the practise of medicine, yet when these
individuals begin to think in practical terms,
they fail to take this fact into consideration.
Indeed, in their inmost souls, most medical
men refuse to admit that medicine is a science,
or they think of the scientific side of the sub-
ject as something apart from medicine itself,
as though scientific medicine were simply the
group of underlying sciences upon which medi-
cine depends for sustenance. Even Sir Clit-
ford Allbutt, in his remarkable essay on the
“ New Birth of Medicine,” speaks of the new
birth as an “enlargement from an art of ob-
servation and empiricism to an applied sci-
ence .. ., from a craft of tradition and sagac-
ity to an applied science.” Why is it that we
can conceive of medicine only as an applica-
tion of science to an “ art” or “ craft,” and not
as a new, real and independent science replac-
ing an obsolete mass of tradition and empir-
icism ?
It is true that the science of medicine is in
the process of making—but so is every other
science. There is no such thing as a rounded,
completed or finished science. At any given
time any science is but the result of all previ-
ous attempts to arrange in order and to explain
330
the facts and phenomena relating to some field
of knowledge which is more or less definitely
outlined, and which is large enough and im-
portant enough to deserve such treatment. As
new facts are constantly being discovered in
all realms of knowledge, all sciences are in a
constant state of development.
The abnormalities and functional disturb-
ances of man surely constitute a large and im-
portant field of human interest. Marked ad-
vances in knowledge concerning the phenom-
ena and nature of disease have already been
made, especially in recent years, and this
knowledge is constantly being arranged, and
the phenomena are being studied in ‘their re-
lation to each other and to other phenomena.
Medicine, then, is developing just as other sci-
ences have done and are doing; its subject-mat-
ter is receiving the same kind of treatment that
is succeeding in other domains of human
knowledge. Therefore, on account of the im-
portance of the subject, and because of the
advances which have already occurred in our
knowledge concerning disease and the prog-
ress which has been made in the scientific
treatment of this knowledge, medicine deserves
to rank as an independent science.
If physiology may be an independent science,
if anatomy may be an independent science,
why not medicine? Why should medicine be
only an applied science, any more than anat-
omy or physiology? Anatomical and physio-
logical knowledge may be applied to practical
affairs as well as medical knowledge. Why
should medicine be inseparably associated with
the doctor’s consulting room any more than
anatomy with the surgeon’s operating room or
the artist’s studio ?
Since definition is more important than argu-
ment, let us consider what we mean by medi-
cine, or better, the science of medicine. First,
let us consider what it is not. It is not anat-
omy, it is not physiology, for these sciences
deal with the normal or healthy; it is not
pharmacology, strictly speaking, for as this sci-
ence has so far developed, it has dealt with the
nature of drugs and their action on normal
animals. These sciences, however, together
with such fundamental sciences as chemistry
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1318
and physics, are frequently spoken of as the
medical sciences, the institutes of medicine, or
indeed collectively as the science of medicine.
To define exactly what medicine is is not
easy. Medicine deals with disease, the anti-
thesis of health; it deals with the abnormal, the
departure from the average. When we come to
consider whether medicine includes all aspects
of disease, or only certain ones, we meet with
difficulties. The accepted use of the term does
not aid us, for there is no universally accepted
use, even among the most strict and thoughtful
men. The dictionaries define medicine as the
science and art dealing with the prevention,
cure or alleviation of disease. Pathology, on
the other hand, is defined as the science treat-
ing of the nature, causes, progress, mantfesta-
tions and results of disease. According to the
definitions, therefore, pathology has to do with
the nature of disease, medicine with the appli-
cation of that knowledge. That these defini-
tions are purely academic, however, and not
real, is made evident by referring to the text-
books dealing with these subjects, for we must
consider that the text-books of the day present
not only the accumulated knowledge concern-
ing the subjects treated, but also the contempo-
rary conception of the boundaries of these sub-
jects.
If we refer to any text-book on medicine,
whether it be labelled practical medicine, the
practise of medicine, or merely medicine, and
look up any disease, it will be found that nine
tenths of the subject-matter deals with the
“nature, causes, progress, manifestations and
results” of the disease, under the headings
etiology, symptomatology, complications, prog-
nosis and so forth, and only one tenth deals
with prevention and cure. On the other hand,
most text-books of pathology do not treat of the
“nature, causes, progress and manifestations ”
of disease at all; they consider only the morph-
ologic changes resulting from disease. It is
evident, therefore, that the definitions of
pathology and medicine quoted above are obso-
lete, even though practitioners of medicine
may not take cognizance of the fact. In my
opinion, the old implied distinction between
pathology and medicine has had a blighting
Apri 2, 1920]
effect upon the development of medicine as a
science. Twenty-five years ago, however, it
became dimly recognized that this distinction
between medicine and pathology is not a real
one, at least that pathological anatomy is an
essential part of the science of medicine. The
improvement in the teaching of medicine
which occurred at that time ‘and the resulting
increase in medical knowledge may be directly
traced to this new conception.
It is of importance that medicine should now
be generally recognized as an independent sci-
ence, just as physiology and anatomy are in-
dependent sciences. Medicine may then be
defined as the science dealing with the phenom-
ena of disease.
Let us grant now that there is or may be a
science dealing with disease. How can this
science best be fostered and how can this new
science be most effectively utilized? As our
medical schools are now organized, they are
composed, on the one hand, of a group of de-
partments devoted to the teaching and develop-
ment of the so-called contributing sciences,
anatomy, physiology and pharmacology; and
on the other hand, of a large group of distinct
departments, the chief function of which is to
train men for the practise of medicine. As I
have previously stated, however, anatomy,
physiology and pharmacology have only the
same relation to medicine that chemistry and
physics have to anatomy and physiology. That
the departments of anatomy, physiology and
pharmacology are not independent university
departments, but are included in the medical
school, is in my opinion only accidental and is
not an essential condition for the development
either of these sciences or of medicine. The
inclusion of these departments in the medical
school has occurred chiefly because almost all
the students working in them expect later to
study medicine. Not so many years ago, how-
ever, practically all students of chemistry like-
wise expected to study medicine, and in many
colleges the department of chemistry was also
included in the medical school. To-day only
a relatively small number of the students of
chemistry look forward to the study of medi-
cine, and in consequence, the department of
SCIENCE
dol
chemistry constitutes a part of the medical
school in only a very few universities.
The present organization of the medical
school, therefore, has been largely influenced by
expediency and by the effort to obtain econ-
omy in administration. With a satisfactory
university administration, the department of
medicine (and under this term I include all
the departments of the medical school that are
engaged in the study of disease) might per-
fectly well constitute the whole medical school,
probably with considerable advantage to the
departments of anatomy and physiology.
With the present laws governing medical prac-
tise, however, it is necessary that the grouping
of various departments into medical schools
be continued. There is no serious disadvantage
in this so long as there is a full realization of
the reasons for this grouping, and so long as
the relation of the various departments to each
other and to the university, and especially the
relation of the department of medicine to the
university, is kept clearly in mind.
During the past fifty years a marked im-
provement has 'taken place in the departments
which are concerned with the so-called con-
tributing sciences. In many schools these de-
partments now rank among the strongest uni-
versity departments, both in the quality of the
instruction and in the contributions which
they make to the advancement of knowledge.
One of the most important of the factors
which have contributed to this improvement
has ‘been the release of these departments from
the restrictions imposed upon them by those
engaged in the practise of medicine. No
longer are the teachers themselves practitioners
of medicine, no longer is the efficiency of the
department judged entirely by the contribu-
tions made to the immediate demands of prac-
tise. That is, they have become true univer-
sity departments.
The department concerned with medicine,
however, has not developed in the same way.
There the demands of practise and the needs of
practitioners are still the controlling factors in
organization and development. As one result
of this there has been developed within the de-
partment of medicine numerous branches hay-
302
ing little coherence and no general guiding
principle of organization or function. In many
schools some of these branches have become
much more important than the parent stem,
both as regards resources and as regards the
character of the work which is undertaken.
There are departments of surgery, of ortho-
pedics, of psychiatry, of genito-urinary dis-
eases, of gastro-intestinal diseases, of pedia-
trics, of ophthalmology, of dermatology, of
laryngology, of endocrinology, of elecerothera-
peutics, and so forth, and so on. Some of these
departments, owing to the skill and prominence
of the professors in practise, have acquired
buildings and equipment of greater extent than
the educational importance of the subjects war-
rants, and of far greater extent than the scien-
tific development of these subjects justifies.
It is true that one additional circumstance
has contributed to this extensive partitioning of
the department of medicine. Most universities
and medical schools have been compelled to
employ general hospitals for teaching purposes,
hospitals which were primarily planned and
organized to care for the sick poor. Now,
within limits, the larger the general hospital,
the more efficiently and economically it can
be conducted, and in the medical and surgical
treatment of large numbers of persons, a high
degree of specialization has been found to be
most effective. It does not follow, however,
that the same principles which should apply to
the organization of a general hospital should
also apply to the organization of a clinic de-
signed primarily for investigation and teach-
ing, merely because both have one function in
common, namely, the care and treatment of the
sick. The university department of medicine
has an added function, the investigation of
disease and the teaching of students, and if a
general hospital is to serve this added func-
tion, its organization must be modified accord-
ingly.
In the efforts which have been made to im-
prove the teaching of medicine, not infre-
quently that division of medicine having to do
with the study of so-called internal diseases
has received the least and last consideration.
These diseases, however, because of the suffer-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1318
ing and loss of life which result from them.
are of far more practical importance than any
other group of diseases. Of much more sig-
nificance than this, at least from the educa-
tional standpoint, is the fact that the diseases
of internal medicine are the ones which are
most susceptible to scientific study, and thus
far they’ are the principal diseases to which
modern scientific methods of investigation have
been applied. They are therefore the diseases
with which the student of medicine should be
chiefly concerned during his earlier years. It
is in the study of 'these diseases that the stu-
dent should develop his perspective and should
obtain a knowledge of the methods which
should be employed in the study of all other
diseases. For this reason, in writing the fol-
lowing discussion of the department of medi-
cine as a whole, I have had the division of in-
ternal medicine chiefly in mind, for this di-
vision should be a pattern for all the others.
Bearing in mind our definition of medicine
and the conception of the boundaries of the
department of medicine which we have adopted,
let us consider what we mean by a university
department of medicine. It is a department
designed for the purpose of studying and in-
vestigating diseases, of accumulating and dis-
tributing the existing knowledge concerning
disease and of contributing to the extension of
this knowledge.
What is needed to create a university de-
partment? Exactly the same materials that
are required in every other scientific depart-
ment of the university—men, laboratories and
books; and the most important of these is men.
By men I mean students, of various grades.
Some, the more advanced, we call teachers;
the others, less developed, we call students; but
they must all be constantly acquiring knowl-
edge or the department is a failure. More-
over, the essential requirements for admission
must be the same for teachers and students,
though differing in degree. They must all
have the desire for acquiring knowledge, they
must have the desire to add to knowledge, and
they must have the training and ability to
enable them to carry out their desires. While
all science is complex and all sciences are mu-
APRIL 2, 1920]
tually dependent, medicine seems the most com-
plex of all. To know the abnormal we must
have knowledge of the normal. That is, what-
ever is known of structure of the human body
and the little that is known of function must
be available. Im other words, knowledge con-
cerning anatomy and physiology must be in
the possession of every student, and knowledge
of these sciences requires knowledge of chem-
istry and physics. These are well-recognized
facts that need not be dwelled upon further.
Are men available for such a department, as
teachers and students, men who are interested
in the study of disease and who desire -to in-
erease the knowledge concerning disease with-
out any other material reward than the re-
wards of the student and scholar? Or has
scholarship gone out of fashion? Or is this
such an uninteresting subject that no men can
be found to undertake its study?. As long as
men will study the stars with scientific meth-
ods, as long as men will study the stones with
scientific methods, men will be found to study
disease. The men are ready and waiting, the
opportunity only is needed.
The second essential is laboratories. The
astronomer must have his telescope through
which to observe the stars; he must also have
his chemical and his physical laboratories.
The student of medicine must also have his
observatory, the hospital, and in this he should
also have laboratories—his laboratories—and
not be a guest or intruder in laboratories be-
longing to other scientifie workers—chemists,
physiologists or others. It is just as impos-
sible that the science of medicine can be stud-
ied at the bedside alone, where only superficial
observation is possible, or that it can be
studied only in the laboratory, where disease
as it occurs in man is never present, as that
astronomy can reach its highest development
by observation through the telescope alone, or
by spectroscopic and chemical studies alone.
It is not uncommon that the contributing sci-
ences in the medical school are spoken of as
the laboratory branches and the medical di-
visions are spoken of as the clinical branches.
This in my opinion reflects the mistaken opin-
ion which prevails concerning the nature and
SCIENCE
339
proper methods of the study of medicine. For
the development and teaching of medicine,
laboratories are as essential as they are for the
study of physiology. But if they are to be
used, they must be in close proximity to the
wards, and they must be so arranged and or-
ganized that the work in the laboratories and
in the wards can go on simultaneously and
harmoniously in both. This conception of the
hospital, however, is rare even among those
who take the most advanced views concerning
medical education. I know of one university
hospital which is being planned before the
professors or staff that are to work in it have
been appointed. No architect or hospital sup-
erintendent can possibly accomplish this task.
For instance, the superintendent of a general
hospital must, of necessity, take an entirely
different view of a hospital from the one
which has been sketched. It would be just as
sensible to have a foreman of a machine shop
design a laboratory for the department of phys-
ics as to have a hospital superintendent design
a university hospital. In each case the super-
intendent or foreman might be of great assist-
ance and give useful suggestions, but he would
be as incapable of conceiving the purpose, and
therefore of working out the idea, in the one
case las in the other.
It can not be denied that it will be expen-
sive to install in each clinic of the hospital
well-equipped laboratories in which the varie-
ties of technique already developed in bacter-
iology, physiology and chemistry, can be used,
and in which entirely new methods may be de-
vised. This is essential, however, if the sci-
ence of medicine is to develop. In a given
clinic probably all the laboratories would not
at any one time be of equal importance. In
each clinic the development would probably be
mainly along special lines. If the division of
internal medicine, for instance, was a large
one, there might be several clinics or units, in
one of which the chief attention would be
given to one variety of disease, in another, to
another variety. In the study of human dis-
ease, however, much is gained in economy and
effectiveness if studies take not only one, but
several directions at the same time. The sub-
334
jects studied are so complex that it is wasteful
to confine an investigation to a single narrow
path. Thus in studying a group of patients
suffering from an infectious disease, it is fre-
quently important that they be studied not only
from the standpoint of etiology, in which the
chief work will be done in the bacteriological
laboratory of the clinic, but it may be of great
importance that, at the same time, alterations
in metabolism and disturbances in function of
the circulatory and respiratory systems be in-
vestigated, in which case the laboratory and
technique of physiology or possibly of physics
will be required, and on the same patients
chemical studies of the blood or excretions may
be valuable, all of which must be carried out
in the special laboratories of the clinic. By
carrying out all these procedures on the same
patients, not only is expense saved, but each
observation gains much in importance by being
supplemented by the others.
_ In the university department of medicine
there should not only be facilities for studying
disease as it occurs in man, but there should
also be facilities for carrying out experimental
studies on animals. In many cases only by
animal experimentation can the suggestions
obtained from detailed observations on patients
be confirmed or disproved.
With regard to the library, little need be
‘said here except that it must be alive, not dead.
The above is my conception in brief of the
essentials of a department of medicine in a
university. Grant a central concept such as
this on which to build, and it will not be diffi-
cult to elaborate the details, at least it will not
be impossible. For instance, let us consider
the number and kinds of the divisions into
which any given department of medicine shall
be divided, or in other words, the kinds of dis-
eases for the study of which special clinics
shall be provided. There can be little question
that the diseases spoken of as surgical (be-
cause operative technique is employed in treat-
ing them) are of such great importance and
the technique of their therapy has become so
specialized, that one or more clinics of the de-
partment should be devoted to the study of
these diseases. This does not mean, however,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1318
that the methods employed in studying these
diseases differ from those used in studying any
other group of diseases. Exophthalmic goiter
is the same disease whether we treat it by re-
moval of the thyroid or by rest and drugs.
Whether we call the professor who studies
especially those diseases in which the chief
therapeutic procedures are operative, a pro-
fessor of surgery or a professor of medicine, is
unimportant so far as the principle is con-
cerned. His methods should be those of the
professor of medicine as I have sketched him,
and the surgical clinic should be exactly like
the medical clinic with the addition of facili-
ties for employing complicated operative pro-
cedures. The same principle should also
govern the organization of the division of
pediatrics or any other one of the divisions into
which it is decided to separate the department
of medicine.
_ The exact number of divisions in any de-
partment of medicine will have to depend upon
the men and resources available and upon the
contemporary state of knowledge concerning
the various groups of diseases, and upon the
immediate importance of increasing this
knowledge. There seems to be no good reason,
however, for dividing the department of medi-
cine into a great number of divisions and sub-
divisions. Indeed, from the educational stand-
point very great disadvantages are inherent in
this method, owing to the scattering of interest
which results. The efficiency of a department
of medicine does not depend upon the number
of its clinics or instructors, or upon the va-
riety of subjects treated. The attempt to pre-
sent to the student every known fact and
theory concerning disease and to exhibit to
him examples of every known form of disease
only causes him to become confused and be-
wildered. What is much needed at present in
medical education is the elimination of the
unessential and the untrue. No student can
be expected to learn all that has been thought
about disease and all the theories that have
been proposed. He should have, however, op-
portunities to learn what is actually known
about important diseases and to receive the
APRIL 2, 1920]
kind of training that will enable him to dis-
criminate between the true and the false.
A further detail of the organization of the
department of medicine concerns its relation
to the department of pathological anatomy.
From what has been previously stated, it is ob-
vious that the department of pathological
anatomy should constitute an integral part of
the department of medicine. The laboratory
of pathological anatomy should be closely con-
nected geographically, as well as in organiza-
tion, with each one of the clinics. It should
not be a block or a mile away from the clinics,
or even in an isolated building on the hospital
grounds. It should be physically a part of the
department of medicine. There would be a
great advantage in having at all times at least
one assistant from each clinic acting as a
member of the pathological staff. Each of
these assistants should be engaged, under the
direction of the professor of pathological anat-
omy, in studying and teaching the anatomical
changes resulting from the special group of
diseases which is being studied in the clinic
which the represents. On the other hand, the
professor of pathological anatomy should be a
member of the administrative staff of the de-
partment of medicine. The effect of such an
association as I have described would not only
be of great educational value, but I believe that
it would bring about a “new birth” of patho-
logical anatomy.
The objection will probably be raised by
some that, although the introduction of the
proposed principles and plans into the depart-
ment of medicine might result in a greater
and more rapid accumulation of knowledge
concerning disease, it would have no immedi-
ate effect upon society at large or upon the
practise of medicine. If this were so, the
value of the plan might be questioned, though
I would not go so far as to deny its value even
under these circumstances. I assume, however,
that one of the most important functions of
the department of medicine must be to train
men in order that they may become capable
practitioners of medicine. Now the practise
of medicine, or the practical application of the
SCIENCE
335
science of medicine, may be considered to be
directed in several lines:
1. Prevention of disease or decay.
2. Diagnosis, care of the sick and alleviation
of pain.
3. Cure of disease.
At the present time the first function of the
practising physician is exercised in a very
minor degree. The medical schools take little
cognizance of it. Therefore we may omit dis-
cussion of it here, though in my opinion it is
the most important of the three, and the de-
partment I have in mind would exert great
effort upon the development and extension of
this function.
The second important function of the prac-
tising physician is to make diagnoses, that is,
to bring the particular symptoms from which
a patient suffers and the most striking fea-
tures of his malady into relation with a group
of symptoms and signs which have already
been described and given the name of a disease.
This is of great importance from the stand-
point both of prognosis and treatment. Orig-
inally the classification of disease was empir-
ical; later it was founded, in part on an ana-
tomical, in part on an etiological basis, and in
part merely on the presence of some striking
feature. There is much that is empirical,
superficial and traditional in this subject;
nevertheless, in the present state of the science,
it is important. The physician, therefore, must
be trained in the methods of diagnosis. He
must be trained in the method of Zadig.
There are many tricks, short cuts and simpli-
fied methods in diagnosis with which the prac-
tising physician should be familiar, though
they have not an essential place in the funda-
mental science of medicine.
At present, however, the chief efforts of the
department of internal medicine in our medical
schools are directed towards the cultivation of
diagnostic skill in the student. Much time is
frequently devoted to the recognition of some
rare disease, even though only a half dozen
cases have ever been recognized and although
nothing essential about the disease itself is
known. Indeed the more unusual the special
group of signs and symptoms, the more im-
336
portant does it seem to become. An analogy
may be drawn to the state of affairs lately ex-
isting in botany when the chief attention was
given to the classification and naming of
plants. We now know that this is only a part,
and a relatively unimportant part; of the sci-
ence of botany. A man may still be a great
botanist even though on walking through a
field he may not be able to name correctly
every plant or tree which he meets. While
diagnosis in medicine is important, its position
in the educational scheme is misplaced. In-
stead of placing it at the beginning of the
study of medicine, it should come later, after a
knowledge of the more fundamental principles
of medical science has been acquired. If a
student knows much about a few of the com-
mon, more important forms of disease, the rec-
ognition of the rare forms will be relatively
easy.
Another function of the practising physician
is the care of the-sick and the relief of pain,
mental and physical. Part of this labor is
borne by the nurse, but the physician must
bear the larger share, and if he is able to
analyze disturbances in function, he is often-
times able to bring relief even though he can
not cure.
' One of the chief efforts of the physician is
to establish a feeling of confidence in the
patient and in the family, and to relieve
anxiety. ‘The success of this effort depends
largely on personality, but consciousness of
real knowledge is a most important factor con-
tributing to such an inspiring personal rela-
tionship.
In our present system the student learns
less about therapeutics than about any other
feature of disease. For a system of education
that claims to be essentially practical, it ob-
tains most impractical results. However much
we may rail at the ineffectiveness of treatment
—and the best practitioners are accustomed to
do this—there are at least a few therapeutic
measures that are of great effectiveness and a
few diseases over which the physician has abso-
lute control. Yet how little does the student
actually learn during his student days of the
really practical methods of employing these
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1318
measures! How ill prepared he is to meet
actual conditions, unless the procedures to be
employed are of the greatest simplicity!
By present methods, therefore, students are
not well trained, even in the elements of prac-
tise, except as concerns diagnosis. They
should be better trained for practise.
In order to judge of the probable effect of
the proposed plan, not only on the development
of the science of medicine, but on the practise
of medicine as well, let us sketch briefly the
proposed organization of the division of in-
ternal medicine and the nature of the work
which it is intended should be carried on.
The number of clinics which compose the
division of internal medicine will depend upon
the funds and men available and upon the size
of the university or school. Each clinic, how-
ever, should have, let us say, a hundred or a
hundred and fifty beds, its own independent
laboratories equipped for the prosecution of
chemical, physical, physiological and bacterio-
logical studies, as well as laboratories for
pathological anatomy and facilities for animal
experimentation. The number of students ad-
mitted should be limited; these students should
have had a general college, scientific training,
preferably with specialization in chemistry,
physics or biology. Before admission to the
department of medicine, they should have stud-
ied anatomy, physiology and _ bacteriology.
This work may have been done in any univer-
sity. The custom of studying one subject in
one university, and another subject in another
university, should be encouraged. This would
result in bringing into the department meth-
ods and points of view derived from many
sources.
The teachers should be carefully chosen
young men who have had a good training in
clinical methods and who are also well
grounded in at least one of the contributing
sciences, some in chemistry, some in physiol-
ogy and so forth. Before appointment, they
should have given evidence of ability not only
to teach but also to aid in extending the boun-
daries of medical knowledge. In this depart-
ment brief courses should be given in the meth-
ods for observing and recording the more
APRIL 2, 1920]
superficial features of disease, history-taking,
physical diagnosis, X-ray examination, ete.
There should also be courses in pathological
anatomy, including study of the blood and
other tissues that can be obtained during life,
courses dealing with the application of physio-
logical and chemical methods to the study of
disease, and courses devoted to the study of
the pathogenic bacteria and other parasites.
Ais soon as possible, the students should begin
the actual study of disease as it occurs in the
patient, and the results as seen at autopsy.
The students should spend a large part of their
time in the wards and laboratories, making
their study at first hand and relating all that
they do to actual cases of disease. Reading
must be encouraged and the student should be
urged to consult original sources. It might be
advisable to have the student devote a given
period of his course to the study of infectious
diseases, during which period much of his
time would be spent in the bacteriological and
pathological laboratories of the clinic. In
another period the time would be spent mainly
in the study of so-called diseases of metabolism,
during which period he would have his work-
ing place and spend much time in the chemical
laboratory of the clinic.
During his course the student should make
an intensive study of at least one disease, ma-
king an attempt to learn all that is known
about that disease, repeating with his own
hands the important steps which have led to
present knowledge, and if possible, he should
add something, however slight, to existing
knowledge concerning this disease. By means
of seminars and conferences, both at the bed-
side and in the laboratory, each student would
at all times be kept in touch with the work of
all the other men in the clinic—students and
teachers. The student would himself become
an instructor of his fellow workers. The teach-
ers would be engaged in directing and assist-
ing the students in this work and in carrying
out their own investigations.
At the end of two years the student would
have acquired a great deal of knowledge about
a considerable number of diseases, their pre-
vention, nature, causes and treatment, and
SCIENCE
337
would be well trained in the methods of study-
ing disease. He would also be familiar with
the methods and principles of diagnosis.
It may be true that the department of medi-
cine I have sketched will not provide the stu-
dent with the wide experience with disease in
its various manifestations which would make
him an able practitioner. But even with pres-
ent educational methods, no one assumes that
immediately after a student obtains his de-
gree he is a capable, or even a satisfactory
practitioner of medicine. It will be asked,
where, under the system proposed, will the stu-
dent get this wider experience and practise in
technique. He will get it exactly where he
gets it now, in the hospital year or years, or
where he used to get it, in actual practise.
No better system for producing good work-
men, be they physicians or bricklayers, has been
devised than the apprentice system. It is of
great importance, therefore, that a good ex-
ample be set in the hospitals in which students
obtain experience and skill in the practical
application of medical principles; this is al-
most as important as it is that the work in
the university should be of the right kind.
While the hospital can only occasionally and
with difficulty make good practitioners of men
who have had little or poor training in the
science of medicine, it can very easily ruin
men, however well they may have been funda-
mentally trained. There will always be the
opportunity and need for good practitioners
who teach by example. The preceptor system
is of great value in its proper place. The
trouble with the present system of medical
education is that it consists almost exclusively
of the old preceptor system employed in a
wholesale and frequently inefficient manner.
Modern developments require for medical edu-
cation a scientific basis, with a final polish
added by a preceptor system correctly applied.
The question will now be asked: Should the
professors of medicine in the university de-
partment of medicine be trained in clinical
medicine, or may they be men who have been
trained only in physiological methods or chem-
ical methods, or who have had experience with
disease only as it occurs in experimental ani-
338
mals? In my opinion, the professor of medi-
cine must be prepared to study the symptoms
and the more superficial manifestations of
disease as seen in patients, as well as to carry
on complicated laboratory investigations. It
is chiefly through the observations of patients
that clues are obtained as to the proper direc-
tion the more complicated studies should take.
Tt is true that much knowledge concerning dis-
ease has been obtained by bedside study alone.
In the present state of the science of medicine,
however, this method of study is now relatively
unproductive, and unless combined with more
elaborate and complicated methods is likely to
result chiefly in the elaboration of theories.
While theories are of importance in the study
of disease, just as they are in all scientific in-
quiry, they are of little value, until tested by
experiment.
An additional reason why professors of medi-
cine should have a wide knowledge of disease
as it occurs in man is that they will themselves
have to be responsible for the care and treat-
ment of human beings sick of disease. It is
essential not only that no harm come to the
patients who are the objects of study but that
everything possible be done to bring every one
to a state of health, or as near that as possible.
To avoid the necessity of having as teachers
of the science of medicine only such men as
have enjoyed a wide experience with disease in
all its forms and who possess a knowledge of
the craft or art of practise, two makeshifts
have already been attempted. One expedient
has been to have men skilled in practical medi-
cine take over the actual care of the patients,
while the real studies are made by those who
have special knowledge of one of the sciences,
but who have no knowledge of practise, pos-
sibly no knowledge of disease. For instance,
the physiologist is invited into the clinic to
make observations or studies on certain cases.
In some instances this method has no doubt
led to advances in knowledge. It has distinct
limitations, however. Oftentimes the facts ac-
cumulated in this way have very little immedi-
ate practical significance, whereas if the ob-
servations had been made by persons properly
trained in medicine, possibly only a slight
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1318
modification in the methods employed would
have made the data obtained of great practical
value. Combined investigation such as this
has made little impression on the method of
study of disease or on the men who are con-
stantly engaged in the study or practise of
medicine. Indeed it has a blighting effect on
the scientific aspirations or scholarly ambitions
of the men in the department of medicine.
Specialists in the various branches of science
ean always be employed in the university
department of medicine to give advice, to
assist, and even to share in investigations, but
the department will reach its greatest effective-
ness only when the men engaged in teaching
medicine and in investigating disease have not
only a wide knowledge of disease as it occurs
in man, but special training in one or more of
the so-called contributing sciences as well.
The second expedient is to establish in con-
nection with the medical school a department
of experimental medicine, or research medi-
cine. This is neither sound in theory nor ef-
fective in practise. It is better than nothing,
but its establishment in a medical school means
that the teaching of medicine will go on in the
same old way, although a certain amount of
reputation may accrue to the school from the
fact that investigations are carried on within
its walls. The employment of this makeshift
has arisen from a disinclination to make any
fundamental change in the old order, while
recognizing that change is necessary. It arises
from the recognition by those already engaged
in teaching that they are not prepared to adopt
new methods. These teachers do not object,
however, to grafting a new department on the
old one, so long as they personally retain their
old prestige and perquisites. In certain
schools, both in this country and in Europe, it
has been proposed to divide the medical school
clinics into several units, one or more of these
units to retain their old character, more or less
obviously, one or more to be organized into so-
called full-time or university clinics, the latter
term being the one which I prefer because it
puts the emphasis upon the character of the
work. If certain schools want to try out this
method, one can not object. It is very doubt-
APRIL 2, 1920]
ful, however, whether the need for reform can
be met in this manner and it seems that the
reorganization of the medical teaching in such
a half-hearted way is almost bound to result
in failure.
It will be noted that up to the present I have
not mentioned full-time or part-time employ-
ment as applied to teachers. With the concep-
tion of a department such as I have tried to
present, this question settles itself. To make
scientific progress requires all of the time of
the most able-bodied and able-minded men that
we now possess. We are not discussing a prac-
tical trade school, but a scientific university
department dealing with one of the most in-
teresting, the most important and the most
complex branches of human knowledge. Could
any teacher engaged in this great work want
to neglect it to engage in a practical pursuit
for money? If so, he has no place in this in-
stitution. If public humanitarian appeals
should sometimes call him away from his hos-
pital and laboratory, probably that would be
good for him. In any case, it does not seem
that we need to worry that this will interfere
too much with his work, unless human nature
changes.
The very important question may now be
raised whether the proposed plan would not
have exactly the opposite effect on the develop-
ment of the science of medicine from that in-
tended. If men in the departments of physi-
ology and anatomy and the other contributing
sciences should no longer engage in the solu-
tion of medical problems, would not the re-
sult be disastrous? It is not intended, how-
ever, that the organization of the department
of medicine in the manner described would
prevent men in any other department of the
university from undertaking the solution of
medical problems. Men in the department of
physiology have been known to contribute to
anatomical knowledge and the investigations
in the department of anatomy are not infre-
quently directed toward the solution of physio-
logical questions. It is to be hoped and ex-
pected that in the future as in the past all the
departments of biological and physical and
chemical science will bring contributions to
SCIENCE
339
medicine. The fact that the department of
medicine is itself investigating the problems
of disease need have no deterring influence on
these other departments; indeed this fact would
undoubtedly increase the interest of the other
departments in medical science. On the other
hand, the university medical clinic might itself
become a contributor to these other sciences.
For instance, it will not infrequently happen
that in order to approach, its own problems, the
medical clinic may first have to undertake the
solution of problems which are commonly
studied in the chemical laboratory or the
physiological laboratory, and so on. Indeed,
under certain circumstances it may be neces-
sary to devise new bacteriological or chemical
methods or new physical apparatus. Neither
the student of medicine nor the student of
any other ‘branch of science should be re-
stricted in his methods; though the student of
medicine may not lose sight of the fact, that
however far off his goal, his ultimate concern
is with the problems of disease.
I firmly believe that if a department of medi-
cine such as has been described were estab-
lished in a first-class university, a greater ad-
vance would be made in medical teaching and
in medical science and practise than was made
in this country twenty-five years ago.
The one essential premise is that there ex-
ists or can be created such a thing as a science
of medicine. If this is true, this science can
best be fostered by giving it a place in which
it can grow unhampered by the restrictions of
practise. Medicine must be regarded as a real
science, not an “ applied science.” The proper
‘applications are important but in this place
they should not dominate.
Let us labor to place the teaching of medicine in
its true position. Let us emancipate the student,
and give him time and opportunity for the cultiva-
tion of his mind, so that in his pupilage he shall
not be a puppet in the hands of others, but rather
a self-relying and reflecting being. Let us ever
foster the general education in preference to the
special training, not ignoring the latter, but seeing
that it be not thrust upon a mind uncultivated or
degraded. Let us strive to encourage every means
of large and liberal education in the true sense of
340
the term, and so help to place and sustain our noble
profession in the position which it ought to occupy.
(William Stokes, 1861.)
Rurus Cour
HOSPITAL OF THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE,
New York City
RAYMOND B. EARLE?
We unveil this portrait of Professor Earle,
the gift of his wife to Hunter College, not
because those of us who were so fortunate as
to know him, ever need any portrait to keep
his memory living in our hearts. That be-
loved memory is too securely enshrined. We
have no need for ourselves, to recount his suc-
cesses or his charm. But for the sake of
those who did not know him, memory lingers
now a moment to view some of the sources
and manifestations of his power.
Born in Massachusetts of an old and honor-
able line, his first ancestor here, Ralph Earle,
came from England in that stirring seven-
teenth century which planted this new-world
republic, and that name is still borne in the
family by his brother Ralph Earle, now almost
300 years later.
In his youth our Professor Raymond Earle
felt the charm of nature; began to make col-
lections of specimens; and pressing on to Col-
lege, studied geology at Harvard under the
inspiration of Professor Shaler, an influence
which never left him, and was always an
ideal. Taking his A.B. degree at Harvard in
1900, his Se.B., 1901 he followed with his
Se.M., 1912 and Se.D., 1918, at New York
University, after a period spent as a lawyer
and economist geologist.
At New York University he taught, 1911-
1913, in the department of geology under Pro-
fessor J. E. Woodman. To Hunter College he
came in 1918, becoming associate professor of
geology, and building up what became by 1917
one of the largest of geology departments
among colleges for women. He had just be-
gun his sixth year here, in the prime of vigor
1 Memorial address at Hunter College, New York
City, by Edward S. Burgess, on the unveiling of a
portrait of his associate, Professor Harle, March 1,
1920.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1318
and only the forty-first year of his age, at the
time of his sudden death of pneumonia, No-
vember 10, 1918.
He was equally at home in geology or in
physical or economic geography. His re-
search specialty had been in iron ores, with
other investigations local to the Hudson. He
was especially successful as a teacher in arous-
ing and sustaining the enthusiasm of his stu-
dents in his subject. He also carried over the
benefits of his legal training and practise into
the applications of his science. He was an
extensive traveller, alone, or later. with parties,
conducting the latter with the purpose of giy-
ing scientifie and educational views of our
country, particularly in California and Alaska.
He kept up his interest in a wide field of na-
ture; his collections of birds’ eggs is now at
Hunter College, and many anthropological col-
lections of Indian stone tools and weapons,
pigmy bird-points of exquisite work, etc.
He was an organizer and the first director
of the summer session of Hunter College, and
a founder of the Physiographer’s Club of New
York City. He also gave public lectures here
and elsewhere through the State.
A reader and forceful speaker, a skilled or-
ganizer, an intuitive discerner of human na-
ture, Professor Earle was an unusually happy
combination of the qualities which insure suc-
cess. To them he added the attraction of his
frank, genial, sociable, daily life at college;
and at home there followed the fitting seal to
his day, when in true fulfilment of his quiet
but deep religious nature he gathered his little
family around the evening table, and gave
thanks to the Divine Giver for the blessings of
the day.
RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF
MEMBERS OF THE MELLON
INSTITUTE
Tue following resolutions have been adopted
by the Robert Kennedy Duncan Club, the
organization of the Industrial Fellows of the
Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of the
University of Pittsburgh, on the death of
three members of the Institute, viz.: Dr.
David Shepard Pratt (d. Jan. 28), for three
Apri 2, 1920]
years, until January 1, 1920, an assistant di-
rector; Dr. Francis Clifford Phillips (d. Feb.
16), emeritus professor of chemistry at the
University of Pittsburgh; and Dr. Leonard
Merritt Liddle (d. Feb. 21), since 1913 an
industrial fellow.
Wuerzas, Dr, David Shepard Pratt, recently an
assistant director of the Mellon Institute, was inti-
mately associated with the work of many of us and
was our true friend and adviser, and
WHEREAS, Dr, Pratt has faithfully employed his
talents in our behalf and has made his breadth of
knowledge, his fertile imagination and his keenness
of perception of great practical assistance to us
both by active cooperation in the laboratory and
by helpful suggestion; therefore be it
Resolved, That we, the members of the Robert
Kennedy Dunean Club, take this opportunity of ex-
pressing our sense of sorrow at his untimely death.
Be it further resolved, That we deplore the loss
of one who was utilizing his many talents for the
good of American industry.
WHEREAS, Dr. Francis Clifford Phillips, our dis-
tinguished colleague, was loved by us because of his
kindly and genial ways, his unselfish consideration
of others and his humor, and
WHEREAS, Dr. Phillips has brought fame both to
himself and to the University of Pittsburgh, by his
scholarship, his ability as a teacher and his re-
markable contributions to the advancement of sci-
ence, and
WHEREAS, Dr. Phillips has been an inspiration to
all who knew him by reason of his personal quali-
ties and his devotion to science. Therefore be it
Kesolved, That we, the members of the R. K. D.
Club, express our sadness at the close of his beauti-
ful life of service.
Be it further resolved, That we believe that
American science has lost a most sincere student
and investigator.
Wuereas, Dr. Leonard Merritt Liddle has been
a friend and associate among us for the past eight
years and has endeared himself to each of us by his
spirit of helpfulness, his kindliness and his good
fellowship, and
WuereEas, Dr, Liddle has stood out as leader in
the Institute in scientific ability, in untiring
energy, in devotion to his chosen profession and
in loyalty to the best ideals of the Mellon Institute.
Therefore, be it
Resolved, That, we, the members of the R. K. D.
Club, wish to express our profound sorrow at the
loss of our comrade and sincere friend, who has
SCIENCE
341
been cut down thus early in his useful career. We
also deeply regret the removal of one who was de-
voting his life to the betterment of American in-
dustry by the application of science to the solution
of its problems,
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
MEMORIAL TO SIR WILLIAM OSLER?
A PUBLIC meeting was held in the Univer-
sity Museum, Oxford, on March 6, to initiate
a memorial to the late Sir William Osler,
Bart., Regius professor of medicine in the
university for the past fifteen years. The
vice-chaneellor presided. Sir Clifford All-
butt, who introduced the proposal, paid a feel-
ing and eloquent tribute to the memory of
Sir William Osler, to the wide range of his
intellect, and to the singular charm of his
character. He referred to his international
reputation and to the binding influence he had
on the medical profession in many lands, to his
love of peace and goodwill, and to the extra-
ordinary power he exerted in diffusing with-
out diluting friendship. The president of
Magdalen, Sir Herbert Warren, mentioned the
many-sidedness of Osler’s interests and activi-
ties, the breadth and accuracy of his scholar-
ship, and the clear and steady optimism with
which he regarded life and its progress in all
ages. Sir William Church, who introduced
the specific proposal that the memorial should
take the form of an Osler Institute of Gen-
eral Pathology and Preventive Medicine,
stated that such a memorial as that suggested
would be a singularly appropriate tribute to
the outlook and ideals that Osler had kept
before him in his life-work Professor Thom-
son emphasized the need of new laboratory ac-
commodation in Oxford for teaching and re-
search. The dean of Christ Church and Sir
Archibald Garrod also spoke. It was an-
nounced that the honorable secretary, Pro-
fessor Gunn, had received expressions of sym-
pathy with the proposed memorial from a
large number of people representing many in-
terests, and that a collateral committee had
been formed in America to aid in raising the
memorial.
1 From Nature.
342
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY ENTOMOLOGICAL
EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA
OF 1919-20
Unper the leadership of Professor J. Chester
Bradley the Cornell University Entomological
Expedition to South America of 1919-20 is
carrying on entomological investigation and
making collections in various South American
countries.
Dr. Bradley sailed for Brazil early in Sep-
tember last on the steamship Vestris; owing
to a fire developing in one of the holds of the
steamer, a delay of thirteen days occurred at
the Island of Santa Lucia, where interesting
and unexpected collecting was done. At Rio
de Janeiro he was joined by a volunteer as-
sistant, Mr. R. Gordon Harris.
After spending some time in Rio de Janeiro,
a trip was made in company with Brazil’s
foremost entomologist, Dr. Adolph Lutz, to
the State of Minas Geraes in the north, as
far as to Pirapora, the head of navigation on
the Sao Francisco River; some days were
spent at Lassance on the Rio das Velhas as
guests of the Institute Oswaldo Cruz. It was
at this place that Dr. Chagas first worked out
the details of the transmission by a Redwing
bug (Conorhinus) of a trypanosome causing
a very serious endemic disease of the region.
Some days were also spent on the alpine
meadows at Diamantina, Brazil’s highest city,
and also as guests of the State of Minas
Geraes at the Capital, Beldo Horizonte.
Returning to Rio de Janeiro, the party pro-
ceeded to cross the States of Sao Paulo and
Matto Grossa by sail to Corumba on the
Paraguay River, and thence to Urucum. In-
teresting collecting was encountered at vari-
ous points along this trip, but especially at
Urucum, 20 kilometers from Corumba, on an
isolated mountain range at an elevation of
9,200 feet, at the upper limit of a tropical
forest. Here, despite continuous rainy
weather, a very interesting and abundant
fauna was encountered.
From Corumba they proceeded by rail via
Sao Paulo to Uruguayana on the Uruguay
River, at the Argentinean frontier, a distance
of 2,500 miles; from there they were about to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1318
proceed, when last heard from, to the Falls of
the Jguazu on the Alta Parana River.
The plans of the party contemplate spending
a brief while in Argentina, at Buenos Aires,
La Plata, Cordoba, Mendoza and possibly
Tucuman, a visit to Montevideo, and then to
spend from six weeks to two months in Chile,
visiting several places, to as far south as
Chiloe Island; thence to Oruro, Cochabamba
and La Paz in Bolivia, and to Lima in Peru.
At Lima Dr. W. T. M. Forbes and Jesse
Williamson will join the expedition, which
will, if conditions prove favorable, cross the
Andes via the central route and down the
Pichis, Pachitea, Ucayalli and Maranon
Rivers to Iquitos; stopping at favorable points
on the eastern side of the Andes. The party
will return to New York in September next.
The expedition is entrusted with the de-
livery of extensive collections of North Amer-
ican insects and of vertebrates to four scien-
tific institutions in South America. While
not neglecting general collecting, Dr. Brad-
ley is devoting especial attention to the col-
lection of Hymenoptera, especially of the
aculeates, and is endeavoring to obtain series
of nests of Vespide with their inhabitants.
Mr. Harris is doing general collecting of in-
sects. Dr. Forbes will devote his attention
primarily to Lepidoptera, and relieve the other
members of the necessity of devoting attention
to this time-exacting group after he joins the
expedition. Mr. Williamson will collect
Odonata.
ST. LOUIS MEETING OF THE AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY
THE spring meeting of the American Chem-
ical Society will be held with the St. Louis
and University of Missouri Sections in St.
Louis, April 18 to 16, inclusive. Every in-
dication points to the fact that the meeting
will be one of the largest and most interest-
ing ever held in the West by the American
Chemical Society. St. Louis is the center of
the rapidly growing Middle West and con-
tains large and varied chemical interests. It
has always been the leading drug center of the
West, and leads the country in the production
Apri 2, 1920]
of synthetic pharmaceuticals, alkaloids, and
anaesthetics. St. Louis possesses all the units
of a balanced, self-sufficient chemical industry.
It is a center for ceramics, glass, paint, lead
and zine manufacture. The following excur-
sions are planned: Laclede By-Products Coke
Plant; Monsanto Chemical Works, East St.
Louis plant; Laclede-Christy Clay Products
plant; Standard Oil Refinery, Wood River,
Tll.; and Tlinois Glass Company, Alton, Ill.
The general program is as follows:
Tuesday, April 13
10 A.M.—General meeting, Hotel Statler.
Address of welcome, Honorable Henry W.
Kiel, mayor of St. Louis.
Response, Dr. W. A. Noyes, president,
American Chemical Society.
Address, Honorable E. P. Costigan, tariff
commissioner, ‘‘Chemical industry and
legislation. ’’
Address, Dr. Chas. H. Herty, editor, ‘‘ Vic-
tory and its responsibilities.’
2 p.m.—Hotel Statler, general meeting.
J. H. Hildebrand, ‘‘The prediction of
solubility. ’’
Victor Lenher, ‘‘Selenium oxychloride a
neglected inorganic solvent.’’
E, T. Wherry, ‘‘Studying plant distribu-
tion with hydrogen ion indicators. ’’
Three additional general papers to be an-
nounced.
8P.m—Missouri Athletic Association.
for men.
8 Pp.M.—Theater party for ladies.
Smoker
Wednesday, April 14
9 a.m.—Hotel Statler, divisional meetings.
2P.M.—Excursions to Laclede Gas Works, Mon-
santo Chemical Works, Hast St. Louis
plant, and Laclede-Christy Clay Prod-
uets plant. Automobile tour for ladies
to parks, Art Museum, Washington Uni-
versity, Missouri Botanical Garden and
tea at Bevo Mill.
8P.mM—Central High School. Public address.
Speaker and subject will appear in final
program.
Thursday, April 15
9 a.m.—Hotel Statler, divisional meetings.
2p.M.—Hotel Statler, divisional meetings.
8 p.M.—Hotel Statler, subscription banquet.
SCIENCE
343
Friday, April 16
9 4.M.—Excursion to Standard Oil Refinery, Wood
River, Ill., and Illinois Glass Company,
Alton, Ill.
The Division of Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry will hold a symposium on Cellulose
Chemistry, this symposium having been or-
ganized by Mr. Jasper EH. Crane, and will de-
vote the remainder of its program to general
papers.
A Section of Leather Chemistry has been
authorized to establish a forum for the discus-
sion of the chemistry of leather manufacture
and other closely allied industries.
A Section of Sugar Chemistry will also
meet for the first time in St. Louis, under the
chairmanship of C. A. Browne, with Frederick
J. Bates, of the Bureau of Standards, as secre-
tary.
The Division of Physical and Inorganic
Chemistry will give a half day to a “Colloid
Symposium.”
Papers are promised by Col. W. D. Ban-
croft, Albert V. Bleininger, Martin H. Fischer,
and John Arthur Wilson.
Members who are to read papers having a
popular appeal are requested to send synopses
of them for the use of the A. C. S. News Serv-
ice, care of American Chemical Society, 35 E.
Forty-first St., New York City. A short
abstract (about 100 words) should be sent
with the title of papers or handed to the secre-
tary of the division at the time of presenta-
tion, so that it may appear in SCIENCE.
The final program will be sent about April
5 to all members signifying their intention of
attending the meeting, to the secretaries of
sections, to the council, to members of the
St. Louis and University of Missouri Sections.
Cuartes L. Parsons,
Secretary
THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE
Secretary MerepitH has selected Colonel
W. B. Greeley, assistant forester in the Forest
Service, for chief forester to succeed Colonel
Henry S. Graves, on the latter’s retirement on
May 1. Colonel Greeley is a graduate of the
University of California and the Yale Forest
344
School, and has been in the Forest Service
continuously since 1904, except for two years
of military service with the American Expedi-
tionary Forces.
From 1906 to 1908 he was supervisor of the
Sequoia National Forest in California. After
a short period of service in the Washington
office he was appointed district forester in
charge of the National Forests of Montana
and northern Idaho, with headquarters at Mis-
soula, Mont. In this position it fell to him to
protect these forests, having a total area of
over 29,000,000 acres, at the time of the great
fires in 1910. The following year he was ap-
pointed assistant forester and placed in charge
of the branch of silviculture, now the branch
of forest management, in the Washington
office. This branch has supervision of all na-
tional forest timber sales and timber cutting,
together with other important lines of work.
With the opening of the war it was decided
to raise and send to France forestry troops,
and their recruiting was assigned to Colonel
Greeley. To prepare the way for their opera-
tions in the French forests, the chief forester,
Colonel Graves, was sent to France and at-
tached to the General Staff. After Colonel
Graves returned to the United States, Colonel
Greeley took his place and finally became chief
of the forestry section in the American Ex-
peditionary Forces, in charge of 21,000 forestry
troops and 95 sawmills, with lumbering opera-
tions scattered from the zone of military ope-
rations to the Pyrenees and from the Swiss
border to the Atlantic.
Colonel Graves, in presenting his resigna-
tion after ten years of service as chief for-
ester, wrote:
Since the pecuniary returns afforded profes-
sional and scientific men in the government service
inadequately provide against the exhaustion of the
working powers which must inevitably take place
in time, and entail sacrifices from which employ-
ment elsewhere is free, the only course consistent
alike with self-respect and a regard for the public
interests seems to me to be retirement from office
before efficiency has been impaired. Present con-
ditions, which amount to a heavy reduction in the
rate of compensation in practically every branch
of the government service, emphasize this point of
view.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1318
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
At the mid-year commencement exercises of
the University of Pittsburgh honorary degrees
were conferred upon Dr. William H. Nichols,
retiring president of the American Chemical
Society, and Dr. William A. Noyes, present
president.
Dr. W. W. CAMPBELL, director of the Lick
Observatory, has been appointed “ Commander
of the Order of. Leopold II.” by King Albert,
of Belgium. Dr. Campbell has also been
elected to honorary membership in the Royal
Institution of Great Britain.
Proressor WILDER D. Bancrort, of Cornell
University, at present chairman of the division
of chemistry of the National Research Coun-
cil, has been elected a foreign member of the
Chemical Society, London.
Dr. F. G. Novy, of the University of Michi-
gan, has been elected a corresponding member
of the Society of Biology, of Paris, and asso-
ciate member of the Royal Society of Medical
and Natural Sciences of Brussels.
Dr. Frepertck P. Gay, of the University of
California, has been elected an honorary mem-
ber of the Philadelphia Pathological Society.
Proressor A. Fowier, professor of astro-
physics, Imperial College of Science and Tech-
nology, London, has been elected a correspond-
ing member of the Paris Academy of Sciences,
in succession to the late Professor E. Weiss, of
Vienna.
Proressor R. A. SaAMpson, astronomer royal
for Scotland, has been appointed Halley lec-
turer at the University of Oxford for 1920.
Dr. ArtHur L. Day, who has been engaged
in research work at the Corning Glass Works,
Corning, N. Y., is resuming the directorship
at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie
Institution, Washington, D. C.
Kart Sax has been appointed biologist at
the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station to
take charge of the plant-breeding work.
Dr. Custer Snow has resigned as professor
of mathematics at the University of Idaho, to
accept a position as physicist in the Bureau of
Standards, Washington. i
Apri 2, 1920]
Proressor ArtHur D. BurrTerFIeLp, of the
department of mathematics at the Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, has resigned to become
educational director for the Norton Company.
Sera S. Wanker has resigned as soil chem-
ist to the Agricultural Experiment Station,
Baton Rouge, La., to become chemist to
the Florida Citrus Exchange and Exchange
Supply Oo., with laboratory and headquarters
at Tampa, Florida.
Mr. J. Howarp Roop, former chief chemist
of feedingstuffs in the state chemists’ depart-
ment of Purdue University, has accepted a
place as chief chemist of the Nobelsville Mill-
ing Co., Nobelsville, Indiana.
Mr. Hoyt S. Gate, geologist in charge of the
section of non-metalliferous deposits of the
U.S. Geological Survey, who recently returned
from Europe where he examined and reported
on the potash deposits for the Geological Sur-
vey and Bureau of Mines, is on furlough for
five months to make an examination of the oil
fields of eastern Bolivia. Mr. K. OC. Heald,
geologist of the survey, is returning from Bo-
livia by way of the Amazon to the east coast of
Brazil.
Proressor E. H. Staruie, F.R.S., has sailed
for India to advise as to the locality and equip-
ment of an All India Research Institute.
Delhi, the new capital of India, has been sug-
gested as a site for a new institute to serve as
the headquarters of the research organization,
but other places have been mentioned.
Proressor G. N. Lewis delivered the faculty
research lecture on “Color and molecular
structure” during the charter week ceremon-
ies of the University of California.
Dr. J. Wauter Fewxes, chief of the Bu-
reau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian
Institution, delivered an address on “ Amer-
ican Archeology: Its History and Technique ”
before the Washington Academy of Science
on March 8.
Dr. Corin G. Fink, head of the laboratories
of the Chile Exploration Company, recently
lectured to the graduate students, school of
chemistry, Yale University, on “ Industrial re-
SCIENCE
345
search” and on “ The value of physical chem-
istry to the organic chemist.”
Caprain Cart W. Lewis, head of the chem-
istry department of Northwestern University
lectured on March 12 at Oberlin College on
“Problems of Gas Warfare.”
Proressor Pierre Boutroux, of Princeton
University, lectured on “French Science”
on March 18 at Columbia University.
AT a joint meeting of the Washington Aca-
demy of Sciences and the Medical and An-
thropological Societies on March 31, Sir
Arthur Newsholme, K.C.B., former chief
medical officer of health of the Local Govern-
ment Force, England, delivered an address on
“The National Importance of Child Welfare
Work.”
Tuer third annual Silvanus Thompson me-
morial lecture of the Réntgen Society was de-
livered by Professor W. H. Bragg on March
2, the subject being “ Analysis by X-rays.”
Dr. Harvey Cusuine, Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital, Boston, has been requested by Lady
Osler to prepare a biography of Sir William
Osler. He will be grateful to any one who
will send him either letters or copies of letters,
or personal reminiscences, or information con-
cerning others who might supply such infor-
mation.
We learn from Nature that a meeting con-
vened by the chancellor of the University of
Cambridge and the president of the Royal So-
ciety was held on March 4, at the rooms of the
Royal Society, to consider the question of a
memorial to the memory of Lord Rayleigh.
After a preliminary statement by the presi-
dent of the Royal Society announcing the pur-
pose of the meeting, speeches in favor of the
proposal to erect a memorial were made by
Mr. A. J. Balfour, Sir Charles Parsons, Dr. P.
Giles (vice-chancellor of the University of
Cambridge), Sir Arthur Schuster, Sir Richard
Glazebrook, and Sir Joseph Larmor. It was
agreed that a fund should be raised for the
purpose of placing a memorial, preferably a
window, in Westminster Abbey. A general
committee was appointed, as well as an execu-
tive committee, to consider details, and also
346
the further question of raising a fund in
memory of Lord Rayleigh, to be used for the
promotion of research in some branch of sci-
ence in which he was specially interested.
Dr. James EMERSON REYNOLDS, professor of
chemistry at the University of Dublin from
1875 to 1903, since engaged in research work
in the Davy-Faraday laboratory of the Royal
institution, died on February 26 at the age of
seventy-six years.
Lucian Porcart, author of works on
physics and vice-rector of the University of
Paris, died on March 9, at the age of fifty-
eight years. M. Poincaré was a brother of
President Poincaré, and a cousin of the great
mathematical physicist, Henri Poincaré.
Dr. Huco E1sie, who cooperated with Anton
Dohrn in the foundation and conduct of the
Naples Zoological Station, died in Switzerland
on February 10, aged seventy-three years.
Tue American Pharmaceutical Association
has available a sum amounting to about $450
which will be expended after October 1, for the
encouragement of research. This amount
either in full or fractions will be awarded in
such manner as will in the judgment of the
research committee produce the greatest good
to American pharmaceutical research. Investi-
gators desiring financial aid in their work will
communicate before May first with H. V. Arny,
chairman, 115 West 68th St., New York, giv-
ing their past record and outlining the par-
ticular line of work for which the grant is de-
sired. The committee will give each applica-
tion its careful attention and will make recom-
mendations to the American Pharmaceutical
Association at its meeting in Washington, May
3-8, when the award or awards will be made.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tue fund for the University of Montreal
(Laval), recently destroyed by fire, has at-
tained to more than $3,500,000.
Tue Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation states that Toronto University needs
$4,000,000 for its reorganized medical depart-
ment. Dr. George E. Vincent, of the Rocke-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1318
feller Foundation, has been in Toronto and has
been conferring with the special committee of
the medical department, presided over by Dr.
Alexander Primrose, O.B. It is planned to pay
whole-time professors in medicine, surgery, ob-
stetrics, pathology, and perhaps one or two
others, $10,000 a year. Representatives from
Queens, Western at London, and from Winni-
peg interviewed Dr. Vincent as to their likeli-
hood of participating in the $5,000,000 to be al-
lotted to Canada for medical education from
the foundation.
A BEQUEST of £4,000 has been left to the Uni-
versity of Manchester by the late Mr. William
Kirtley, a nephew of Stephenson, who con-
structed the Manchester and Liverpool Rail-
way. The fund will be used to establish a
William Kirtley scholarship for the promotion
of the study of mechanical engineering.
AccorpinG to the forthcoming annual report
of President Harry Pratt Judson, a building
which the University of Chicago stands espe-
cially in need of is a research laboratory for the
department of chemistry. The present Kent
Chemical Laboratory is overcrowded with stu-
dents. Such a building is estimated to cost
about $850,000 and would be erected directly
west of Kent Chemical Laboratory.
Dr. W. CO. Aner, of Lake Forest College,
will next year be head of the department of
biology at Knox College.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
In a recent number of Scimncs, the director
of the United States Geological Survey calls
public attention to the deplorable fact that the
Survey is rapidly losing many of its capable
geologists. He seems to ascribe this rapid de-
pletion of the scientific staff entirely to the
low salaries offered by the government as com-
pared with the high salaries, often with priv-
ileges of investment, offered by corporations—
particularly oil companies. Geologists who are
familiar with the conditions in the Geological
Survey during the past twenty years or more
are aware, however, that the director has men-
tioned only one of the reasons why geologists
are rapidly leaving the survey to accept more
APRIL 2, 1920]
attractive positions elsewhere. It seems im-
portant that all the other factors should be
brought to public attention so that there may
be a general understanding of the situation,
resulting in pressure upon Congress and the
officials of the administration to preserve what
remains of the survey’s usefulness.
The low salaries paid by the government and
the needlessly strict prohibition against in-
vestments in any kind of industrial projects
even remotely connected with survey work are
not the only financial handicaps that beset the
employees of the Federal Survey. Geologists
engaged in field work often incur more or less
danger—in some cases a great deal; yet a seri-
ous injury will bring no compensation from
the government, but will on the contrary gen-
erally cost the injured man his position, if his
usefulness has been permanently impaired.
Cases of severe illness cost the unfortunate
geologist full pay during the time lost, so far
as it exceeds the arbitrary “sick-leave” allow-
ance. Again, the Survey has no provision for
pensioning those who have grown old and
superannuated in its service.
A more important factor, as it seems to many
of us, is the less interesting work now-a-days
assigned to various members of the Survey.
Little by little the amount of scientific re-
search carried on by the survey has been cur-
tailed in favor of routine statistical and classi-
ficatory activities. In large measure survey
geologists have been gradually reduced from
scientific investigators to technical or scientific
elerks who have but little to say about the
planning and initiation of their work, and who
publicly get but little individual credit for the
result. There are many men of zeal and high
purpose who are willing to work for a rela-
tively small salary provided they have adequate
opportunities for and encouragement in the
pursuit of their chosen researches; but of late
the survey has not been attractive to men of
this type.
Scientific research without appropriate and
opportune publication soon becomes a mockery.
Long delays in the appearance of survey re-
ports have for years been the rule rather than
the exception, until the situation has become a
SCIENCE
347
standing joke both inside and outside the bu-
reau. Many a report of field and laboratory
investigations has been held in “ cold storage”
year after year until it has been duplicated and
superseded by the work of others. While the
war greatly aggravated this condition it was
an obvious tendency even before 1914.
The most serious blow which has been struck
at the survey in its entire history has come
within the last few months in the guise of an
administrative order greatly curtailing the
space and facilities available for the work of
the Geological Survey. For years members of
the survey endured the conditions of the old
survey office building—in which the overcrowd-
ing was a national disgrace—on the assurance
that a new building would soon be constructed
wherein there would at last be room enough.
No sooner had the survey moved into the new
building, however, than the exigencies of the
war prevented them from obtaining all the
space to which they were apparently entitled.
Now comes the order, from a source evidently
lacking an understanding of how scientific
work is done, greatly reducing the already lim-
ited quarters and depriving even the more im-
portant and distinguished members of the sur-
vey of their laboratories and private offices.
Men of national reputation in their science are
crowded together three or four in an office
suitable for one. Some of the geologists are
attempting to do their more important work
at their homes, to which they have removed
their libraries and working materials normally
kept at their survey offices. Others with more
fortunate connections manage to continue work
in laboratories of the National Museum.
Many, however, have cut the Gordian knot by
resigning, and still other resignations are fol-
lowing from month to month.
Tt should be distinctly understood by every
one that although the geologists of the survey
need and are entitled to salaries appropriate to
their positions and in keeping with the in-
creased cost of living, the most serious defect
of the survey to-day is the paucity of actual
scientific opportunities either for geologists
already on the staff or to offer promising young
men of the stamp formerly attracted to survey
348
work. No reversal of the survey’s present de-
cline curve need be expected until adequate
provision is made for such opportunities.
Eiot BLACKWELDER
DENVER, COLORADO,
January 22, 1920
THE AWARD OF THE NOBEL PRIZE TO
PROFESSOR HABER
To THE EpiTor oF Sctence: The statement of
the First Secretary of the Swedish legation
(published in the February 27 number of Sci-
ENCE, p. 207), relative to the award of the Nobel
Prize to Professor Haber, contains some erro-
neous conclusions and some half-truths which
should not be allowed to pass unchallenged.
While Professor Haber’s perfection of the com-
mercial synthesis of ammonia amply warrants
the award of the prize to him, I would com-
ment upon the other numbered statements as
follows:
2. The production of ammonia is only a
step, this product being oxidized to nitric acid
and nitrates by the Oswald process. While the
Haber process will ultimately be of great value
to the world at large, the patents, secrets, ex-
perience and profits were all Germany’s (until
after the war). The first secretary omitted to
state that the Haber process made Germany
independent of Chile saltpeter (sodium ni-
trate), not only for agricultural purposes, but
also for the manufacture of chemicals, dyes,
and especially explosives.
8. The address of Professor Bernthsen in
1912 before the eighth International Congress
of Applied Chemistry in New York, was notice
to the world at large that Germany could carry
on war even if the British fleet cut off the Chile
nitrate supply. While giving much general
information, Bernthsen did not disclose all of
the essential details necessary to the successful
manufacture of ammonia, and of nitrates from
ammonia. Therefore during the war when this
country wished to use the Haber process, it be-
came necessary for one of our large American
corporations to work out the details in connec-
tion with the War Nitrates Board.
4. The statement that “the Haber plants in
Germany were erected with a view to produc-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1318
ing agricultural fertilizers” is a half-truth.
This naturally was an important object, for in
war as well as in peace the army and the na-
tion must be fed, and business go on; but even
more vital to Germany’s purposes was the fact
that ammonia meant nitrates, and nitrates
meant explosives necessary for the carefully
planned war, which so soon followed the per-
fection of the Haber process.
5. Although the first secretary disclaims
knowledge of the manufacture of gas masks in
Sweden, it is probable that Germany got wood
or charcoal from Sweden for gas mask pur-
poses, just as she got iron ore. No criticism
attaches to Sweden for this, and her fear of
Russia and proximity to Germany across the
Baltic (a “ German lake”) readily explain her
attitude toward her powerful neighbor.
However the pro-German activities of cer-
tain Swedes and Swedish-Americans, and espe-
cially the abuse of Swedish diplomatic privil-
eges by such Germans as Count Luxberg, of
“spurlos versenkt” fame, have naturally cre-
ated among the Allied people an atmosphere of
suspicion against Sweden; so that, especially
since Professor Haber is understood to be one
of those who advised and helped develop gas
warfare, it is easy to understand how many
believe that the award of the Nobel Prize to
him was, at this time, ill-advised and undiplo-
matic.
JEROME ALEXANDER
RIDGEFIELD, CONN.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
A Handbook of Physics Measurements. By
Ervin S. Ferry in collaboration with O. W.
Sinvey, G. W. SHERMAN, JR., and D. C. Dun-
can. Vol. I. Fundamental Measurements,
Properties of Matter and Optics. Pp. ix +
251. $2.00. Vol. II. Vibratory Motion,
Sound, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism.
Pp. x-+ 233. $2.00. New York, John Wiley
& Sons, Ine. 1918.
Manuals for use in the physical laboratory
have been designed from two quite distinct
points of view. On the one hand, an attempt
has been made to develop a series of experi-
ments that would serve to illustrate the gen-
Aprit, 2, 1920]
eral principles of physics and give the student
a first-hand contact with the notions discussed
in text-books, lectures and recitations. The
emphasis is on the underlying ideas and the
discussion of methods and accuracy of meas-
urement is purely incidental. Books of this
type are eminently suitable for students in
elementary physics. On the other hand, the
purpose of the manual may be to develop the
theory and practise of physical measurements
and to describe the construction and operation
of standard measuring instruments. Such
manuals are essential to the advanced student
in physics and, if sufficiently comprehensive,
they are useful to the student in chemistry or
biology.
Professor Ferry’s work belongs to the second
eategory although a few of the experiments de-
scribed would not be out of place in a manual
of the first type. It is a thorough revision and
rearrangement of an earlier book on “ Prac-
tical Physics,” by Ervin S. Ferry and Arthur
T. Jones, to which chapters on sound, optics,
electricity and magnetism have been added.
The scope and method of the work are ade-
quately indicated by the following quotations
from the ‘author’s preface: “Only those ex-
perimental methods have been included that
are strictly scientific and that can be depended
upon to give good results in the hands of the
average student. Although several pieces of
apparatus, experimental methods and deriva-
tions of formule that possess some novelty
appear, our fixed purpose has been to use the
standard forms except in cases where an ex-
tended trial in large classes has demonstrated
the superiority of the proposed innovation.”
“Tt has been assumed that the experiment is
rare that should be performed before the stu-
dent understands the theory involved and the
derivation of the formula required. Conse-
quently the theory of each experiment is given
in detail and the required formula developed
at length. The more important sources of
error are pointed out, and means are indicated
by which these errors may be minimized or ac-
counted for.”
Several of the methods of measurement de-
scribed involve the use of instruments of spe-
SCIENCE
349
cial design not likely to be found outside of
the author’s laboratory but the greater part of
them can be carried out with the apparatus
that should be found in any well-equipped lab-
oratory. The theory and manipulation of the
more important modern instruments of pre-
cision are comprehensively treated and any
student who has occasion to use such instru-
ments will find these sections of the work very
useful. The work is well adapted for use
as a text in second- or third-year laboratory
courses in physics. It should also find wide
use as a reference book, in any laboratory
where physical instruments and methods are
occasionally used.
A. DEF, P.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
NOTICE OF A RECENT CONTRIBUTION TO
STATISTICAL METHODS
PROGRESS in science is measured, among
other things, by the extent to which the qual-
itative treatment of problems is supplemented
by a more rigorous quantitative treatment.
The introduction of quantitative methods into
the biological sciences, however, is beset with
unusual difficulties. The highly complex and
variable nature of the subject matter generally
demands the empirical procedure of the statis-
tician rather than the deductive one of the
mathematician, and this is true of many prob-
lems of physical science as well, for example,
those of meteorology. One of the main diffi-
culties to be overcome arises from the simul-
taneous variation in the magnitudes of the
many variables concerned. Especially is this
true in “field” investigations where artificial
control aver the variable is impossible; as,
for example, in marine ecology. In order to
meet this difficulty the authors have prepared
a paper entitled: “ The functional relation of
one variable to each of a number of correlated
variables determined by a method of suc-
cessive approximation to group averages.”
The introduction is written by Wm. EH. Ritter
under the title: “A step forward in the
methodology of natural science.”
1 Proc, Amer. Acad. Arts. Sci., Vol. 55, Dee.,
1919, pp. 89-133.
350
This paper presents the development of a
general method of ascertaining the relation
between a dependent variable and each of a
number of mutually correlated ones without
being compelled to employ an assumed or pre-
determined mathematical function. This is
accomplished by applying to the observed
values of the dependent variable successive
corrections based upon each value of all the
independent variables. In this way is ob-
tained a series of averages of the dependent
variable corresponding to a series of averages
of each one of the independent variables in
turn and corrected to a constant value of each
of the remaining ones. The method is con-
cretely illustrated by an application to a bio-
climatic problem; that of predicting the yield
of South Dakota wheat from temperature and
precipitation.
A limited number of reprints are available
for distribution. Requests for them should be
mailed to the Scripps Institution, La Jolla,
California.
Gro. F. McEwen
Exus L. Micnaen
THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
VII
Calorimetric determinations of the energy in
yolk-protein and yolk-fat of doves and pigeons:
Oscar Rippues. Individual entire egg-yolks were
separated into (boiling) alcohol-ether soluble and
insoluble fractions. These moisture-free portions
considered as yolk-protein and yolk-fat were
burned in a Riche bomb calorimeter. Determina-
tions were separately made upon yolks from vari-
ous pure species and hybrids. The energy per
gram of the yolk-protein of pure species averages
5,497 (small) calories; for hybrids practically the
same (5,457). The energy per gram of yolk-fat
of pure species averages 9,020 calories; for hy-
brids probably it is less (8,897). The range of
variability for yolks from individual hybrids is
plainly greater than for yolks from pure species.
Some properties of the placental hormone: PAUL
M. Gizsy. This substance, injected subcutaneously
into the female animals, causes growth of the
mammary glands and uterus. It was extracted by
treating ground placentas with alcohol. In water,
some, but not all, of the substance dissolves. It is
dissolved by benzene, chloroform, carbon tetra-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1318
chloride, absolute aleohol, ether and ethyl ace-
tate, but not by petroleum ether. If the extract is
shaken with a mixture of water and benzene, the
benzene solution alone is physiologically active.
Alcoholic solutions and aqueous emulsions lose their
activity on standing. The activity appears to be
destroyed by continued heating.
The preparation of fatty acid esters of choles-
terol: G. D. Brat aND J. B. Brown. (By title.)
Comparative analysis of fibrin in the presence of
various aldehydes: Grorck EH. Houm aNnD Ross
AIKEN GorTNER. The comparative action of vari-
ous amounts of paraldehyde, benzaldehyde, butyl
and isobutyl aldehydes to that of formaldehyde
when present in the acid hydrolysis of fibrin and
gelatin was studied. In all cases the acid insoluble
humin nitrogen increase is greater than with
(CH,O), and a maximum is reached and main-
tained even in the presence of large excesses of
these aldehydes. The ammonia nitrogen, soluble
humin nitrogen and total amino nitrogen of the
filtrates from the ‘‘humin’’ do not alter signifi-
cantly. Using trioxymethylene, the increase in
insoluble humin nitrogen is due to the presence of
the indole nucleus, while with the other aldehydes
tyrosin also enters into this reaction.
The preparation of cholesterol in quantity: PAUL
M. Giesy. One hundred pounds of cattle spinal
cords were ground, dehydrated with alcohol and
extracted fourteen times with ether. The ether
was evaporated from the extract, and the residue
saponified by boiling with alcoholic sodium hydrox-
ide. After evaporating the alcohol, the residue
was taken up in water and extracted with ether.
The ether was evaporated from the extract, and
the cholesterol crystallized from alcohol. The first
crop was cream-colored and melted at 147.1° cor-
rected. The second crop was brown, and melted at
146.4°. The total yield is about two pounds. The
color can be removed by recrystallization from
alcohol.
The influence of aspartic acid and asparagin
upon the eneymic hydrolysis of starch: H. C. SHER-
MAN AND FLORENCE WALKER. (By title.)
An improved technic for measuring lipase activ-
ity in animal or plant extracts or tissues: Lrroy S.
PauMer (By title.) The material to be tested is
added in the form of an extract or finely minced
paste to at least 75 e.c. of artificial ‘‘milk,’’ pre-
pared by grinding a suitable oil into hydrated
acacia and diluting the emulsion with water.
HCHO 1: 1,500 is added to the ‘‘milk’’ as preserv-
tive. The initial acidity is determined by with-
APRIL 2, 1920]
drawing a 25 c.c. aliquot and adding it to 100 c.c.
of acetone-ether (2:1), and titrating with 0.1 N
alcoholic KOH solution, using phenolphthalein as
indicator. The remainder of the ‘‘milk’’ is incu-
bated for 24 hours at 38° C., with occasional rota-
tion of the flask, and the titration repeated on
another 25 e.c. aliquot. The features of the
method are, (1) the use of an artificial ‘‘milk’’
containing no acid producing substances other
than the emulsified oil, (2) the determination of
the acidity on aliquot portions of the emulsion.
The influence of various antiseptics on the activ-
ity of lipase: Leroy 8. PauMER. (By title.) The
activity of a commercial lipase was tested using the
technic described in the previous abstract.
Chloroform, iodoform and acetone were found to
have a marked retarding influence on the lipase,
depending on the concentration of the antiseptic.
Very small quantities of mercuric chloride and
iodine, each completely paralyzed the lipase ac-
tivity. Formaldehyde had no retarding effect up
to one part in 250, concentrations between 1: 1,000
and 1: 2,000 actually having a noticeable accelera-
ting effect on the lipase activity.
The actiwity of phytase as determined by the
specific conductivity: F. A. CoLLaTz AND C. H.
BatuEy. (By title.) The hydrolytie cleavage of
phytin by phytase results in the appearance of
salts of phosphoric acid in the digestion mixture.
The electrical conductivity of the latter is thereby
increased, and may be employed as a measure of
the progress of the reaction. To a water solution
of phytin was added crude phytase prepared from
wheat bran, and several such preparations were
incubated at temperatures differing by 5° inter-
vals from 25° to 60°. The electrical conductivity
was measured every 15 minutes until it ceased to
change materially. The rate of hydrolysis was
accelerated by increased temperatures up to 55°,
which appeared to be the optimum for this enzyme.
Plotting the data, calculated to conductance at 30°
in order to compensate for increased mobility of
the ions at higher temperature, the eurves have
different shapes at each temperature. As the tem-
perature increases to the optimum, the increase in
conductivity per unit of time is more rapid at the
outset, but also reaches approximate equilibrium
more promptly.
The fermentation of fructose by a group of pen-
tose-fermenting bacteria: W. H. PEtrrson, E. B.
FRED AND A. DAvENPoRT. In the fermentation of
fructose by these organisms acetic and lactic acids
are the chief end products. Coincident with the
SCIENCE
351
production of these acids is the formation of
mannitol to the extent of about 20-30 per cent. of
the fructose. The mannitol thus formed can be
fermented to acetic and lactie acids by the same
bacteria that produced it. It is suggested that the
fructose first breaks down into acetie and malic
acids and the latter then undergoes decarboxylation
yielding lactic acid. Evidence for regarding malic
acid as an intermediate product is the fermenta-
tion of malice acid to lactie acid. The strong re-
ducing conditions set up in the breaking down of
fructose into acetic and malie acid probably brings
about the reduction of another portion of the
fructose to mannitol.
Factors influencing the invertase activity of mold
Spores in sugar: NicHoLAS KopELOFF AND §.
Byauu. (By title.) The invertase activity of the
spores of Aspergillus S. Bainier, Aspergillus niger
and Penicillium expansum is exhibited at concen-
trations of sugar varying from 10 to 70 per cent.
It has also been found that the maximum jnver-
tase activity of these mold spores occurs between
50 and 60 per cent. concentrations. It was noted
that an increase in the number of mold spores is
responsible for increased invertase activity in a
saturated sugar solution. However, the least num-
ber of spores per c.c. of Penicillium expansum and
Aspergillus niger required to produce inversion in
saturated sugar solution is between 50,000 and
110,000. About 5,000 spores of Aspergillus 8.
Bainier are needed to cause inversion. The eyvi-
dence that mold spores alone are capable of deteri-
orating cane sugar is corroborated by the data
herein presented.
Carbon nitrogen ratio in relation to plant meta-
bolism: A. M. Gurgar. (By title.) The supply of
nitrogen determines the relative proportion of car-
bohydrates and proteins in the tomato plant.
Changes in these proportions are accompanied by
very marked changes in the metabolism of the
plant, as follows: (a) Although the C: N ratio
may be as high as 19 and as low as 2, the fruiting
takes place only between the ratios 4 and 6. (6)
respiration varies directly as the value of C:N
ratio. (c) Photosynthesis varies inversely as the
value of C: N ratio. (d) In nitrogen starved
plants, catalase activity is not parallel to respira-
tion, but varies inversely with it. (e) Under etio-
lation, the high carbohydrate plants are reduced to
protoplasmic respiration sooner than the low car-
bohydrate plant, which means that the enzyme
system of the former fails to make available the
starch reserve. (f) The high carbohydrate plants
352
have higher respiration at 20 c.c. C., but this is not
the case at 10° C. and 30° C. The above observa-
tions on tomato, together with confirmatory data
on turnips and radishes, emphasize the importance
of determining the proper C: N ratios for all our
economic plants.
Vanillyl acyl amides: B. K. Newson. (By title.)
Following the demonstration of the structure of
capsaicin, the pungent principle of red pepper,
which proved to be a condensation compound of
vanillyl amine (4-hydroxy-3-methoxy benzylamine)
with a decenoic acid, a number of analogous de-
Tivatives of vanillyl amine were prepared by the
interaction of that substance with acyl chlorides.
Derivatives of the following acids were obtained:
acetic, propionic, butyric, isobutyric, n-hexoic,
n-heptoic, woctoic, n-nonoic, n-decoic, n-undecoic,
n-dodecoic, ecrotonoic, undecenoie and benzoic. As
the molecular weights of these substances rise, the
solubility in water decreases, while that in ether
inereases. Pungency, first noticeable in the pro-
pionyl compound, increases to a maximum in
vanillyl octoyl amide, which is almost as pungent
as capsaicin. One eight-thousandth of a milligram
of this substance causes a distinct burning on the
tongue. The crotonyl compound is slightly, the
undecenoyl compound extremely, and vanillyl ben-
zoyl amide very slightly pungent.
On a phenol produced by growing aspergillus
tamari: J. F. Brewster. (By title.)
Climatic control in relation to plant growth: W.
E. TorrrneHaM. (By title.) Consideration of the
profound effects of climate upon the growth and
composition of plants, together with the difficul-
ties of interpretation of these effects imposed by
fluctuations of climatic factors, makes evident the
desirability of experimental control over the latter.
A fair degree of success has been realized in the
installation of a small plant culture chamber for
elimatie control within a greenhouse. The atmos-
phere is conditioned for this chamber by forcing
it through a humidifying chamber moistened by
wet towelling, the latter being wet by water of
controlled temperature. Before entering the cul-
ture chamber the air is heated somewhat, to bring
both its temperature and degree of saturation with
water vapor to desired values. The conditioned air
enters the culture chamber beneath the flanged sur-
face of a rotating table, which distributes it about
the chamber, and escapes through orifices at the
top. The rotating table also serves to equalize
climatie differences for the different plant cultures
carried by it. With the limited capacity of such
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1318
an apparatus, it is necessary to maintain a consid-
erable degree of control over illumination, tem-
perature and humidity of the surrounding green-
house, in order to realize a reasonable degree of
control over climatic conditions within the culture
chamber.
Studies in the translocation of nitrogenous and
carbohydrate material into the wheat kernel: G. A.
Ouson. (By title.)
Physical and chemical studies of wheat gluten:
G. A. OLsoN AND CHARLES H. Hunt. (By title.)
CHARLES L. PARSONS,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF
SCIENCE
SECTION B—PHYSICS
Section B was in session, in affiliation with the
American Physical Society, at St. Louis, Decem-
ber 30, and 31, 1919, and January 1, 1920. The
program of papers presented through the American
Physical Society are elsewhere announced and ab-
stracted by the society. On the afternoon of De-
cember 31 occurred the annual session of Section
B, the retiring vice-presidential address of Dr. Gor-
don F, Hull and a Symposium on ‘‘ Phenomena in
the Ultra-violet Spectrum, including X-rays,’’ the
papers of which will be abstracted elsewhere in
ScrenceE under the above title. Dr, Hull’s address
on the subject, ‘‘Some Aspects of Physics in War
and Peace,’’ was printed in the issue of SCIENCE
for February 5.
The Sectional Committee nominated as chair-
man of the Section, Professor J. C. McLennan, of
the University of Toronto.
G. W. STEWART,
Secretary
Se
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official netices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattex
SCIENCE
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New SERIES SINGLE Copizs, 15 Crs.
Vou. LI, No. 1319 FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCBIPTION, $6.00
Blakiston
The Preparation of Organic
Compounds
This work gives a general outline of the methods actually employed in preparing or-
ganic compounds and provides, not only a laboratory guide, but also a book which may
be used as a companion volume to the usual theoretical textbook. This is the second
edition to which the author has added new material and made some alterations.
Descriptions of processes are brief but sufficient detail is given to insure successful
work.
By E. DE BARRY BARNETT, B.Sc. (LOND.), A.I.C., Second Edition with 54 Illustra-
tions. Cloth, $3.25 Postpaid.
Foot Care And Shoe Fitting
The investigations made by the authors of this work have been very thorough and
are of great practical value to all persons. While pedestrian motion remains a vital
factor in bringing the units of modern armies into position, the almost countless mil-
lions who walk and stand in their daily avocations are no less interested in learning
the result of these investigations under conditions which are calculated to establish the
truth.
By W. Ll. Mann, PH.B., A.M., M.D., Lieut-Command. (M. C.) U. S. Navy; and
S. A. Forsom, M.D., Lieut. (M.C.) U.S. Navy. 58 Illustrations. Cloth, $1.75 Postpaid.
Mind And Its Disorders
Since the first edition of this work the author has fundamentally changed his atti-
tude toward mental disease, having personally investigated very many patients by the
psycho-analytic method and thus been convinced of the truth of Freud’s doctrine. The
classification has been completely remodelled and new chapters added.
By W. H. B. Stoppart, M.D., F.R.C.P., Lecturer on Mental Diseases, St. Thomas’
Hospital Medical School, (Lond.), etc. Third Edition, 77 Illustrations. Cloth, $6.00
Postpaid.
P. BLAKISTON’S SON & CO., Publishers, PHILADELPHIA
il SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
OUGHTRED’S
Mathematical Symbols
By FLORIAN CAJORI
The Human Side of
Botany
You expect a college botany to present
a well-rounded, scientific course Dens-
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On the History of Gunter’s Scale and the
Slide Rule during the Seventeenth Cen-
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A New Morphological Interpretation of the
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A NEW
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other desirable features it embodies the following: sensi-
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SCIENCE
Frmay, Aprit 9, 1920
CONTENTS
The Division of Anthropology and Psychol-
ogy of the National Research Council: Pro-
Fessor W. V. BINGHAM .............-.. 353
The Technology Plan: PROFESSOR WILLIAM H.
SWAT RSE Gere iter apni aycletcimeberspelolencienovateters 357
Dolomieu: Dr. Grorce F. KUNZ .........-. 359
Scientific Events :—
The Mackenzie Davidson Memorial; The
English Union of Scientific Workers; The
Harvard Engineering School and Indus-
trial Corporation; The Forest Club Conven-
tion in New Haven; Meeting of the Inter-
national Eugenics Congress in New York
Gii}-n5 sob eadorneemeooe dco apa anon adeno 360
Scientific Notes and News ...............- 363
University and Educational News .......... 365
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Attainment of High Levels in the At-
mosphere: Dr. J. G. Corrin. Concerning
Ballistics: Proressor ARTHUR GORDON
IWIEBS TER yey Vous sv cteeeistedaeeeicie rs leleletstelicueleds 366
Scientific Books :—
Knowlton’s Catalogue of Fossil Plants:
Proressor EDWARD W. BERRY ........... 469
Notes on Meteorology :—
The West Indian Hurricane of September,
1919: Dr. CHARLES F. BROOKS ........... 369
Special Articles :—
Technique of operation on Chick Embryos:
Dr. HEnrot R. CLARK .................--. 371
The American Chemical Society: Dr. CHARLES
ILSUPARSONSteewierrsietteysrerleieiclesscsi seniors sess
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
THE DIVISION OF ANTHROPOLOGY
AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NA-
TIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL!
A GENERAL of the regular army listening to
a description of the National Research Coun-
cil remarked, “ You are the General Staff of
the army of American men of science.” The
analogy is suggestive. Our war against the
realm of the unknown calls for a determina-
tion of broad policies of strategy, as well as for
skill in the tacties of attack. Ample resources
must be planned for. The relative need for
men trained in the various specialized duties
of a complex organization must be ascer-
tained. The most effective plans for employ-
ing both men and materials must be blocked
out. Programs for meeting possible contin-
gencies must be thoughtfully elaborated. New
suggestions of method in organization must be
pondered and tested. The Division of Anthro-
pology and Psychology of the National Re-
search Council should serve the army of re-
search workers in ways similar to these.
But the analogy breaks down absolutely in
one respect. The National Research Council
must not, will not, be autocratic. With a rep-
resentative membership democratically consti-
tuted by election from the scientific societies of
America it is in no sense our province to dic-
tate, but only to serve. A better analogy com-
pares the National Research Council with the
Coordination Branch of the General Staff.
The Division of Anthropology and Psychol-
ogy of the National Research Council aims to
be of service chiefly in three directions: first,
assistance in the coordination of research ac-
tivities already in progress or in contempla-
tion, to encourage team work, minimize dupli-
cation of effort, and decrease the magnitude of
1 Address delivered at Cambridge, December 30,
1919, before a joint session of the American
Anthropological Association and the American
Psychological Association.
354
the gaps in our front line of attack on the most
vital problems of scientific investigation; sec-
ond, assistance to the representatives of indus-
tries, museums, government departments and
other agencies, in the definition of their re-
search problems; and, third, assistance in
bringing these agencies into touch with the
scientists who are in a position to aid in the
solution of their problems.
As Mr. Elihu Root has pointed out, men of
science have given to American business and
industry the principles underlying a marvel-
lously economical and effective organization;
but they have hitherto failed to apply these
same principles of organization to their own
research activities. While conceding that the
production of research output is in essential
respects a radically different undertaking from
the production of railway equipment or the
manufacture of automobiles, we may still in-
sist that in other respects the fundamental
principles of organization and of cooperative
effort may wisely be directed toward scientific
productivity. Such an effort toward multipli-
cation of valuable output is the aim of the Di-
vision of Anthropology and Psychology of the
National Research Council.
The Division was organized on October 20,
1919, with the following personnel:
Elected by the American Anthropological
Association: Franz Boas,2 Columbia Univer-
sity; Roland B. Dixon, Harvard University;
J. Walter Fewkes, Smithsonian Institution; A.
L. Kroeber, University of California; Berthold
Laufer, Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago; Clark Wissler, American Museum of
Natural History, New York City.
Elected by the American Psychological As-
sociation: James R. Angell, University of Chi-
cago (chairman, National Research Council) ;
Raymond Dodge, Wesleyan University; Walter
D. Scott, Northwestern University and The
Scott Company, Philadelphia; C. E. Seashore,
State University of Iowa; E. L. Thorndike,
Columbia University; G. M. Whipple, Univer-
sity of Michigan.
2Dr. Boas resigned his membership in the Na-
tional Research Council December 30, 1919.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
Anthropologists, members at large: A. Hrd-
litka, United States National Museum; A. M.
Tozzer, Harvard University; P. EH. Goddard,
American Museum of Natural History.
Psychologists, members at large: S. I. Franz,
Government Hospital for the Insane; L. M.
Terman, Leland Stanford, Jr. University; M.
F. Washburn, Vassar College.
Chairman of the Division: W. V. Bingham,
Carnegie Institute of Technology; Vice-chair-
man, Clark Wissler, American Museum of Nat-
ural History.
Executive Committee: W. V. Bingham,
chairman, Clark Wissler, Franz Boas,? J. W.
Fewkes, W. D. Scott and C. E. Seashore.
A brief sketch of some of the activities of
the Division since its chairman assumed his
duties in Washington, November 17, will help
in understanding the aims, possibilities and
limitations of the Division.
The chairman found himself plunged at once
into a ‘swirling eddy of scientific enterprises
under discussion by the other scientific and
technical divisions of the council. These di-
visions, with the advantage of several months
start over us, had already surveyed their fields,
created committees, gone after funds, and
settled down to hard work.
On the formulation of some of their pro-
jects they sought and welcomed our help. The
Division of Biology and Agriculture, for ex-
ample, had a committee for the formulation of
an enormous project for research in South
America. Any such project for scientific ex-
peditions and the establishment of research
stations might advantageously include in its
program plans for archeological, ethnological,
and linguistic investigations. Another similar
project for oceanographic research among the
northern islands of the Pacific was being for-
mulated by the Division of Geology and Geog-
raphy.
The Division of Biology and Agriculture
asked for suggestions of psychological person-
nel to be included on its Committee on Eu-
genies. I'rom another source came an inquiry
for a consultant competent in the psychology
of sex.
The Engineering Foundation had for several
Aprin 9, 1920]
months been formulating a comprehensive pro-
gram of research on industrial personnel, and
welcomed suggestions regarding psychological
aspects of the problem.
From two branches of the War Department
had come requests for advice and suggestions
with reference to the psychological service in
the army and the development of tests and
standards for use in the new army educational
system. An Advisory Committee on Problems
of Military Psychology was at once appointed,
consisting of Colonel Walter Dill Scott, Major
C. S. Yoakum, and Major G. F. Arps. This
committee has already been of service, in con-
ference with officers of the General Staff.
These activities of the Division of Anthro-
pology and Psychology are illustrative of a
type of usefulness which does not entail the
raising or the expenditure of funds. This also
holds true of our assistance in formulating a
research program for the Washington Diet
Kitchen Association, an agency which main-
tains eight stations to which are brought for
examination some 2,000 infants a month.
While its research, past and future, focuses
primarily on psychological problems of nutri-
tion and growth, it was recognized that here is
an exceptional opportunity to gather also data
of value in the study of infant psychology,
anthropometry ‘and eugenics.
Meanwhile we have been assembling sugges-
tions regarding scientific enterprises toward
the promotion of which the Division might
wisely bend its efforts. Improvement of facili-
ties for prompt publication of research is a
need which several have advanced. Others,
particularly among the psychologists, have
stressed the growing necessity for a journal to
publish a cumulative system of analytical ab-
stracts, such as are available in chemistry, bot-
any and some of the other sciences.
Development of the supply of competent re-
search personnel is another need of our science.
This might be accomplished by urging the es-
tablishment of more and better fellowships with
which to attract and hold for our science the
abler minds. Parallel with such a program
should go a systematic search for promising
student material in the senior classes of the
SCIENCE
309
colleges. Such an inventory of talent would
be a matter of interest to all the sciences, and
should be administered by the Division of Edu-
cational Relations. The contribution of our
own Division should be merely in supplying
the technique of the student survey.
Suggestions regarding specific research proj-
ects are being considered. From among them,
the Division will select a few of the most prom-
ising and important, and bend its efforts toward
promoting these. One or more of these proj-
ects are to be cooperative undertakings which
do not cost money, because the Division wants
early to demonstrate its usefulness simply as
an agency for correlation of effort. The stand-
ardization of procedure in making anthropo-
metric measurements of college students may
be a project of this sort.
Other projects of limited scope will require
the raising of certain funds as well as the co-
operative effort of research workers, such as
the determination of the predictive value of
various forms of examinations and tests for
students entering colleges and engineering
schools; or the recording by means of motion
picture films of the industries and ceremonies
of the North American Indians, to insure a
permanent record and permit analytical study
of actual movements.
Other proposals are still more elaborate and
‘would eall for larger funds. A systematic sur-
vey of archeological material and sites in Indi-
ana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri is an under-
taking which could be completed within five
years at an annual cost of from $5,000 to
$7,000. The function of this Division in such
an enterprise would be, first, through a special
committee to map out the program in detail,
and then, probably through the Division of
States Relations on which we are represented
by Dr. Fewkes, to encourage state legislatures,
historical ‘societies, universities and museums
to supply the requisite funds and personnel.
It is intended to select and concentrate on
ome one major research which is of interest
to both anthropologists and psychologists,
which can be brought to completion within a
relatively short period of one or two years and
which gives promise of substantial scientific
356
results, whose practical value would be gener-
ally appreciated. The research problems which
best meet these specifications are found within
the field of racial differences among the people
of the United States. Illustrative of such a
project, let me quote from a memorandum by
Terman, who suggests securing
Mental and physical measurements of as nearly
as possible unselected representatives of two to
four racial stocks represented in the United States,
with supplementary social and educational data.
By ordinary methods of selection large numbers
would have to be measured in order to insure rep-
resentative results. The number it would be nec-
essary to measure could, however, be enormously
reduced by confining the measurements to children
of a given age, say 12-year-olds. Such a group
would give more nearly one hundred per cent. avail-
ability than any other group that could be selected.
Entire villages, counties, or other civil units could
be covered in selected parts of the country. The
investigations ought to involve measurements of at
least 3,000, and preferably 5,000 individuals of
each race group. The results would give a fairly
reliable cross-section picture in the race groups
chosen for study.
Incidentally, also, the study would go beyond any
investigation that has been made in the direction
of determining the relationship between intelli-
gence and important physical traits within a given
race group. The method indicated is, I think, the
ideal approach to this latter problem, all previous
investigations of the problem having utilized faulty
methods of selecting subjects.
Other projects similar in scope and promise
include a study of the inheritance of intellec-
tual ability; a study of mental and physical
variability in selected traits, and the correla-
tion of mental and physical measurements;
culture studies of representative community
groups as a basis for a rational Americaniza-
tion program, ete.
Committees of the Division have just been
designated, to proceed with the elaboration of
specific proposals. One of these committees,
on anthropological and psychological study of
the people of the United States, will designate
subeommittees on specific projects which
are deemed most promising and important.
Another committee will determine what most
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
needs to be done in order to utilize the im-
mense accumulations of army data which have
hitherto been only meagerly studied. A third
will formulate programs for specific researches
outside the United States, particularly in
Tropical America, and in Polynesia where the
effects of racial intermarriage are most read-
ily determinable.
It will then be the duty of the Division to
see what research agencies, governmental or
educational, can be brought to concentrate
their efforts toward a concerted attack on these
major problems, problems which could not be
treated with adequacy by investigators work-
ing individually.
These samples will serve to illustrate the
major functions of the Division of Anthropol-
ogy and Psychology; but its usefulness will, I
trust, be demonstrated partly in the minor and
perhaps incidental services it can render from
time to time to individual workers. Requests
for aid are frequent and varied. For ex-
ample, one investigator who has been engaged
on plethysmographic research on stutterers has
succeeded through wide advertising in locating
in another city a trephined stutterer. Two
hundred dollars is needed to transport the sub-
ject to the laboratory, in order to secure rec-
ords of fluctuation of blood pressure in the
brain during stuttering. Another investigator,
studying the phenomena of memory, habit for-
mation and glandular activity under hypno-
tism, has found a senior medical student with
exceptional skill as a hypnotist, who can at will
make the hypnotized subject weep out of the
tight or the left while the other eye remains
dry. A thousand dollar fellowship would make
it possible to retain this student for a year of
service in research.
Unfortunately the council has no permanent
funds from which grants and subsidies can be
made. Such financial aid as it extends to im-
portant projects ordinarily takes the form of
an effort to interest a donor in a specific
undertaking which has been selected from
among many projects, for endorsement by the
division concerned.
Nor is the council in a position always to
lend its official approval and moral support to
Apri 9, 1920]
every worthy research undertaking, unless its
opinion of the enterprise has first been sought
by the government or other agency concerned.
But this division will always hold itself in
readiness to help any member of these asso-
ciations, so far as it can, by supplying desired
information and particularly by bringing the
research worker in touch with other investi-
gators who are engaged on identical or over-
lapping problems.
One reason why Germany, fighting against
the world, was able to stave off defeat for four
long years, is that she had to a remarkable de-
gree mobilized her scientific brains. To the
same marvellously planned and coordinated de-
velopment of science in its applications to pro-
duction, is traceable the world leadership she
had won in many phases of industry.
What Germany was able to do under an au-
tocratic régime in the way of fostering scien-
tific investigation and making the results of
research in pure and applied science of value
to government and industry, it is distinctly up
to America to do in a democratic way.
E. B. Woods, the distinguished sociologist,
observing the trends of human progress, re-
cently remarked, “The past fifty years have
belonged to the men who could organize mate-
rial production, but the present and the future
belong to those who can organize men.” He
was evidently thinking of the organization of
activities in public affairs, in religion, in busi-
ness and manufacture, in labor relations, and
in all movements for human betterment. A
third group of leaders to whom both of these
groups will turn for guidance consists of those
who can organize ideas. I conceive it as a
prime function of the National Research Coun-
cil to organize American men of science for
multiplied productivity in the organization of
ideas. To such a program of cooperative ef-
fort within the enormously important branches
of the sciences of man, the Division of Anthro-
pology and Psychology of the National Re-
search Council is dedicated.
W. V. BrycHam
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENCE
357
THE TECHNOLOGY PLAN
Tue Technology Plan is an organized at-
tempt to effect a closer cooperation between
scientific and industrial effort; between the
technical school and the individual industry
throughout the country. Although a working
relationship between educational institutions
and industrial organizations has been dis-
cussed at great length, and on many occasions,
little real practical progress has as yet been
made.
The Technology Plan recognizes that for the
present, at least, there must exist somewhere in
this scheme of cooperation an element of in-
dividual and mutual responsibility on the part
of those engaged in it. It recognizes that a
purely philanthropic enterprise does not en-
gender in the managers of industry that con-
fidence which is an essential element in its
success. Such men are not yet deeply inter-
ested in a strictly pro bono publico method of
cooperative work. Hence, the Technology
Plan is neither eleemosynary in organization
nor philanthropic in its aims and methods.
The essential feature of the plan is an agree-
ment, expressed as a contract, between indi-
vidual industrial organizations and the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, under which
the industry pays an annual retaining fee to
the institute, in return for which the institute
assumes certain definite obligations of such a
character as it is in position to meet. These
obligations are in very general terms as fol-
lows:
The great demand of the industries to-day
is for men trained to solve the many problems
with which these industries are confronted.
This requires, first, a knowledge of the prin-
ciples of science, and second, a training in the
application of this knowledge to the solution of
the ever-recurring difficulties. While the first
requirement is reasonably well met by the
undergraduate courses of instruction at the
institute, only to a limited extent can the sec-
ond be obtained in the four years allotted to
undergraduate work. The student must be
encouraged to spend an additional year or
more in a research laboratory or advanced
study. Since the best way to learn an art is
358
to practise it, the student is best taught to
solve industrial problems by having him at-
tempt the solution of such problems under able
and experienced guidance. These problems,
however, have their origin in, and owe their
existence to, the industries themselves. The
first point of cooperative contact, therefore, in
this arrangement between industry and the
Institute of Technology is that the institute
agrees to use, so far as it can, such problems
as the industry will submit to it as basic ma-
terial for its research work for those graduate
students interested in industrial development;
to give men already well grounded in science
the benefit of the opportunity of working under
experienced instructors upon the type of work
for which they are urgently required. It is
true also that much investigation in “pure
science” can be conducted as profitably in
fields of research which are closely akin to in-
dustry as in those realms of science far remote
from general interest. This does not mean that
the search for knowledge for its own sake will
not continue to subtend a large are of the ac-
tivities of the Institute of Technology; but
rather that such search will be activated and
inspired by the realization that the hard work
involved and the results obtained are recog-
nized as an essential part of a comprehensive
whole. Hence, the institute agrees in its con-
tract to maintain a steady stream of trained
men constantly flowing into industry with the
best preparation for scientific work which it is
possible for it to give. At the same time, the
results of the research work thus obtained will
swell the store of knowledge on which the sci-
entific progress of the community, as a whole,
depends.
_ But a corollary of this duty of preparing
educated men is the duty to see that, as far as
possible, these men take positions for which
their natural ability and aptitude most nearly
fit them. Further, it is desirable that, as these
men develop into specialists in any particular
field, their sphere of usefulness be made wide
as is practicable. Hence the institute under-
takes to maintain a record of the qualifications,
experience and special knowledge of its
alumni; to advise the contractor where such
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
knowledge and experience as it seeks is avail-
able; to assist the contractor to obtain the
technical help he requires, whether from its
own alumni, or from available engineers else-
where. While this service has been rendered
to some degree in the past, it has been a minor
part of, and incidental to, other activities. It
will now become a contractual obligation.
Coincident with the education of scientific
men, there exists the necessity of educating
the executives of the industries in the great
economic value of science when applied to the
business of their organizations. The sporadic
“Yankee genius” of the past, productive
though it was, must be replaced by the meth-
ods of scientific research. Genius must be pro-
vided with that most efficient tool yet produced
—scientific method. While it is true that the
world will ever need more knowledge, the press-
ing duty of industry for the present is to apply
the knowledge now available. To meet this
situation, the institute provides for conferences
with members of its staff, not only in its own
building but also at the factories of the con-
tractor. It is hoped that the contractor will be
so imbued with the possible benefits to be de-
rived by the application of science that he will
avail himself of one of the sources of technical
aid readily accessible, not only at the institute,
but among consulting engineers and industrial
scientists throughout the country. A realiza-
tion of that close cooperation between the in-
dustrial interests and the educational institu-
tions of the country, which in Germany was
made so effective by the domination of both
by the state, can, in America, be brought
about only by a voluntary personal relation-
ship between the executives of the companies
and the instructing staffs of the institutions.
The Technology Plan aims to make this rela-
tionship more easily possible; to provide a
point of contact between the two interests; to
open a channel of communication through
which the manufacturer and the technical con-
sultant can more easily meet. The contractor
ean obtain the value of his retainer only by
utilizing the facilities thus made available.
There will, therefore, be present in the Tech-
nology Plan this incentive, to at least try.
APRIL 9, 1920]
The instructing staff of an educational in-
stitution is made up, at least theoretically, of
men peculiarly adapted to render great public
service by conducting research of a funda-
mental character, 7. e., they are seekers after
new knowledge, and yet, at the same time, are
teachers and trainers of young men. It is im-
portant that these men be not withdrawn into
purely industrial work by reason of the greater
financial return offered by great corporations,
or the acute pleasure which many red-blooded
men feel in being professionally connected with
great technical developments. Hence, the
Technology Plan provides 'a method by which
the staff is enabled to profit by contact with
men of affairs and receive the inspiration which
comes from the capitalization of effort, and, at
the same time, fertilize and capitalize the in-
structional work of the teaching staff.
The institute, therefore, agrees that if the
contractor has special technical problems re-
quiring extended consultations, investigations,
test, or research work, it will advise the con-
tractor where and by whom such service can
best be rendered. When one considers the
splendid laboratories with which the Institute
of Technology is equipped, covering as they
do, almost every department of applied science,
and its staff, trained in the use of such labora-
tories, it is obvious that much of the work will
be done within its own organization. But it is
neither the desire nor the intention of the
Technology Plan to limit the contractor to the
facilities of the institute. It is the hope of
the Division of Industrial Cooperation and
Research, the organization set up to handle
the one hundred and ninety contracts already
made, that it can enlist the interest of the
great body of able consulting engineers
throughout the country. When, therefore, con-
sultations, tests, investigations, or research
work are of such a nature as can be best fur-
nished by established commercial organiza-
tions, the institute will advise the contractor
where, in its judgment, the work can best be
cared for.
The Technology Plan is, therefore, a more
effective means of introducing technical re-
search to the manufacturer; of making the ap-
SCIENCE
309
plication of science to industrial problems
popular; of creating an appreciation on the
part of the leaders of industry of the value of
science and the necessity of providing, not
alone for its application, but for its continued
growth and development.
It is earnestly hoped that the plan here out-
lined will be adopted with improvements by
other educational institutions for the benefit
of both education and industry.
Wini1aM H. WALKER
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DOLOMIEU
WE have again to thank Professor Alfred La-
croix, of the Académie des Sciences, for the
publication of a manuscript account by the
French mineralogist Déodat Dolomieu of his
travels in Sicily in the year 1781.2
Dolomieu, who was a Knight of Malta, had
in 1771 incurred the displeasure of the Grand
Master of the Order on account of his partici-
pation in a duel, and was obliged to absent
himself from the island for several years.
During this time he came to Paris, where he
became acquainted with many of the leading
scientists of the period, and frequented much
the Jardin du Roi, the forerunner of the pres-
ent Jardin des Plantes. The mineralogist Dau-
benton urged him to undertake a geological
trip to the island of Sicily and gave him much
valuable advice as to the observations he could
make there. In a letter written June 9, 1776,
to his patron, Duke Alexandre de La Roche-
foucauld, Dolomieu says that by pursuing his
investigations under the guidance of Dauben-
ton’s notes, he believes that he would be able
to make a collection of characteristic marbles,
which he would gladly share with the duke
@u):
By 1779, Dolomieu had made his peace with
the Order of Malta, and had returned to the
island, whence he started in 1781 for his trip
to Sicily (p. 8). In a letter of August 6 to his
friend Chevalier Gioeni, a distinguished nat-
1‘“Un voyage géologique en Sicile en 1781, notes
inédites de Dolomieu,’’ by Alfred Lacroix, Secré-
taire Perpétuel de 1’Académie des Sciences, Paris,
Imprimerie Nationale, 1919, 190 pp. 8vo.
360
uralist of Catania, Sicily, Dolomieu gave in
the following brief paragraphs the main re-
sults of his explorations (pp. 10, 11):
1. I found no trace of voleanoes anywhere in
the Val Demona. The neighborhood of Ali
does not offer any volcanic material; the
waters which supply the hot baths established
on the coast are the only indications I have
found of subterranean fires.
2. The Liparian Islands are exceedingly
curious, and they well merit the attention of
naturalists. An interesting collection could
be made here of lavas and other volcanic prod-
ucts, but I did not have time to accomplish
this.
3. The mines of Val Demona are grouped in
a triangle of mountains which occupy the pro-
montory of Sicily; all the veins traverse schist.
They contain silver, copper, lead, antimony,
zinc and mercury. But none of these mines
have been exploited and it is almost impos-
sible to get specimens. In my whole journey
through these mountains I was only able to
pick up a few pieces which I took from the
outcrops of the veins.
4, The granites are present in great quantity
in the mountains of Messina, and I believe
that a part of the columns made of this rock
which one sees in Sicily were quarried in these
mountains.
5. I do not know whether there are real coal
mines at Messina. I have only found a bitumi-
nous earth very common throughout Sicily.
We may note that Dolomieu was enough in-
terested in the report that there was a deposit
of beryls near the village of Gratteri, to visit
the place. The locality was in a ravine which
traversed a hill. Here a number of geodes had
been found, resembling those of Grenoble in
France. They had a triple envelop of black
iron-ore, brown iron-ore and gray clay, and
some of them displayed within polyhedral,
transparent crystals. Dolomieu could only
find a few unsatisfactory specimens, and was
forced to buy some at Gratteri, where he
had to pay as much for them as for genuine
beryls. In reality they were either hyalin
quartz, or the light-blue strontium sulphate
called celestine (pp. 90, 91).
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
Déodat Dolomieu was born at Dolomieu,
near Tour-du-Pin, in Dauphiné, France, on
June 23, 1750. He died at Chateauneuf, near
La Clayette, department Saéne-et-Loire, No-
vember 16, 1801. Regarding the disposition of
his remains, the following information is
given by Professor Alfred Lacroix in his bio-
graphical sketch of Dolomieu.?
Dolomieu was interred at Chateauneuf, near La
Olayette (Sadne-et-Loire). His body probably
rests in the vault of the Drée family, but his heart
was placed in an urn (39.2 em. X 23.6 em.) of black
porphyrite with large crystals of white feldspar,
which surmounts a fine prism (1 m. 29.8 X 21.6
em.) of basalt from Auvergne, itself supported by
a pedestal of Albanese peperino and marble (vio-
let breccia). This little monument, which formed
part of the collection of his brother-in-law (Cata-
logue of the eight collections composing the Min-
eralogical Museum of the Marquis Etienne de
Drée, Paris, 1811, p. 249), finds itself to-day placed
at the entrance of the mineralogical gallery of the
Muséum d’Histoire Naturel in Paris.
At the request of the Marquise de Drée, her
brother’s heart was, at the time of her demise,
transported to her own tomb at Dolomieu. In the
park of the chateau of Chateauneuf, she had
caused to be erected a small monument formed by
a block of the red granite of the country.
Grorce F. Kunz
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE MACKENZIE DAVIDSON MEMORIAL
An influential English committee has
issued an appeal which in part says:
The death of Sir James Mackenzie Davidson in
the prime of life has deprived radiology of one of
its most distinguished exponents, whose name is
specially associated with the development of radio-
graphic technique, and particularly that of stereo-
scopic radiography, and with the introduction in
this country of the method of the localization of
foreign bodies to which so many thousands of
wounded men owe a deep debt of gratitude.
Mackenzie Davidson’s reputation was interna-
tional. In this country he was rightly regarded as
the head of his profession, and throughout his ¢ca-
reer he was unsparing in his efforts to raise the
2‘‘Notire historique sur Déodat Dolomieu,’’
Paris, 1918, p. 83, note 85; Institut de France,
Académie des Sciences,
Aprin 9, 1920]
status of radiology among the sciences. He was
especially. insistent on the fundamental value of
physics to radiology, particularly in regard to
methods of measurement and the designing of
equipment, subjects in which he was deeply inter-
ested up to ithe time of his death.
Many in his own branch of tthe profession and a
number of his friends and former patients, wishing
to keep his memory green, have suggested that an
appeal for funds should be made to found a Mac-
kenzie Davidson Chair of Radiology at some uni-
versity.
Had Mackenzie Davidson lived he would have
been among the first actively and generously to
support the foundation of an institute for teaching
and research in radiology, of which he was one of
the earliest pioneers. If funds permit, it is hoped to
found such an institute, to which possibly the chair
could be attached, and of which the personnel and
equipment would be beyond reproach. The benefit
accruing to the British School of Radiology would
be incaleulable.
Till quite recently radiology has been regarded
as a purely medical subject, but experimental re-
search has shown that X-rays may be profitably em-
ployed commercially in a number of industries. A
new subject, radiometallography, has, for example,
come into being, which offers great possibilities for
examining the internal structure of metals and
other materials. In this connection radiology has
already beeu turned to account by the steel manu-
facturer, the metallurgist, the engineer, the manu-
facturer of explosives, the aireraft constructor, the
glass manufacturer, ete.
The future of radiology will therefore lie, not
only in the fight against disease and suffering, but
also in the increase of commercial and industrial
efficiency. But these new branches of radiology
need much investigatory work before they can come
fully into their own, and a chair of radiology asso-
ciated with an X-ray institute should play a worthy
part in such development.
THE ENGLISH UNION OF SCIENTIFIC
WORKERS
Nature reports that the half-yearly council
meeting of the National Union of Scientific
Workers, presided over by Mr. G. S. Baker, of
the National Physical Laboratory, was held at
University College on March 6. The rapid
growth of the union has necessitated the ap-
pointment of a full-time secretary, and Major
A. G. Church has been appointed to fill that
SCIENCE
361
office. The research committee in its report
outlined the function of this body and that of
the research council, which it is hoped will
shortly be constituted. It will consider how
best industry and public administration should
be kept in close touch with the development of
scientific knowledge, and ensure that the views
and conditions of employment of scientific
workers shall receive consideration from all
bodies bringing forward schemes for research
in science or for the administration of re-
search. It was felt that the state should not
subsidize industrial research associations un-
less such bodies display an anxiety to ensure
that the direction of research shall be in the
hands of those who have shown capacity for
leadership in scientific work. A report on
patent rights presented by Mr. A. A. Griffith
emphasized the opinion “that the only satis-
factory way of remunerating salaried inventors
is to pay them adequate salaries; a salaried in-
ventor receiving an adequate salary should
have no claim whatever to any extra payment
because his work proves unexpectedly remu-
nerative.” On the motion of Miss A. B. Dale,
the council unanimously agreed to “ protest
against the differential treatment of men and
women as regards the method of recruitment
to the Civil Service and the salary scales offered
therein as recommended by the Reorganization
‘Sub-committee of the Civil Service National
Whitley Council.” h
THE HARVARD ENGINEERING SCHOOL AND IN-
DUSTRIAL COOPERATION
THe Harvard Engineering School has
adopted a new plan of instruction for the
junior year of the engineering course, whereby
students will hereafter be given an opportunity
to combine classroom work with six months of
active engineering practise and industrial
training. According to the new plan, which
will be inaugurated in June and will apply to
the instruction in mechanical, electrical, civil,
sanitary and municipal engineering, every stu-
dent who wishes to take the industrial train-
ing work will spend half his time during his
junior year working in industrial or engineer-
ing plants within easy reach of Cambridge.
362
Professor Hector J. Hughes, chairman of the
administrative board of the engineering school,
has made the following statement:
One of the first problems which the staff of the
new engineering school set itself to solve was to
find an effective way of getting the new school and
its students into closer relations with industrial and
engineering work before they graduate. The need
for such relations has been increasingly evident in
the past few years. The object of such coordination
is manifold: to stimulate interest in the classroom
work; to keep the teaching staff well-informed of
the needs of industry and how to train engineers to
meet them; to give the students some intimate
knowledge of the great problems of labor and in-
dustry which they have to meet after they gradu-
ate, and thus to anticipate to some extent the period
of initiation which all students must go through
and better to fit them to begin their careers; to
give them an opportunity to discover how intricate
and interesting the basic industries are and to
what extent scientific knowledge may be used in
work which is too frequently looked upon as non-
technical; in other words, to find out how many
kinds of careers are open to technically trained
men and how wide is the opportunity for such men.
Another object of the new plan is to stimulate the
interest of the industries themselves in the adapta-
tion to their special needs of education in engi-
neering.
, The most promising solution of this problem
seemed to the staff to lie along the lines of the
highly developed and successful plan of industrial
cooperation which was initiated by Dean Schneider
at the University of Cincinnati and has been car-
ried on there so successfully for many years, and
has been applied in a modified form at the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh also. This plan has been modi-
fied still further to meet the different conditions
and needs at Harvard. It is significant that other
universities are now moving in the same direction,
and within only a few days a large movement has
been inaugurated to put such a plan ultimately into
effect in most of the large technical schools.
After a thorough study of the situation, the staff
came +o the conclusion that it would be highly de-
sirable to offer our students an opportunity to get
some industrial experience and engineering practise
while undergraduates but without sacrifice of class-
room instruction and without depriving them of
the many advantages which attach to residence and
study under teachers interested in other subjects
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
than science, and among students of widely dif-
fering interests. In other words, we feel that our
students should have as many as possible of the
benefits which we know will come from connection
with the college, while they are at the same time
carrying on their engineering studies. For this
reason, and because it does not seem desirable to
lengthen the period required for a first degree be-
yond four years, we shall be limited at the outset to
less industrial experience than perhaps would be
desirable. The amount offered, however, should be
looked upon as a minimum and we have no doubt
that many of our students will be glad to avail
themselves of the opportunity to take more of this
work after the plan is in operation.
Mr. H. V. Drufner, of the University of Cincin-
nati, has been secured to take active charge of
the technical work of putting the new plan into
operation.
THE FOREST CLUB CONVENTION IN NEW
HAVEN
Tue fourth annual convention of the Inter-
collegiate Association of Forestry Clubs was
held in New Haven on Friday and Saturday,
February 27-28, under the auspices of Yale,
the present president club. There were twelve
delegates present of whom two were from the
Pacific coast. The meeting was in every way
a distinct success and the sessions were well
attended. Owing to the number of Yale
alumni present the occasion partook of the
nature of a reunion.
Among the business transacted at the meet-
ing was the adoption of insignia for the asso-
ciation, the provision for a quarterly publica-
tion to be issued by the president club, and
the election of the University of California
as president for the coming year. The next
convention will accordingly be held in
Berkeley.
The following is the list of speakers and
the subjects of their papers:
February 27
The profession of forestry: Proressor H. H.
CHapmMAN, New Haven, Conn.
How cam the forester help the lumberman? T. L.
Bristou, Ansonia, Conn.
The work of the consulting forester:
RotHery, New York City.
J. T.
Aprit 9, 1920]
Speakers at the Banquet
Dean Toumey, Colonel Woolsey, Major Marston,
EH, C. Hirst and Mr. Rogers, of the Indian Forest
Service,
February 28
The undergraduate student of forestry: J. H. Bris-
cor, Orono, Maine.
The student of forestry and state service: HE. C.
Hirst, Concord, N. H.
The student of forestry and research: S. T. DANA,
Washington, D. C.
MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL EUGENICS
CONGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY
Tue National Research Council has ap-
pointed a committee on eugenics, under the
division of biology and agriculture, consisting
of the following members: L. F. Barker, A.
G. Bell, E. A. Hooton, Daniel W. LaRue,
Stewart Paton, Raymond Pearl, R. M.
Yerkes, H. S. Jennings and ©. B. Davyen-
port, chairman. The committee met on
March 20 and voted to hold the Second Inter-
national Eugenics Congress in New York
City, September 22 to September 28, 1921,
inclusive. The invitation of the American
Museum of Natural History to hold the
meetings of the Congress was gratefully ac-
cepted. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was
elected honorary president and Dr. Henry F.
Osborn, president. Madison Grant is treasurer
and Mrs. Sybil Gotto, secretary of the Eu-
genics Education Society, in view of her
activity in organizing the First Eugenics
Congress, was named as honorary secretary of
the Second Eugenics Congress. The nucleus
of a general committee for the Second Inter-
national Congress was elected. This general
committee is to meet in New York on Satur-
day, April 10. To this general committee are
entrusted the details of organizing the con-
gress, of arranging the program of the meet-
ing, of providing for the entertainment of
guests and the raising the necessary funds.
The national consultative eugenics bodies in
the various allied and associated countries
will be informed of the action of the eugenics
committee of the National Research Council
and invited to send representatives. A gen-
eral invitation will be sent to universities in
SCIENCE
363
different American countries and in various
countries of Europe.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Tue American Institute of Electrical Engi-
neers will confer the Edison Medal, awarded
each year for the most noteworthy advance
in electrical engineering, on Mr. William
Leroy Emmet, consulting engineer of the
General Electric Company, for his work on
the electric propulsion of ships.
Dr. E. W. Brown, professor of mathematics
in Yale University, received the Bruce Medal
of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, at
a meeting in San Francisco on March 26.
Tue University of Dublin has conferred the
degree of doctor of science on Professor R. A.
Millikan, of the University of Chicago.
Dr. J. M. T. Finney, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, and Dr. Charles H. Mayo, Rochester,
Minn., have been elected honorary fellows of
the Royal College of Surgeons. It is hoped
that they may be able to attend the meeting
of the council in July for the presentation of
diplomas.
Sik JAMEs Dewar has been elected a corre-
sponding member of the French Academy of
Sciences in the section of general physics in
succession to the late Professor P. Blaserna.
Proressor Horace Lams, Sir Thomas L.
Heath, Professor W. H. Bragg and Dr. Henry
Head have been elected honorary fellows of
Trinity College, Cambridge.
Dr. Braprorp Kwapp, chief of extension
work in the South, States Relations Service,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, since 1911,
has been appointed dean of the college of
agriculture, of the University of Arkansas
and director of the experimental station, and
chief of the department of rural economics.
Martin Nelson has been appointed vice-dean
and vice-director and chief of the department
of agronomy.
Dr. J. Stantey Garpiner, F.R.S., professor
of zoology in the University of Cambridge, has,
at the request of the deputy minister of fisher-
ies, undertaken temporarily the direction of
364
the scientific work of the Fisheries Department
of the British ministry.
Mr. H. F. Fisu, formerly in the research de-
partment of the Great Western Sugar Co.,
Denver, Colorado, has been appointed by the
board of trustees of the University of Illinois
as special research assistant in the joint in-
vestigation of the fatigue of metals.
Mr. Harvey Bassier, who has held a tempo-
rary appointment on the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey since 1911 while a student at Johns Hop-
kins University, has joined the permanent staff
of the survey as assistant geologist, and has
been engaged in field work in the Virgin
River Oil Field, Utah.
Mr. Apert D. Brokaw, formerly associate
professor of economic geology and mineralogy
at the University of Chicago, has opened a
New York office for the practise of his profes-
sion as consulting geologist.
Mr. Pui A. Macy, assistant chemist at
the Florida Experiment Station, has accepted
a position with the Florida Agricultural
Supply Co.
THE following officers and council of the
Geological Society, London, have been elected
for the ensuing year: President, R. D. Old-
ham; Vice-presidents, Professor EK. J. Garwood,
G. W. Lamplugh, Colonel H. G. Lyons and
Professor J. E. Marr; Secretaries, Dr. H. H.
Thomas and Dr. H. Lapworth; Foreign Secre-
tary, Sir Archibald Geikie; Treasurer, Dr. J.
V. Elsden; other Members of Council, Dr. F.
A. Bather, Professor W. S. Boulton, R. G.
Carruthers, Dr. A. M. Davies, J. F. N. Green,
R. S. Herries, J. Allen Howe, Professor O. T.
Jones, Professor P. F. Kendall, W. B. R. King,
Dr. G. T. Prior, W. C. Smith, Professor H. H.
Swinnerton and Professor W. W. Watts.
Frienps of Professor Chandler presented in
1910 to Columbia University a sum of money
which constitutes the Charles Frederick
Chandler Foundation. The income from this
fund is used for a lecture by an eminent
chemist and to provide a medal to be pre-
sented to the lecturer in further recognition
of his achievements in science. Previous lec-
turers on this foundation were L. H. Baeke-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1319
land, Se.D., and W. F. Hillebrand, Ph.D.,
The lecturer this year will be Willis Rodney
Whitney, director of the Research Laboratory
of the General Electric Company, a former
president of the American Chemical Society
and of the American Electrochemical Society.
Dr. Whitney’s subject will be “The littlest
things of chemistry.” His lecture will be in
Havemeyer Hall, Columbia University, at
8:15 p.M., on April 27.
Dr. D. T. MacDoucat, of the Carnegie
Desert Laboratory, at Tucson, Arizona, gave
a lecture in EK] Paso on March 10 on “ Travels
in the Lybian Desert,” and on March 12 Dr.
A. E. Douglass, of the University of Arizona,
Tucson, gave a lecture in Albuquerque, N. M.,
on “The Big Tree and its Story.” These
lectures were given in connection with the
proposed formation of a Southwestern Divi-
sion of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science.
Dr. Epcar T. Wuerry, of the Bureau of
Chemistry, U. 8S. Department of Agriculture,
delivered an address before a joint meeting
of the Washington Academy of Sciences and
the Chemical Society of Washington on “ Soil
Reaction and Plant Distribution,” on March
25.
AT a meeting of the Aeronautical Society
of America in conjunction with the American
Museum of Natural History on March 25
brief addresses on aerial photography applied
to exploration, map making and physical
geography were made by Colonel Edgar Rus-
sell, U. S. Signal Corps, Sherman M. Fair-
child, Carl E. Akeley and representatives of
the U. S. Geological Survey.
A MEMORIAL meeting to the late Sir William
Osler, regius professor of medicine at Oxford
University and for many years professor of
medicine at Johns Hopkins University, was
held on March 15 in Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. President Frank J. Goodnow presided
and addresses were made by Henry Van Dyke,
D.D., and Professor William H. Welch. A
correspondent writes: In the Wiener Klinische
Wochensschrift of February 26, 1920, Dr. K.
F. Wenckebach has an admirable obituary of
ApriL 9, 1920]
the late Sir William Osler, in which he em-
phasizes the genial cosmopolitan spirit of this
great physician. It appears that Osler was
the first physician to inquire into the rumors
concerning the economic condition of the
Viennese population after the war and the
first to take measures for the relief of the
starving Viennese.
Dr. James GaYLEY, past president of the
Institute of Mining Engineers, has died at
the age of sixty-five years.
Proressor Ernest M. Jorpan, a member of
the faculty of the Boston University Medical
School since 1913, and a specialist in nervous
diseases, died on March 15.
Proressor CHarLtes LapwortH, for many
years professor of geology and physiography
in the University of Birmingham, died on
March 13 at the age of seventy-seven years.
Dr. Prmr Anprea SaccarDo, emeritus pro-
fessor of botany in the Royal University of
Padua, and long director of the Botanical
Garden of that city, has died at the age of
seventy-five years.
Worp has been received of the death on
December 138 last, of Professor Woldemar
Voigt, the eminent mathematical physicist of
the University of Gottingen, at the age of
sixty-nine years. Being a man of broad mind
with friends in all the warring countries, he
suffered keenly throughout the war and this
is said to have aggravated the heart trouble
which was the immediate cause of his death.
His writings include papers and books in
many fields of physics, but chiefly in magneto-
optics and erystal physics.
THE Carnegie Corporation has given to the
American College of Surgeons $75,000 to be
used for hospital standardization. The pres-
ent gift is the second which the corporation
has made to the college. In 1916 it gave
$30,000, making a total now of $105,000 for
hospital standardization. This amount is sup-
plemented by funds of the college.
Tue Institute of Research in Animal Nu-
trition at Aberdeen has received a gift of
£10,000 from Mr. J. Q. Rowett. The amount
SCIENCE
365
required from public sources for the establish-
ment of the institution is £25,000.
Tue Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn
Institute of Arts and Sciences will hold its
thirty-first session during July and August.
Investigators can find accommodation at any
time during the summer. The usual courses
are offered in field zoology by Drs. Walter,
Kornhauser and Parshley, in comparative
anatomy by Dr. Pratt, systematic and field
botany by Drs. Harshberger and Stiteler and
beginning advanced work under the direction
of the various instructors. The Eugenics
Record Office, Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington, takes advantage of the arrangements
for boarding students at Cold Spring Harbor
to give its training course for field workers
in eugenics at the same time with the session
of the Biological Laboratory (Drs. Daven-
port and Laughlin.) The announcement for
1920 can be secured by addressing the Bio-
logical Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, L. I.
Durine the period of the Christmas meet-
ings of the American Association for the Ad- —
vancement of Science, an anthropological so-
ciety was organized in St. Louis, largely under
the stimulation of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka who
visited the city at that time. The object of
the society as stated in the constitution is the
promotion of research in all branches of an-
thropology. The officers are: president, Pro-
fessor R. J. Terry; vice-president, Dr. H. M.
Whelpley; secretary-treasurer, Dr. C. H. Dan-
forth, councilors, Drs. W. W. Graves, Albert
Kuntz, R. Walter Mills, Sherwood Moore,
Daniel M. Schoemaker and Mr. J. Max Wul-
fing. Two regular meeting have been held.
At the first Dr. R. Walter Mills presented a
paper on “ Variation in Physicial Type and
Visceral Function,” and at the second Dr.
H. M. Whelpley spoke on “ Notched Indian
Hoes, The Most Specialized of Indian Agri-
cultural Implements.”
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
THE Medical College of the state of South
Carolina has received an appropriation of
366
$71,000 from the state for maintenance, as
compared with $49,500 last year. An addi-
tional appropriation of $60,000 was made for a
physiology building and equipment.
THE proposal to- admit women to be fellows
of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
after examination, on the same conditions and
with the same privileges as men, has been
accepted.
Dr. H. MonmoutH Situ, who is at present
assistant director of the Carnegie Nutrition
Laboratory in Boston, and who was formerly
connected with Syracuse University, has been
appointed a professor of inorganic chemistry
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
| Prorrssor Frank O. WuHiTMors, of the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, has succeeded Professor
Harry A. Curtis as professor of organic chem-
istry in Northwestern University, Evanston,
Til.
Mr. J. D. Buack has been appointed professor
and chief of the division of agricultural eco-
nomics at the University of Minnesota, in the
place of W. W. Cumberland, whose leave of ab-
sence for service in Turkey as financial and
economic adviser to the commission to negoti-
ate peace between the Allies and Turkey has
been continued for another year.
Mr. A. Amos, of Downing College, has been
appointed lecturer in agriculture in Cambridge
University.
Dr. Huco Fucus, professor of anatomy at
the University of Konigsberg, has been trans-
ferred to the University of Gottingen, succeed-
ing Professor Merkel.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE ATTAINMENT OF HIGH LEVELS IN THE
ATMOSPHERE
In the March 19, 1920, issue of ScIENCE ap-
peared an article by Alexander McAdie, en-
titled “The Attainment of High Levels in
the Atmosphere.” As certain incorrect state-
ments which are detrimental to the Curtiss
Aeroplane & Motor Corporation appeared
therein the following correction is made. No
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1319
criticism of Professor McAdie is intended,
nor any desire on his part to misstate a fact
is in any sense suspected.
Unauthorized statements are made in the
press, the results of which are far reaching.
One of these is the innocent acceptance of
them by Professor McAdie as being correct
and the corresponding reappearance of the in-
correct values in the above mentioned article.
On September 18, 1919, Roland Rohlfs, the
test pilot of the Curtiss Engineering Corpor-
ation, made an altitude flight, obeying in
every particular the official rules laid down
for such contests. It should be stated here
that the compliance with these rules is a
serious handicap and in justice the same con-
ditions should be observed by all competitors.
The flight was made in a Curtiss triplane
fitted with a K-12 motor without supercharger
and without the use of special fuel. The re-
sult obtained from the barograph chart by the
Bureau of Standards after all corrections for
instrumental errors had been made was 34,-
910 feet, this value being, however, uncor-
rected for the average temperature of the air
column. The instrumental corrections to the
barograph readings were determined by sub-
jecting the instrument to the same variations
of pressure and temperature in the laboratory
as those encountered during the actual flight.
The value of 34,910 feet, although .uncor-
rected for air temperatures was homologated,
this being strictly according to the 1919 rules
and was of interest for comparison with the
French altitude flight of Jean Casale made
June 14, 1919, which was calculated by the
same method.
It is well known that this way of expressing
results, that is, without air temperature cor-
rections, is not only unsatisfactory and un-
fair but also scientifically incorrect and the
Curtiss Company has always admitted that
the true (tape line) altitude reached by Rohlfs
became 32,450 feet when the air temperature
correction, also made by the Bureau of Stand-
ards, was applied. There is thus a large but
proper reduction in the indicated altitude.
This correction is the larger the colder the air
encountered in the flight.
AprRIL 9, 1920]
It may be noted here that the undersigned
was at least partially instrumental in awaken-
ing interest in the unsatisfactory official rules,
the result being that both the Bureau of
Standards and the homologating body sent
representatives to Europe with a view of
putting the rules on a fairer and more scien-
tifie basis.
The outcome is that the rules are greatly
improved but are still open to proper eriti-
cism and objection. It is necessary, however,
for all either to accept the rulings of the
official body or, if they are to be ignored, for
all to work on the same unbiased scientific
basis and abide by the decisions of an author-
itative and independent scientific laboratory
such, for example, as the Bureau of Standards
at Washington.
In order to bring out clearly an important
point in this matter, that is, the importance
of the air temperature correction, assume that
two identical perfect barographs with no in-
strumental errors are taken up, one in the
summer time and the other in winter, to such
an altitude that both read say 8 inches of
mercury as the minimum pressure. Assume
also that the average temperature of the air
is in the first case —10° C. and in the second
—80° C. which values correspond closely to
actual observed figures.
The true altitudes corresponding to this
pressure are in the first case 33,475 feet and
in the second 30,929 feet, although the alti-
tude uncorrected for air temperature is the
same for both, 7. e., 36,020 feet. These figures
are obtained from Circular No. 3 of the Aero-
nautic Instruments Division of the Bureau of
Standards and are within 4 per cent of the
true values. The correction for the first case
is —2,545 feet and is twice as much for the
second, or 5,091 feet. The value 36,020 feet
assumes that the air is at a uniform tem-
perature of —10° C throughout. As stated
above Rohlfs’ record reduced in this manner
by the Bureau of Standards gave a true alti-
tude of 32,450 feet.
We now quote from the Air Service News
Letter No. 11, issued by the Information
Group, Air Service, of March 9, 1920.
SCIENCE
367
The purpose of this letter is to keep the person-
nel of the Air Service both in Washington and in
the field informed as to the activities of the Air
Service in general and for release to the public
press. At an indicated altitude of 36,000 feet
. . . the temperature at his greatest altitude was
67 degrees below zero F. . . . The preliminary cali-
bration of the barograph indicates that tthe air-
plane reached a pressure of eight inches of mer-
eury which corresponds approximately to 36,000
feet on the Bureau of Standards altitude chart.
In commenting on this letter we note that
it does not claim that a record was obtained.
We ask then by whose authority a record is
granted and published as such. We note also
that approximately 36,000 feet corresponds al-
most exactly to the stated minimum pressure
of eight inches of mercury, which shows that
this value has not been corrected for air
column temperature. The ground temperature
is not stated but the Weather Bureau kindly
furnished us with the values, max. 18° F.,
min. + 13° F. for Dayton, Ohio, February 26,
1920. Using the most favorable value, 7. e.,
+ 18° F., for the McCook Field flight, the
average is —31.4° C., which gives a correc-
tion, using the Bureau of Standards tables of
—5,269 feet and hence the true altitude is
not 36,020 feet (as published) but is 30,751
feet.
This altitude does not reach that of Rohlfs
by 1,700 feet, figured on the same basis, and
as according to the rules for beating a record
it should surpass it by 328 feet (100 meters)
it lacks 2,027 feet to beat Rohlfs’ record.
It is not surprising then that the Curtiss
Company wished to protest the validity of
this new record. The premature announce-
ment in the press that Major Schroeder has
beaten all altitude records with a flight to
36,020 feet, beating the previous one held by
Rohlfs, is neither justified by the figures, nor
authorized by the Army bulletin nor fair to
the Curtiss Company’s machine and motor
nor just to its pilot, Mr. Rohlfs. Slightly
modified results were given personally to the
writer at a meeting which he had with Major
Schroeder, showing an uncorrected altitude
of 36,118 feet and a true altitude of 30,835
feet.
368
The Curtiss Company will be among the
first to acknowledge a properly authenticated
record beating the one it now holds and in a
true competitive spirit and for the benefit of
aviation attempt to better it at the first
opportunity. J. G. Corrin,
Director of Aeronautical Research
CuRTISS AERONAUTICAL & Motor CorPoRATION,
GARDEN Ciry, L. I., N. Y.
CONCERNING BALLISTICS
‘| To THE Eprror oF Science: For sufficient
reasons I was unable to attend the meeting of
the American Association, and so was not so
fortunate as to hear Major Hull’s very valu-
able and interesting address on ballistics, nor
Professor Ames’s extremely scholarly and clear
address on Hinstein’s theory. However I have
read Professor Hull’s address in Science with
great pleasure. In it he is good enough to
speak of my pressure gauge for guns, but says
that its use appears to be limited to the cases
of guns that can be rigidly clamped during
the explosion. I hope to demonstrate shortly
that there is no such limitation. Over a year
ago I was offered the use of a six-inch gun at
Aberdeen to put my gauge on, and Admiral
Earle has at last taken an interest in my re-
sults and has manifested a willingness to as-
sist me. The coming of the armistice, how-
ever, removed so much money and personnel
from Aberdeen that nothing came of it.
I should have been pleased if Major Hull
could have seen fit to call attention to the fact
that I was the first person to publish trajec-
tories of “la grosse Berthi” that bombarded
Paris two years ago. The bombardment be-
gan on March 23, 1918. The next week I be-
gan to deliver lectures on exterior ballistics,
and in a few days we had a number of trajec-
tories calculated. In four weeks from that
date I read a paper at the meeting of the
American Philosophical Society in Philadel-
phia, at which I showed a number of trajec-
tories. I used the height function for the
density as given in Major Hull’s address, and
at that time it had never been used by either
the United States Army or Navy. I showed
my results to Major Moulton, who was just be-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
ginning his distinguished service in the army,
and he showed much interest. Later he ad-
vised me not to publish them, as such ealcula-
tions were now “a matter of routine.”
I reminded him that although they may be
such now, they were not when I read the paper.
I have also seen in French journals pictures
with articles apparently written by experts
which would lead one to believe that there are
discontinuities in the atmosphere, or that it
stopped suddenly a few miles up. In a recent
letter from M. Henri Le Chatelier, regarding
my paper, he says that the French had made
guns with an initial velocity of 1,200 meters
per second, but had not thought of using them
for high fire, as they were intended for
penetration of ships armor. We also con-
structed curves showing the decrease of den-
sity upon both the isothermal and adiabatic
hypotheses, neglecting and taking account of
the variation in gravity, as given in my book
on Dynamics, and also the observed values as
kindly furnished me by Professor Humphreys.
Unfortunately I was requested to keep the
number of figures down, and these were not
printed. I should be glad to send the paper
to any one interested. The gauge paper is un-
fortunately exhausted. I may say that M.
Sugot, the chief engineer of the Commission
de Gavre, told me last summer that ballisti-
cians had been waiting fifty years for my in-
strument, and that the publication of my
curves had rendered useless all the theoretical
work of ballisticians on interior ballistics.
Of course that is not so, but I hope next month
to show how this gauge answers all questions
that can be asked on the subject. I think I
was the first professor to give lectures on bal-
listics, both interior and exterior, at an Ameri-
can university.
My ballistic institute is having hard sled-
ding. At first encouraged by a vote of the
Naval Consulting Board, turned down by the
Honorable the Secretary of the Navy (with-
out a word of regret), financed by a great arms
company for awhile, helped by the Bache and
Rumford Funds, it looks as if it would have
to be given up for lack of money. When we
began I had one assistant, one machinist and
Aprin 9, 1920]
three students, who all went to work vigor-
ously. Last year I hired several assistants,
and when I returned from France I had to put
my hand in my pocket. That is I borrowed
money at six per cent. This method of high
finance may do for high trajectories, but it
can not continue forever. I hear much of the
National Research Council, but I do not see
any money. I am an elderly man, and have
experienced three disillusionments connected
with the names of great millionaires. “ Timeo
Danaos et dona ferentes”—I fear organiza-
tions even when they offer me money—much
more when they don’t! Last year I gave a
paper at the American Philosophical Society
on the work of our ballistic institute, but I
have never had the time to have it published.
I did not get to the front in the war—not till
last summer. I had no uniform, and few help-
ers. So I got no glory, but some debts. A
propos of Professor Wilson’s letter about the
University of Strasbourg, I should like to say
that I visited it last year, and was shown all
over it, and that the French are making it
first class. Professor Pierre Weiss is going to
have the best facilities in the world for the
study of magnetism. I made about two hun-
dred and fifty lantern slides of the places vis-
ited by our mission, and have been giving lec-
tures on it ever since. Strasbourg figures
largely in them.
ARTHUR GoRDON WEBSTER
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
KNOWLTON’S CATALOGUE OF FOSSIL PLANTS!
In 1898 Dr. Knowlton published “A Cata-
logue of the Cretaceous and Tertiary Planits of
North America.” We now have from the same
pen a work with the very similar title of “A
Catalogue of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Plants
of North America.” This is a far more com-
prehensive work than the former, or than its
title indicates. To say that it about doubles
the number of known species is but a slight
indication of the way in which it mirrors the
progress that paleobotany has made in Amer-
1 Bulletin U. S. Geological Survey, No. 696, 815
pp., 1919 (1920).
SCIENCE
369
ica in the past twenty years, for while very
many significant new forms are added, many
others that existed in name only have disap-
peared from the literature. Botanical determi-
nations in many cases have been placed on a
firmer footing during the interval and geolog-
ical occurrences are now given with much
greater precision, in fact, in so far as the
progress of stratigraphic and areal geology is
concerned with plant-bearing units, the present
work may be said to show the progress made in
stratigraphy during the past two decades.
Only those who know the drudgery of such
compilations can appreciate the vast labor that
has gone into the making of this book. The
author has been one of the most influential fac-
tors in the progress of paleobotany in this
country during the present generation and that
he should have found the time to place this
epitome of its present status before the public
is a cause for sincere congratulation, not alone
to him but ‘to all who may have occasion to
refer to the work. Fellow geologists will prob-
ably not need to have its merits or usefulness
called to their attention, but botanists are not
so likely to scan the lists of publications of the
U. S. Geological Survey.
There is a stratigraphic table, a bibliography,
followed by the body of the catalogue arranged
alphabetically. In this part references are
given to the original description of each genus,
type species are indicated and under each spe-
cies the synonymy, principal citations and geo-
logical and geographical distribution are given.
Following the body of the catalogue, the in-
eluded genera are given in their biological ar-
rangement. This is followed by floral lists for
each of the North American Mesozoic and Cen-
ozoic plant bearing formations—a most useful
feature of wide interest.
Epwarp W. Berry
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY
THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE OF SEPTEMBER,
1919
_ This hurricane, which seems to have been
the largest that has occurred in the Gulf of
Mexico since the U. S. Weather service was
370
established, has been the subject of much
study. A rather full account of the storm
and its effects is given in the Monthly Weather
Review by Dr. H. OC. Frankenfield, and others
in the regions affected.6 Appearing in the Ba-
hamas on September 6, the hurricane passed
through Florida Straits on the 9th, 10th, was
lost in the Gulf of Mexico from the 11th to
18th, went ashore on the south Texas coast on
the 14th and broke up in the southern Rock-
ies. A surviving portion may have formed the
germ for the cyclone with heavy rains’ which
passed from northern New Mexico to the
Great Lakes from the 17th to 19th.
_ Although people in Key West had ample
warning, and did everything possible to pro-
tect shipping and buildings, the losses sus-
tained were estimated at $2,000,000. The
Weather Bureau official in charge, Mr. H. B.
Boyer says:
Hurricane warnings were immediately displayed
[on receipt of telegram from Washington at 1:05
p.m. September 8] and the information dissemi-
nated by every available means. The response to
this warning was immediate and there followed a
period of great activity, especially as regards ship-
ping. Vessels were moved to safer anchorage or
better secured, and all weak places in residences
and buildings of all descriptions were strengthened
as much as possible by nailing and battening
doors, windows, roof hatches, ete. In the terrific
gusts that prevailed during the height of the storm
stanch brick structures had walls blown out and
large vessels, firmly secured, were torn from their
fastenings or moorings and blown on the banks.
. . . Winds of gale force and over lasted continu-
ously from about 7 A.M. on the 9th to about 9:30
P.M. the 10th.
The center of the storm passed about 30 or
40 miles south of Key West. The rainfall was
estimated at over 18 inches. The Weather
Bureau stationed at Sand Key, several miles
nearer the path of the center was all but
6 September, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 664-673, 639-641,
6 figs., 11 charts.
7 Very heavy downpours locally on the valley of
the Solomon River in Kansas, September 17 and
18, caused a sharp rise in that river to 33.6 feet at
Beloit—15 feet above flood-stage on the 20th.
Ibid., p. 674.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1519
washed away, the island, and all outstanding
and superstructures having been carried away
or blown down by waves or winds. As the
center passed over the Dry Tortugas the pres-
sure fell to 27.36 inches® (as observed on the
tank steamer Fred W. Weller), and the wind
about the center was estimated at 125 mi./hr.
With one or two unimportant exceptions no re-
ports were received from the Gulf of Mexico after
the morning of the 10th until after the storm had
passed into Texas, which was during the day of
the 14th. It was, therefore, absolutely impossible
to forecast the intensity and progress of the
storm, and the coast stations far from the center
of the storm afforded but meager information.
(Forecaster. )
_ As one newspaper put it, “The Weather Bu-
reau suffered from its own efficiency,” by hold-
ing vessels in port. Of the 10 vessels reported
lost or missing, one with 488 people, and the
other 25 reported damaged,® none had left port
in spite of warnings, which were issued at
Florida ports September 8 and other Gulf
ports September 10. Later, such few logs as
were received from vessels caught in the Gulf
by the storm indicate that for a time the hurri-
cane was curving toward the Louisiana coast,
as surmised by the forecaster, and that it then
renewed its course westward, apparently be-
cause of a rise in atmospheric pressure in its
path, due to the approach of a high pressure
area.
Although strong winds and a flood tide oc-
eurred at Galveston, Weather Bureau warn-
ings saved three million bushels of grain and
many cattle. The damage at Galveston was
estimated at $60,000, and that in the vicinity
at about $200,000 more.
At Corpus Christi and vicinity the weather
on the 13th, the day before the storm was op-
8 Some other very low barometer readings in
other tropical eyclones have been: 27.06 in., Ha-
bana, Cuba, October 11, 1846; 26.85 in., Morne
Rouge, Martinique, August 18 or 19, 1891; 24.76
in., Vohemare, Madagascar, February 3, 1899; and
26.16 in., S.S. Arethusa, lat. 13°35’ N., long.
134° 30’ E., December 16, 1900.
9N. Y. Maritime Register, September and Oc-
tober issues.
APRIL 9, 1920]
pressive in spite of a steady north wind and
unusual, close-sticking swarms of flies were
bothersome. On the Gulf coast the hurricane
tide began to rise about noon on the 18th and
the sea became very choppy. During the late
afternoon a dark line widening into a band in
the eastern sky was to be seen slowly rising.
The story of 284 lives lost and $20,000,000
property damage at Corpus Christi and vicin-
ity, as reported soon after the storm does not
need to be repeated here. The extremely high
tide, “15 feet,” covered the low ground and
allowed the great waves to demolish 900 houses,
and numerous substantial commercial estab-
lishments.
A map shows that the heaviest rainfall, Sep-
tember 14-17, in Texas was 12 inches, and in
New Mexico, nearly 10 inches. More seems to
have fallen in the mountains of northern Mex-
ico, for a great flood rise suddenly on the Rio
Grande, at Eagle Pass the rise being 27.2 feet
in the 24 hours ending at 7 A.M., the 17th. For
about 100 miles above the mouth of the river it
is said to have widened to 40 or 50 miles. In
connection with the hurricane at least two
tornadoes occurred—one at Goulds, Florida,
and the other near Hobbs, in southeastern
New Mexico.
Mr. R. H. Weightman made a study of the
wind conditions over the United States, Cen-
tral America and the West Indies preceding
and during the hurricane, using cloud obser
vations, pilot balloon and kite data for the
winds aloft. There was a deep (6 km. or
more) circulation of easterly or northeasterly
winds throughout the southern states as the
center of the cyclone approached and passed
several hundred miles to the south.?°
Cuares F. Brooks
WasuHInerTon, D. C.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
TECHNIQUE OF OPERATING ON CHICK
EMBRYOS
Durine the past five years, a number of
workers in the department of anatomy at the
10 Monthly Weather Rev., October, 1919, Vol. 47,
pp. 717-720, 11 figs.
SCIENCE
371
University of Missouri have studied problems
which involved operations on chick embryos.
Since, for many of these studies, it was
necessary that the chicks should continue to
live and develop to a late stage of embryonic
life or to the time of hatching, it was most
desirable to develop a satisfactory technique.
This has apparently been accomplished and
it therefore seems worth while to record these
methods briefly for the benefit of other work-
ers in experimental embryology.
Operations are carried out under the binoc-
ular microscope, enclosed in a warm box,
heated by electric light bulbs. Light is
furnished by a desk are light. A flask con-
taining dilute copper sulphate serves to con-
centrate, cool, and properly color the light.
The egg is taken from the incubator and
candled. By this means the’location of the
embryo and the extent of the air chamber
may be seen and these are marked with pencil
on the egg shell. The egg is then placed in a
dish containing water, warmed to 38°-40° C.,
and deep enough so that the air chamber is
completely immersed. The egg may be held
in place in the water by tucking gauze around
it. Mr. EK. C. Albritton has devised a simple
and ingenious wire frame for this purpose
which fits over the edge of the dish, with an
inner suspended portion into which the egg
fits, the egg being held in the desired position
by rubber bands. He also devised a simple
steam-heating apparatus for keeping the water
warm which obviated the necessity of using
a warm box.
The portion of the egg containing the em-
bryo, which is exposed to the air, is swabbed
with alcohol and allowed to dry. A small
opening is then made in the egg shell by
means of a needle or sharp pointed knife.
The shell fragments are picked away with
forceps, care being taken not to tear the shell
membrane beneath. An opening 7 mm. in
diameter is sufficiently large for most opera-
tions. A drop or two of sterile Ringer’s solu-
tion is then dropped in the opening, after
which the shell membrane may be stripped off
with ease.
312
Simple aseptic precautions are observed for
all operations. The forceps, knives, needles,
ete., for opening the shell are flamed before
using. The more delicate instruments used
for the operations proper are simply dipped
in alcohol and allowed to dry. The Ringer’s
solution and other fluids introduced into the
shell are boiled for a few minutes and allowed
to cool to 38° C. i
When the stage of operation is one in which
the amnion already surrounds the embryo, the
sac may be cut open and, after the desired
operation has been performed, it can be
“sutured” by pinching the edges together,
and will heal rapidly and completely.
Various methods were tried for removing
portions of the embryo and the details of
these operations can not be given here as
they were modified for each particular set of
experiments. The electric cautery was tried
and abandoned because of the difficulty of
localizing the burn when the embryo is sur-
rounded by fluid. The method of cutting and
dissecting was the one most frequently em-
ployed. For dissecting away somites, spinal
cord, ete., steel needles ground down to fine
points were used. For removing a more
prominent portion, such as the heart, the tail,
or a limb bud, iridectomy scissors proved to
be the most useful instrument. In removing
a blood vessel it was found advisable to inject
a small amount of Berlin blue, previously
boiled, directly into the vessel. This mate-
rial clumps on contact with the blood, stop-
ping the circulation and effectively plugging
the vessel and at the same time outlining the
vessel wall. The vessel can then be dissected
away rapidly, without causing hemorrhage.
Mr. E. C. Albritton made use of electrolysis
for an extensive series of operations using a
needle and a pair of forceps connected by
wire to the two poles of a weak dry battery.
The needle is placed on the region to be
removed, and the forceps a short distance
away, in the fluid surrounding the embryo.
After the operation a small window of thin
mica is flamed and placed over the opening
and sealed down with heated Gerlach’s mix-
ture (beeswax 2 parts, lump resin 8 parts).
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1319
The egg is then returned to the incubator.
The egg is turned so as to keep the window
at the side or below in order to prevent stick-
ing of the embryo to the jagged edges of the
shell. A ring of filter paper placed over the
exposed wax prevents its sticking to the floor
of the incubator. It is well to rotate the egg
slightly several times during the first few
hours after its return to the incubator. This
may be done automatically by a cradle rocked
by an attachment to an ordinary alarm clock.
If this is done the yolk remains freely
movable and the embryo can be brought
around under the window, when desired, for
observation.
The method of keeping the air chamber im-
mersed in water at incubator temperature
during the operation has only recently been
adopted and it has greatly reduced the mor-
tality of chicks operated on at the age of
forty-eight hours and over. Formerly, when
the shell was opened, without this precaution,
the yolk always sagged away from the open-
ing and before the operation could proceed it
became necessary to add Ringer’s solution,
drop by drop, in order to bring the embryo
back to the level of the opening. This usually
consumed more time than the operation
proper. On opening such an egg immediately
after the operation it is found that the air
chamber has been completely obliterated.
Evidently, this sagging away of the yolk from
the opening is caused by the gradual forcing
out of air from the air chamber. When such
an egg with the air chamber obliterated and
filled with Ringer’s solution is returned to the
incubator it forms an inelastic chamber with
no room for expansion of the contents. Any
slight increase in temperature, in such an
ege, would seem to be sufficient, as a result
of the increased pressure, to cause embarass-
ment to the heart beat, in embryos in which
the circulation has started. Whether this is
the correct explanation or not, many chicks
died, when this method was used, within a
few hours after their return to the incubator.
However, in the embryos in which the air
chamber is immersed during the operation,
almost no sinking of the yolk takes place
ApRiIL 9, 1920]
upon opening the shell, and, on candling such
eggs after sealing, it is found that the size of
the air chamber remains unchanged. With
the old method we frequently had a mortality
of 50 per cent or higher in the first twenty-
four hours. With the new method the deaths
during the first twenty-four hours are reduced
almost to zero.
Embryos may die three to five days after
the operation and for these later deaths we
have not yet found the cause or causes.
Eniot R. Ciark
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Vill
The composition of okra seed oil: GEORGE S.
JAMIESON AND WALTER F. BAUGHMAN. (By title.)
Several lots of the seed of the okra (Abelmoschus
esculentus) were received at various times from E.
A. Melllhenny of Avery Island, Louisiana. The
seed were found to contain about 15 per cent. of
oil. The oil expressed from the seeds by means of
the expeller had a greenish yellow color. The re-
sults of the analysis of the four expressed okra
seed oils are given in the following table:
Sample No. 1 2 3 4
Iodine No. (Hanus)| 93.2 100.3 95.5 95.2
Saponification
Volley no paleeeraiae 195.5 195.6 195.6 195.2
Polenske No...... 0.23
Reichert Meissl
INICES an cease eee 0.26
Acetyl value ..... 23.9 16.2 11.5 21.4
Acid value....... 0.66 0.34 1.42
Specific gravity at
ody N Oar eae ae ies 0.9187] 0.9182] 0.9160) 0.9172
Refractive index at
PA ok OR eae 1.4692| 1.4693) 1.4695| 1.4702
Unsaponifiable
matter, per cent. 0.37
Soluble acids. .... 0.12 0.09 0.14
Insoluble acids,
DETicentesee ee 95.90 96.27 96.20
Unsaturated acids,
DeIcenteser ae | 67.33
Saturated acids,
VIC V Mt adsdse 29.22
Titer insoluble
acidsmtas yee 38.5° C
From the data obtained by a separation of the
various fatty acids the percentages of the acid
SCIENCE
373
glycerides in the oil were calculated. The compo-
sition of the okra seed oil was found to be as fol-
lows:
Per Cent.
‘ Palmitie acid ....... 27.23
Stearic acid ......... 2.75
Glycerides of ..... Arachidie acid ...... 0.05
Oleic acid) 32... ..-- 43.74
Linolie acid ........ 26.62
Unsaponifiable matter. .37
The composition of the oil from the seed of the
Hubbard squash: WAuTER F. BAUGHMAN AND
Grorce 8. JAMIESON. (By title.) The oil for this
investigation was expressed from the seed of the
Hubbard squash (Cureurbita maxima) by means
of the expeller. A portion of the oil was refined
by the well-known alkali process and bleached with
fuller’s earth. The crude oil had a brownish red
color and the refined portion had a yellow color.
Both erude and refined oils had a bland fatty taste.
The following are the chemical and physical char-
acteristics:
Specific gravity at 25° ........ .9179
Refractive index at 25° ....... 1.4714
Iodine number (Hanus) ...... 121.0
Saponification value .......... 191.5
Reichert Meiss]l no. .......... 0.37
IPOMIKS 1) SSooccc5gcn5900000 0.39
INCBin A VETS Go6od0s0cH50e0000 27.8
Neng WEIN sooccosesogpooo00e 0.5
Unsaponifiable matter ......... 1.06
Soluble acids % ........--...- 0.33
Insoluble acids % .....-....... 94.66
(Solid) saturated acids % .... 18.37
(Liquid) unsaturated acids %.. 76.45
Titer (insoluble acids) ........ 29.8° C.
The composition of Hubbard squash seed oil was
found to be as follows:
Per Cent,
Palmitie acid ....... 12.73
Stearic acid ........ 6.12
; Arachidie acid ...... 0.04
Giyconides fot a Oleic acid .......... 36.58
Hinolievacidey. cn )- 43.34
Unsaponifiable matter. 1.06
Notes on the composition of the sorghum plant:
J. J. WiitamaNn, R. M. West, D. O. SPRIESTERS-
BACH AND G. BE. Houm. (By title.) The juice of
sorghum cane contains a high percentage of non-
374
protein nitrogen compounds which give much
trouble in the defecation of the juice for sirup.
1-leucin, d-l-asparagin, glutamin and aspartic acid
have been identified. The acids found in the juice
are aconitic, citric, oxalic, tartaric and malice. The
hexoses decrease, and sucrose increases, aS matur-
ity approaches. In northern-grown cane the suc-
rose-hexose ratio is considerably lower than in
southern-grown cane, and the total sugars are also
much less. During the pre-maturation period the
sorghum plant lays down a protein-cellulose frame-
work, which is filled in with carbohydrate during
the final maturation period. This carbohydrate is
starch in the case of the seed head, and sucrose in
the stalk. The removal of the seed heads prior to
maturity hastens the production of sucrose in the
stalk, but does not affect the total amount formed.
The physiology of germinating Juniperus seeds:
D. A. Pack. (By title.) The Juniperus seed fails
to germinate when put under ordinary germinating
conditions. The changes, that prepare this seed
for germination, are brought about by storing at
5° C. These changes are characterized as follows:
an early and complete imbibition of water; a
slow increase of the H+ concentration and total
acid; evident changes in the stored food material;
very slight increase of the respiration and oxidase
activity; slow enlargement of the embryo with the
development of internal stress; steady decrease in
the viscosity of the seed coat; marked increase in
catalase activity; and an increase in the vitality
of the seed. A good percentage of germination
follows at once upon the completion of these
changes.
The biochemist on the hospital staff: FREpD-
ERICK S. HamMMetTT. The paper pointed out the
advantage which would accrue to medicine if the
hospital biochemist were regarded as a coordinate
member of the hospital staff, a specialist in a spe-
cial field, rather than as a mere technician who
makes routine analyses.
A spectrographic study of certain biochemical
color reactions: G. L. WENDT AND T. TaDOKORO.
(By title.)
Studies of wheat flour grades. I. Electrical con-
ductivity of water extracts: C. H. BAILEY AND F.
A. CotnatTz. (By title.) The studies previously
reported by one of us (ScrencE, Vol. 47, pp. 645-
647) were continued, and it was found that time
and temperature of extraction affected the elec-
trical conductivity of water extracts of wheat
flour. The conductivity increased with the period
of extraction, the proportional increase being
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1319
greater when the extraction was conducted at lower
temperatures, and also with the lower grades of
flour. The relative conductivity increased as the
temperature of extraction was raised above 0°
until 60° was approached, when it began to di-
minish. A standard procedure was adopted for
comparing a number of flours containing from
0.40 per cent. to 2.38 per cent. of ash. The flour:
water (1:10) mixture was held at 25° for ex-
actly 30 minutes, centrifuged, and the conductivity
of the clear liquid determined by means of a dip-
ping electrode constructed for the purpose.
When examined in this manner a remarkably close
parallelism was observed between the conductivity
and the ash content.
Studies of wheat flour grades. II. Buffer values
of water extracts: C. H. BaAiLEY AND ANNA PETER-
SON. (By title.) The hydrogen-ion concentration
of water extracts of various grades of wheat flour
varies between rather narrow limits. Flours with
an ash content of 0.45 per cent. yielded an extract
(prepared by extracting a 1:5 mixture for 60
minutes at 25°) of Ph=6.1, while the extracts of
flours containing from 1.2 per cent. to 1.6 per cent.
of ash had a Ph=about 6.4. The buffer values of
the extracts of these flours varied greatly, how-
ever. Thus the addition of 10 c.c. of N/50 NaOH
increased the Ph of patent flour extracts 3.3 (1. e.,
to about 9.4) while the extract of lower grades was
increased in some instances only 0.6 to .9 in terms
of Ph. The increase in Ph is thus inversely pro-
portional to the ash content, and the ratios are
quite exact. The buffer value of extracts uni-
formly prepared is indicative of the grade of
sound flours milled from normal wheat.
The preparation of certain monocarboxylic acids
from sugars: I. K. PHELPS AND W. T. McGerorce.
CHARLES L, PARSONS,
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Asseciation for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y,
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattes
CIENCE
New SERIES SINGLE Copies, 15 Crs.
Vox. LI, No. 1320 Fripay, APRIL 16, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCBIPTION, $6.00
The First
Impression
MONG the first things young tongues say is ‘‘ See! See!”’ Because it is
through the sense of sight that the first ray of conception filters to the
new brain.
So too with growing intelligences of all ages. And there you have the very
reason why the Bausch” lomb
_ BALOPTICON
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The Balopticon is the royal road to a quicker understanding, the
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Dr. Irving Langmuir (of the
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With this pump pressure as
low as 10-5 bar have been ob-
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doubt that very much lower
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cooling the bulb to be ex-
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to decrease the rate at whioh
gases escape from the walls.
Some type of primary pump
must be used ; capable of de-
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’ : than 0.1-0.15 mm.of mercury.
The illustration shows a Langmuir pump, connected to a two-stage primary oil pump—which is op-
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‘
CIENCE
Fripay, Aprin 16, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Sexuality in Mucors: Dr. ALBERT F. BuA-
, KESLEE 375
An Analysis of Avm and Incentive in a Course
in General Zoology: Dr. Haro~D SELLERS
Cotton 382
Physical Methods and Measurements and the
Obligation of Physics to other Sciences: Dr.
12yNond, JOB Mau Aue! Goose ogadaduscuaooGGdD 384
Scientific Events :—
The Ohio College and Experiment Station;
The Louisiana Entomological Society; The
Southwestern Geological Society; The Amer-
ican Electrochemical Society; Fiftieth Anni-
versary of the Wisconsin Academy. ....... 386
Scientific Notes and News ..............4- 388
University and Educational News .......... 390
Discussion and Correspondence :—
A Suggestion as to the Flagellation of the
Organisms causing Legume Nodules: Drs.
H. J. Conn AnD R. 8. BREED. Pensions for
Government Employees: Proressor T. D.
A. CocKERELL. The Recent Auroras: Dr.
CHARLES F’. BROOKS .-............----+> 391
Quotations :—
Cwil Service Pensions, 225... nee eee = 392
The Ecological Relations of Roots: Dr. W. A.
(CANIN ONG ey retepeiaicicicte) taleieiavel voiereietieietalera= 393
Special Articles :—
The Tertiary Formations of Porto Rico:
BELA HuUBBARO
The American Chemical Society: Dr. CHARLES
L. Parsons
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y. :
SEXUALITY IN MUCORS}
Tue keywords of the vice-president’s ad-
dress and the symposium which followed it
last year were Organization, Coordination and
Cooperation in botanical research. It is not
my purpose at this time to discuss these
topics further. A botanical committee of the
National Research Council has been selected
for this purpose. A second committee was
chosen by the Botanical Society of America
two years ago to help the first committee and
last year a third committee was appointed to
help the other two. The organization seems
sufficiently complete unless I might suggest
as a humble member of this last-named com-
mittee that a new committee be formed at
this session to help us also in our delibera-
tions which have not as yet taken place.
One of last year’s speakers, in distinguish-
ing types of true research worth while from
investigations unworthy of the name, held up
to ridicule a hypothetical investigation of a
ham sandwich and the pseudo-scientist who
would attempt a monographic treatment of
such a subject. In defence of the maligned
sandwich, a correspondent has offered the
following lines:
Sandwich perched by the lunchroom wall,
I lift you down from the perches.
Hold you here, ham and all, in my hand.
Little sandwich! But if I could understand
What you are, ham and all, and all in all,
I should know what true research is.
It is not of so broad a subject as the sand-
wich in its entirety, neither of the ham nor
of the bread between which it nestles that I
wish to speak. Rather it is the mold that .
sometimes grows on the bread that encircles
the ham, or more especially the less commonly
1 Address of the vice-president and chairman of
Section G, Botany, American Association for the
Advancement of Science, St. Louis, December 30,
1919.
3/6
observed sexual reproduction of the bread
mold and its relatives that I have chosen as
my theme.
It will not be possible in the time avail-
able to enter into any detailed discussion of
many questions that might suggest them-
selves in this connection. I shall instead give
an outline merely of some of the investiga-
tions of the last fifteen years, both published
and unpublished and shall attempt to show
that the sexual relations of the mucors may
have possible bearings upon our conceptions
of sexuality in other diverse groups of the
biological world.
The chart (9, Tafel VI.)2 shows the typical
vegetative condition of a mucor. A vegeta-
tive spore, usually multinucleate though some-
times uninucleate, sends out in germination a
branching tube which forms the mycelium
and rapidly covers the available substratum.
This mycelium is multinucleate and, in the
early stages at least, without cross walls—
forming thus an enormous, much-branched,
single cell—if a cell is defined in terms of
the limiting cell walls. Multiplication is
brought about chiefly by various types of non-
sexual spores. The commonest are endog-
enous spores produced in sporangia, upwards
of 70,000 individual spores being formed in a
single sporangium. They may be apparently
exogenous, formed singly or in chains on
terminal swellings of fertile filaments and
may be produced as chlamydospores by septa-
tion of the vegetative filaments. More than
a single type of nonsexual multiplication may
occur in a given species.
As regards their sexual reproduction, there
are two groups of species. In the first group,
represented by Sporodinia, a form common
on fleshy fungi, the sexual spores known as
zygospores are common and may be obtained
from the sowing of a single vegetative spore.
Such forms are therefore hermaphroditie or
homothallic since their thalli or mycelia are
alike sexually. In the second group, repre-
2 Citations in parentheses throughout the text
refer to the sources for the charts and lantern
slides used in the original presentation of this
paper.
SCIENCE
EN. S. Von. LI. No. 1320
sented by Rhizopus, the bread mold, the
zygospores are rarely observed and can never
be obtained in pure cultures from the sowing
of a single spore. In these diecious or hetero-
thallic forms there are needed two plants of
opposite sex growing in contact in order that
sexual reproduction may take place. The two
sexual groups mentioned are represented in
the adjoining diagram (Fig. 4). Since in
the three lower figures the two gametes
(which later unite to form the mature zygo-
spore) arise from branches of a single fila-
ment, these three forms are hermaphroditic.
In the upper figure the gametes are repre
sented arising from sexually different plants
designated by the signs plus and minus
which will be explained later. These there-
fore belong to the diecious group. The line
of zygospores, which results when the opposite
sexes of the diecious species Mucor Mucedo
are grown in contact, is shown in the chart.
The swollen heads produced on erect filaments
from the plant on the right of the line are
sporangia containing numerous nonsexual
spores by which the plant may be propagated
as distinct sexual races in much the same
manner in which races of potatoes may be
propagated by non-sexual tubers. The process
of conjugation may be followed from the
figures in the chart (9, Tafel VII.). Fila-
ments of opposite sexual tendencies grow to-
gether and by the stimulus of contact produce
swellings which push them apart. These
swellings develop into the progametes from
which by cross walls the sex cells, or gametes,
are cut off. The dissolution of the interven-
ing cross wall allows a fusion of the gametes
and the zygote thus formed increases in size
and becomes the mature zygospore. The
gametes are typically equal in size in the
diecious group and also in the hermaphroditic
group except for certain forms to be dis-
eussed later. They are miltinucleate and
hence have been called ccenogametes.
In the first lantern slide (1, Pl. IV.), we
can see photographs of Petri dish cultures of
certain of the mucors experimented with.
The opposite sexes of the diecious species
have been termed plus and minus for reasons
Apri 16, 1920]
to be explained shortly. By inoculating plus
and minus spores in appropriate spots in the
culture dish definite patterns may be obtained
by the lines of zygospores formed where the
opposite sexes meet as shown in Figs. 52-55.
IMPERFECT HYBRIDIZATION
It was soon established that in any given
diecious species there are only two sexes
present but at first there was no assurance
that the two sexes of a given species were the
same as those of any other. It has been dis-
covered, however, that the opposite sexes of
different species are capable of showing an
imperfect sexual reaction when grown in con-
tact. The photograph on the screen (Fig. 1,
Fic. 1. Diagram of Petri dish culture showing
zygospores (dots) between the (+) and (—) races
of the same species, Mucor C and lines of ‘‘im-
perfect hybridization’’ (dashes) at contact be-
tween opposite sexes of different species, Mucor
C and Mucor V.
which is taken from photograph in 7) repre-
sents a culture of the sexual races of two
different species Mucor V and Mucor C.
Where the two sexes of Mucor C meet a
line of zygospores is evident as might be
expected. The sexual race of Mucor V on
the right shows a reaction only with Mucor C
minus as indicated by the white line where
the two meet and must be considered the
opposite sex from Mucor C minus, or plus.
In like manner the other sex of Mucor V on
the left shows a reaction only with the plus
race of Mucor C and must therefore be con-
SCIENCE
3l7
sidered minus. A microscopic investigation
of the appearance of the white lines of sexual
reactions shows the condition represented in
Figs. 36-89 (1). The stimulus of contact
leads to the formation of progametes. Some-
times the gamete is formed by one and more
rarely by both the reacting filaments. In one
strong reacter the gamete which is formed in
this reaction transforms itself frequently into
a thick-walled a-zygospore. The stimulus
which leads to a dissolving away of the wall
between the two gametes and their conse-
quent fusion is constantly lacking. Since the
sexual reaction between opposite sexes of
different species is incomplete it has been
termed “ imperfect hybridization.”
Heterothallic Homothallic Heterothallic
Ve Didbrontiation
ee thst) etealn. (es) {Gand(-] (-)
Spores distinctly Mucor 1.
smaller. Sporano- Mucor ur. “Mucor rn
gial growth lower
and darker.
Sporangial growth Mucor. Macor .
lower and lighter in
color.
Sporangial growthless PhycomycesS NN Phycomyces. 9
dense. Sporangio-
phores more slender.
Mycelial growth less M. Mucedo.fy LL M. Mucedo. fry
-vigorous under cul- R
tivation.
Sporangia later inde- Mucory. © Mucor v. d
velopment.
Sporangial growth Mucor v1. 4X Mucor v1. X
slightly denser and
lower.
Mucor tv. Mucor rv.
Absidia. Absidia.
Rhizopus. Rhizopus. ©)
Cunning-
hamell=.
M. Mucedo var. A.
Circinella umbellata.
Syncephalastrum.
Chaetocladium
noy. sp.
Fie. 2. ‘‘Imperfect hybridization’’ reactions
shown by solid lines between sexual races of dif-
ferent species.
At first the paired races of different species
were designated by letters and symbols.
Lines in the diagram (Fig. 2) indicate some
of the reactions that have been obtained be-
tween races of different species. All races
that show a reaction with the “c” race of
Mucor V used as a standard but not with its
“q” race, are placed in the right column,
378
while those that show a reaction with the “d”
race of Mucor V and not with its “e” race
are placed in the left column. In no case has
the position of any of the races been deter-
mined by less than two positive reactions.
Any race in the left column is theoretically
eapable of showing a reaction with any in the
right column, while incapable of reacting with
those in its own group and vice versa. Cer-
tain combinations, however, react with greater
difficulty than others. It is obvious that in
these two columns we have represented the
two opposite sexes, male and female. There
seemed, however, no way of determining
which is to be considered male and which
female since their gametes are typically equal
in size.
In making the diagram, it was observed
that of those species, in which there was
evident a greater vegetative vigor of one
sexual race over the other, the more vigorous
race was always in the left-hand column. All
those in the left-hand column were accord-
ingly called plus and those in the other
column minus despite the fact that in many
species no vegetative difference between the
sexes could be established. The most striking
example of a difference in vegetative vigor is
that of Mucor IIT shown in Fig 58 (1). Ina
considerable number of races in several differ-
ent species, however, I have found that the
plus race is not invariably more vigorous than
the minus when a difference in vegetative
vigor is observed, judging vigor by former
criteria; but this fact does not detract in the
least from the evidence that in the plus and
minus races we have the two sexes repre-
sented.
The “imperfect hybridization” reaction is
of convenience in determining the sex of un-
mated races. Thus when the diagram (Fig.
2) was made, a race of Circinella umbellata
obtained from a curbstone in the shadow of
Harvard University, by reacting with Mucor
V plus and failing to react with Mucor V
minus, was found to be a minus race and is so
listed in the diagram. Later a race was ob-
tained from a substratum sent by a mission-
ary from China and was discovered to be its
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1320
plus mate. It was a relatively easy matter
then to obtain the zygospores by uniting these
opposite races under suitable nutrient and
temperature conditions. The last species in
the minus column was found in 1903 in a
culture of rat’s whiskers gathered on an island
in the Caribbean Sea. Perhaps somewhere,
under some spreading palm, from India’s coral
strand, its mate is waiting; and another good
missionary may help in spreading the gospel
of a “form new to science.”
I said a moment ago that it is theoretically
possible to obtain an “imperfect hybridiza-
tion” reaction between the sexual race of a
given species and the opposite sexual race of
any other species. In practise it has not
always proved easy of accomplishment. Much
depends upon the environmental factors such
as the kind of nutrient—more, however, upon
the sexual vigor of the reacting races. A
race may react with the opposite sex of an-
other species under temperature or nutrient
conditions which will not allow it to form
zygospores with its normal mate in its own
species. Thus Cunninghamella echinulata
will readily give “imperfect hybridization ”
reactions with species of the genus Mucor at
temperatures below 20° C. but will not itself
form zygospores at so low a temperature,
while some species of the genus Mucor are
weak in reaction when contrasted inter se.
The vigor of the reaction, therefore, has no
apparent connection with the taxonomic rela-
tionships of the forms involved. Cunning-
hamella it may be remembered is so distantly
related to the genus Mucor that it was origin-
ally described as a Hyphomycete and assumed
to belong to a group of fungi unrelated to
the mucors.
Saito and Naganishi (18) report obtaining
true hybrid zygospores between different
Mucor species. They admit, however, that
the species in question are very closely re-
lated. I have found, between what J have
called the opposite sexes of a single species,
differences sufficiently marked to be worthy of
description as distinct species according to
Bainier who has been one of the mycologists
most prolific in fathering Mucor species. I,
Apri 16, 1920]
as well as others, have observed also consider-
able differences between the different strains
of a single sex of a given species. It is
possible that these Japanese investigators have
been dealing with races with differences of the
order just mentioned. The matter may be a
question of what is a species. Burgeff, how-
ever, in his brilliant imvestigations of Phyco-
myces (10), has obtained a striking distinct
mutant which he has been able to cross suc-
cessfully with the normal stock.
It seems strange that the reaction initiated
in the process of “imperfect hybridization ”
is, usually at least, unable to carry through
to completion. We can assume something
fundamental, common to all the plus races
of the various mucor species, that causes a
response when they are brought into contact
with a minus race and something in addition
that must be present peculiar to the same
species in order to extend the reaction to a
union of gametes and their development into
normal zygospores.
These fundamental characteristics of plus
and minus must be present also in the herma-
phroditic or homothallic species since, as in-
dicated at the top of Fig. 2, such hermaphro-
ditic species may show sexual reactions with
plus and minus races used as testers. The re-
action is often strong enough to be indicated
by white lines as shown in Fig. 56 (1) where
the hermaphroditic Mucor I is reacting with
both plus and minus races of Mucor V.
ZYGOSPORE GERMINATION
It will be of interest to note what occurs at
the germination of zygospores formed by the
sexual races. A zygospore at germination
produces a short germ-tube, terminated by a
germ sporangium. The condition is repre-
sented diagrammatically on the screen (4).
In the hermaphroditice species investigated, all
the spores in the germ sporangium are herma-
phroditie and give rise to hermaphroditie
plants as is to be expected. In the diecious
species, however, there are two types of zygo-
spore germination. In Mucor Mucedo the
spores in a germ sporangium are all of the
same sex—plus or minus, never mixed. In
SCIENCE
379
Phycomyces, on the other hand, the germ
sporangium may contain spores of both sexes.
The germ tube may be induced to grow out
vegetatively before the formation of its germ
sporangium. By this means its sexual condi-
tion can be tested. The germ tube of Mucor
Mucedo has been found to be unisexual, of
the same sign as its germ sporangium. Segre-
gation or differentiation of sex in this species,
therefore, must have taken place at or before
the zygospore germinates. In Phycomyces
sexual. differentiation takes place in the germ
sporangium and induced growth from a germ
tube gives rise to a temporarily hermaphro-
ditie condition. Such a hermaphroditie or
homothallic mycelium is shown in the photo-
graph (2). Its yellowish felted growth is
strikingly different from the normal plus and
minus races which are forming a line of
Zygospores where they meet at the upper
right-hand corner of the culture. Occasion-
ally spores in the germ sporangium of Phyco-
myces are hermaphroditic and produce such
hermaphroditic mycelia. Burgeff has in-
geniously produced them by mechanically
mixing the protoplasm of plus and minus
vegetative filaments and has given them the
name of mixochimeras. He concludes that
such mixochimeras are mixtures of plus and
minus nuclei. That these sexual mixochi-
meras are bisexual is shown by their oc-
casional production of hermaphroditice zygo-
spores and by the fact that the scanty spor-
angia which they produce again divide up
into plus and minus and occasionally herma-
phroditie spores. Often they show a plus or
a minus tendency by forming zygospores with
the normal minus or plus test races of Phyco-
myces. If propagated by cuttings of the
mycelium, they eventually revert to normal
plus or minus races.
The diagram (4) has been shown in order
to point out certain homologies between sexual
differentiation in the mucors and that in
other groups of plants. The mucor plant is
the gametophyte, the flowering plant the
sporophyte. The germ tube with its germ
sporangium we have homologized with the
sporophyte and Burgeff reports in Phycomyces
380
a fusion of nuclei in pairs in the zygospore
and a reduction division in the germ spor-
angium preceeding the formation of the
spores. From the diagram it will be observed
that the condition in the so-called hermaphro-
ditie lily is homologous with that in the so-
called diecious Phycomyces or Marchantia in
which I have found a similar differentiation
of sex in sporophytic sporangia. The forms
just mentioned are of the same type of sexual
differentiation and yet are termed hermaphro-
ditie or diecious according to whether the
sporophyte or the gametophyte is the more
conspicuous. To insure greater precision, I
have suggested the terms homo- and hetero-
thallic as applied to the gametophyte and
homo- and hetero-phytic as applied to the
sporophyte. If in further discussion of the
subject, I use the older terminology, it is
only to avoid terms unfamiliar to the major-
ity of my audience. The main point to be
brought out is that diecious mucors are not
to be homologized with diecious flowering
plants and higher animals. More nearly are
the sexual races of mucors to be compared
with the gametes themselves of such higher
plants and animals.
ENVIRONMENTAL FAOTORS
Many investigators have succeeded in in-
hibiting the expression of one or both sexes
on the gametophyte of ferns by varying the
environmental factors to which they are ex-
posed. The question arises as to the in-
fluence of environmental factors on sexuality
in the mucors. Since gametes are formed
only after the stimulus of contact between
filaments with opposite sex tendencies and
not independently, the question is reduced to
the influence of external factors on zygospore
formation and upon the sexual activity of the
separate races. As a general rule, both for
hermaphroditic and diecious forms it may be
said that the limits within which zygospore
formation is possible are narrower than those
for non-sexual reproduction. Thus in Cun-
ninghamella echinulata, non-sexual reproduc-
tion takes place in abundance at low and high
temperatures while zygospores are formed
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1320
only above 20° ©. Certain other species will
not form zygospores, although able to produce
sporangia at a temperature as high as 26° OC.
Further examples of other factors than tem-
perature might be given in support of the
greater environmental requirements necessary
for the sexual type of reproduction. So far as
has been investigated, external factors have
no influence in altering the inherent sex char-
acter in a given race, though they may change
ite power of showing a sexual response.
The plus and minus races of Phycomyces
have been cultivated in separate test-tubes
since 1903 and have now reached the 242d
non-sexual generation of both plus and minus
races. The plus and minus races of Mucor
Mucedo have been cultivated for the same
length of time. The minus race has grad-
ually become weaker and has this year finally
died out. There does not seem to have been
any actual loss or change of sex in the process
although the ability to respond sexually has
weakened with the weakness of vegetative
growth.
MUTATIONS
It is a question whether or not it will ever
be possible to induce genetic changes in the
mucors by changes in environmental factors.
Such changes do occur in some forms, how-
ever, apparently spontaneously. In 1912-13,
in an investigation as yet unpublished, I
found numerous variants of various degrees
of distinctness in the offspring of a single
plant obtained by sowing non-sexual spores.
Three forms from the hermaphroditic species
Mucor genevensis will suffice in illustration.
In the roll tube at the right is shown a num-
ber of mycelium colonies of a dwarf mutant.
They are of about the same age as those in
the tube at the left. The dwarf has no
sporangia but is propagated by divisions of
the thallus. Perhaps the weakness of its
growth is responsible for the fact that it does
not form zygospores as other races of this
species do.
At the right of the Petri dish culture (Fig.
3) are shown two colonies of the normal parent
race. The small dots scattered over the sur-
face are zygospores formed by the hermaphro-
APRIL 16, 1920]
dite. (The large circles in the culture are the
places where the races were inoculated.)
Tests with plus and minus races show that
this normal race is a hermaphrodite with a
minus tendency. In the central vertical row,
three colonies are growing of a mutant with a
plus tendency. That it is also hermaphroditic
is shown by the dark dots representing zygo-
spores which it produces, larger and arranged
Fie. 3. Diagram of Petri dish culture of the
hermaphroditie species Mucor genevensis. Circles
Tepresent points of inoculation, dots represent
zygospores. Two colonies at right represent the
normal parent stock; vertical row in center repre-
sents three colonies of a mutant with a (+) tend-
ency; two colonies at left represent a mutant with
(—) tendency.
in sectors more often than in the parent race.
Since it has an opposite sexual tendency from
the normal race, it forms a line of zygospores
where it grows in contact with it. It also is
forming a line of zygospores with the mutant
on the left, two colonies of which are shown.
This last mentioned mutant has, like its
normal parent form, a minus tendency.
Aside from its dense yellow growth, it is
characterized by its well-nigh complete sup-
pression of hermaphroditic zygospores on its
own mycelium. If the suppression were com-
plete and the race constant, we might be able
to describe the origin of a diecious race from
a hermaphroditic species. With the exception
of the dwarf mutant which has been kept
running since 1913, but which does not pro-
duce sporangia, and another possible exception,
SCIENCE
38
all the mutant variants found in this species
eventually reverted to the normal type.
The tendency to reversion has been observed
by Burgeff in his mutants of Phycomyces
and attributed by him to a more rapid
growth of the normal nuclei over the mutant
nuclei in mixochimeras which he considers
such variants to be. He was able to bring
his mutants into a true-breeding condition
by crossing them with the normal stock of
opposite sex and obtaining the desired purity
through. segregation in the germ sporangia.
Sex and mutant characters he found to segre-
gate independently so that starting with a
mutant in a plus race he was able eventually
to obtain it in the minus condition.
DISTRIBUTION OF SEXUAL TYPES IN NATURE
A study has been made of the distribution
in nature of the different sexual types. So
far as the number of species is concerned, the
diecious or heterothallic forms greatly pre-
dominate. If the table on the screen (5)
were made to-day, we probably should have to
more than double the list of species definitely
known to have been mated. If unmated
strains with sex determined by the “ imperfect
hybridization ” reaction were added, the num-
ber would be still further increased. Of the
homothallic (hermaphroditic) forms, very few
would have to be added and the hermaphro-
ditie forms it will be observed are those in
which the sexual condition is readily deter-
mined by mere microscopic inspection and
their zygospores therefore less likely to escape
notice.
Table II. (3) above shows the distribution
of races of Rhizopus obtained from different
sources. As will be seen, the sexual strains
are not at all local in their distribution.
Those listed as neutral failed to give any
reaction with the plus and minus test races.
More extensive tests have recently been made
with Rhizopus and other species as will ap-
pear in a later summary.
Collections of races of several different
species have been made from diverse sources
and the races within a given species tested
for reactions inter se. Perhaps a form provi-
382
sionally called “Dark” Absidia will serve as
a convenient example. The collection of this
species consists of 40 races. They have been
contrasted with one another by twos in watch-
glass cultures and all the possible combina-
tions have been made as shown in the table.
Grades A to D were assigned to the different
strengths of sexual reaction measured by the
number of zygospores produced in a given
contrast. Each race was given a final numer-
ical grade made up of the average of its re-
actions with all the other races and the races
were arranged in the table according to their
final grading. The plus and minus races were
placed in series by themselves. There was no
reaction when a plus was contrasted with an-
other plus nor when a minus was contrasted
with another minus. Whether they were of
equal sexual vigor or one was weak and the
other strong, the result of contrasting two
races with the same sign was always negative.
The collection of races therefore seemed
dimorphic so far as sex is concerned. A race
was either shown to be plus or minus or showed
no reaction in a given combination and was
provisionally classed as “neutral.” There
were no races evident that could be called sex
intergrades. Apert F. BLakESLEE
CARNEGIE STATION FOR
EXPERIMENTAL HVOLUTION
(To be concluded)
AN ANALYSIS OF AIM AND INCENTIVE
IN A COURSE IN GENERAL ZOOLOGY
INCENTIVE AND AIM
THAT an incentive is necessary for the ac-
complishment of work is a postulate that
needs no discussion. A review of my work
as a teacher has led me to investigate the
incentives that activate my students—mostly
freshmen plunged into a course in general
zoology. I have felt for some time that the
aim of the course did not furnish an in-
centive for work.
Aim is confused with incentive because in
some cases the two are equivalent. Aim is an
aspiration for an ideal while incentive is an
earthly motive. The statement of an aspira-
SCIENCE
LN. 8. Von. LI. No. 1320
tion may form an incentive for a few; but
for most students the aim is soon forgotten.
INCENTIVE OF STUDENTS IN GENERAL ZOOLOGY
Since the motive that actually completes
the work is not the aim, it is worth while to
inquire what is the incentive, I recognize
that the material with which I have to do
shows a great deal of individual variation. In
this “population” four classes can be dis-
cerned.
1. Those who work because the aim fur-
nishes the incentive. In a so-called “ general
culture” course this is indeed a small class;
in a technical school, however, the condition
is reversed.
2. Those who work because of love for the
subject, another small class. Although in
some students this desire is inborn and prob-
ably hereditary, yet the proportion can be
raised by an inspiring teacher.
3. Those who work for rewards. Our in-
stitutions, in their wisdom, through years of
experience, have devised grades and honors.
Some students have an inborn and probably
hereditary ambition to seem better than their
fellows and so react to this stimulus. Indeed
competition can furnish a splendid incentive.
4. Those who work through fear. The
same machinery erected to appeal to the am-
bitious reacts to prod the laggard. Under
the threat of probation, condition, and ex-
clusion, the victim struggles on. This is a
large class and, in some ways, the most inter-
esting. Although this group contains the
dullards, yet the ranks are far from being
homogeneous—the most brilliant member of
the class may be buried in its ranks.
How often have we seen a student, who, by
constant threats, has just managed to scramble
through our course, enter a technical school
and not only lead his class but in time his
profession. Lack of incentive is the key to
his attitude toward the course in zoology.
Being a more reasoning being than his fellows
who work for love or rewards, and, feeling
that the aim did not furnish an incentive, he
gave his energies where, to his mind, results
would be of more value.
Apri 16, 1920]
THE AIM OF A COURSE IN GENERAL ZOOLOGY
It would be futile to list all the aims of a
course in general zoology since two stand out
in such bold relief that all others are cast into
the shadow. These two are as follows:
1. To teach science which will give the
student the method to gather zoological infor-
mation and to use it.
9. To direct him to gather such information
that will make him understand himself and
his environment which in the end will make
him review his moral and social responsi-
bilities, leading to an intelligent selection of
action in after life.
SCIENCE
These aims hinge on definitions and no
definition will have more influence on the
eonduct of a course than the definition of
science. Those teachers who define science
as knowledge will have a different aim for
their course than those who define science as
method. While the students of the first class
will get much information pumped into them
they will get little training in method. Sci-
ence, defined by Huxley as “common sense at
its best,” or organized common sense, can be
analyzed as follows:
2. We observe (experiment).
3. We record our observations (experi-
ments) clearly described in an organized form
that others may repeat and confirm them.
4. We draw conclusions, at the same time
discussing the results of others that have
come within our experience.
_ Zoologists, botanists and even chemists feel
that they have so much information to impart
that they quite forget to teach science in the
elementary course. It fell to the lot of the
writer to get his first training in science out
of a course of history. A problem was set,
original sources of history were supplied, the
data recorded, and conclusions drawn. Be-
cause his science teachers held that science
was knowledge they made the imparting of
information the most important aim.
OBSERVATION
To see one must be trained to see. He who
is brought up on a diet of books alone is apt
SCIENCE
383
to be as “blind as a bat.” As President Eliot
and others have repeatedly pointed out, biol-
ogy 1s preeminent among sciences in giving
training in observation. Training in obser-
vation, therefore, is an important aim in a
course in general zoology
THE RECORD
To record observations two methods of
description are available, descriptions in words
and descriptions by drawings. The former
includes logical arrangement of matter organ-
ization and the clear use of the English lan-
guage. Where the objects or processes to be
deseribed are complicated, words alone are too
cumbersome, so the graphic method supplies
a short-hand method of accurate description.
Drawing is not an end in itself. It is not
used as in art to express the impression of an
object, but to mdicate relationships that can
not be briefly or clearly expressed in words.
Therefore, a course in general zoology has for
aims training in the use of the English lan-
guage, organization and drawing.
THE CONOLUSION
In the conclusion the organized data and
its relation to some logical principle is dis-
cussed; and inferences are drawn involving
cause and effect. The importance of the bio-
logical principle justifies the drudgery of
the work. The drawing of conclusions from
organized data is an aim in a course of gen-
eral zoology.
INFORMATION
To understand himself and his environ-
ment is an aim too abstract for a student to
grasp without the background that the course
is designed to give. This aim is not apparent
until the course has been completed. It is,
therefore, necessary to consider a series of
minor aims that come, to some extent, within
the previous experience of the student, such
as phases of morphology, physiology, be-
havior, evolution, heredity, etc. Since mor-
phology is so much easier to treat in the lab-
oratory, we are apt to center on it and so fail
to impress the student with its relation to the
real aim of the course.
384
An aim of a science course is to give
training in how to do with a background of
knowledge which will allow of a selection in
the matter of action. An aim of a biolog-
ical course is to give training in how to use
eye, hands, and brain in the control of our-
selves and our environment, with a back-
ground of knowledge that will allow of a
selection of action.
AIM, INCENTIVE AND CONTENT
Aims, as outlined above, furnish little in-
centive for work. The ultimate object is too
big a picture to be “interpreted” by one so
close as a student in a laboratory class. The
needed perspective can only be acquired after
the course has been completed. Minor aims,
clearly within the experience of the student,
selected with a thought not only to the prin-
cipal aims but also with the available mate-
rial in mind, must be presented. These aims
must seem to the student clearly important.
Experience has shown that a combination of
the problem method as illustrated in Hunter’s
“Problems in Civic Biology” and the project
method now being worked out by teachers in
the high schools gives the most science and
information with the most incentive.
Haroitp SELLERS CoLToNn
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHYSICAL METHODS AND MEASURE-—
MENTS, AND THE OBLIGATION
OF PHYSICS TO THE OTHER
SCIENCES
SEVERAL months ago there appeared in
ScrenceE a brief article! by the present writer
in which he advocates a carefully planned
course in physical measurements, supplement-
ing the beginning course in college physics, to
suit the needs of students of the chemical, bio-
logical and the related sciences. In response
to the article, there have been received more
than twenty communications from scientific
workers in the colleges and in the industries,
relative to the subject. They are unanimous
in expressing their agreement with the views
stated. At the same time they express doubt
1 Science, N. S., 50, 199, 1919.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1320
as to the existence of a college physics depart-
ment which will offer a course designed espe-
cially for the science student outside of phys-
ics.
To those who are working in the various ex-
perimental sciences, or who are in position to
see and judge the work in numerous labora-
tories, it is evident that the need for better
training in physical principles, methods and
measurements is an urgent one.2 To secure
evidence of the truth of this contention, one
needs only to obtain the views of the heads of
industrial laboratories in which the services
of many science graduates of our colleges are
required. Or let the physicist who is—and,
more than anyone else, should be—interested,
interview his scientific colleagues to learn
how much the lack of familiarity with physics
may have proved a handicap in their own
work or in that of their graduate students.
There is concrete evidence in the report that
some of the industries are contemplating or
have already taken steps towards establishing
training schools for their young technical
graduates, to give them the sort of training
which the colleges should have provided.
It seems to me that here is clearly an ob-
ligation upon the physicist. It is also an
opportunity. It is an opportunity in the
sense that if he could be instrumental in pro-
viding the coming generation of scientific
workers with adequate training in physics,
greater progress in science might assuredly be
looked for. This not because physics is at all
more potent than the other sciences in ex-
ploring the unknown, but because it is so fun- -
damental. At every turn we encounter a
physical phenomenon; every experiment that
is planned involves some sort of measuring in-
strument, some form of control device, some
physical method. Physics plays such an ob-
viously important part in the great majority
of researches that it leads one to wonder why
2On this point ‘‘Chemical and Metallurgical
Engineer’’ says: ‘‘. . . we know from experience
that an adequate familiarity with them (physical
methods) is far too often lacking among young
chemists, and Mr. Klopsteg’s proposal would seem
to cover an important gap.’’
Apri 16, 1920]
this phase in the education of our science
students has received so little attention. It
leads one also to wonder why so little atten-
tion is paid to methods of instruction and to
the proper coordination of the college science
courses.
I have said that it is the physicist’s obliga-
tion to see that the science student—in chem-
istry, in medicine, in biology, in psychology—
may secure the fundamentals not only of gen-
eral physics, but of the physical measurements
and methods which will apply to his work.
The obligation logically belongs to physics
because the courses are courses in applied
physics, and because the work of organizing
such courses would unquestionably be easier
for the physicist than for the non-physical
scientist to whom physics is unfamiliar
ground. The latter could not be expected to
make a good teacher in physical measure-
ments.
There are obstacles to the realization of
what has been proposed. Some of them ap-
pear formidable, but where the results to be
achieved seem so full of possibilities, let us
hope that they may not be insurmountable.
Some of the obvious difficulties may be men-
tioned. The method for their elimination is
not so obvious.
Because of the rapid development of phys-
ical methods within recent years, and their
rapidly increasing applications, their impor-
tance may not have impressed itself fully
upon those in charge of the student’s train-
ing. Perhaps they have thus come to value
the time spent by the student upon courses
in his own field as far greater than equal
periods in the physical laboratory. Among
their own specialties they see so many things
which the student must have before he is fit
for his degree. But is not this a biased view?
Let us suppose that a student has received
a degree in chemistry, but that his work did
not include several subjects in chemistry
which might have value to him later. He
takes a position in a chemical industry. He
is surrounded by chemists; has access to an
excellent library; his interest in chemistry is
foremost among his interests. Under these
SCIENCE
389
circumstances his educational equipment will
not long remain deficient in the subjects
which he did not get in college. On the
other hand, suppose—and this is usually the
case—that he lacks knowledge of physical
methods and experience with physical instru-
ments. His environment and his interests
make it exceedingly difficult to acquire this
knowledge and experience, because he is now
quite upon his own resources.
Conditions are much the same with the grad-
uate in almost any science, continuing in post-
graduate work. Although he is in position
to request the information he wants, by apply-
ing to the physics department, the physicists
have so many of their own problems that, un-
less his request is a very moderate one, he
will have indifferent success in securing the
needed information.
In both the cases just suggested, much
time and effort would be saved, with better
results, had a well-planned course been avail-
able for the student. The college physics
laboratory is the place where such training
should be given. Failing in this, the colleges
must expect to see the industries adopt the
alternative of usurping one of the functions
of the college. This raises the question:
why is not such a course of training in
physics offered by every physics department?
The answer is fairly apparent.
A course like the one suggested, in order to
measure up to its fullest possibilities, would
require painstaking preparation by the in-
structor having it in charge. It would be
necessary for him to have an understanding
of the problems. He would need to appreciate
most fully that, in this particular case, phys-
ics is a means to an end, and that the student
is interested in physics solely for what it can
do for his own, more interesting science. To
secure the necessary understanding of the
problems, he might have to spend considerable
time in going through the various scientific
journals, to see where and how physical
methods are used. Thus he would be com-
pelled to sacrifice some of the time which
otherwise he might devote to research. But,
in giving up some of his research, would he
386
not actually be rendering a greater service to
science than he would in following the alter-
native course? Yet there are probably few
physicists, engaged in teaching and research,
who have more than a passing interest in the
possible applications of physics to the other
sciences. Perhaps it is only natural that the
motive of early results of their work, in the
form of publications, should far outweigh the
motive of results greater and more lasting,
but somewhat intangible and long deferred.
Under existing conditions there is undoubt-
edly another source of discouragement to the
physics instructor who would otherwise gladly
develop such a course. This is the tendency
on the part of our educational institutions to
make advancement in rank and salary depend
almost entirely upon productive scholarship,
sometimes measured in terms of volume
rather than quality. Excellence in teaching
and conscientious work upon a course of the
kind here advocated would hardly be con-
sidered productive. The instructor, in doing
such work, would be making a real sacrifice
to the cause of science. Few can afford to
make sacrifices of this kind.
Whatever the solution of the difficulties
which have been pointed out, it will probably
be satisfactory and acceptable to our educa-
tional institutions only if it comes as the
result of cooperation on a large scale among
the various sciences. Although the responsi-
bility for making physics available in the
manner suggested seems to me to belong to
physics, the initiative in demanding of phys-
ics the kind of training that is wanted belongs
to the other sciences. It is their duty to out-
line to physics what they need, and after the
courses have been made available, to maintain
an active interest in rather than a passive
attitude towards them. And the common
motive must be the vision of the significant
but, perhaps, little appreciated contributions,
through such efforts, to the advancement of
science. To find the answer to the problems
which are brought up by this aspect of the
problem of properly training our science stu-
dents seems a task worthy of a body like the
American Association for the Advancement
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No. 1320
of Science. The accomplishment of such a
task would give a new and fuller meaning to
the name of this great organization.
Paut E. Kuiopstea
Leeps & NortTHRUP COMPANY,
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE OHIO COLLEGE AND EXPERIMENT
STATION
. In 1917 the College of Agriculture of the
Ohio State University and the Ohio Agricul-
tural Experiment Station entered upon a closer
cooperation in their respective fields of work by
the appointment of C. G. Williams, chief in
agronomy at the station as non-resident pro-
fessor of farm crops at the college; of Pro-
fessor J. B. Park and Firman E. Bear, of the
college as honorary associates, respectively, in
agronomy and soils at the station, and of G.
W. Conrey, instructor at the college as assist-
ant in soils at the station. In 1918 Professor
Herbert Osborn, of the college, was appointed
honorary associate entomologist of the experi-
ment station, and H. A. Gossard, chief in ento-
mology at the station, was appointed non-resi-
dent professor of entomology at the college.
In March, 1920, C. C. Hayden, chief in dairy-
ing at the station was appointed non-resident
assistant professor at the college, and Professor
Osear Erf, of the college, was appointed hon-
orary professor in dairying at the station.
In the actual working out of this coopera-
tion the specialists at the experiment station’s
work by counsel, by lectures at the field meet-
ings held by the station, and by conducting
special lines of research which are reported in
station bulletins.
The station’s field experiments are widely
scattered over the state, in order to bring under
observation the various soil types and differ-
ent industries, and these experiments are vis-
ited by the higher classes in agriculture at the
college.
THE LOUISIANA ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY
At New Orleans a meeting was held on
March 5 to discuss the organization of an
entomological society or club. The meeting
APRIL 16, 1920]
was called by Mr. Edward Foster, who had
received assurances of support from about
twenty-five entomological workers. Ten per-
sons were present. They heartily endorsed
the plan, and favored the organization of a
society to be known as the Louisiana Ento-
mological Society, to be domiciled at the
Natural History Building of the Louisiana
State Museum, Jackson Square, New Orleans.
A committee on constitution was elected, and
the next meeting was placed at April 2.
On that date the first regular meeting was
held and the constitution was adopted. The
following officers were elected: President, Mr.
Edward Foster, state nursery inspector; Vice-
President, Professor O. W. Rosewall, pro-
fessor of entomology, Louisiana State Univer-
sity; Secretary-Treasurer, Mr. T. EK. Holloway,
of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology. An ex-
ecutive committee composed of the officers
with the addition of Messrs. O. K. Courtney,
of the Federal Horticultural Board, and
Charles E. Smith and T. H. Cutrer, both of
the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, was pro-
vided. It was decided that meetings are to be
held on the first Fridays of February, April,
June, October and December, the June meet-
ing to be a Field Day, and the December
meeting to be the annual meeting. The dues
were placed at $1.00 per annum. Any person
interested in the science of entomology is
eligible for membership.
Mr. Robert M. Glenk, curator of the mu-
seum, very kindly placed at the disposal of
the society a large and well-lighted lecture
room, library and laboratory space, a moving
picture outfit, and financial assistance in pub-
lishing the proceedings of the society.
T. E. Hottoway,
Secretary-Treasurer
THE SOUTHWESTERN GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
At the annual meeting of the Southwestern
Geological Society held at Dallas, Texas, on
March 19, Robert T. Hill of Dallas was re-
elected president of that organization. Other
. officers elected were Charles E. Decker, of the
University of Oklahoma, and William F.
Kennedy, vice-presidents; Ellis W. Shuler, of
SCIENCE
387
the Southern Methodist University of Dallas,
secretary, and R. B. Whitehead, treasurer.
Members of the council are John A. Udden,
Jerry Newby, Dr. H. P. Bybee, of the Uni-
versity of Texas, W. E. Wrather and D. W.
Ohern.
Following the meeting the annual dinner
was held in the roof garden of the Adolphus
Hotel. More than 100 members of the
society were present. Dr. George Otis Smith,
of Washington, D. C., director of the United
States Geological Survey; Dr. I. C. White of
Morgantown, W. Va., president of the Ameri-
can Association of Petroleum Geologists were
guests at the dinner.
This organization now numbers over 130
members and is doing much good in getting
together the various geological workers in the
southwest.
THE AMERICAN ELECTROCHEMICAL SOCIETY
Tur American Electrochemical Society held
its thirty-seventh meeting at Boston and Cam-
bridge on April 8, 9 and 10. The members
were welcomed by Professor H. P. Talbot, of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The annual address by the president, Dr.
Wilder D. Bancroft, of Cornell University,
lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army,
was on “ Contact Catalysis.” It was followed
by a symposium of “Colloid Chemistry.”
Summarizing the report from the board
of directors, the secretary, Professor J. W.
Richards, said that the directors had protested
against the abolition of the Chemical War-
fare Service. The membership of the asso-
ciation has been materially increased during
the year; it was 1,903 on January 1, 1919,
and 2,209 on January 1, 1920, and is now
9,307. The treasury of the organization also
is in a healthy condition, with $13,000 in-
vested, largely in government bonds, and
$4,000 cash assets.
Officers have been elected as follows:
President, Walter S. Landis, chief tech-
nologist of the American Cyanamid Company
of New York; vice-presidents, Dr. John A.
Mathews, president and general manager of
the Haleomb Steel Company of Syracuse.
388
N. Y., Lewis E. Saunders, vice-president of
the Norton Company in Worcester, and
Arthur T. Hinckley, chemist for the National
Carbon Company at Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Managers elected were Dr. Colin G. Fink,
research director of the Chile Exploration
Company of New York; Acheson Smith, vice-
president and general manager of the Acheson
Graphite Company of Niagara Falls, and H.
B. Coho of the United Lead Company of
New York; treasurer, Pedro G. Salmon, of
Philadelphia, and secretary, Dr. Joseph W.
Richards, professor of metallurgy at the
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WISCONSIN
ACADEMY
Tue celebration of the fiftieth anniversary
of the founding of the Wisconsin Academy of
Sciences, Arts and Letters will be the occasion
of an important gathering at the University of
Wisconsin on April 23. Professor T. C. Cham-
berlin, professor emeritus of geology at the
University of Chicago, will give an address on
“The founding of the Wisconsin Academy of
Sciences, Arts and Letters,” at an all-univer-
sity convocation in the morning. Professor
Chamberlin is one of the two or three liv-
ing members who helped to establish the acad-
emy in 1870 for the purpose of preserving the
scientific studies of the state. He was then
professor of science at Whitewater Normal
School. He was president of the University of
Wisconsin from 1887-92, when he became pro-
fessor of geology at the University of Chicago.
The regular business meeting of the academy
will be held in the morning, April 23, an all-
university convocation will be held in the
afternoon, and a banquet in the evening.
President E. A. Birge, of the University of
Wisconsin, will preside at the afternoon meet-
ing. Professor John M. Coulter, of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, will speak on “ The relation
of the local academy to the national organiza-
tion,” and Professor C. E. Allen, of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, will speak on “The pro-
posed plan of affiliation of the local academies
with national organizations.”
The Wisconsin Academy was the first impor-
tant means in the state of gathering scientific
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1320
material and has preserved it in annual
volumes, published at state expense. An an-
niversary volume of the proceedings, contain-
ing the papers of the members, will be pub-
lished as the twenty-first volume of the Trans-
actions of the academy.
A bronze medal commemorating the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the academy is
to be struck for the anniversary meeting. The
medal will bear on its face the portraits of Dr.
Increase A. Lapham, pioneer archeologist and
antiquarian, Philo R. Hoy, naturalist and anti-
quarian whose collection of birds is in the Ra-
eine Public Library, George W. Peckham, au-
thority on certain groups of spiders whose
collection of the Attids species is in the Mil-
waukee Public Museum, Professor R. D.
Irving, geologist and at one time head of the
U. S. Geological Survey in the northwestern
states, and Professor William F. Allen, au-
thority on Roman history and antiquities.
All were prominent in the early history of the
academy. Under the portraits will appear
the words, “ Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,
Arts and Letters, 1870-1920, Natural Species
Ratioque.”’ The obverse will bear the figure
of Minerva, holding the lamp of learning,
and the words “Nature Species Ratioque.”
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Joun ALFRED BrasHEar, of Pittsburgh,
distinguished as a maker of astronomical and
physical instruments and an astronomer, died
on April 9, in his eightieth year.
At the recent commemoration day exercises
at the Johns Hopkins University, a portrait
of Dr. J. Whitridge Williams, dean of the
medical school, was presented to the univer-
sity by Professor William H. Welch, and a
portrait of Dr. Florence R. Sabin, professor
of histology, by Professor William H. Howell.
Tue National Institute of Social Sciences,
at its annual meeting on April 22, will confer
a gold medal on Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.
Dr. Joun W. CuurcuMan, professor of
surgery at Yale University, who had pre-
viously been made officier de Jinstruction
Aprit 16, 1920]
publique by the French government, has been
named officier d’Academie (silver palms).
The decorations are in recognition of work
done as Medecin-chef of Hopital militaire 32
bis. during 1916.
Sm JosepH Larmor, of the University of
Cambridge, has been elected a corresponding
member of the French Academy of Sciences
in the section of geometry.
PRESIDENTS of sections of the British Asso-
ciation have been appointed as follows: A
(Mathematics and Physics), Professor A. S.
Eddington; B (Chemistry), Mr. C. T. Hey-
eock; C (Geology), Dr. F. A. Bather; D
(Zoology), Professor J. Stanley Gardiner; E
(Geography), Mr. J. McFarlane; F (EKco-
nomics), Dr. J. H. Clapham; G (Engineer-
ing), Professor C. F. Jenkin; H (Anthro-
pology), Professor Karl Pearson; I (Phys-
iology), Mr. J. Barcroft; K (Botany), Miss
E. R. Saunders; L (Edueation), Sir Robert
Blair; and M (Agriculture), Professor F. W.
Keeble. As has already been announced Pro-
fessor W. A. Herdman will preside over the
meeting which opens at Cardiff on August 24.
Dr. C. G. Storm, formerly lieutenant colonel,
Ordnance Department, U. S. A., has resigned
as assistant director of research with the Tro-
jan Powder Co., Allentown, Pa., to accept the
position of professor of chemical engineering
in the Ordnance School of Application, Aber-
deen Proving Ground, Maryland, and will also
be engaged in research work on explosives and
other ordnance materials.
Mr. SHerMan Leavitt, formerly professor of
chemistry and agriculture in Ilinois College,
Jacksonville, Ill., has become food chemist for
the War Department, stationed in the Bureau
of Chemistry laboratory at St. Louis.
Dr. Epwiy Linton, professor of biology in
Washington and Jefferson College, having
reached the age of sixty-five years, will retire
at the end of the present college year. He ex-
pects to devote his time to research work.
Prorsessor Henry Parker Mannine, of the
department of mathematics of Brown Univer-
sity, has resigned. Professor Manning has
SCIENCE
389
been connected with Brown University for
twenty-nine consecutive years.
Proressor Ora Miner Lewann, of the faculty
of civil engineering at Cornell University, has
resigned his professorship and taken a position
with the J. G. White Company of New York.
Mr. H. DeWirr Vatentine has resigned
from his position as instructor in chemical
engineering at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wis., and is now retained as chem-
ical engineer and bacteriologist by the Ozone
Company of America, Milwaukee, Wis.
Proressor Ernest Merritt lectured recently
on “Methods used for the detection of sub-
marines” before the Cornell chapter of the
Sigma Xi. During the war Professor Merritt
conducted investigations that proved of great
value in diminishing the danger of submarine
attack.
Proressor C. F. Horres gave the address be-
fore the Illinois chapter of Sigma Xi, at the
meeting of March 17. The subject of the ad-
dress was “ Algzw as rock builders.”
Dr. Louis A. Baurr gave the evening lecture
at the joint meeting, held in Columbus on
April 2, of the Ohio Section of the Mathe-
matical Association of America, the Ohio Col-
lege Association and the Ohio Society of Col-
lege Teachers of Education. His topic was
“The deflection of light observed during the
solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, and its bearing
upon the Einstein theory of gravitation,” il-
lustrated by lantern slides. He also gave pub-
lic lectures on “ The solar eclipse of May 29,
1919 and the Hinstein theory” at Ohio State
University, April 8, at Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity, April 5, and at the College of Wooster,
Wooster, Ohio, April 6.
A course in fractures is being given at the
Cornell Medical College, during April by Dr.
Joseph A. Blake, Dr. George W. Hawley and
Dr. James N. Hitzrot Five. Dr. Alexis Carrel
will also give one lecture. Other exercises
will be held by Dr. H. H. M. Lyle, Dr. Burton
J. Lee and Dr. John C. A. Gerster.
THE annual initiation of the Columbia
Chapter of Sigma Xi was held on Friday
evening, April 9, at Columbia University.
390
The initiation was followed by a dinner for
which the following program was arranged:
Toastmaster: Marston T. BoGErt, professor of or-
ganic chemistry.
Engineering research: Grorcr B. PEGRAM, dean of
the schools of mines, engineering and chemistry.
Research in forest products: SamuEL J. Recorb,
professor of forest products, Yale University.
Science in the industries: M. C. WHITAKER, vice-
president of the U. S. Industrial Alcohol Com-
pany.
Applied psychology: E. L. THORNDIKE, professor of
educational psychology.
The new members: STEPHEN P. BURKE.
Ar the meeting of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Massachusetts Society for Men-
tal Hygiene held March 9, 1920, the following
resolution was adopted:
The directors of the Massachusetts Society for
Mental Hygiene desire to express their deep sor-
row and their great sense of loss in the death of
Professor Elmer Ernest Southard. To many of
them he was a warm personal friend whom they
will sorely miss. His great natural abilities, his
extraordinary powers of insight and deduction
were most valuable to the society in which he took
an active and stimulating interest.
The directors feel that they have lost not only a
most valuable adviser and colleague but one on
whose sympathy and friendship they could always
depend.
Dr. Greorcr Ecprrt FisHer, professor of
mathematics in the University of Pennsyl-
vania, died on March 28, aged fifty-seven
years. The following resolutions have been
passed by faculties of the university:
The faculties of the college, the graduate school
and the school education have learned with pro-
found sorrow of the death of George Egbert
Fisher, professor of mathematics and sometime
dean of the college.
Professor Fisher’s connection with the faculty
dates from 1889, when he was appointed assistant
professor of mathematics.
Earnest in purpose, lofty in ideals, a patient and
inspiring teacher, he invariably won and held the
respect and love of his students.
We of the faculty wish to bear testimony to our
appreciation of the profound scholarship of our
departed colleague, and to our recognition of his
exceptionally deep and abiding love for mathe-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI, No. 1320
matics. It was always his aim to foster a more
general interest in this subject. We would testify
also to his ready and sympathetic cooperation in
all that was for the best interests of the university.
Sir ANDERSON StTuaRT, professor of physiol-
ogy in the University of Sydney since 1883
and the dean of its medical faculty, died on
February 29, aged sixty-four years.
THE magnetic survey vessel, Carnegie, ar-
rived at St. Helena Island, on March 30. She
will sail again early in April, bound for Cape-
town.
Tue American Medical Association, as has
been already noted, will hold its seventy-first
annual session in New Orleans, beginning on
April 26. This is the fourth time the associa-
tion has convened in New Orleans. The
twentieth annual session under the presidency.
of Dr. William Owen Baldwin in 1869 aided
in bringing the members of the medical pro-
fession in the south into cordial relationship
with the national association following the
Civil War. In 1885, under the presidency of
Dr. Henry F. Campbell, the thirty-sixth an-
nual session was held in New Orleans. In
1903 the association met in the city in its
fifty-fourth annual session under the presi-
dency of Dr. Frank Billings. The present
meeting will be opened under the presidency
of Dr. Alexander Lambert, of New York, and
Dr. William C. Braisted, surgeon-general of
the U. S. Navy, will be inducted into the office
of president.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tue legislature of the state of Mississippi
has passed a bill appropriating the sum of
$350,000 for a new building for the Univer-
sity of Mississippi, to house the department
of chemistry and the school of pharmacy.
Dr. ArtHur Twining Hapiey, since 1899
president of Yale University, has presented
his resignation, to take effect in June, 1921,
when he will have reached the age of sixty-
five years.
Apert W. Situ, dean of Sibley College
of Mechanical Engineering, Cornell Univer-
Apri 16, 1920]
sity, has been selected by the trustees’ com-
mittee on general administration to be acting
president of the university until a permanent
successor to Dr. Schurman is appointed.
Tue professorship of electrical engineering
at Lafayette College, made vacant by the
resignation of Professor Rood, who left
Lafayette to go to the University of Illinois,
has been filled by the appointment of Pro-
fessor Morland King, of Union College, as
associate professor of electrical engineering.
Dr. Water K. Fisuer, of the department
of zoology at Stanford University, has been
promoted to an associate professorship.
Dr. Max Marnuouse has resigned as clinical
professor of neurology in the Yale School of
Medicine, his resignation to take effect at
the close of the present college year.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
A SUGGESTION AS TO THE FLAGELLATION OF
THE ORGANISMS CAUSING LEGUME
NODULES
A VERY interesting note by Hansen on the
flagellation of the legume nodule organisms
(Rhizobium) appeared recently in this jour-
nal.1 There has been a dispute for some time
as to whether these bacteria have one or
several flagella. Burrill and Hansen not long
ago? claimed that they are monotrichic organ-
isms, whereas various other investigators, in-
cluding the present writers,? have observed
peritrichic flagella. Hansen now says that he,
too, has found peritrichic flagella on cultures
obtained from clover, vetch and alfalfa, and
ealls attention to the fact that his earlier
studies had been on organisms from cowpea
and soy bean. Hence he suggests that there
may be two different groups, one peritrichic
and the other monotrichic. It is, indeed, gen-
1 Hansen, Roy, ‘‘Note on the flagellation of the
nodule organisms of the Leguminose,’’ Scr., N. S.,
50: 568-569, 1919.
2 Burrill, T. J., and Hansen, R., ‘‘Is symbiosis
possible between legume bacteria and non-legume
plants??? Ill, Agr. Exp, Sta., Bul. 202, 1917.
3 Breed, R. S., Conn, H. J., and Baker, J. C.,
*‘Comments on the evolution and classification of
bacteria,’’ Jour, Bact., 3, 445-459, 1918,
SCIENCE
391
erally recognized that the organisms of cowpea
and soy bean differ from the other varieties of
Rhizobium in certain cultural features, pri-
marily in respect to vigor of growth.
Hansen’s suggestion is very interesting, but
does not explain all the facts that have been
observed. Wilson* has found peritrichie fla-
gella on cultures of the soy bean organism.
To be sure, as insisted by Hansen, Wilson has
not published any photomicrographs; but the
statement he makes is definite and no one
need question it. We have seen one of Wilson’s
microscopic preparations (soy bean organism)
and also one of Hansen’s (cowpea organism) ;
and find four or five flagella on some of the
bacteria in Wilson’s preparations, but only
one each on those in Hansen’s.
Upon enquiry we find that Wilson’s cul-
tures were sometimes as old as 28 days at the
time of staining; while it appears from Bur-
rill and Hansen’s paper that their prepara-
tions were only a few days old. In this con-
nection it is an interesting fact that a certain
organism (belonging to a different group)
studied in this laboratory was found to have
a single polar flagellum when a few hours
old, but two or three polar flagella when a
day or more old. This naturally raises the
question whether the cowpea and soy bean or-
ganisms may not be monotrichic in young
cultures and peritrichie when they are older.
This suggestion is further borne out by the
fact that Hansen found (as shown by state-
ments in his text and by his photomicro-
graphs) the single flagellum to be attached at
the corner or even at the side more often than
exactly at the pole. This is just what would
be expected if it were a matter of chance
which one of the peritrichic flagella developed
first in a young culture.
Eyer since the appearance of Burrill and
Hansen’s paper we have wanted to investigate
the truth of the matter. As we have not had
the chance to do so, we take this occasion to
put the idea in print that any one else inter-
4 Wilson, J. K., ‘‘ Physiological studies of Bacillus
radicicola of soybean (Soja Max., Piper) and of
factors influencing nodule production,’’ Cornell
Agr. Exp. Sta., Bul. 386, 1917.
392
ested in this rather puzzling question may
study it to see whether there is anything in
the theory suggested here.
H. J. Conn,
R. S. Breep
AGRIOULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,
GENEVA, N. Y.
PENSIONS FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Tue American Association for Labor Legis-
lation calls attention to the very serious evils
arising from the lack of a pension system in
the government bureaus at Washington.
They say: “It is now reported that of a total
of 878 employees in one federal bureau in
Washington, 303 are over 65 years old, 104
over 75, and 29 over 80. The Treasury De-
partment alone has 1,000 aged who average
only 25 per cent. efficiency—1,000 drawing full
pay for work that could be done by 250.”
This is a matter which concerns scientific
men. I remember several years ago calling on
one of the most eminent zoologists in the Na-
tional Museum. I found that he was writing
all his letters by hand, because the stenographer
assigned to him was too old to do the work. He
explained that of course he could not, or would
not dismiss her; but as a result he was left
without the assistance he should have had. I
recall a scientific assistant, retained by a bu-
reau long after he had ceased to be able to do
anything of value, but required to spend his
days at his desk. No one would have thought
of turning him away unless he could be ade-
quately provided for. The effect of these con-
ditions on the progress of science is obvious
and lamentable.
It appears that there is now a bill before
Congress, providing for retirement on part pay
at 65, the employee contributing 24 per cent. of
wages, the government the rest. It should cer-
tainly be supported.
T. D. A. CockERELL
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO,
March 1, 1920
THE RECENT AURORAS
Tue Weather Bureau is compiling observa-
tions of the auroras of March 22-23, 23-24,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1320
and 24-25, 1920, as seen in the United States,
or elsewhere, with a view to publishing a
detailed account of this remarkable display
in the March, 1920, issue of the Monthly
Weather Review. It is hoped that those who
observed an aurora on any of the dates
mentioned will notify the bureau, and if
details were noted will send copies of their
notes. Information about any display which
may be seen on April 18, 27 days after the
brilliant night in March, or auroras observed
on other dates in 1919 or 1920 will also be
appreciated. Communications should be ad-
dressed to “ Editor, Weather Bureau, Wash-
ington, D. C.,” and should reach Washington
by the end of April.
CHares F. Brooks,
Meteorologist-Editor
QUOTATIONS
CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONS
AFTER years of half-hearted consideration
Congress seems about to pass a bill for the re-
tirement and pensioning of employees in the
federal service. It will be applicable only to
those in the classified service, about 300,000 in
all. It is a measure of justice and at the same
time a measure of economy, for the govern-
ment hasn’t been heartless enough to turn the
superannuated loose. Thousands of them re-
tain their places, but do little or no work.
The government retires employees in the
military and kindred services. It ought to set
a similar standard for faithful civil employ-
ment. The retirement age in the army is
sixty-four, and in the navy sixty-two. Taking
into consideration the easier conditions of civil
employment, the bill which has just passed
the Senate fixes seventy as the civil retire-
ment limit. The allowances will vary accord-
ing to length of service, from thirty years down
to eighteen years. Persons disabled through
disease or injury in the line of duty may be re-
tired before reaching seventy.
Another distinction is to be made between
civil and military beneficiaries. An annuity
assessment of 24 per cent. will be levied an-
nually on the salaries of civil employees until
a retirement fund is accumulated. This assess-
\
Apri 16, 1920]
ment is expected to pay about half the cost of
the system.
There are now about 9,000 superannuated
civil servants, most of them in Washington.
They will go out in a body. The retired list
will eventually reach about 30,000. But with
the moderate annuities allowed, the maximum
being $720, the government’s experiment will
cost little. The efficiency of the working force
will be increased. More work will be done by
a smaller staffi_—New York Tribune.
THE ECOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF
ROOTS}
Proressor J. E. Weaver has recently put
out an extensive study on roots which com-
prises observations made in the “ prairies of
eastern Nebraska, chaparral of southeastern
Nebraska, prairies of southeastern Washing-
ton and adjacent Idaho, plains and sandhills
of Colorado, the gravel-slide, the half-gravel-
slide, and forest communities of the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado.” The roots of about
140 species are described. The species in-
clude shrubs, grasses and other herbs. With
a description of the roots is presented a char-
acterization of the physical environment.
Among other features of the latter are given
the rainfall and evaporation, the temperature
of the air and to a certain extent the tem-
perature of the soil and its moisture content.
The work is abundantly illustrated with root
maps and reproductions of photographs.
The study by Weaver is a continuation and
an extension of his well-known work along
similar lines. It is wholly observational and
must be considered as constituting a very
noteworthy contribution to our knowledge of
the habits of roots. It touches elbows with
so many features associated with the habits
and relations of the plants of the regions
studied that it is not practicable to present a
summary of the results. However, it may
not be amiss, to point out certain of the more
interesting of the facts presented. For de-
tailed information the reader is referred to
the work itself.
1 Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publica-
tion No. 286, 1919.
SCIENCE
393
Without attempting to summarize exactly it
ean be said that in a general way the root
systems of plants in the communities studied
are fairly characteristic. Thus in the prairies
and the plains also the roots usually extend
widely and penetrate deeply, but more deeply
in the former than in the latter community.
And the tap root is the principal feature.
In the sandhills the roots of several species
are confined to the surface 2 feet, and prac-
tically all show a striking “ profusion of long,
widely spreading laterals in this surface-soil
stratum.” In the gravel-slide and forest com-
munities of the Rocky Mountains, adjoining
Colorado Springs, the roots are confined to
the surface 18-24 inches. In the half-gravel-
slide, however, the root penetration is deeper,
although the root systems develop widely
spreading shallow roots as well. Finally, in
the case of species growing in more than one
habitat it was found that in most cases the
direction and extent of roots developed corre-
sponded very well to the “community root
habit.”
Roots of different species may be so unlike
in the extent and direction of their develop-
ment, as well as in other morphological
features, as to be readily identifiable. They
also undoubtedly exhibit quite as distinct
physiological characteristics, although such
can not be told from inspection. For these
reasons a knowledge of the roots of any
habitat gives a very good clue to many of
the striking features of that habitat, just as
the nature of the shoot of a plant reveals
much regarding the subaerial conditions un-
der which it has developed. It consequently
follows that through the study of roots of
native plants, much can be learned in ad-
vance of culture of the possibilities of agri-
eultural lands. Such, however, is a possible
economic application of this and similar root
studies and was suggested, but not developed,
by the author.
The most striking root figure by Weaver is
that of Ipomea leptophylla of the sandhills
about forty miles southeast of Colorado
Springs. The soil absorbs all of the rain and
there is practically no run-off. Through a
394
rapid drying out of the surface sand a dust
mulch is formed which retards effectively
further water loss from the soil. At a depth
of a few inches the soil is always moist, and,
from data given for another locality with
similar soil, it would appear that the moisture
may be fairly uniform to a depth of six feet.
Exact data, however, as regards this feature
are wanting. Of 19 sandhill species whose
roots were studied, 8 have roots which are
entirely or nearly confined to the first two
feet of soil, and of the balance all save one
have the greatest root development at this
depth. The roots of Ipomcaa were the most
extensive of those of any species in the com-
munity, or, for that matter, apparently the
most extensive of any observed during the
course of the study. The block of soil in-
cluded within their reach was approximately
fifty feet in diameter and over ten feet in
depth. The roots were fairly well distributed
throughout except only in the surface foot
from which they were largely wanting. An-
other feature of the root was the enlarged
and tapering tap which was about eight inches
in diameter a foot beneath the surface and
the enlarged portion of which was about three
feet long. The enlarged tap of Ipomea con-
stitutes an important reservoir for food and
water storage.
Weaver finds in general that in the com-
munities studied the most striking root char-
acters, at least so far as the gross morphology
is concerned, are intimately related to the
moisture conditions of the soil. Where, for
example, the uppermost soil layers only are
moist, there is a marked development of
laterals. In the event the soil carries mois-
ture to a considerable depth, as on the
prairies, deep root penetration in many spe
cies occurs. Apparently he does not find soil
temperatures or soil aeration limiting factors
in root penetration although that such may
be the case in certain instances seems to the
reviewer not unlikely. For example, the
roots of Opuntia fragilis do not appear to
attain to a depth greater than fifteen inches,
and it is usually considerably less than this.
The roots of Yucca are also for the most part
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1320
shallowly placed. And, finally, in the prairies
as regards penetration, there is a fairly well-
marked stratification of the roots. It may be
as suggested in the case of plains species that
the “ well developed system of shallow, widely
spreading laterals is undoubtedly a response
to the moisture in the surface soils resulting
from frequent light summer showers.” How-
ever, in the opinion of the reviewer, the pos-
sibility that the root-temperature or the root-
soil aeration relation may also be of im-
portance is by no means excluded. The
various root relations are so closely inter-
woven that any one can only be evaluated
when the rest are so far as possible con-
trolled. And this requires exhaustive experi-
mentation, which was not within the scope
of the present study.
The extremes as regards root penetration
appears to be met in the case of Opuntia
fragilis, of the plains, on the one hand, and
possibly, Lygodesmia juncea, of the Nebraska
prairies. In Opuntia most of the roots lie
within one to three inches of the surface of
the ground, with an extreme penetration of
eight to fifteen inches. While the roots of
Lygodesmia have been found to attain a
depth exceeding twenty feet seven inches. In
the latter instance the soil is loess, with
uniform physical properties, and is very
favorably for deep root penetration. This
well authenticated penetration is sufficiently
deep, but it is of interest to note the observa-
tion given in Merill? that “Aughey has
found roots of the buffalo berry (Shepherdia
argophylla) penetrating the loess soils of
Nebraska to a depth of fifty feet.”
In a work so well done it seems captious to
allude to a feature not by itself of funda-
However that may be,
it seems to the reviewer unfortunate that the
English and the metric systems of measure-
ment, especially, are both used throughout
the study. Consistency in this regard would
surely meet more general approval.
W. A. Cannon
mental importance.
DESERT LABORATORY
2‘‘Rocks and Rock Weathering,’’ p. 181.
Apri 16, 1920]
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE TERTIARY FORMATIONS OF PORTO RICO1
In 1914, the New York Academy of Sci-
ences commenced a scientific survey of Porto
Rico and the Virgin Islands. The outcome
of this work has been a series of reports,
covering geology and other branches of in-
vestigation. The important geological con-
tributions which have been published are:
1. “A Geological Reconnoissance of Porto
Rico,” by ©. P. Berkey, Ann. N. Y. Acad.
Sci., Vol. XXVI., pp. 1-70, 1915.
2. “Geology of the San Juan District,” by
D. R. Semmes, N. Y. Acad. Sci., Sei. Surv.
of P. R. and the Virgin Islands, Vol. L., pt. 1,
pp. 83-110, 1919.
In the summer of 1916, the writer, working
under the auspices of the New York Academy
of Sciences, made a detailed study of the
northwestern portion of the island (Lares
District). The results of that survey, to-
gether with the conclusions of Berkey,
Semmes, and other geologists who have
worked in Porto Rico, are outlined in the
present paper.
General Outline—R. T. Hill? showed that
the central core of Porto Rico is made up of
a voleanic complex, with sediments of Cre
taceous age, and with coastal belts of a white
limestone (Pepino Formation) of Tertiary
age. In 1915, Berkey? showed that the cen-
tral mountainous complex (Cretaceous) is
overlain unconformably by the Tertiary lime-
stones of the north an south coasts (Arecibo
Formation). The Tertiary in turn is over-
lain disconformably by a limited coastal belt
of solidified dune sands and beach deposits
(San Juan Formation) of Pleistocene to
Recent age. He called the Cretaceous com-
plex the “Older Series”; the Tertiary and
Pleistocene formations the “ Younger Series,”
and pointed out that the unconformity sep-
arating these two series is a profound one,
1 Presented before the Geological Society of
America, Boston meeting, December 29-31, 1919.
2 Porto Rico, Nat. Geog. Mag., Vol. X., pp. 93-
112, 1889.
SCIENCE
395
the chief break in the geologic succession of
the island. The work of Berkey, Semmes,
and others has added much to our knowledge
of the geologic structure of the island, espe-
cially of the Older Series rocks. However, the
Younger Series is best developed in the north-
west corner of the island, and it was not until
work here had been completed that a detailed
statement of the Tertiary formations could
be made.
The Tertiary Formations—The Tertiary
formations are essentially a series of white
limestones, part massive or reef-like, part well
stratified. The beds are for the most part
undisturbed, and dip gently seaward at angles
of 4° to 6° on the north coast, and 10° or
more on the south coast. Except locally,
where slumping or slight warping has oc-
curred, or faulting (on the south coast) these
dips represent the initial angles at which the
beds were deposited.
The Tertiary formations were laid down
upon a slowly subsiding old land surface of
considerable relief. The valleys of this old
land surface were invaded by the sea during
the initial submergence, and in them were
deposited gravel, sand, mud, lignitie clay, and
marl. Such deposits, with their alternation
of fresh water, brackish water, and marine
fossil faunas, now form the basal shale mem-
ber of the Tertiary groups of the north and
south coasts. Compared with the overlying
limestones, this basal shale is local in distri-
bution, and very variable in thickness.
The maximum thickness of the Tertiary
group in the northwest part of the island
(Lares District) is nearly 4,000 feet. On the
south coast, Berkey* estimates the thickness
at 8,000 to 4,000 feet. Evidence obtained in
the Lares District seems to show that these
beds were never deposited vertically to any
such thickness, but are somewhat analogous
to the fore-set beds of a delta. The lime-
stones represent a series of fringing reefs
whose maximum growth.was outward rather
than upward. It is believed that at the
period of maximum submergence in Tertiary
time, the central mountain chain of the
island was not submerged. During sub-
396
mergence there was a progressive overlap from
west to east. Thus in eastern Porto Rico
and Vieques Island, the uppermost formation
of the Tertiary group lies directly on the
Cretaceous.
Origin—These Tertiary limestones have
been referred to as coral reef limestones.
This is misleading, for while corals are abun-
dant in the lowest reef limestone of the group,
the overlying limestones are made up chiefly
of foraminiferal and molluscan shells.
The so-called “Pepino” or “ Haystack”
hills (known as “ Cock Pits” in Jamaica) are
not individual reefs or reef-mounds, as might
appear, but are the product of caving or
slumping caused by an extensive underground
drainage, aided by rapid surface solution.
The result is a peculiar type of karst topog-
raphy, seen on many of the islands of the
West Indies, but nowhere so well developed
as on the north coast of Porto Rico.
Subdivisions —As a result of the work in
the Lares District, the writer has made the
following subdivisions of the Tertiary group
of the north coast:
Quebradillas limestone—700-— 875 feet
Los Puertos limestone—550-1,000 feet
Cibao limestone—250-1,000 feet
Lares formation—350-1,275 feet
San Sebastian shale—max. 700 feet
Arecibo
Group
In this classification, the names introduced
by Berkey® have been used wherever possible.
The term “ Arecibo,” introduced by Berkey,
is used because the earlier name, “ Pepino
formation,” of R. T. Hill is a purely litho-
logical and topographical term, and is there-
fore undesirable.
On the south coast, no detailed subdivision
has been made, but the names “ Ponce” lime-
stone and “Juana Diaz” shale (basal mem-
ber) introduced by Berkey, are sufficient.
After a careful study and comparison of a
large collection of Tertiary fossils from the
north and south coast formations, the follow-
ing correlation is made, and believed to be
essentially correct:
4C. P. Berkey, op. cit., p. 14.
5 0. P. Berkey, op. cit.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1320
North Coast South Coast
Upper Ponce (including
Guanica) limestone
Quebradillas limestone
Los Puertos limestone
Cibao limestone
Lares formation Lower Ponce limestone
San Sebastian shale Juana Diaz shale
Age.—T. W. Vaughan,® from a study of
fossil corals collected by R. T. Hill in the
upper San Sebastian shale and lower Lares
formation, concluded that the age of the
“Pepino formation” is Middle Oligocene
(Antiguan). C. J. Maury,’ from a study of
mollusean fossils collected in Porto Rico in
1914 by ©. A. Reeds, concluded that the
Quebradillas limestone is of Lower Miocene
(Bowden) age, and that the “Rio Collazo
shale”? (—San Sebastian) is Middle Oligo-
cene (Antiguan). The writer, from a study
of a large collection of molluscan fossils
from the Lares District, agrees with these
conclusions, but would place the Quebradillas
limestone (—Bowden) in the Upper Oligo-
cene, rather than Lower Miocene. This de-
parture seems to be warranted by the abun-
dance of Orthaulax (several species) and
Ostrea antiguensis throughout the Quebra-
dillas. Furthermore, there is no faunal
hiatus or disconformity to be found anywhere
within the Tertiary group of the north coast.
The entire series is a structural unit, as
Berkey pointed out.®
The ages assigned to the north coast forma-
tions are as follows:
7. San Juan formation......... Pleistocene-Recent
dooondondsons Diseonformity ................
6. Quebradillas limestone (— Bowden) | Upper
5. Los Puertos limestone Oligocene
4, Cibao limestone Middle
3. Lares formation Oligocene
2. San Sebastian shale ) (Antiguan)
pooodnboooodn Unconformity ................
¥. Older, Series °°... 005... Upper Cretaceous
Beta HusparD
6 Bull, 103 U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 260, 1919.
7 Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XLVIII., p. 212, 1919.
8C. P. Berkey, op. cit., p. 15.
Aprin 16, 1920]
THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Ix
An examination of Wisconsin oil of Monarda
Punctata: NELLIE WAKEMAN. (By title.) Fol-
lowing up the work on ‘‘A Possible New Terpene
in the Volatile Oil of Monarda Punctata,’’5 re-
ported upon at the New Orleans meeting of the
American Chemical Society in 1915, another ex-
amination of the oil has been made. This study
confirms in every particular the earlier report.
The low boiling terpene fractions contain a hydro-
carbon, C,H, which yields a nitroso chloride
melting at 89°. This in turn yields a nitrol-
piperidide which melts at 198°-199° and a nitrol-
benzylamide which melts at 103°. With aniline
the nitroso chloride behaves like that of pinene, the
regenerated hydrocarbon having a pinene-like odor,
quite different from the original oil. The fraction
boiling at 165°-168°, which gives the most abun-
dant yield of nitroso chloride, exhibits the follow-
ing physical constants at 20°. Specific gravity
0.8476; optical rotation + 4.48; index of refrac-
tion 1.4698. The low boiling nonphenol fractions
also contain jisovaleric aldehyde, identified by its
p-nitro phenylhydrazone which melts at 108°-109°,
also by oxidation to an acid and its determination
as silver valerinate. The noncrystallizable phenol
portion contains carvacrol, hitherto not known in
this oil, identified by its phenyl urethane melting
at 137°,
On hemoglobin, 1. Optical constants: Wu. H.
WELKER AND CHAS. S. WILLIAMSON. The absorp-
tion constants of hemoglobin from various species
of animals were studied by means of the spectro-
photometer. The hemoglobin was prepared by a
method, which was more favorable for the removal
of associated colloids than the older methods.
Hemoglobin from the dog, ox, cat, chicken, guinea-
pig, rat, sheep, horse, pig and man were studied.
The results obtained would indicate that if there
is any difference in the absorption constants of
hemoglobin from different species, these differences
are not sufficiently large to serve as means of
identification of the species.
, Analysis of pleural fluid from a case of chylo-
thorax: WM. H. WELKER AND CuHas. S. WILLIAM-
SON. Quantitative analyses of pleural fluids ob-
tained from cases of chylothorax are extremely
rare in medical literature. The analysis of the
fluid obtained from this ease, follows:
5 Scrence, Vol. 42, p. 100.
SCIENCE
397
Per Cent.
Specifickoravityanee ea eee ene ees 1.0199
Solidsii@totall) reece eaters eae 6.64
AG Giginiio, By, TE? Ch) coococccagscses 0.85
INGA (HOVE, “S Sco oo oc onocodnoodnooKT 0.75
Nitrogen (non-colloidal) ................ 0.02
Nitrogen (colloidal, calculated as protein). 4.56
Watyesbass (ueuEN)) Aosopecaacacagucgd000000 0.79
Lipins (unsaponifiable) ................ 0.75
Chlorin (calculated as NaCl) ............ 0.73
Digestibility of avocado and certain other oils:
H. J. DEVEL AnD ArTHUR D. Houmss. (By title.)
The experiments were carried on similarly to the
previous ones in which the digestibility of about
50 different oils has been determined. With the
exception of the avocado fat, the oils and fats in-
eluded in this study incorporated in a special corn-
starch blanemange or pudding were eaten with a
simple basal diet (commercial wheat biscuit,
oranges and sugar) which supplied only a very
small amount of fat and tea or coffee was used
according to personal preference. It was thought
best to test the digestibility of avocado fat by
serving the fruit as it grows with a simple basal
ration very nearly fat-free, the avocado being
eaten in such quantities that it supplied an
amount of fat comparable with the fat consumed
in other fat experiments. Weighings were made
of all the food served and refuse remaining, the
difference between the two representing amounts
eaten. The fat of water-free feces was also re-
corded. Both food and feces were analyzed in
order to determine the amounts of protein, fat
and carbohydrate in each. The difference in the
amounts of these constituents present in the food
and in the feces was taken to represent the amounts
of each actually utilized by the body. The esti-
mated digestibility was avocado fat 82.5 per cent.,
capuassu fat 92.7 per cent., cohune oil 99.0 per
cent., hempseed oil 98.5 per cent., palm-kernel oil
98.0 per cent., and poppy-seed oil 96.3 per cent.
The digestibility of avocado fat is somewhat lower
than that found for most fats and oils. While the
intake of avocado fat varied somewhat with the
different subjects, the data available is not suffi-
cient to warrant any conclusions as to whether or
not a smaller intake of avocado fat would have
been more completely assimilated. The average
amount of fat eaten daily in each of the experi-
ments was: Avocado 90 grams, capuassu fat 40
grams, cohune oil 52 grams, hempseed oil 53
grams, palm-kernel oil 100 grams and poppy-seed
oil 49 grams. The number of experiments re-
398
ported in each group was 4 with the exception of
hempseed in which three experiments were re-
ported and poppy-seed in which 7 experiments
were reported. The subjects reported no laxative
effect in any of the experiments with the excep-
tion of slight disturbances with the capuassu fat
which was similar to the disturbances caused by
cocoa butter. The general conclusions are that
these fats should prove valuable for food purposes
and that cohune, hempseed, poppy-seed and palm-
kernel oils are very completely assimilated by the
body.
Experiments on the digestibility of entire wheat
flour ground by various processes: C. F. LANG-
WORTHY AND H. J. DrveL. (By title.) It seemed
advisable to determine what effect different meth-
ods of milling had on the digestibility of entire
wheat flour so experiments were carried out with
entire wheat flour ground in five different com-
mereial processes. The different methods of mill-
ing used were: (1) A commercial roller mill, (2)
roller mill of the Bureau of Chemistry, (3) burr
stone mill, (4) steel burr mill, and (5) attrition
mill. The experiments were conducted in the
same manner as previous experiments of such a
nature have been carried on by this office. The
flour was incorporated in a ginger bread and fed
with a basal ration of oranges, butter and sugar,
and tea or coffee was used according to the in-
dividual preference. The general results from
these experiments seemed to indicate that the finer
the wheat is ground, the more completely the pro-
tein is absorbed while the percentage of carbohy-
drate absorbed remains nearly constant. Even in
the most finely-ground flour, the protein was only
79 per cent. absorbed while in the case of highly-
milled flour (7. e., flour in which the bran has been
removed), it has been found that it is about 88
per cent. digested. In the case of the flour milled
on the stone burr and steel burr mills the digesti-
bility of the carbohydrate was found to be 97
per cent. and 95.5 per cent. digested, respectively.
The protein in each case was 79 per cent. digested.
The digestibility of the flour milled on the attri-
tion mill was 95.5 per cent. for the carbohydrate
and 74.5 per cent. for the protein. With the com-
mercial sample of roller-milled flour, 94 per cent.
of the carbohydrate was digested and 70 per cent.
of the protein, and with the sample prepared in
the laboratory roller mill, the carbohydrate was
95 per cent. digested and the protein 71 per cent.
Both the samples ground on a roller mill were con-
siderably coarser than those ground on any of the ©
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1320
other three mills. It is expected that a bulletin
will appear shortly giving a summary of these ex-
periments.
| Adsorption of fat by fried batter and doughs
and causes of their variations: Minna C. DENTON
AND EpirH WENGEL. (By title.) The various in-
gredients of the dough exert varying effects upon
fat absorption. The gluten of wheatflour, when
acted on by hot fat of suitable temperature, tends
to form a crust which prevents or hinders fat
penetration; so the stiffer dough absorbs less fat,
other things being equal. Sugar increases fat ab-
sorption very decidedly. Fat present as an in-
gredient of the dough, greatly increases the fat
absorption. Egg, if not above 60 per cent. of the
weight of the liquid (as is the ease in doughnut
recipes) does not lessen the fat absorption, but
contrary to current opinion seems even to increase
it somewhat. Many details of manipulation exert
the most profound effects upon fat absorption.
Length of time of frying and relative amount of
surface exposed, are two of the most important.
Crust formation is of the greatest importance.
Any manipulation increasing volume (and conse-
quently surface) increases fat absorption. Turn-
ing the cakes repeatedly as they fry increases fat
absorption, because it promotes the exposure of a
soft crust, to the hot fat. The influence of tem-
perature upon fat-absorption (constant time, tem-
perature 150° C. and 200° C.) is variable and de-
pends entirely upon the consistency and ingredi-
ents of the dough. In practical cookery, how-
ever the time would be reduced at the higher tem-
perature and this would lessen fat absorption.
Temperature is important also because of its in-
fluence upon crust formation and upon expansion
of the dough.
CHARLES L. PARSONS,
Secretary
SCIENCE
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CONTENTS
Platinum and the Metals of the Platwmum
Group: Dr. GrorGE F. KUNZ ............-. 399
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Sexuality in Mucors: Dr. ALBERT F. BLAK-
STD os oa epaodseouUdacde bane Dedopdo.Jee 403
Scientific Events :—
The Division of States Relations of the Na-
tional Research Council; Summer Meeting of
the American Institute of Chemical Engi-
neers; The American Physical Society ..... 409
Scientific Notes and News .............-.-. 410
University and Educational News .......... 413
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Cerebellar Localization by the Application
of Strychnine: Dr. FREDERICK R. MIuEr.
A Logic Test: CHRISTINE LADD-FRANELIN.
The Situation of Scientific Men in Russia:
Dr. H. GIDEON WELLS. .................- 413
Quotations :—
Research and the Universities ............ 415
Scientific Books :—
East and Jones on Inbreeding and Out-
breeding: PROFESSOR RAYMOND PEARL .... 415
Special Articles :—
Correspondence between Chromosome Num-
ber and Linkage Groups in Drosophila
virilis: Dr. CHAs. W. METZ .............. 417
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section H—Anthropology and Psychology:
PROFESSOR Epwarp K. STRONG ........... 418
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
PLATINUM AND THE METALS OF THE
PLATINUM GROUP
Wuart promises to be the most complete and
authoritative work on platinum and platinum
deposits is about to be published in Geneva,
Switzerland. The author, Louis Dupare, is
professor of chemistry and petrology in the
University of Geneva; the name of Marguerite
N. Tikonovitch is announced as that of the
associate. author.
Professor Dupare has long been known as
the writer of many papers on the great plati-
num deposits of the Ural region in Russia, of
which he has made special study. He has also
investigated personally the notable platinum
deposits in other parts of the world, and he
gives in the present work the ripe results of
more than twenty years investigation of the
sources of this rare metal.
The first chapter will be devoted to the to-
pography and geological aspects of the Ural
region. This is followed by a chapter treating
of the “mother rocks” of platinum, and by
others on the petrography of the primary
platiniferous centers, the dunites and perido-
tites. Then, in turn, are offered considerations
on the pyroxenites and koswites, the rocks of
the gabbro family and various vein rocks. The
view is then extended to cover the meta-
morphosie rocks accompanying the eruptive
platiniferous zone.
Turing then to what more immediately
concerns the metal itself, the constituent ele-
ments of native platinum are studied, and its
state in the different primary deposits, as well
as the probable genesis of these deposits. The
writer now passes to the analysis and chemical
1 Louis Dupare and Marguerite N. Tikonovitch,
‘‘Platinum and Platinum Deposits,’’ pub. by ‘‘So-
eiété Anonyme des Editions ‘Sonor,’ ’’ 46 Rue du
Stand, Geneva, Switzerland, 600 pp., 99 text ill.,
90 stereotype pls. 11 in black and color, 8 of
dredges, etc., atlas of Ural deposits, 4°.
400
composition of platinum, as investigated by the
ordinary methods used and certain new ones
that have been applied. The average content
of deposits is presented as a test of the even-
tual results of working them, and the differ-
ences in the composition of native platinum
from the principal deposits are noted. Sec-
ondary deposits and platiniferous alluvial, and
the extraction of platinum from alluvial, form
the subject of two chapters.
The dunitic deposits of the Urals are very
fully and extensively presented by Professor
Dupare, who has investigated the occurrences
of platinum in this region with especial care
and thoroughness. The succeeding chapter is
devoted to an equally exhaustive examination
of the pyroxenitic platinum deposits of this
region. Then comes a chapter on the deposits
in other parts of the world; in San Domingo,
Honduras, equatorial Colombia, Brazil and
French Guiana, as well as in North America,
where the deposits of the United States, of
Mexico and of British Columbia are studied.
To these succeed the deposits of Oceania, of
Borneo, of New South Wales, Australia, of
New Zealand and of Tasmania. Nor are the
African deposits in the Transvaal forgotten,
while the alleged deposits on the Island of
Madagascar are duly mentioned. Asiatic de-
posits of the Wilui and the Oldoi rivers, and
of the Altai, close this comprehensive descrip-
tion.
The treatment of the ore and the metallurgy
of platinum are then gone into very fully, and
the extraction and separation from one another
of the various metals of the platinum group,
such as palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmi-
ridium and ruthenium. The melting and
moulding of platinum closes this chapter.
The uses of platinum in the arts and indus-
try are then presented, whether for apparatus
employed in sulphuric acid concentration, for
colalytic mixtures, in photography, in the
manufacture of electrodes, in dentistry, in in-
candescent lamps, in laboratory apparatus, or
for various other minor uses. Its employment
in jewelry is also duly noted.
A concluding chapter gives a recapitulation
of the main results and statistics of the world’s
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von. LI. No. 1321
production of the metal.
a bibliographical list.
The whole will form a quarto volume of 600
pages, with 99 text illustrations, 90 stereotype
plates, 11 plates in black and colors, an atlas
with 5 geological colored maps of the Ural de-
posits, and 8 plates giving illustrations of the
principal installations of buddles, dredges, ete.
The work is issued by the “ Société Anonyme
des Editions ‘Sonor,’” 46 Rue du Stand,
Geneva, Switzerland. The first hundred num-
bered copies are not in trade; for the 500 num-
bered copies, running from No. 101 to No. 600,
the price to subscribers is 100 frances; if pur-
chased through booksellers, 125 franes will be
charged.
An interesting recent publication of Pro-
fessor Dupare (in collaboration with A. Gros-
sett) is a study of the lately discovered plati-
niferous deposits of the Sierra de Ronda,
Spain, in which he draws attention to the
similarity of the conditions there to those ob-
servable in certain parts of the Ural region.2
The new edition of Professor James Lewis
Howe’s “ Bibliography of the Metals of the
Platinum Group,” which has just appeared,
may confidently be pronounced to be a realiza-
tion of just what a bibliography ought to be.®
Professor Howe acknowledges his indebtedness
to a supplement of his earlier bibliography,
issued in 1897, bringing this down to 1910,
which was prepared by Dr. Hendrick Coenraad
Holtz, then of Amsterdam; the few references
in this supplement to American and English
works were completed by Professor Howe, and
the amplified record was brought down to the
end of 1916. F
| 2L. Dupare and A. Grossett, ‘‘ Btude comparée
des gites platiniféres de la Sierra de Ronda (Es-
pagne) et de 1’Oural,’’ Mém. Soc. phys. et hist.
nat. Genéve, Vol. 38, fase. 5, p. 253, 1916.
3 ‘‘Bibliography of the Metals of the Platinum
Group, Platinum, Palladum, Iridium, Rhoduim, Os-
mium, Ruthenium, 1748-1917,’’ by Jas. Lewis
Howe and H. C. Holtz, Washington, D. C., 1919,
558 pp., 8vo; U. S. Geol. Surv. Bulletin 694. The
first previous edition of 1897 (under the same
title) bears only the name of Jas. Lewis Howe;
published by the Smithsonian Institution, Wash-
ington, D. C., 1897, 318 pp. 8vo.
This is followed by
Appin 23, 1920]
Professor Howe notes the value of an earlier
bibliography he was able to consult, that of
Professor C. Claus, contained in his pamphlet
entitled “Fragment einer Monographie des
Platins und der Platinmetalle.” This was pub-
lished in 1883 by the St. Petersburg Académie
des Sciences, from manuscript sheets found
among Claus’s papers after his death, which
had occurred more than twenty years before.
The bibliography extends to the year 1861, but,
owing probably to the illegibility of the manu-
script, many errors have crept in; nevertheless
the unique knowledge of this author in the do-
main of the platinum metals made it of great
yalue. As only 300 copies were printed, this
pamphlet is now very rare.
_ In Professor Howe’s earlier edition (of
1897) there were given 61 titles before 1800;
137 between 1800 and 1849, and 1,642 between
1850 and 1896, making in all 2,440 titles. The
following recapitulation shows the notable in-
crease in the second edition:
Titles before 1800 .......... 65.
1800-1849 .......... 749
1850-1899 Ne aerial 1,823
1900-1916 .......... 1,924
it Wit Ley ee 4,561
As will be noted, the literature for the
seventeen years 1900-1916, gave a larger num-
ber of titles than were offered by the preced-
ing half-century. This well indicates the grow-
ing importance of this rare and valuable metal.
The titles are disposed chronologically, those
of each year being separately numbered. In
the indexes both the year and the number are
given for each title, not the page of the bib-
liography. The author index, alphabetically
arranged, covers 29 pages and embraces nearly
2,500 names. This is followed by an excep-
tionally full subject-index of 74 pages; under
such subject the literature is given in chrono-
logical order, with year, number and author’s
name. It will be seen that no pains have been
spared to facilitate the task of any one who is
seeking for sources of information as to plati-
num or any of the platinum metals.
It is to be hoped that this bibliography will
be continued, as Professor Howe is still in the
SCIENCE
401
prime of life, having been born August 4, 1859,
at Newburyport, Mass. He graduated at Am-
herst in 1880, and received the degree of Ph.D.
from Gottingen, Berlin, and Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, successively. Since
1894, he has occupied the chair of chemistry
in Washington and Lee University. He has
done especially valuable work in the study of
ruthenium and other platinum metals. He has
published a very attractively written biograph-
ical notice of the French chemist, Chabaneau
(1754-1842), the first maker of a platinum
ingot. This weighed some 23 kilograms (about
50 pounds). The writer gives many details of
Chabaneau’s skill in using the newly-found
metal for ornaments, after he had discovered
the secret of making it malleable, by taking
platinum sponge at a white heat, at the
moment of formation, and hammering it re-
peatedly while in this state.
_ The titles dating from before 1800, begin-
ning with the first printed mention of the
metal in Don Antonio de Ulloa’s “ Relacién
histérica del viage 4 la América meridonal,”
Madrid, 1748, show that Sweden shares with
France and England in the earliest investiga-
tions as to its composition and the best meth-
ods of refining it. With the names of Watson,
Brownrigg, Lewis, Morin, Macquer and Buffon,
must be associated those of Scheffer, Cronstedt
and Bergman, nor should we forget the Ger-
mans, Marggraf and Count von Sickingen.
The earliest records of the various platinum
metals naturally attract one’s attention. The
first notice of palladium is in a communication
of R. Chenevix to the “ Philosophical Transac-
tions,” London, Vol. 93 (180-3), p. 290. Ten-
nant’s paper on iridium appeared in the Tran-
sactions for 1804, Vol. 94, p. 411, but his dis-
covery dates from a year or two previous to
this time; in 1804, A. F. Fourcroy and L. N.
Vauquelin describe it in the Annales de
Chimie, Paris, Vol. 49, pp. 188, 219. To W.
H. Wollaston in 1804 is due the credit of the
discovery and determination of rhodium
(Phul. Trans., London, Vol. 94 (1804), p. 419),
and in the same year Tennant gives the first
description of osmium, in connection with that
of iridium. The discovery of the sixth mem-
402
ber of the group, ruthenium, came much later,
and was made by C. Claus in 1844; it was first
announced in Russian, in his essay for the
Demidov Prize, published at Kazan in 1844.
Professor Howe states that the compilation
of his first platinum bibliography was probably
due to a suggestion made by Dr. H. Carring-
ton Bolton, and his special interest in the plat-
inum group of metals was aroused by a chance
remark of Dr, F. W. Clarke, who expressed
surprise the chemists were not more inter-
ested in them. The series of valuable studies
in ruthenium, the least known metal of the
group, and the indispensable bibliography, are
fruits of thirty-five years of devoted applica-
tion to the study of this series of metals.
~ The bibliography takes due notice of those
indispensable aids to the investigator and stu-
dent of the platinum metals, the annual re-
ports of ‘‘ Mineral Resources” by the United
States Geological Survey, and those comprised
in the year book entitled “ Mineral Industry.”
In the former this subject has been successively
treated since 1904, by David T. Day, F. W.
Horton, Joseph Struthers, Waldemar Lind-
gren, and for several years past by Dr. J. W.
Hill, who has contributed a particularly able
study of the platinum deposits of the world to
the Hngineering and Mining Journal for 1917,
Vol. 103, p. 1145. In Mineral Industry, from
1892, the reports have been furnished, in sue-
cession, by Charles Bullman, Henry Louis,
Joseph Struthers, L. Tovey, Frederick W. Hor-
ton, F. Lynwood Garrison, and in the years
1916-1919 by the writer of the present notice,
who also contributed the platinum data for the
Eleventh Census (of 1890) with photographs
he took while studying the deposits and has
published in the Bulletin of the Pan-Amer-
ican Union for November, 1917, a paper
entitled “Platinum: with especial reference
to Latin America” (23 pp. with many
illustrations), as well as another paper, in a
later issue of the Bulletin, on the palladium
deposits of Brazil.
A work of this kind makes a special appeal
at the present time, when the manifold uses to
4From a personal communication of Professor
Howe’s dated February 17, 1920.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vor. LI. No. 1321
which platinum and the platinum metals can
be put, are better known than ever before. The
intense demand for the metal in the munition
factories, because of its superior resistance to
the action of acids, brought it to the notice of
many who had barely heard of it in times past.
Still the fact that before the war some 500,000
ounces of it had already found employment for
catalyzing purposes, as much more for elec-
trical apparatus, at least 1,000,000 ounces for
dental work, and another 1,000,000 ounces for
chemical vessels, retorts, crucibles, ete., shows
that its peculiar merits were recognized by
many. Of late years it had become a favorite
metal for gem-setting, more especially for dia-
mond-setting, because of the refined beauty of
its silvery hue, and its great durability.
Another, analogous use, was in the finer ar-
ticles of jewelry, wherein more truly artistic
effects could be secured by its employment
than by that of gold.
The gradual increase in value due to these
circumstances had already been quite marked
before the war. In January, 1909, an ounce
of platinum was worth $24.10, only a few dol-
lars more than an ounce of gold ($20.67) but
by July, 1914, just before the outbreak of the
World War its price had risen to $438.50; in-
deed it had commanded as much as $46.25 for
a brief time in 1911. However, as a result of
the special war demand, and of the interrup-
tion of the supply from Russia, which had
produced annually 90 per cent. of the world’s
platinum, prices began to soar, until by the
early part of 1918 the government set an off-
cial limit of $105 an ounce, and took at that
figure the entire imports of the metal as well
as part of the stocks on hand.
The end of the war, and the removal of this
price-restriction, coupled with the sale of the
stock accumulated by the government, brought
about, for a very brief time, a trifling reaction
to be soon followed by a resumption of the up-
ward movement, so that at present, in Feb-
ruary, 1920, as much as $165 has been paid
for an ounce of platinum, making it worth
eonsiderably more than eight times as much
as gold. Many coin collectors are familiar
with the Russian platinum coins issued be-
APRIL 23, 1920]
tween 1825 and 1845, during which period
1,373,091 three-ruble pieces were minted, be-
sides a few six-ruble and 12-ruble pieces. The
three-ruble piece was worth $2.33 and it
weighed 10.3 grams, for platinum was then
worth but $7 an ounce; with platinum at $165
an ounce, the intrinsic value of such a coin
to-day would be more than $54 of our money.
' In view of the fact that the platinum out-
put continues to be much smaller than some
years ago, while the increasing demand for
jewelry purposes offsets the falling off in the
demand for munitions processes, it appears
likely that the price will continue to go up, at
least until the full resumption of platinum
mining in Russia serves as a check. The
search for the discovery of new sources is
being diligently prosecuted, and Colombia
seems the most hopeful of all the regions ex-
cept Russia.
The newspaper notoriety given to platinum,
because of the great legitimate demand for it
and the consequent astonishing rise in value,
before long excited the cupidity of dishonest
persons. As a consequence of this there have
been numerous thefts of the material. In sey-
eral cases, valuable specimens of platinum
have been purloined from museum collections,
and chemical utensils made of platinum have
been stolen from a number of chemical labora-
tories. Indeed, in one instance an entire uni-
versity laboratory was burned down to hide
the theft of platinum.
As to future prospects, an extensive devel-
opment of the platinum resources in the
Republic of Colombia is in active progress.
Possibly Canada may contribute somewhat
by improved methods of refining the copper-
nickel ores, and similar ores mined else-
where may also furnish considerable plat-
inum. However, the most encouraging sign
is the reported determination of Soviet Russia
to issue platinum certificates, that is to say,
certificates secured by the platinum stock that
has been accumulated in Russia and has not
fallen into the hands of the Allies, or will be
mined now and in the future.
Grorce F. Kunz
SCIENCE
403
SEXUALITY IN MUCORS. II
“ NEUTRAL ” RACES
As regards the intensity of sexual reaction,
however, a gradation is clearly shown. A
more detailed view of the complete table
showing the combinations only where reac-
tions might be expected, can be seen more
clearly (Table I.). The higher grades of A
and B predominate at the upper left-hand
corner while at the opposite corner are only
O’s with C’s and D’s between. There is there-
fore in this species, varying degrees of sexual
activity from the strongest down through the
weakest to so-called “neutrals” which fail to
show any sexual reaction under the conditions
of the experiment. The word “neutral” is
obviously only a relative term since, if the two
races Nos. 811 and 367 had not been used as
testers, No. 370 would have been classed as a
neutral. It is possible that the 3 so-called
neutrals would have taken part in zygospore
formation if strong enough testers of the
proper sex had been available or if more
favorable environmental factors had been
present. The fewer the number of tests made
and the more unfavorable the environmental
conditions, the larger will be the number of
races listed as neutral from any collection of
races of a given species.
A change in sexual activity tending toward
neutrality may be brought about by environ-
mental factors. Thus we have obtained a tem-
porarily neutral condition in both the plus and
minus races of Mucor Mucedo by growing them
for several non-sexual generations at unfavor-
ably high temperatures. The sexual activity
can be regained in a few generations by culti-
vating them at low temperatures. In the same
species the spores in a germ sporangium
frequently are neutral in reaction but later
become sexually active. One of my most active
forms (Mucor V) has become much reduced
in sexual activity since its opposite races were
first separated some sixteen years ago. A
similar reduction in sexual vigor resulting in
neutrality has been reported in a number of
species by other investigators. In Phycomyces
the plus and minus spores in a germ sporan-
404
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1321
TABLE I
“‘Dark’’ Absidia
Grade > | i8
: i)
2.39
2.33
2.06
2.06
Minus (—) Strains
ofofofolo[sjals|sjalajajalala|alalala|ala|2oz
Plus (++) Strai:
olofofofo|s|s|s[a|s/S|alalala|ala|ala|a|™|s47
ofofofolo|sfa]s|sjalalalojalajalajaja|a| ts] sss
ofolofofolo[sa[s|sjajajajalalala]>|alt|>|ass
ofofo|Slajajalalalala|#|s|a]s|a]t|> ||| >| 203
ofolofa[S[Slajala]s|wla|mla]w|wla]t|w|>|tw| 4s
ofofo[[a[b]S|~|s|>lajalslalala]w|™|a|t| a] ase
ofofofofala[sjalajalajalajala|ala|>|s|a|#| ses
ofofofolo]s|sjolajolojalajal@lalajalw|s/a]zis
o[olofolo]sla[s|slaja|S]olajalalaja]t|a|t| 350
Neutral
Strains
0
oo] 36s
ofofofolo[y[s[als[S]a[Sja[slalajalaljala|a] ses B
lstelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelel
ofofofofofo]s/S|s|Sjalaja]s|o[wlalsjala]t| 201
ofofofo]slo[sjals|sjalojol[ajajala]S|ala]t| ss
ofofofofofolo|s|sjo|s|S]ajalalalala|alalalase
ololofolojolo|sja]sja]Slajajala|a|s|ala|a]3sz
ofofofolofofo|sjal[s|[Sjalalalalalajo|alja|a]ass
ofofofofolofo|s|s[ololojala|slaja/s|alala]zu
ololofofolofolo|slolololojololo|ojo|s]o|o|azo
|e]_lelelelelelelelelelelelelelojo/ajo|o|s
°| [of[ofolololofofofolojojolololololo]o}o}se
gium may produce mycelia, neutral toward
each other, though reacting with the plus and
minus parent stocks. Here again the neutral-
ity or self-sterility is only temporary, since
after a few spore generations their ability to
take part in active zygospore formation inter
se is completely established.
In nature the number of neutral strains ap-
pears to be large and many species have been
studied, the races of which have never been
induced to react, either inter se or with
strong testers of other species. There is no
evidence that even in these cases, the neutral-
ity is absolute and the races completely de-
void of sexual tendencies. Their apparent
neutrality may mean merely that we have not
yet happened to expose these forms to the
peculiar environmental conditions necessary
for an expression of the sex which is actually
present.
SEXUAL DIMORPHISM
Similar tabulations of the sexual reactions
between their races have been made for
several species beside the “ dark” Absidia and
with similar results (Table II). All the races
which were able to assist in zygospore forma-
tion appear to be sexually dimorphic, consist-
ently either plus or minus. A few investiga-
tors have believed they have found evidence
in certain species that would militate against
sexual dimorphism in the diecious mucors.
In a specific instance (8), however, where it
was possible to retest the material upon which
such conclusions were based, it was found that
the dimorphism was in fact present but, for
Apa 23, 1920] SCIENCE 405
TABLE Il
SUMMARY, DECEMBER 19, 1919
No. Lo-| No. No. Combina-
tions Possible No. No. Com-
Repre | coe [NOM n=O ]| Toa” |Panace| GOO |
sented | tures 2
Absidia carulea .............. 3 12 22 231 22 *231 4 5 13
As glauca se Gd eos 5 5 10 45 10 *45 4 0 6
A. sp. (whorled) ............. 11 15 34 561 34 *561 14 2 18
A} sps: (dark)jcjsemeeierc octet 13 26 40 780 40 *780 19 3 18
Phycomyces.....+ esses sss ss 15 105 15 *105 11 3 1
Cunninghamella bertholettiae....| 18 36 92 4,186 14 1,183 13 8 71
Gikelegans ers c chery cieinaieicte ais cess 1 16 42 861 12 426 25 1 16
Cech nulatar erie cons 14 25 72 2,556 2 141 9 55 8
Syncephalastrum...........+0. 18 35 80 3,160 18 1,269 BV 4 39
Circinella spinosa............. 13 28 54 1,431 4 206 36 5 13
Beh Azopus nose oiih ae iererev ete s ore 236 27,730 20 1,574 89 85 62
Choanephora cucurbitarum ..... 2 19 33 28 10 275 5 0 28
Total sieeve eure QUES 730 42,174 201 6,796 266 171 293
Mated strains not listed above. . 34 4 102 16 0 18
Unmated strains.............. 248 4 511 51 108 89
Total additions............ 282 8 613 67 108 107
PRO belie istey eyo ts yctyalellatsseccraapers 1,012 209 7,409 333 | 279 | 400
Zyzgospore Germinations
Mucor Mucedo ............. 512 514 1,280 46 432 34
Phycomyces ........20.+00+: 392 394 980 258 16 118
Zyg. Germ. totals........... 904 908 2,260 304 | 448 152
Grand totals.............. 1,916 1,117 9,669 637 | 727 | 552
* All possible combinations made.
various reasons, has been misinterpreted by
the investigator.
Burger, in a recent paper (11) concludes
that sexual dimorphism does not exist in the
mucor genus Cunninghamella. He reports
finding certain races, among 25 or 26 of 0.
bertholettie studied, which will form zygo-
spores with both plus and minus races. In
other words a race A will conjugate with
race B, B conjugates with C and CO conjugates
with A, and the family triangle is complete.
In personal conversation, Dr. Burger has told
me that he has found a similar condition in
Syncephalastrum. It is not appropriate at
the present time to enter into a discussion of
Burger’s paper. It will be sufficient to say
that we have used some of the same strains
that he worked with and, except for infections
in an early series of contrasts before we dis-
covered the great danger in Cunninghamella
of contamination of a culture with spores of
the opposite sex, we have never had results at
all comparable with his. The negative results
obtained by us do not, of course, prove that
sex intergrades or hermaphrodites never occur
in diecious species. He would be a rash phi-
losopher who would deny to any protoplasm
the possibility of reacting in an unexpected
manner. They do indicate, we believe, that
the occurrence of such sexual conditions must
be, at best, a rare phenomenon. In view of
the work tabulated in the accompanying table,
it seems wisest therefore, to leave out of dis-
cussion, for the present, unconfirmed con-
flicting conclusions which are based on rela-
tively meager material.
In the first 5 species of the table (those
marked with a star) all the possible combina-
406
tions have been made. For the others it
would obviously have been too enormous a
task to have been profitable. The races from
zygospore germinations have been added as
being likely to show through segregation
sexual abnormalities if such existed. Nearly
10,000 combinations have been made using
nearly 2,000 different races of diverse types
of mucors and no race of a diecious species
has been found which, if it showed any sex-
uality at all, reacted other than as a plus or
a minus.
We have just been discussing intra-specific
sexual reactions. The next table shows inter-
specific reactions previously discussed under
the term “imperfect hybridization.” In test-
ing the reactions between the plus and minus
races of two different species, all the four
possible interspecific combinations have been
made but, since the combinations between
races with like signs have never given re-
actions, they have been omitted from the
table. Only a part of the possible combina-
tions have yet been tested, but sufficient to
indicate that the same sexual dimorphism ex-
ists in all the species investigated.
We feel justified in concluding from our
experience, that the forms in the tables are
sexually dimorphic. From our experience with
the diecious sporophytes of willows and pop-
lars, such a strict dimorphism was hardly to
have been expected. It would be a safe wager
that one could not examine even a hundred
individuals of either of these genera without
finding sex intergrades. The apparent sharper
differentiation of sex in the diecious mucors
in comparison with higher plants is perhaps
connected with the fact that in mucors we
are dealing with sexually differentiated game
tophytes instead of with sporophytes.
GAMETE DIFFERENTIATION
I should like to close our discussion by a
consideration of gamete differentiation in
mucors and other forms. As a general rule,
all of the diecious mucors represented at the
top of the chart (Fig. 4) have gametes equal
in size. Of the hermaphrodites there are two
types—those with equal gametes (isogamic),
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1321
BIOECIOUS SPECIES {3
G3 — SEXES'ON () >)
SEPARATE PLANTS rT
=
ga
S wit—tenoency | Swi TEmeNcy
Be
HERMAPHRODITIC SPECIES WZ
GAMETES EQUAL
(SOGAMIC)
LECEND- BROMEN LINES REPRESENT SEXUAL REACTIONS
SOLID LINES REPRESENT SUGGESTED COURSE
OF GAMETE DIFFERENTIATION
Fie. 4. Diagram illustrating sexual reactions
and gamete differentiation.
figure below, and those with a constant and
marked difference in size (heterogamic), fig-
ures at right and left. We can conceive of
the hermaphrodites as having been derived
from the diecious types or the diecious types
from the hermaphrodites. If the latter be
the actual course of evolution, we may con-
ceive a differentiation of sex to have taken
place in two directions beginning with the
isogamic hermaphrodites—first toward a differ-
entiation, chiefly physiological, separating the
sexes on separate plus and minus individuals
in diecious forms; second toward a differ-
entiation, conspicuously morphological, bring-
ing about a constant difference in the size of
the gametes in the heterogamic hermaphro-
dites. The prevalent biological distinction
between males and females is based ultimately
upon the relative size of the gametes which
they produce. The smaller gamete is con-
sidered the male; the larger recognized in the
left figure by the outgrowths behind it, is con-
sidered the female. The diagram (6) shows
the reactions obtained in attempting, by use
of this criterion of sex, to homologize the plus
and minus signs with the terms male and
female or vice versa. The hermaphrodite,
which is heterogamic, is grown between the
plus and minus races of Mucor V. On the
right its smaller gamete reacts with the plus
Apri 23, 1920]
race and on the left its larger gamete reacts,
though but weakly, with the minus race. The
smaller gamete is therefore minus and the
larger plus. On the assumption that the
smaller gamete is male and the larger female,
the minus race must be considered male and
the plus race female. :
In our previous diagram (Figure 4) we rec-
ognize on the left the heterogamic species
(Absidia spinosa) just discussed, by the out-
growths back of the larger gamete. That
heterogamy has actually been derived from
isogamy in this species is rendered probable
by Lendner’s report (12) of finding a race of
the same species with equal gametes. The
broken lines, connecting the unequal gametes
on the left with the plus and minus diecious
species above, represent the reactions which
have taken place and indicate that the larger
gamete is plus and the smaller gamete, minus.
The isogamic hermaphroditic species below
also reacts with the diecious form above and
hence its gametes also may be labelled plus
and minus. The plus gamete of the lower iso-
gamic species may be considered, in the
process of evolution, to have given rise to the
larger gamete of the left-hand figure as indi-
eated by the solid line. This is an orthodox
interpretation and consistent with the facts
so far discovered for this species. There are
some facts, however, which indicate that such
is not the necessary course of evolutionary
development in all forms.
It has been shown that although the plus
race is perhaps usually more vigorous than
the minus, this condition is sometimes re-
versed. Some hermaphrodites have predomi-
natingly plus and some predominatingly
minus tendencies. Is there any intrinsic
reason why, of two equal gametes, the plus
should invariably become the larger in the
process of size differentiation? I do not be
lieve that there is. If not, we should expect
to find forms like the one figured on the right
where the plus gamete is represented as
having given rise to the smaller of the hetero-
gamic pair.- In Zygorhynchus heterogamus,
we have perhaps such an example. The evi-
dence is not entirely conclusive since we have
SCIENCE
407
obtained reactions as yet only with one of the
paired test races and the larger suspensor
fails to show outgrowths which might help in
distinguishing the unequal gametes when re
acting with other forms. However, the ap-
pearance of the reactions between the right-
hand figure and the minus race resembles that
between the left-hand figure and the plus race.
The figure on the left has a minus tendency,
the same as its smaller gamete while the
figure on the right has a plus tendency also
the same apparently as its smaller gamete.
No one realizes more strongly than the
speaker that the specific case under discussion
is in need of more thorough investigation.
Whether or not my suggested interpretation
of the right-hand figure proves to be the cor-
rect one, it will serve to call attention to thé
fact that those who define male and female
in terms of size differentiation in the sex cells
are making the gratuitous assumption that
quantitative differences in the gametes are
the fundamental peculiarities of the two
sexes. JI have used from preference, there-
fore, the terms plus and minus because I have
wished to speak in terms of the physiological
differentiation into sexually dimorphic races
established in diecious species rather than in
terms of male and female which are defined
by differentiation in size of gametes and
which conceivably may be secondary sex
characters.
I trust it will be granted that there is some-
thing fundamental, common to all the plus
races that causes them to react sexually with
minus races in the same or in different species
and that this same fundamental something is
present also in hermaphroditic forms whether
possessed of equal or of unequal gametes.
Dr. Gortner and I some years ago started an
investigation based upon the assumption that
the fundamental differences between the sexes
might possibly be bound up with differences
in sex proteins. The work was unfortunately
interrupted before a definite conclusion could
be reached with the delicate blood reactions
employed. If we are able to imagine ‘some
fundamental biochemical constitution such as
a sex protein, common to all the plus proto-
408
plasms in the mucors, we may be able to spur
our imagination still further to conceive of
this same constitution as existing in one of
the two sexes in all organic forms. It might
then be theoretically possible by proper tech-
nique to obtain reactions with our isogamic
plus and minus races of the mucors and thus
have males and females in different groups of
plants and animals compared on a common
and fundamental basis. If this highly imag-
inative proceedure were possible, is there any
reason to believe that the so-called males in all
groups of plants and animals would invariably
be related to the same sex—plus or minus of
the mucors? It might transpire that the so-
called females of the moths and birds, to
take an extreme example, would be found by
their reactions with test mucors to bear the
same sign—plus or minus—as the males of
flies and mammals.
Sex has apparently developed independently
many times in different groups of plants and
animals. The term male and female are ap-
plied to the end products seen in visibly
dimorphic gametes. There is no assurance
that these terms have laid hold of the funda-
mental differences between the two sexes.
Spines, superficially similar, are developed on
the porcupine, jimsonweed and sea urchin,
yet these have no close genetic relationship to
one another. They are examples of parallel
development in unrelated structures—in other
words they are to be considered analogous
rather than homologous organs. Is it not
possible that visible differences in dimorphic
gametes are also analogous rather than homo-
logous; that the sperm in one form may be
homologous to the egg in another form? It
is suggestive in this connection that the males
of mammals have this in common with the
females of birds—that they produce two kinds
of gametes. Moreover, it is the sex glands
of the male of mammals and of the female
of birds which form hormones influencing
profoundly the expression of the secondary
sex characters, albeit in a somewhat different
manner. I do not suggest that in starting
with human terminology, as we generally
have done in describing lower organisms, we
SCIENCE
LN. S. Vou. LI. No. 15821
should call the rooster a female and the hen
a male. I wish merely to call attention to
inadequately explained sexual phenomena in
higher forms in which similarities in the
gross morphological differentiation of the so-
called male gametes of two forms are not
associated with certain physiological peculiar-
ities which are common rather to the opposite
sexes.
It seems reasonable to consider in mucors
the physiological sexual differentiation into
plus and minus races, more expressive of any
fundamental peculiarities of sex, if such
actually exist, than the size differences and
associated phenomena in higher forms. Sperm
cells, in addition to being gametes, are organs
of locomotion and the egg cells, in addition
to being gametes, are storage cells to supply
nourishment to the developing zygote. Motil-
ity in the sperm and storage in the egg we
can conceive of as secondary rather than
primary sex characters. It is not alone the
gametes of higher forms in which we find
differences associated with the diverse func-
tions of bringing the gametes together and
nourishing the zygote formed by their union,
but also the two sexual organisms themselves
may have their sexual differences related
directly or indirectly to these same somewhat
conflicting functions.
The diecious mucors seem largely free from
such secondary sexual characters which may
tend to obscure more fundamental sexual
differences. Their gametes are normally equal
in size and nourishment for the developing
zygote is supplied approximately in equal
amounts from both sexes. Moreover, in those
few forms in which the conjugative filaments
seem to exercise attraction toward each other,
such attractions seem to be mutual aud equal.
It would carry us too far to attempt to
meet the objections of cytologists or of others
to our hypothesis of gamete differentiation or
to attempt to show in what other ways the
sexual differentiation in mucors may be of
interest to students of higher forms. We will
be satisfied, however, if we have shown that
the simple bread mold may eventually be of
some service in helping to solve the funda-
ApRIL 23, 1920]
mental problems of sex, for we believe that
many of these problems are to be solved only
with the structurally simpler forms of life
like the mucors. Apert F, BLakESLEE
CaRNEGIE STATION FOR
EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Blakeslee, A. F. 704. Sexual Reproduction
in the Mucorinee. Proc. Am. Acad., 40:
205-319.
06a. Zygospore Germinations in the
Mucorinew. Annales Mycol., 4: 1-28.
706b. Zygospores and Sexual Strains
in the Bread Mold. Screncz, N. 8., 24:
118-122.
707. The Nature and Significance of
Sexual Differentiation in Plants. ScIENCE,
N. S., 25: 366-371.
709. Papers on Mucors.
47; 418-423.
713. A Possible Means of Identifying
the Sex of (+) and (—) Races in the
Mueors. Science, N. 8., 37: 880-881.
715, Sexual Reactions between Her-
maphroditie and Diecious Mucors. Biol.
Bull., 29: 87-103.
707. Heterothallism in Bread Mold.
Bot. Gaz., 43: 415-418.
9. Baur, E., Jahn, E., Blakeslee, A. F. and Guillier-
mond, A. ’07. Tabule Botanice, Mu-
coriner, Tafel VI. and VII., Gebr. Born-
traeger.
10. Burgeff, H. 714-715. Untersuchungen ueber
Variabilitaet, Sexualitaet u. Erblichkeit bei
Phycomyces. JI. Teil Flora N. F. 7: 259-
316; IL. Teil Flora N. F. 8: 353-448.
11. Burger, Owen F. 719. Sexuality in Cunning-
hamella. Bot. Gaz., 68: 134-146.
12. Lendner, A. 710. Observations sur les Zygo-
spores des Mucorinées. Bull. Soo. bot.
Genev., 2: 58.
13. Saito, Kendo und Naganishi, Hirosuke. 715.
Bemerkungen zur Kreuzung zwischen ver-
schiedenen Mucor-Arten. The Botanical
Magazine, Tokio, 29: 149-154.
Bot. Gaz.,
8.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE DIVISION OF STATES RELATIONS OF
THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
A STATEMENT concerning the work of the
division has been issued by the council, in
SCIENCE
409
which the chairman, Professor John C.
Merriam, of the University of California,
writes:
The Division of States Relations is organized
with special reference to the consideration of re-
search interests related to organization of the
states as political and economic units. In our com-
monwealth the state presents an important form of
organization for the development of certain aspects
of science. The function of science in such a unit
is to direct the conservative use of the state’s nat-
ural resources, to increase productivity, to improve
sanitation, and in other ways to promote prosperity
and the public welfare. The purposes of this di-
vision may be stated in simplest form as follows:
1. To obtain information as to the most effective
types of organization for groups of departments
concerned with research within state governments.
2. To become acquainted with the best methods
of cooperation among the institutions within the
state—educational, commercial and industrial—
which are concerned with scientific research.
3. To study the wider outside relations of re-
search in state organizations, including the con-
tracts with activities of other states and with na-
tional agencies of the country.
However, much information upon the present
situation is needed before steps can be suggested
for the closer coordination of state scientific agen-
cies, The division is, therefore, undertaking a
study of the present relationships of the various
scientific agencies in the government of a number
of the states. Several systems for the organiza-
tion of state scientific departments are in opera-
tion, some, presumably, with better effect than
others. Relations have been variously developed
between these state departments and the scientific
groups in state educational institutions. The re-
lation between research work in many state depart-
ments and the work of enforcing the regulations
based upon scientific investigation has attracted at-
tention from the point of view both of science and
of political economy. Moreover, determination of
the most satisfactory forms for central bodies
which may be used to organize scientific effort
within states, and of the auspices under which such
bodies should act will require much careful study.
‘The nature of the state organization must be
adapted to the particular situation found in the
state in which it may seem desirable to organize
such a body. It is believed that careful review of
present conditions and of means for improving
them is warranted by the possible gains in the
410
progress of science and the advance in public wel-
fare which may be expected from the most rational
development of these scientific agencies. The di-
vision bespeaks the cooperation in this study of all
those who are interested in this aspect of the ad-
vancement of science.
SUMMER MEETING OF THE AMERICAN INSTI-
TUTE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
THE summer meeting of the institute will
be held in Canada. The date has been fixed
tentatively as June 21-26. Plans as worked
out at present include a meeting of two days,
Monday and Tuesday, at Montreal, for the bus-
iness sessions, reading of papers and possibly
one or two excursions to chemical industries
in Montreal.
The program of papers to be presented is
being prepared and the secretary desires in-
formation as to papers being prepared for
presentation at this meeting. Members are
urged to present to the society as many papers
as possible in order to make the meeting profit-
able and the Transactions valuable. Papers
on any phase of chemical engineering work
would be welcome. A special endeavor is be-
ing made to secure papers on electrolytic in-
dustries and papers on this subject are espe-
cially desired.
Wednesday will be spent at Ottawa visiting
the copper and nickel refinery of the British-
American Nickel Corporation, also inspection
of the government buildings and the labora-
tories of the Bureau of Mines.
Thursday and Friday will be spent at Shaw-
inigan Falls seeing the power development
and the electrolytic industries located in this
vicinity.
Saturday will be spent at LaTuque where
we have secured permission from the Brown
Company for a visit to the very large sulphate
pulp mill where the explosion process described
by Hugh K. Moore at our Savannah meeting
is in operation. From this point a trip is be-
ing planned to the very large artificial lake
which has been made at La Loutre. This in-
cludes a 50 mile boat trip, stopping at a fishing
camp on the lake where there will be oppor-
tunity for motor boating and fishing. After
a stop of a day or two in this very picturesque
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1321
and wild part of Canada, the return trip will
be made to Quebec.
J. C. OLSEN,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
THE one hundred and third regular meet-
ing of the American Physical Society will be
held in Washington, at the Bureau of Stand-
ards, on Friday and Saturday, April 23 and
24. The first session will begin at 10 o’clock
on Friday morning. The program contains
the titles of forty-six papers.
The other meetings for the calendar year
will be as follows: The Thanksgiving meet-
ing, on November 27, will be held at Case
School of Applied Science in Cleveland, in-
stead of in Chicago. The annual meeting,
beginning on December 28, will be held in
Chicago, this being the occasion of the special
Quadrennial Meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science and
the Affiliated Societies. The October meeting
will be omitted for the year 1920.
The Pacific Coast Section will hold a meet-
ing at the University of Washington, in
Seattle, at the time of the meeting of the
Pacifie Division, A. A. A. S., June 17-19,
1920. Correspondence relating to this meet-
ing should be addressed to the Secretary of
the Pacifie Coast Section, Professor E. P.
Lewis, University of California, Berkeley,
California.
Dayton C. MILter,
Secretary
Case ScHOOL oF APPLIED SCIENCE
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Tue National Academy of Sciences will hold
its annual meeting at the U. S. National Mu-
seum, Washington, D. C., April 26, 27 and 28.
The William Ellery Hale Lecture will be given
on. April 26 by Dr. Harlow Shapley, of the
Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, and Dr.
Heber D. Curtis, of the Lick Observatory, on
“The Seale of the Universe.”
Tue American Philosophical Society is hold-
ing its general meeting in Philadelphia on
April 22, 23 and 24. On the evening of the
APRIL 23, 1920]
twenty-third, Professor R. W. Wood, of the
Johns Hopkins University, lectures on “ Invis-
ible Light in War and Peace.”
Dr. JaMEs R. ANGELL, professor of psychol-
ogy in the University of Chicago and dean of
the university faculties, this year chairman of
the National Research Council, has been
elected president of the Carnegie Corporation,
New York.
Proressor THEODORE W. RicHarDs and Pro-
fessor George D. Birkhoff, of Harvard Univer-
sity, have béen elected members of the Danish
Academy of Sciences.
THE Royal Irish Academy has elected as hon-
orary members Professor George Ellery Hale,
Professor A. E. H. Love, Sir Ernest Ruther-
ford and M. Henri Louis le Chatelier.
THE founder’s medal of the Royal Geograph-
ical Society has been awarded to Mr. H. St.
John B. Philby, for his two journeys in south-
eentral Arabia, 1917 and 1918; the Patron’s
medal to Professor Jovan Cvijic, rector of the
University of Belgrade, for studies of the geog-
raphy of the Balkan Peninsula; the Victoria
medal to Lieutenant-Colonel H. S. L. Winter-
botham, for his development of scientific meth-
ods of artillery survey and the production of
_ maps of inaccessible areas.
Orricers of the Malacological Society of
London for 1920 were elected at the annual
meeting on February 13 as follows: President:
G. K. Gude; Vice-Presidents: H. O. N. Shaw,
T. Iredale, J. R. le B. Tomlin, and A. S.
Kennard; Treasurer: R. Bullen Newton;
Editors: B. B. Woodward; Secretary: A. E.
Salisbury.
A CORRESPONDENT writes: “The many
friends of Professor Ludwig von Graff,
formerly head of the Zoological Institute of
the University at Graz, Austria, and well
known for his work upon the Plathelminths,
will be sorry to hear that he is suffering with
arteriosclerosis, and that since the beginning
of the war he has not been able to do any
mental work. Owing to the great deprecia-
tion of Austrian money, he and his family are
in straitened circumstances.”
SCIENCE
411
Wim T. Sepewicr, professor of biology
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
left the United States this week for England,
where he will serve as the institute’s first ex-
change professor to the universities of Leeds
and Cambridge.
Dr. Epwarp P. Hyper, director of the Nela
Research Laboratory, Cleveland, sailed for Eu-
rope on April 13, in connection with business
for the International Commission on Illumina-
tion, of which he is the vice-president. He ex-
pects to return to this country in July.
Dr. J. O. Hatverson, associate in the depart-
ment of nutrition of the Ohio Agricultural Ex-
periment Station, the past three years, has been
appointed to take charge of similar work in
the Agricultural Experiment Station at Ra-
leigh, N. C.
Mr. R. A. McGinty, associate professor of
horticulture in the Colorado Agricultural Col-
lege and Experiment Station, has resigned to
enter the employment of a canning company at
Canon City, Colorado.
Mr. R. H. Buwarp, instructor in chemistry
at Hobart College, has accepted a position in
the research department of the Roessler & Has-
slacher Chemical Co., Perth Amboy, N. J.
Dr. Pier ANDREA Sacoarn0o, the distinguished
mycologist and professor emeritus of the Royal
University of Padua, Italy, died on February
12, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Pro-
fessor Saccardo was a member of numerous
academies and societies both Italian and for-
eign, and is known to all pathologists and my-
cologists by his great Sylloge Fungorum.
Mr. J. S. MacArruur, the English indus-
trial chemist, known for his part in the discov-
ery of the cyanide process for the extraction
of gold and other metals, and for the work in
chemistry and mining, died on March 16.
Tue Dartmouth Scientific Association or-
ganized in February, 1870, observed its fiftieth
anniversary on the 18th inst. by the presenta-
tion of an address on “ The Founders” by the
only living member of the original seven,
Dean-Emeritus Charles F. Emerson. Pro-
fessor Emerson has been an active member
412
from its organization, as he has been connected
with the college as student and teacher for
fifty-five years, and has seen the College ex-
pand from 176 students to 1738. So far as
reports from colleges and universities in
America could be secured, this Scientific Asso-
ciation has maintained the longest continued
existence without a lapse of meetings, twice a
month, except vacations. The association is
now in a most prosperous condition with about
70 members.
NorTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY department of
chemistry has received a grant of $3,500 from
the Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Fund
of the United States Government. This fund
is for the purpose of supporting research lead-
ing to the development of new metallo-organic
compounds which may prove of therapeutic
value in the treatment of syphilis of the
central nervous system. A plan of cooper-
ation has been worked out between the Uni-
versities of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois,
and Northwestern whereby all pharmacolog-
ical work will be done by the first-named in-
stitution and the synthesis of new compounds
by Minnesota, Illinois and Northwestern in
cooperation.
A sum of money has been raised by the olive
growers and the canning industry for an in-
tensive study of botulism in California. The
investigation will be conducted in the labora-
tories of the Stanford University Medical
School and the George William Hooper Foun-
dation for Medical Research of the University
of California and has the cooperation of the
U. S. Health Service and the California State
Board of Health. The investigation will in-
clude a careful study of the distribution of the
Bacillus botulinus in nature, of the ways in
which food materials may become infected and
of the steps necessary to destroy the organism
when it has infected raw food materials. A
staff of specially trained workers has been en-
gaged and iit is expected that the work will re-
quire at least two years.
CoNCURRENTLY with the introduction of a
bill into the United States Senate by Senator
Johnson providing for the establishment and
maintenance by the United States Forest Serv-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1321
ice of a Forest Experiment Station in Cali-
fornia in cooperation with the University of
California, the Division of Forestry at the
State University has expressed the opinion
that such an experiment station “would be of
great importance to every one interested in
California forests.” It was stated that the For-
est Products Laboratory established about ten
years ago at the University of Wisconsin has
not only developed into a large and important
institution doing work known throughout the
country, but that it is now the leading institu-
tion of its kind in the world. “There is no
reason why the Forest Experiment Station pro-
posed for California to enable scientific investi-
gation of forestry problems should not also
become the leader in its field.’ An initial ap-
propriation of $25,000 is suggested in Sena-
tor Johnson’s bill, it was stated. The work
of the staff of the proposed station would be
carried on in cooperation with the faculty of
the Division of Forestry of the University of
(California.
A BRITISH Association of Research for the
cocoa, chocolate, sugar, confectionery, and
jam trades has been formed in accordance with
the government scheme for the encourage-
ment of industrial research. The association
will establish and maintain laboratories and
conduct experiments, and powers are also
taken to encourage the technical education of
persons engaged or likely to be engaged in
the allied trades. The government will con-
tribute, with certain limits, out of the funds
of the Imperial Trust for the encouragement
of scientific and industrial research a sum
equal to that subscribed by the members
themselves for five years.
AMONG recent appropriations made in Cuba
there is one providing $225,000 to remodel the
Hospital Las Animas of Havana and to erect
a monument to Dr. Carlos Finlay at the en-
trance of the hospital.
Tue Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re
search has received a letter from Surgeon-
General William C. Braisted, U. S. Navy,
testifying to his appreciation of the valuable
aid rendered by the institute in connection
AprRIL 23, 1920]
with the War Demonstration Hospital, New
York City. The assistance was not limited
to the active period of the war, but continued
after the signing of the armistice.
THE eighteenth annual meeting of the North
Carolina Academy of Science will be held on
April 30 and May 1, at the N. C. State College,
West Raleigh. Professors A. H. Patterson,
physicist, and R. W. Leiby, entomologist,
are president and secretary-treasurer, respec-
tively.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tue family of Henry Phipps have given
$500,000 to the Henry Phipps Institute of the
University of Pennsylvania for the study of
tuberculosis.
Mr. James F. Brapy and Mr. Vincent Astor
have subscribed $250,000 to the two million
dollar endowment fund of the New York Post
Graduate Medical School as soon as the first
million dollars has been raised.
Dr. AtBert W. SmitH, dean of the college
of mechanical engineering of Cornell Univer-
sity, has been appointed acting president of
the university during President Schurman’s
leave of absence. President Schurman will
resume office on June 1, retiring on June 23.
Mr. AuBert E. Waite, formerly head of the
metallurgical branch, technical staff of the
Ordnance Department, has returned to his
former position as professor of chemical engi-
neering at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Mich.
Dr. WittiamM Lreonmas Burson, professor
of crop production of the University of Illi-
nois, has been appointed head of the depart-
ment of agronomy, to fill the vacancy caused
by the death of Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
CEREBELLAR LOCALIZATION BY THE
APPLICATION OF STRYCHNINE
THERE exists, at the present time, a con-
siderable diversity of opinion with respect to
the localization of functions in the cere-
bellum. The conception of cerebellar. local-
SCIENCE
413
ization is based on the studies of Elliot
Smith, Bolk, van Rynberk, André-Thomas
and Bardny. Nevertheless, in a recent study
of war wounds involving the cerebellum,
Gordon Holmes was unable to find definite
evidence in support of the localization
doctrine.
The present writer is conducting a series
of experiments in which an effort is being
made to solve the problem by the application
of strychnine to the cerebellar cortex. The
experiments are being performed on eats
anesthetized with chloroform and ether. Tra-
cheotomy is carried out and both carotid
arteries are ligated. The left cerebellar hem-
ispere is then exposed. A 1 per cent. solution
of strychnine nitrate containing methylene
blue is applied to the surface with a small
pledget of absorbent cotton. Any excess is
carefully wiped off and spreading to the
medulla oblongata is precluded by the use of
thick vaseline. The area covered by the
strychnine solution apparently embraces the
“erus secundum” and to some extent the
“crus primum” of Bolk. The crus secundum,
according to van Rynberk, is concerned with
the ipsilateral hind limb, whilst the crus
primum is concerned with the ipsilateral
forelimb.
After applying the strychnine the animal is
laid on its back and the narcosis is allowed
to subside slightly. Within about 5 minutes
it is found that flexion applied to the
ipsilateral (left) hind leg at ankle, knee and
hip evokes a succession of regular tremors
which may persist for an indefinite period.
Mechanical stimulation or faradization of the
pads of the foot yields a like result, which is
also evokable by induction of the knee-jerk.
Frequently the leg is carried by the rhyth-
mical tremors into a condition of sustained
extension, which recalls vividly the condition
met with in “ decerebrate rigidity.”
Application of the above-mentioned modes
of stimulation to the contralateral (right)
hind leg is usually without result but at times
phenomena of similar kind are induced.
These, however, are weaker and of shorter
duration than in the ipsilateral limb. It ap-
414
pears possible that when a minimal quantity
of strychnine is employed the reactions de-
scribed will be found to be confined to the
ipsilateral hind leg. Together with the hind
limb phenomena just described there is
usually to be noted a rigidity affecting both
forelimbs, which again strongly recalls the
appearances of decerebrate rigidity.
The reactions above depicted do not appear
to be due to an action of the strychnine on
the spinal cord and bulb, since the symptoms
are confined to the hind and forelimbs.
Vigorous stimulation of other parts of the
body, 7. e., the trunk and head elicits not the
slightest indication of strychnine convulsions.
There is no opisthotonus; the lower jaw is
constantly relaxed and the mouth open.
Magnini and Beck and Bikeles had pre-
viously applied a solution of strychnine to the
cerebellar cortex for the purpose of localiza-
tion. The effects described by these authors
were, however, of an indefinite character and
involved widely-separated regions of the body.
According to Luciani the reactions were in
part due to diffusion of the drug to the
medulla oblongata and the observations of the
writers cited lend no support to the doctrine
of cerebellar localization. In my experiments,
on the contrary, precautions were taken to
prevent spread of the drug to the medulla ob-
longata and the symptoms themselves were of
a definite and restricted nature. My experi-
ments are being continued on the cat and
the method will be extended to the study of
the cerebellum of the dog, monkey and other
animals.
FREDERICK R Miturr
WESTERN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL,
LonpDon, CANADA,
March 22, 1920
A LOGIC TEST
To THE Epiror or Science: I have lately
came upon what I regard as the very best
Logic-Puzzle that I have ever met with; that
it is good is proved by the fact that the people
I have put it to have been somewhat equally
divided as to whether they answer yes or no
to the question involved. Moreover, it is an
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1321
actual case—a real advertisement of a cloth-
ing store that I had the good luck to find in
a recent newspaper. This is it:
We have all known from our youth up that to err
is human. If this is so, it must be that all of our
competitors are thoroughly human.
The implication is, of course, that “our
competitors” are people who make (in their
cutting and fitting) plenty of errors, and the
inference drawn is that this proves them to
be human. Now this is either good reasoning
or bad; which is it?
I should be extremely glad to receive an-
swers to this question, and especially if they
are accompanied with the grounds for the
answer—yes or no.
CuristiInE Lapp-FRANKLIN
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY,
March 2, 1920
THE SITUATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEN IN
RUSSIA
A RECENT letter to Science (March 26, 1920;
p. 322) having brought up the question of
“the situation of scientific men in Russia,”
with particular reference to Professor Pavlov,
it seems fitting to publish the following letter
from Professor Boris Babkin, who was for
many years assistant to Professor Pavlov. We
are all interested in the welfare of our scien-
tific colleagues in Russia as well as in other
countries, and this direct statement may
throw some light on the situation.
H. Gmron WELLS
THE OTHo A. SPRAGUE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE,
CuicaGo, ILL.,
April 5, 1920
Dee. 17, 1919.
PHYSIOLOGICAL LABORATORY,
\ UNIVERSITY OF ODESSA.
Dear Professor Wells,
I take advantage of my old acquaintance with
you in E. Fiseher’s laboratory and beg you to as-
. sist me in the following matter.
The bolshevik revolution has brought Russia into
such a state that not only has scientific work come
to a standstill, but even our lives are in danger.
Many professors have been put to death, many are
in prison. I consider it necessary to continue my
scientific activity. I therefore beg you to help me
ApriL 23, 1920]
to find a post in some physiological laboratory in
the U. S. I do not know English well enough to
give lectures just at present but in one to one and
one half years I would be able to do so. But now
I think I could ibe of use in some research institu-
tion, 8
I have a similar request to make to you on be-
half of my friend Privat Docent A. A. Kronforsky,
lecturer on pathology and bacteriology at the Uni-
versity of Kieff, whom I can recommend most
warmly. He would emigrate to America for the
purpose of continuing his scientific work.
Please be so kind to direct your reply (if it is
possible cable me) to British Consulat General in
Odessa for Professor B. P. Babkin, Physiological
Laboratory, University of Odessa.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
B. BaBKIN
QUOTATIONS
RESEARCH AND THE UNIVERSITIES
“TurraTion research” is the latest object
of attack by the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching. “ Much,” declares
the report “of that which has gone on in
American universities under the name of re-
search is in truth only an imitation.” This is
a strong statement. Most persons familiar
with the facts, it is safe to say, will’ feel that
it should be modified by striking out “much”
and substituting “some.” A favorite game
with critics of university work has long been
the quotation of subjects of doctoral theses.
Even those who should know better are unable
to resist the temptation of provoking a laugh
at the expense of the scholar who labored to
give to the world the boon of several hundred
pages on “The Middle English Ideal of Per-
sonal Beauty,” or “ A Study of the Cogmonina
of Soldiers in the Roman Legion,” or “ Plane
Nets with Equal Invariants.” The Carnegie
report does not descend to this level, but it
gives aid and comfort to such criticism by
coupling its extreme statement about “ imita-
tion research” with advice to the universities
“to take stock of themselves before appealing
to the public for funds on an enormous scale.”
That stock taking has already been done,
and by an agency as pitiless as this world
knows. The direction of our war effort was
SCIENCE
415
committed in large measure to the college-
trained man. He was, in many important
positions, a person cursed with a Ph.D., the
stigma that told of seminars and laboratories
and—well, research. He came from every-
where, from the fresh-water institution of
limited facilities as well as from the univer-
sity of unrivalled resources. That he “made
good” from the beginning is one of the com-
monplaces of the history of our war. He took
hold of a situation as unacademic as the most
skeptical of his critics could have imagined,
and proceeded as if the war were nothing
more baffling than a particularly unruly set
of sophomores.
There was not a little running around in
cireles at Washington during the months fol-
lowing April, 1917, but the specialist, product
of the American research methods, did not in-
dulge in it.
The colleges are far from perfect. Many
worthless law.schools are doing a iarge busi-
ness, as Dr. Pritchett’s report observes, and it
it to be hoped that the Foundation may be as
successful in wiping them off the map as it
has been with the same brand of medical
school. But the public has never appreciated
research work at its true value, and the rather
sensational language of the report is likely
to do more harm than good. We need more
research work and not less—more of the kind
actually prevailing in the mass of our uni-
versities—_The New York Evening Post.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
Inbreeding and Outbreeding, Their Genetic
and Sociological Significance. By Epwarp
M. East anp Donatp F. Jones. Philadel-
phia and London, J. B. Lippincott Co.,
1919. Pp. 285. 46 illustrations.
No better example than this book affords is
likely to be found of the successful carrying
out of the purpose of the series of “ Mono-
graphs on Experimental Biology,” which is
stated by the general editors in these words:
“Biology which not long ago was purely de
scriptive and speculative, has begun to adopt
the methods of the exact sciences, recognizing
416
that for permanent progress not only experi-
ments are required but that the experiments
should be of a quantitative character. It will
be the purpose of this series of monographs to
emphasize and further as much as possible
this development of Biology.” Until quite
recently discussions of inbreeding, whether by
biologists or others, have savored of anything
but the “methods of the exact sciences.” It
is safe to say that no phase of biology has
been enveloped in such a fog of superstition,
old wives tales, and other sorts of misappre-
hension as has inbreeding. The investiga-
tions of East during the past decade and more
have been a potent and pioneer influence in
dissipating this fog. It is particularly appro-
priate that he and his former student Jones
should prepare a critical general review of the
really scientific work which has been done in
this field. It is a service which puts all
biologists considerably in their debt.
After an introductory chapter,which defines
the problem of inbreeding and shows its rela-
tion ‘to practical questions of sociology and
agriculture, as well as biology, three chapters
are devoted to the statement of some ele-
mentary biological facts and principles which
are essential to any rational discussion of a
problem which involves and arises out of the
phenomena of reproduction on the one hand,
and of heredity on the other hand. These
chapters, as would be expected by any one ac-
quainted with the authors’ other writings, are
models of clear and condensed exposition.
Chapter V. deals with “ Mathematical Con-
siderations of Inbreeding” in which is re-
viewed recent work on the measurement of
the degree of inbreeding existent in complex
pedigrees, and on the gametic consequences
which must follow the continued inbreeding
of a Mendelian population. The analysis of
the latter point shows that the amount or
degree of heterozygosity decreases with con-
tinued inbreeding. The authors state the ex-
pectations in the following words:
Assuming, then, that the loss of the stimulation
accompanying heterozygosity is correlated with the
reduction in the number of heterozygous factors, we
should expect to find the decrease of heterosis
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Von. LI. No. 1321
greatest in the first generations, rapidly becoming
less until no further loss is noticeable in any num-
ber of subsequent generations of self-fertilization,
and that on the average the decrease will become
negligible from the seventh to the twelfth genera-
tion and from then on no further marked change
will take place. Segregation of characters and ap-
pearance of new types and reduction in variability
will also follow the same course. Some cases are
to be expected in which stability is reached earlier,
and some cases im which it is reached later; or,
theoretically it may never be reached.
The next chapter reviews the actual results
of long continued inbreeding. The classic
data here are afforded, on the animal side, by
Miss King’s brilliant experiments with the
white rat, and on the plant side by the no less
outstanding work of East and Jones on maize,
corroborated by the concordant but less ex-
tensive researches of Shull on the same form.
These two great experimental investigations
may fairly be regarded as a real triumph of
American biology. Operating in a field on
which a mass of inconclusive experimentation
and uncritical speculation had been carried out
these researches of East, Shull and Miss King
have essentially solved for all time the im-
portant features of the problem of inbreeding.
We now understand where formerly we specu-
lated. The main aspects of the problem are
now matters of exposition not debate. The
net result must be stated in the authors’
words:
In tracing the evolution of ideas concerning the
effects of inbreeding and outbreeding we must give
great credit to Darwin for calling attention to the
importance of the phenomena in relation to evolu-
tion and for being the first to see that heredity dif-
ferences, rather ithan the mere act of crossing, was
the real point involved; but with all due credit to
Darwin, it was not until Mendelism became known,
appreciated, and applied that the first real attack
upon the problem was made possible. When linked
with Mendelian phenomena it was clearly recog-
nized for the first time that one and the same prin-
ciple was involved in the effects of inbreeding and
the directly opposite effects of outbreeding. In-
breeding was not a process of continual degenera-
tion. Injurious effects, if present, were due to the
segregation of characters. In addition to this
segregation of characters the fact was established
APRIL 23, 1920]
that an increased growth accompanied the hetero-
zygous condition. All the essential facts were ac-
eounted for. A decade later the great extension of
knowledge in the field of heredity has made pos-
sible a still closer linking of the facts of imbreed-
ing and outbreeding with Mendelism. The hy-
pothesis of the complementary action of dominant
factors is the logical outgrowth of former views
and makes the increased growth of hybrids some-
what more understandable. The fact of a stimu-
lation accompanying heterozygosity is supplemented
by a reason why such an effect is obtained. The
former view of a physiological stimulation and the
more recent conception of the combined action of
dominant factors are not then two unrelated hy-
potheses to be held up for the choosing of the one
from the other. The outstanding feature of the
latter view is that there is no longer any question
as to whether or not inbreeding as a process in
itself is injurious. Homozygosity, when obtained
with the combination of all the most favorable
characters, is the most effective condition for the
purpose of growth and reproduction.
A chapter on the value of inbreeding and
outbreeding in plant and animal improvement
gives a very sane and well-balanced discussion
of the practical application in agriculture of
the principles set forth in the earlier portion
of the work. So far as thoroughly scientific
exposition may hope to do so the bogey of the
necessary and inevitable harmfulness of in-
breeding is laid to rest. It is pointed out
that, so far as may be judged from the past,
inbreeding has been the greatest single in-
strument in the breeder’s hands for securing
uniformity and the concentration of desirable
qualities. It has the further advantage of
bringing clearly to light undesirable qualities
which may then be easily eliminated by selec-
tion or otherwise.
The last two chapters of the book are of a
more speculative character, but surely no one
will deny to those who have made such solid
experimental deposits in the bank of knowl-
edge the right to speculate a bit. The first
of these chapters deals with effects upon the
individual and the second with effects upon
the race. Both chapters may fairly be re
garded as among the sanest and most cogent
arguments for the integral incorporation of
eugenic ideas and ideals into the conduct of
SCIENCE
417
the social and political affairs of life which
have yet been put forth. The known facts
are examined critically, though briefly, and
there is a refreshing absence of blind and
blatant propaganda. To take a single simple
example it is shown with great clearness that
the ridding of a racial germ-plasm of defective
characters is very far from being the simple
process that enthusiastic devotees of steriliza-
tion legislation would have us believe. To
prevent the multiplication of individuals
visibly bearing the defects is, in theory at
least, not particularly difficult. But to do
this alone will not even approximately solve
the problem. The residual and vastly more
difficult question concerns the somatically
normal transmitters of defective qualities.
Altogether this is a notable book, in which
American science may well take pride. It
should form a part of the required reading
of every student of biology, because nowhere
else is there brought together in such clear
and well-digested form the results of a mass
of experimental work which has successfully
lighted a dark corner of biological science.
Raymonp Praru
SPECIAL ARTICLES
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CHROMOSOME
NUMBER AND LINKAGE GROUPS IN
DROSOPHILA VIRILIS
A stupy of twenty-seven mutant characters!
in Drosophila virilis Sturtevant, reveals the
presence of at least five groups of linked genes
in this species—in contrast to the four groups
in Drosophila melanogaster (ampelophila).
This difference in number of linkage groups
agrees in a significant manner with the differ-
ence in number of chromosomes in the two
species. D. melanogaster, as is well known,
has four pairs of chromosomes—three large
and one very small—and correspondingly has
three large groups and one small group of
linked genes. D. virilis, on the other hand, has
six pairs of chromosomes—five large and one
1 Descriptions of some of these have appeared in
two earlier papers: Metz, C. W., Genetics, 1: 591-
607, November, 1916, and Metz, C. W., ibid., 3:
107-134, March, 1918.
418
very small?—and should, therefore, according
to the chromosome theory, have six linkage
groups, one of which might be expected to con-
tain relatively few genes. From present evi-
dence it seems probable that the five linkage
groups, thus far detected, represent the five
large pairs of chromosomes. Detection of the
sixth group, representing the very small pair,
would hardly be expected until a larger num-
ber of mutants had been obtained.
The data upon which these conclusions are
based will be published in detail elsewhere, but
may be summarized as follows:
Fourteen of the 27 characters are sex-linked,
forming Group I. The remaining (non-sex-
linked) characters fall into four groups—
Group II. with three characters, Group III.
with four characters, Group IV. with three
characters and Group V. with three characters.
, Maps of the five groups, based on crossover
values, as determined thus far, are respectively
about 90, 40, 60, 0 and 20 units long. These
lengths are based, respectively, on data involv-
ing 12, 2, 4, 3, and 2 “loci,” and hence will
probably be extended considerably when more
characters are studied. Although the values
are only approximations, because of the small
number of genes involved, they show that a
relatively large amount of crossing over occurs
jn some of the groups. In the fourth group
the three genes appear to be completely linked,
but since there is no other evidence to indi-
cate that they are allelomorphs they are as-
sumed, tentatively, to represent three different
loci.
Owing to the fact that in D. virilis, as in D.
melanogaster, there is no indication of crossing
over in the male, it has been possible to secure
clear-cut evidence of the distinctness of the
linkage groups, because back-crosses of hetero-
zygous males always give complete linkage, if
the genes belong to the same group, or free
segregation if they do not. Thus representa-
tives of each group (exclusive of the sex-linked
group) have ‘been tested with representatives
of every other group and found to give free
segregation, whereas with members of their
2 See Metz, C. W., Amer. Nat., Vol. L., pp. 587—
599, October, 1916.
SCIENCE
LN. S. Vou. LI. No. 1321
own groups they gave complete linkage. The
crossover values were, of course, obtained by
back-crossing females instead of males.
. It should be noted that in the case of the
fourth group no crossing over has yet been de-.
tected in either sex, but only three characters
have been studied in this group, and there can
be little doubt that the sexual difference, as re-
gards crossing over, will prove to be the same
here as in the other groups.
Cuas. W. Merz
STATION FOR HXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION,
CaRNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY AND
PSYCHOLOGY
AT the St. Louis meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, Section
H presented a two-day program. The Monday
morning program was given over to papers of
especial anthropological interest. Unfortunately
due to conflict in the announcements few were
present and the session was postponed, resulting
in only a few papers being given. On Tuesday
morning the Section united with Section L—Edu-
cation—in a joint program. The address of the re-
tiring chairman of the Section, Dr. Ales Hrdlitka,
was entitled ‘‘The relations of anthropology and
psychology. ’’”
Due to action of the Council of the Association
the old Section H—Anthropology and Psychology
—has been divided up into new sections. The new
Section H will be restricted to anthropology and
the new Section I to psychology. Officers for both
Sections were elected on Tuesday afternoon.
The officers for Section H—Anthropology—are:
Vice-president of the Association and chairman of
the Section, Dr. G. B. Gordon, University Museum,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Secretary, Dr. E. Hooton, Pea-
body Museum, Cambridge, Mass.; Members of Sec-
tional Council, Dr. F. W. Hodge, Museum of the
American Indian, 1 year; Professor R. J. Terry,
Washington University, 2 years; Dr. B. Laufer,
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 3
years; and Dr. Ales Hrdlitka, United States Na-
tional Museum, 4 years.
The officers for Section I—Psychology—are:
Vice-president of the Association and chairman,
Professor Edward K. Strong, Jr., Carnegie Insti-
tute of Technology; Secretary, Professor F. N.
Freeman, University of Chicago (for 4 years) ;
Apri 23, 1920]
Members of Sectional Council, Professor W. D.
Seott, Northwestern University, 1 year; Professor
W. S. Hunter, University of Kansas, 2 years; Dr.
J. E. W. Wallin, Psycho-Educational Clinic, St.
Louis, 3 years; Dr. Helen T. Woolley, Vocational
Bureau, Cincinnati Public Schools, 4 years.
A resolution was received from Felix Neumann,
secretary of the Anthropological Society of Wash-
ington, in reference to an open letter, entitled,
‘<Sc¢ientists as spies,’’ written by Dr. Franz Boas,
and which was published in The Nation of Decem-
ber 20, 1919.
After the article in question was read and dis-
cussed at some length, it was regularly moved and
earried that ‘‘Section H indorses the resolution of
the Anthropological Society of Washington.’’ It
was further voted that a committee composed of
Dr, R. M. Yerkes, Dr. Ale’ Hrdlitka and Dr. J. E.
W. Wallin, take such action concerning the resolu-
tion as they deem appropriate,
The following papers were presented:
Notes on the variation between the right and left
limbs of man as observed in a small series in the
dissecting laboratory: H. C. DanrorTH. (By
title.)
Utilization of dissecting room material for the
study of physical anthropology: R. T. FERRY. (By
title.)
On certain variations in the form of the human
scapula: W. W. Graves. A large collection of
scapulas, both of man and of animals, were shown
by specimens and on the screen. Variations of
many sorts were pointed out.
The occipital (supra-inionic) forsa, and its true
significance: A. HrpuidKa. (By title.)
Theories of sternal origin: F. B. Hanson.
title.)
The St. Lowis group of mounds: H. M. WHEL-
PLEY. St. Louis became known as the ‘‘Mound
City,’’ early in the nineteenth century. This was
due to a group of twenty-seven mounds on the
Mississippi River bank, near what is now the busi-
ness center of the city. As early as 1819, Major
Stephen H. Long made what was probably the first
map of the mound group. The twenty-six smailer
mounds were destroyed before 1850. The remain-
ing ‘‘Big Mound,’’ which was one hundred and
fifty feet long and about thirty feet high, was re-
moved in March and April, 1869. Professor
Spencer Smith had recently read a paper before
the Academy of Science of St. Louis in which he
gave seemingly convincing evidence that the
mound was a natural formation. This prevented
By
SCIENCE
419
the local universities and scientific organizations
from taking an interest in the demolition of the
mound. A loeal artist, A. J. Conant, a photog-
tapher, Thomas M. Easterly, and the editor of the
Missouri Democrat, seem to have been the only ones
who followed the destruction of the mound with
scientific interest. Conant was present daily. The
Missouri Democrat describes the excitement caused
when the workmen found at the base of the mound
a sepulcher over seventy-four feet long, twelve feet
wide and several feet high. It contained many
human skeletons and a large quantity of shell
beads. The editor said: ‘‘This stunned the zealous
_advocates of the natural formation theory.’’ The
paper was illustrated with a series of slides made
from daguerreotypes, taken by Mr. Hasterly, show-
ing successive stages of the work of demolition of
the mound.
Notched flint hoes of St. Lowis and vicinity: H.
M. WHELPLEY. The flint agricultural implements
of the pre-Columbian Indians are designated as
‘“spades and hoes.’’ The spades are so called be-
cause they somewhat resemble in shape the blade
of a modern iron spade. There is no evidence,
whatever, that these blades of flint were ever
hafted like our spades of to-day or employed as we
use spades. The word ‘‘spade’’ is a misnomer.
All flint agricultural implements should be termed
“‘hoes.’’ The hoes are divided into notched and
unnoteched. The notched hoes form but a small
per cent. of the total number of flint hoes. They
are distributed over a much more restricted area
than the unnotched form of hoes. Flint hoes in
general are found over a small section of the Miss-
issippi Valley. The author proposes fourteen terms
to designate the various parts of a notched hoe.
Six points were considered under ‘‘Standard of
Perfection.’’ The term ‘‘flint’’ is used in the
popular sense. Nearly all of the notched hoes are
made from Union county, Illinois, chert. A few
are of novaculite, quarried by the Indians in the
same county. Occasionally, specimens were made
from ‘‘ Alton flint,’’ from bluish flint balls, and
perhaps from St. Louis county flint. The usual
type of notched hoe is oval but some are triangular
and a few rectangular. The influence of material
on type was discussed and the evolution of the
notched from the unnotched shown by a long series
of successive stages of evolution. Attention was
given the probable methods of manufacture. The
author has for forty years studied the quarries and
work-shops. The finest implements are found in
St. Clair and Madison counties, Ill., far from the
420
quarries. Few hoes occur west of the Mississippi
River, The gradation of notched hoes into axes,
hammers and other artifacts was demonstrated.
This paper was based on the study of several hun-
dred specimens in the collection of the author.
Notes on the sitting height in man: R, B. BEAN.
(By title.)
, Clinical study as a type of experimental educa-
tion: F. N. Freeman. Psychological research in
the field of learning has in recent years eonsisted
largely of mass studies or studies of groups of in-
dividuals. For example, a common method is to
compare the effectiveness of two methods of learn-
ing by comparing the average score made by a
group which pursues one method with the average
score obtained by the other method. These aver-
ages often conceal important variations from the
tule in the case of individuals. It is necessary to
make analysis of the factors involved in such cases
if the laws of learning are to be completely under-
stood. The clinical study of a child afflicted with
congenital word-blindness illustrates such an analy-
sis. The case was diagnosed as hopeless by a
well-known oculist. Difficulty with reading was re-
ported in the case of two near relatives. The
Binet test and several specialized tests revealed no
defect other than the inability to read. Photo-
graphs of the eye movements in reading showed
serious lack of coordination. In spite of four
years of schooling the child had less than median
first-grade reading ability. Forty minutes train-
ing a day, in which phonics were abandoned and
direct practise in comprehension together with
the prevention of attention wandering and eye
wandering were emphasized, resulted at the end
of ten weeks in better than third-grade reading
ability and in much better coordinated eye move-
ments,
The concept of feeble-minded, especially the
moron: J. EH, W. WALLIN. Feeble-mindedness is
not primarily a medical or psychological concept,
but a socio-legal concept, referring to a condition
of social and industrial dependency due to intelli-
gence defectiveness dating from birth or from
early life, and should only be used in this sense.
The practise has been very widely followed of con-
sidering that the highest grade of feeble-minded
persons develops to an intelligence level of twelve
years. The writer’s conclusion, based on the in-
dividual examination of thousands of subjects, is
in complete agreement with the finding of the di-
vision of psychology in the army that the highest
grades of mental defectives, the so-called morons,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1321
do not develop beyond an intelligence level of nine
years, and that some persons who stagnate at the
ninth-year level can not be considered feeble-
minded. On the basis of the 70 I.Q. standard of
feeble-mindedness, and the average intelligence age
of the selective service men, the highest intelli-
gence level reached iby the feeble-minded would be
9.2 years. These findings necessitate the complete
tejection of the concept of the ‘‘middle’’ and
‘“high-grade morons,’’ and a considerable lower-
ing of the borderland region. The borderland re-
gion probably must be placed between the upper
limit of age seven and the upper limit of age nine
or at most ten (by ‘the Stanford scale), instead of
between ages ten and twelve. “In other words, per-
sons who reach an intelligence level of ten years
should be classified as borderland, backward or
dull. The gradual appreciation of the above facts
has recently led to the proposal that the concept of
feeble-mindedness be extended beyond its tradi-
tional connotation of intelligence deficiency, so as
to inelude individuals who are emotionally, tem-
peramentally or volitionally defective or unstable,
even though they may be normal in intelligence.
This extension is unacceptable. Such individuals
ean not be considered feeble-minded unless they
are sufficiently intellectually deficient to be so re-
garded, but must be classified otherwise. The term
defective delinquents is suggested for emotionally
or temperamentally unstable delinquents who are
in need of restraint or special care and who are of
borderline, backward or normal intelligence—and
thus not feeble-minded—and who can not be placed
in a definite, clear-cut classification, such as psy-
chotie, psychopathic, neurotic, hysterical, choreic
or epileptic.
(To be concluded)
EpwarD K. Strone,
Secretary
SCIENCE
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SCIENCE
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il SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
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It is made in large quantities by expert workmen under rigid scientific check and
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A definite requirement as to the H-ion concentration in solution was applied first
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Bacto-Peptone Stands on its own Merits and Completely Substantiates all Claims
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SCIEN
Fripay, Aprit 30, 1920
CONTENTS
Inventions and Patents: Dr. ANDREW STEW-
AUR DME a sh cetverategetet srene cca nin bie: Saunier aasyojim ieeehe else 421
The Use and Abuse of the Genus: Dr. Wit-
Mem STONES) Lect ntoucetiniecs ccsveteedensier aitle <Pats 427
Oscar A. Randolph: O, O. LESTER ........... 429
Alfred J. Moses: HW. POWs o2)..0 6 cele ue = 2 429
Scientific Events :—
Investigations in Polynesia; The Pan-Pa-
cific Scientific Congress; Appropriations for
the New York State College of Agriculture;
Selenium and Tellurium; Physical and
Chemical Constants ..............+.--+40- 430
Scientific Notes and News ................ 433
University and Educational News .......... 435
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Unification of Symbols and Diagrams: Dr.
WALTER P. WuHitTE. Carbon Monoxide: W.
M. The Attainment of High Levels in the
Atmosphere: PROFESSOR ALEXANDER Mc-
436
Scientific Books :—
McCoy and Terry’s Introduction to General,
Chemistry: PRorEssoR JAMES F. Norris.... 438
Notes on Meteorology and Climatology :-— ?
Rainfall Interception by Trees and Crops;
Atmospheric Moisture in the United States:
Dr. CHarues F. BROOKS ................. 439
Special Articles :—
Limits of the Genera Vandellia and Urino-
philus: Proressor C. H. HIGENMANN ...... 441
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section H—Anthropology and Psychology:
PROFESSOR EDWARD K. STRONG, JR. ........ 44]
General Meeting of the American Chemical
Society: OHas L. Parsons ..............
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
INVENTIONS AND PATENTS
| THE status of the inventor within the gov-
ernment service, of his invention and the ad-
ministration and utilization of the same, pre-
sents a problem that has been growing increas-
ingly acute during the last decade.
The pressing need for some one government
agency to undertake, under a unified, compre-
hensive system, the administration and indus-
trial development of patentable inventions and
patents originating in the government bureaus
was formulated by Dr. F. G. Cottrell, of the
Bureau of Mines, in a paper, entitled “Gov-
ernment Owned Patents,’ presented to the
American Mining Congress, in November,
1916. :
Dr. Cottrell was brought to the full realiza-
tion of the highly unsatisfactory situation of
the government inventor through his experi-
ence with some patents of his own. It was his
desire to make the public the sole beneficiary
of these, but for reasons which will appear be-
low, there was no practicable way of accom-
plishing this. Donation to the government
was not feasible because there was no govern-
ment official or agency authorized by law to
accept assignment of patents; so he finally con-
ceived and brought into existence a non-divi-
dend paying corporation,! and to this assigned
his patents for administration and license. A
fundamental stipulation in its certificate of
incorporation was that the profits, over and
above actual running expenses, should be used
for the advancement of research, and thus a
public double benefit was effected.
This new departure in economics has been
in successful operation for several years and
the achievement has pointed the way for and
has justified the attempt to try out an experi-
ment along similar lines in the government
service; and this has culminated in a bill
1 Research Corporation, New York.
422
which has been introduced in Congress and
which provides as follows:
S. 3223 & H. R. 9932.
A BILL authorizing the Federal Trade Commis-
sion to accept and administer for the benefit of the
public and the encouragement of industry, inven-
tions, patents, and patent rights, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That the Federal Trade Com-
mission be, and hereby is, authorized and empow-
ered to accept assignment of, or license or other
rights or powers under, to develop, to issue or re-
fuse to issue licenses under, to encourage the in-
dustrial use and application of, and otherwise to
administer, on behalf of the United States, under
such regulations and in such manner as the Presi-
dent shall prescribe, inventions, patents, and patent
Tights which said commission deems it to the ad-
vantage of the public to be so accepted, as these
may from time to time be tendered it by employees
of the various departments or other establishments
of the government, or by other individuals or agen-
cies; and to cooperate, as necessity may arise, with
scientific or other agencies of the government in the
discharge of the duties herein set out.
Sec. 2. That the Federal Trade Commission be,
and is hereby, authorized and empowered to collect
fees and royalties for licensing said inventions,
patents, and patent rights in such amounts and in
such manner as the President shall direct, and shall
deposit the same with the Treasurer of the United
States; and of the total amount of such fees and
Toyalties so deposited a certain per centum, to be
determined by the President, shall be reserved, set
aside, and appropriated as a special fund to be
disbursed as directed by the President to remune-
rate inventors for such of their inventions, patents,
and patent rights contemplated by this Act as may
prove meritorious and of public benefit.
Sec. 8. That the Commissioner of Patents is
hereby directed to grant all patents and record all
assignments and licenses contemplated by this Act
without the payment of any fee.
As is well known, the government has for
years been fostering and developing scientific
research among its workers, and this phase of
its activities has reached a very advanced state
of efficiency and productiveness, as exampli-
fied, for instance, by progressive improvements
in the machines and methods of husbandry re-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1322
sulting from the labors of the Department of
Agriculture; by the safety appliances and
highly developed technical devices used in our
mines; by the advancement in the methods and
processes of metallurgy, and by the ever-in-
creasing volume of chemical and other exact
scientific discoveries issuing from the govern-
ment laboratories.
But many valuable contributions to knowl-
edge and a whole mass of scientific facts and
principles developed in the course of the nu-
merous and varied investigations carried on
by the government have failed to reach and
benefit the general public, because of a lack of
the means of translating them into actual,
practical service. There has always been an
obstruction in the way of making them ade-
quately and fully available to industry, be-
cause there has heretofore been no administra-
tive machinery for exercising this function.
Various views have been held by government
officials concerning the legal status of patents
and patentable inventions developed by gov-
ernment employees in the course or as a re-
sult of their regular duties. In the process of
litigation in patent cases certain doctrines of
law have been laid down in court decisions
with regard to shop right, implied license, etc.,
but these have not been uniformly understood
or applied in the government service. It is
a fact, however, that the law in regard to the
ownership of patents by government em-
ployees (excepting employees of the Patent
Office) is exactly the same as it is for the em-
ployees of private individuals or corporations.
_ A wide range of policy and point of view
has existed among the departments and even
among the different bureaus of the government
as to whether the inventor in government
service should be compelled to donate his in-
vention to the government, with or without
first patenting it, or whether he should donate
it at all; whether in the first event he should
receive any compensation therefor, or not, and
whether he has the right to develop his patent
himself, or to sell it to another; and questions
of ethics in this connection have frequently
arisen. Such considerations as these have
been dealt with piecemeal, arbitrarily, and
Apr, 30, 1920]
often very incidentally and with some specific
and immediate need in mind.
Thus, in certain bureaus of the service em-
ployees are required to dedicate their in-
ventions or patents to the government out-
right, even in the absence of legal authority
for the procedure; in others they are pro-
hibited from taking out patents at all; in
others, if they take them out, they must
dedicate them to the public; in others, again,
the employee may retain title to the patent
and make what profit he can with it in the
open market, but the government reserves the
right of free license thereunder. In some
eases this free license is restricted only to
the bureau in which the invention originated,
the patentee being at liberty to profit individ-
ually from the use of his invention by other
branches of the service.
Then, again, in the same division, or
bureau, the requirements on the individual
will vary according to the nature of the serv-
ice for which he was specifically employed
and the character of the invention, 7. e.,
whether the invention was evolved in the
course or as a result of his regular duties, or
not. These illustrations represent merely a
few of the many questions arising with regard
to the existing relation between the govern-
ment and its employees in the matter of in-
ventions and patents.
If the employee dedicates his invention to
the government it can not fully benefit the
public, because, as has been stated, there is
no existing instrumentality for translating
inventions protected under government-owned
patents into practical, industrial service, and
they become practically a waste product.
If a patent be dedicated to the public un-
conditionally, the public is generally the
loser, as has been indicated above, because
protection to the capital required to exploit
the patent is lacking, and because a patent so
dedicated, though possibly pioneer and funda-
mental may be in such a form that a sub-
sequent patent taken out by another, less
generous inventor on an improvement prac-
tically essential to its effective application
may operate to exclude its free public use.
SCIENCE
423
Also, in this contingency, its successful use
by the government, itself, is prevented, unless
the government assents to whatever condi-
tions the owner of the improvement may
impose. If for any reason this should be
deemed inadvisable, the government can, of
course, use the improved invention without
express license, just as it can use any other
patented invention, as provided by Special
Act of Congress, June 25, 1910, Stat. 851.
But the situation thereby created is unsatis-
factory, because such action entails litigation
before the Court of Claims to determine a
reasonable compensation to the patentee, in
addition to which the approval of Congress
by special enactment must be had before the
compensation can be awarded. This is a
formidable, costly and tedious business, both
for the government and the plaintiff, and
besides, works particular hardship and loss to
the latter. Indeed, unless the compensation
involved should be large it would probably be
consumed in the process of securing it.
The tendency of the generally unsatis-
factory situation here outlined has been to
discourage inventiveness among government
workers, and the considerations enumerated
eall loudly for some settled, definite and
equitable disposition of this involved matter,
particularly in view of the enormously in-
creased activities and needs of the govern-
ment and the business world brought about by
the demands of the present war, and the un-
precedented need for inventions which has
ensued. It must be realized that the develop-
ment and administration of inventions and
patents involve business problems which
should be handled in an intelligent business-
like way. The present haphazard, futile
manner of treating them makes for lost
motion and waste of effort.
The Bill here under consideration grants
the authority to try out essentially an experi-
ment in constructive economies which, if
successful, can not fail to lead to results of
fundamental importance, and which, if un-
reasonable compensation to the patentee, in
suceessful, will, by reason of the measure’s
purely permissive character, be self-elimina-
424
ting. It will be an inexpensive experiment,
since its operation is aimed to be self-sup-
porting.
The whole system of administration com-
prehended under its provisions will have to be
constructed with the most sedulous care by
men specializing in the work, keeping prom-
inently in mind the cardinal fact that this is
a matter of research and development. The
value of the experiment, indeed the span of
its operation, depends upon the wisdom and
cireumspection with which it is handled.
Being something absolutely novel in patent
legislation, there are no standards and no
information for guidance, and these must be
acquired as this administration proceeds, by
experiment, just as in any other form of
research work.
This Bill provides for centralizing the ad-
ministration here planned. If this were left
to each bureau of the government to work
out as it saw fit, the authority thus scattered
would result in endless confusion, duplication
of effort, increase of expense and, through
lack of proper equipment, failure to provide
the means for constructive economic work on
any adequate or feasible scale. This is prac-
tically the present situation and is what this
Bill is aimed to correct. It is infinitely
better to focus administration in one agency,
providing service common to all, in and out-
side the government employ, such agency
having the ability through enlarged oppor-
tunity, to specialize in this work and thereby
to develop into a power for really great
accomplishment.
Assisted and supported by the cooperation
of all in interest and, through the larger per-
spective acquired by the study and correlation
of the problems of all, this system insures the
working out of administrative details in the
most comprehensive way, making possible
that sort of team work in the realm of in-
vention that proved so necessary to success in
this field during the world struggle just
ended.
In this connection, Professor Millikan has
already pointed out in ScrieEncg,2 that one of
2 ScieNncE, September 25, 1919, p. 285, et seq.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
the important facts demonstrated by the war
was that inventive genius working without
direction and correlation proved compara-
tively futile. Not one invention in the mili-
tary field out of ten thousand offered the gov-
ernment by isolated inventors proved of any
value whatever. It was only when the best
scientific brains of the country were mobi-
lized, through the Council of National De-
fense, into definite groups, each group spe
cializing in some particular field, all being
in cooperation and in close touch with similar
groups of the Entente, that the weight of
American inventive genius as a most impor-
tant factor in winning the war began to be
felt. From that moment, the submarine, the
real problem of the war, was doomed. This
grouping and coordinating of the country’s
scientists developed a vast amount of in-
ventive material, the major part of which has
a direct peace bearing of immense value, but
which is in serious danger of being lost
through the want of such an agency as herein
contemplated to conserve, develop and admin-
ister it and to translate it into industrial
application and use.
There are several special phases of the
patent situation affecting the government and
its workers as well as the public, which the
economic administration here provided will
fundamentally improve. For instance, there
is at present no disinterested organization ex-
tensively studying the economic aspect of
patents after they have left the patent office.
The information available in this field has
been derived solely from members of the
patent bar, from manufacturers and from in-
ventors. But each of these classes represents
a special interest with a particular and par-
tisan viewpoint and need. This bill, however,
creates an agency which is peculiarly well
equipped to study the subject in the broad
light of patent administration on behalf of
the public.
Again, it sometimes occurs in the govern-
ment service that an invention is developed
that the government would like to make use
of, or to introduce for the benefit of the
public, but which has an application not
APRIL 30, 1920]
broad enough to interest manufacturers. An
instance of this is the Gibbs breathing ap-
paratus which has proven so efficacious in
mine rescue work. Heretofore, there has
been no satisfactory way of accomplishing the
production of such a device, there being no
agency authorized to negotiate the business.
Under this bill this agency would be provided.
There is another, allied type of invention
which is of great importance to scientists,
and so indirectly to the public, and which
will secure development under this admin-
istration. This concerns improvements in
scientific instruments and apparatus. The
sphere of employment of these things being
comparatively restricted, their manufacture
does not ordinarily attract capital, and cer-
tainly yields no great profit to the inventors.
A situation in the patent field unsatisfac-
tory to the government is encountered in cer-
tain cases where investigations are conducted
jointly by experts of the government and
those of outside agencies, such as universities,
technical schools, state institutions, and in-
dustrial concerns. More and more of such
cooperative work is being done, to the great
benefit of both the government and industry.
During the course of it, inventions are some-
times evolved through the mutual efforts of
the cooperators, and patents are granted
therefor.
Now, it is highly important, if not abso-
lutely imperative, that such a patent, or
group of patents, be administered and devel-
oped as a unit, but the problem is at once
presented as to how this shall be accom-
plished, to the end that the maximum benefit
to industry shall be secured, the patent shall
be guarded against falling into adverse hands,
the control of the government over the pro-
duction of its experts shall be maintained,
and, at the same time, the equitable interests
of the inventors shall be conserved. It is con-
ceived that the solution will be found in the
administration here provided.
Perhaps no discoveries in history exceed in
importance those made in the last century
concerning the nature of diseases, their pre-
vention and eure, yet the people who have
SCIENCE
425
made these discoveries have frequently gone
unrewarded. The salaries of pathological
professors are, as a rule, barely more than
pittances, although their work is of trans-
cendent importance to the human race. In-
creased practise through possible gain of pres-
tige, by accomplishment, does not make up to
these men the reward which should be theirs,
and even the money thus acquired is no real
reward, but remuneration earned by addi-
tional labor. Indeed, pathological work often
tends to detract from the earning: power of
physicians as people are only too prone to
regard research workers in the field of medi-
eine as faddists and charlatans. The dis-
covery of vaccination, by Jenner, almost
ruined him. This situation influenced the
British government to provide him with a
pension.®
This leads to a further phase of the patent
situation that has bearing here. It is con-
trary to the ethics of the medical profession
for its members to patent new devices and
curative agents. The consequent absence of
patent protection eliminates control of these
things, though control in many instances is
vitally necessary. Great harm has been
worked by the manufacture of medicines
getting into adverse hands, and it has been
necessary in some cases to have special legis-
lation passed to relieve the situation.
Under the measure here proposed such in-
ventions, fraught with great possibilities for
good or ill, may be wisely administered for
the welfare and protection of the public. To
quote from an editorial written upon this
Bill in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, December 20, 1919 page 1887:
It has been regarded as against the principles of
medical ethics to patent instruments or medica-
ments for personal gain. However, as was pointed
out recently in The Journal, this does not mean
that patenting per se is wrong; in fact, it is at
times desirable to patent new discoveries, especially
drugs, in order to insure reliability. The problem
has been how to make available the patented prod-
uct in the interest both of the public and of med-
ical science. It would seem that the proposed bill
3 Science, November 14, 1919, p. 461.
426
suggests a means, acceptable to the medical pro-
fession, for the control of patents in the fields of
medicine and surgery; the success will depend on
the wisdom exercised by the Federal Trade Com-
mission in the method of granting licenses. Judg-
ing from the recent activities of this body in the
licensing of former enemy owned patents (such as
barbital, procain and arsphenamin), a wise policy
will probably be followed. The bill, as proposed,
gives opportunity for the medical research worker
to obtain recognition, and possible emoluments,
for distinctive contributions, without making him
subject to criticism. It contains many construc-
tive possibilities and should receive the endorse-
ment of those interested in the altruistic success of
science,
Along allied lines in veterinary medicine,
processes for producing serums for prevention
of diseases among farm animals have been
worked out from time to time in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture. It is very necessary to
control these by patents properly administered
in the public interest to prevent exploitation
of, and loss to, the public.
In the interest of, and in justice to the
inventors in the government service, let it be
pointed out that save in rare and exceptional
instances, they have derived little or no
material return from their inventions. It: is
a general custom among industrial employers
to reward their employees directly for valu-
able inventions which they evolve in the regu-
lar course of their duties, either by sums of
money, as bonuses, or by increase of salary,
or by gift of stock or some other tangible
form of interest in the business, as a recog-
nition of merit and a stimulation to further
effort. This has proved a sound business
policy. Nothing analogous thereto has ex-
isted in government employment, except that
general excellence of service has always been
a determining factor in routine promotions.
Furthermore, inventors in the government
service have had to pay out of their own
slender means all charges incident to the
granting of patents assigned by them to the
government. This has been in the past a
means of preventing applications for patent
protection to worthy inventions.
Scientifie workers, of which inventors form
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
a class, are notoriously deficient in commer-
cial instinct and experience. Even under the
most favorable cireumstances they are rarely
ever able to properly develop and commer-
cialize their inventions. How hopeless, there-
fore, is the chance of government inventors
getting any benefit for themselves and for the
public out of their inventions under the con-
dition of uncertainty of status and lack of
development and administrative control now
prevailing in the government bureaus.
In the matter of licensing, as provided by
this Bill, it it not the purpose here to give
unduly a monoply to any one. Indeed, this
whole thing will be so directly open to public
examination and check that it is not at all
likely such a thing would develop. The main
idea in this respect is to do two things. To
supply the public with a commodity or a
device at a reasonable price, and, at the same
time, to aid in building up American in-
dustry; providing protection to those best
qualified for production, but allowing enough
licensing to induce competition and thus to
stimulate healthy advancement.
An analogy here might be found in the
banking laws of Massachusetts, Wisconsin
and of some other states, which provide for
just enough banking facilities to insure
proper and adequate administration in this
field, it being recognized that an excess in the
number of banks means the carrying of too
much overhead for the business done, which
is a bad business policy liable to lead to dis-
aster. Under these provisions, before a new
bank can be established it is necesary for its
organizers to prove to the banking commis-
sioners that there is a real need for it in the
region where it wishes to operate.
Again, the patents comprehended under this
legislation may be regarded as much the
same sort of monopoly as a public franchise;
for instance, the charter for a street car line.
Only as many car lines are permitted in a
city as there is a real need for.
It is believed that the provisions of this
Bill form a basis for a plan broad enough to
work out the solution of the sort of problems
referred to above, no attempt being made to
Aprit 30, 1920]
obtrude mandatory regulations in any present
system for coping with them. Under it the
relation between the inventor in the govern-
ment service to the government itself is
clearly established, and the inventor will be
encouraged by the knowledge that he will not
be deprived of credit for the work of his
genius, and, in the event of his invention
proving of actual public service, he will re-
ceive some material return therefrom. No
question of ethics can arise to embarrass him
and he will be relieved of all care and expense
in the administration and disposal of his
patents.
The government derives its advantage
under this measure in the stimulation of
inventive productiveness among its workers,
in the control it obtains thereof, and in the
valuable experience it gains in this field of
practical economics, which will very probably
be reflected in improvements in patent law.
The public reaps its benefit by having
cleared away the obstacle heretofore existing
between the inventor’s genius and the full
and proper industrial application thereof,
thus liberating and giving impetus to in-
vention, with consequent increase of produc-
tiveness, tending toward improvement of
working conditions and general prosperity.
ANDREW STEWART
BurzEAU OF MINES
THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE GENUS
I sHoutp hesitate to burden the readers of
Science with another technical discussion on
nomenclature but the question which J wish
to bring to the consideration of systematists is
not a technical one and has nothing to do with
Codes nor with priority.
We are all painfully familiar with the
changes that are continually taking place in
generic names, both of animals and plants.
Such changes fall, roughly speaking, into two
categories :
(1) Cases where an older name for the same
group is discovered in some overlooked work
and is substituted for the one in general use.
(2) Cases where a generic group is subdi-
SCIENCE
427
vided, the old name being restricted to one of
the subdivisions and new names given to all
the others.
The first sort of change is necessary and is
governed by a definite code of rules which is
rapidly effecting international uniformity, so
far as such cases are concerned. The second
set of changes, however, is entirely dependent
upon personal opinion, with no hope of uni-
formity or finality. Generic groups are sepa-
rated from one another by all degrees of dif-
ference and there is no standard by which the
amount of difference may be consistently meas-
ured. Consequently no two systematists will
be in agreement as to how many groups may
be recognized in any given family.
Ever since the time of Linneus generic
groups have been undergoing disintegration
until in some families the ultimate condition
has been reached of a generic group for every
species. When this stage has been attained we
have lost all trace, in the scientific names of
any relationship whatever between the species.
The binomial name in other words has become
useless and we might just as well have a mo-
nonomial. The very object for which the
generic name was proposed has been lost.
To illustrate the point further, suppose that
we subdivide an old genus into three, and use
three generic names where previously we used
but one, we emphasize, it is true, that there are
differences between these three sroups, but by
the very same act we obliterate the fact, for-
merly indicated by the single generic name,
that there are resemblances which join these
three groups together as compared with other
groups in the same family. One of these facts
would seem to be of quite as much importance
as ‘the other and by the creation of the new
genera we lose quite as much as we gain. We
should carefully guard against allowing our
enthusiasm for the discovery of differences, to
blind us to the fact that the real object of
systematic research is the discovery of true
relationship.
Now the whole trouble in this matter—and
a vital flaw, to my mind, in our system of
nomenclature—is that we try to make a double
use of our system with the result that it is
428
gradually breaking down from the impossible
burden.
A generic name as we use it to-day is made
to serve two purposes. It is, (1) a term by
which we indicate to others what we are talk-
ing or writing about, and (2) a term by which
the systematist indicates what he regards as
a recognizable phylogenetic group.
It is suicidal for any system of nomenclature
that names for “things” should be constantly
changed to fit our ever changing ideas of their
relationships. Surely there should be some
way of indicating the progress of our studies
in the relationships of birds, for instance,
without rendering unintelligible to all save a
few specialists, the very names by which we
refer to those birds.
We are already striving to find a solution of
this problem, as is evidenced in the growing
tendency to abandon the technical name en-
tirely in semi-scientific publications in favor
of the English name, and restricting the con-
stantly increasing generic terms to systematic
or phylogenetic discussions. It seems to me,
however, that there is another way open. If
we could be content to use the broader generic
terms of a few years ago for nomenclatural
purposes and use another term, eall it sub-
genus or what you will, for further systematic
refinements, without incorporating it in the
name itself, we should accomplish our aim.
We make no effort fo incorporate in the
scientific name of an animal or plant its fam-
ily relationship, and we arrange animals and
plants according to geographical relationships
without insisting upon modifying the name to
indicate such relationship. Why then should
we insist upon imparing our system of nomen-
clature by constantly changing the generic
names every time we change our minds as to
how many minutely different subdivisions we
are going to recognize in the group?
It is very easy to ridicule my proposal to use
broader generic terms for nomenclatural pur-
poses by saying that we do not wish to return
to the ideas of Linnzus, and place for example
the Swallow, the Swift and the Pratincole in
the same genus, or to have only one generic
name for the sparrows and one for the warb-
SCIENCE
LN. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1322
lers. This is very true and it is perfectly ob-
vious that we must adopt some position mid-
way between the two extremes, while at the
same time we must frankly admit that such a
position can only be reached by a purely arbi-
trary decision as to how many genera we are
going to recognize. In any Check-list or mono-
graph, however, we settle this matter by arbi-
trary decision anyway, as we have no criterion
as to what constitutes a distinct genus. There-
fore why not adopt an arbitrary set of genera
de convenience so far as nomenclature is con-
cerned and use subgeneric terms when we de-
sire to call attention to more refined phylo-
genetic groups. At the present time we con-
stantly make use of “group” names in dis-
cussing the relationships of different sets of
species in a large genus without in any way
interfering with the nomenclature and the
practise could just as well be extended.
I do not propose any radical action in the
way of lumping present-day genera. In birds,
with which I am most concerned, the genera
of the A. O. U. and B. O. U. Check-lists could
be taken as a point of departure and with some
slight alterations and adjustments be adopted.
The main point would be to check the exces-
sive generic subdivision which is to-day ram-
pant in certain quarters. If some such reform
be not inaugurated technical nomenclature will
soon be—if it is not already—useless to any-
one but a narrow specialist.
For example the botanist has long known of
the differences between the so-called flowering
dogwoods and those without involucral leaves,
but what profit does he gain by changing the
generic name of the former to Conozylon com-
pared to the loss that he inflicts upon the
ornithologist, the entomologist, or the student
of general scientific interests, who knew them
under the name Cornus and who, unless they
be Greek scholars—a rapidly expiring race by
the way—have no conception of what sort of
herb, shrub or tree a Cynoxylon may be. So
too the unfortunate botanist who may have
learned to know certain sparrows as species of
Ammodramus fails utterly to recognize his old
friends under the names Thryospiza, Ammo-
spiza and Passerherbulus.
Apri, 30, 1920]
Is it small wonder that the majority of us
are turning to the use of English names except
in some group with which we happen to be
familiar.
I am perfectly aware that the systematist
who concerns himself only with questions of
the number of species and genera and the
names for the same, in a single branch of sci-
ence in which he specializes, will regard my
remarks as pure rubbish. We must all admit,
however, that specialization makes us blind to
the views of outsiders and to some of the
broader aspects of our specialty. Things that
seem to us from long association as necessary,
may be found upon unbiased consideration,
susceptible of very important modifications and
the present problem seems to be one of these.
In presenting these ideas I do not wish to
be misunderstood. I do not wish to be placed
in the same category as the carping critic of
all nomenclatural changes who, by the use of
clever sarcasm, appeals to the multitude who
know as little about the facts as he does him-
self. I am a staunch supporter of the Interna-
tional Code of Nomenclature and all of the
changes which its enforcement requires.
They are necessary for ultimate stability and
are happily permanent. I would encourage the
study of geographic variation in the species
and the establishment of subspecies since no
matter how many of the latter we may have,
their relationship to specific groups is always
clearly indicated by the accompanying specific
name.
I would encourage, to the fullest, research
into the relationship of species, with however
as much consideration for their resemblances
as for their differences, and I would endorse
the establishment of as many groups as may be
desired under subgeneric headings—or any
other term that may be preferred—but let us
not insist upon introducing our conclusions
on this matter into the technical name with
the result of seriously imparing the principal
use of that name.
Let us be conservative in the number of
generic names that we recognize, and let gen-
eral utility have a voice in the matter, of equal
weight with that of the splitter and the lumper,
SCIENCE
429
just as to-day in another field of discussion the
public is becoming recognized as a third party
on an equal footing with labor and capital.
WITMER STONE
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES,
PHILADELPHIA
OSCAR A. RANDOLPH
Dr. Oscar A. RANDOLPH, associate professor
of physies in the University of Colorado, lost
his life in a snow storm on April 11, during a
trip to the Arapohoe Peaks on the Continental
Divide. He made the trip with one com-
panion Mr. Ellett, also of the department of
physies, for the purpose of photographing
winter storm scenes. They ascended to am
altitude of about 12,500 feet and then de-
scended into what is known as the Hell Hole:.
On the trip Dr. Randolph became ill and was:
unable to overcome the handicap of a sudden
heavy fall of snow accompanied by bitter cold.
Mr. Ellett had assisted him on the return trip
till they were both exhausted. Mr. Ellett
then protected Dr. Randolph with all the
means at his command and started for help
at the cabin of two trappers who were living
some five miles away. In his weakened and
confused condition he wandered for several
hours without making much progress in the
deep snow. One of the trappers finally found
him and learned of Dr. Randolph’s condition.
Dr. Randolph died however before the trapper
could reach him. Owing to the fact that both
men were experienced mountaineers and had
often made trips to the peak their friends at
the university did not become alarmed till
noon on April 12, when a rescue party started
for the scene. Mr. Hllett, though terribly ex-
hausted and somewhat frozen, will recover.
O. C. Lzstzr
ALFRED J. MOSES, 1859-1920
By the death, on February 27, of Alfred J.
Moses, professor of mineralogy at Columbia
University, the science of mineralogy has lost
one of its most eminent and valued exponents.
Professor Moses’s work as a teacher, as a
430
writer and as a scientific investigator can
hardly be too highly esteemed and his loss to
all branches of his profession is most keenly
felt. His text-book on “ Mineralogy, Crystal-
lography and Blowpipe Analysis” will for
many years remain the standard in a large ma-
jority of the universities in which courses in
these subjects are given. His work on “ The
Characters of Crystals,” published in 1899, is
the first treatise published in America upon
physical crystallography, a branch of crystal-
lography which was early recognized by him as
of primary importance to chemists, geologists
and mineralogists and which has within very
recent years assumed a scope, and developed
practical applications which have more than
justified his early visions of its future.
The research work of Professor Moses was
marked by a conservative distaste for an-
nouncing a result until he had thoroughly
verified it. This admirable tendency was also
evidenced in the terseness and finished qual-
ity of his statements of fact, whether written
or spoken. He was seldom under the necessity
of erasing a word from his lecture notes or
modifying a statement made to any one con-
sulting him, whether student or scientist.
His personal dealings were marked by a
large sympathy coupled with a modesty which
was almost shrinking in its avoidance of the
prominence which was by reason of his attain-
ments thrust upon him. Yet his vision and en-
thusiasm for his science was such as to inspire
those who worked in close touch with him, and
who will long treasure his memory as a master
in science, as a man of large ideas and high
attainments and as a sympathetic and valued
friend.
H. P. W.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
INVESTIGATIONS IN POLYNESIA
Two problems of outstanding importance
in the study of native races are the Origin
and Migration of the American Indian, and
the Origin and Migration of the Polynesian
race. A study of the first problem has been
made possible by the gifts of Morris K. Jessup
to the American Museum of Natural History,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
as a result of which ethnologists, botanists and
zoologists are tracing the American tribes
back through British Columbia and Alaska to
Siberia and the regions beyond.
_ The Polynesian problem is in some respects
more difficult than the Indian problem be-
cause it involves the collection of scattered
data from hundreds of islands, some of them
no longer inhabited, and the separation of
racial traits and interlocked customs and lan-
guages of Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micro-
nesian peoples. It probably can be solved by
carefully organized investigation in widely
separated areas over a period of years.
It is an undertaking which if adequately
supported involves the expenditure of about
$50,000 a year for a period of four or five
years. But the problem of a vanishing race
is so urgent that even a one-year study is
likely to yield large return.
It is generally recognized that the institu-
tion best suited to carry on the Polynesian
work is the Bishop Museum. of Honolulu,
founded and endowed for studies in Poly-
nesian, ethnology and natural history. With
this in mind, funds sufficient for one year’s
work, contributed to Yale University by
Bayard Dominick, of New York City, have
been placed at the disposal of the trustees of
the museum. Investigations resulting from
the use of these funds will be credited to the
“ Bayard Dominick Expedition.” In the hope
that further funds will be contributed for this
work, the director has formulated a program
for two years’ study which in outline is as
follows:
A. 1920-21: Parties consisting of an ethnol-
ogist, an archeologist, a botanist, with nec-
essary interpreters and assistants to be sta-
tioned at what might be termed strategic
points to make studies essential in establish-
ing standards of physical form, material cul-
ture, traditions and language of the Poly-
nesians. This is essential as a basis for the
determination of the significance of changes
brought about by the overlapping with other
races. For this work the existing means of
transportation combined with the use of local
small boats is fairly satisfactory. The areas
ApRIL 30, 1920]
selected are Marquesas Islands, Austral Is-
lands, Tongan Islands, Hawaiian Islands.
B. 1921-22: A boat with a crew and staff
of scientists to make careful observations, in
selected localities along the route Honolulu,
Wake, Marshall, Eastern Carolinas, Gilbert,
Ellice Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Friendly, Cook,
and Society Islands, returning to Honolulu
via Tongareva, Malden, Christmas and Fan-
ning Islands. In connection with the pre-
vious year’s work this cruise should aid in
determining through what place or places in
the “Polynesian Sieve” the ancient migra-
tions came.
THE PAN-PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS
As the result of informal conferences and
much correspondence, a scientific congress has
been organized to meet at Honolulu, August
2 to 20, 1920.
The purpose of the congress is to outline
scientific problems of the Pacific Ocean region
and to suggest methods for their solution; to
make a critical inventory of existing knowl-
edge, and to devise plans for future studies.
It is anticipated that this congress will formu-
late for publication a program of research
which will serve as a guide for cooperative work
for individuals, institutions and governmental
agencies.
Representative scientists from the countries
whose interests in whole or in part center in
the Pacific will be present, and a number of
men whose researches demand a knowledge of
the natural history of the Pacific islands and
shore lands have expressed their intention to
attend.
The program of the conference is in the
hands of the Committee on Pacific Explora-
tion of the National Research Council, which
consists of the following members:
John C. Merriam, University of California,
chairman; Wm. Bowie, U. S. Coast and Geo-
detic Survey; R. A. Daly, Harvard University;
William M. Davis, Harvard University; Bar-
ton W. Evermann, California Academy of Sci-
ence; Herbert E. Gregory, Yale University; E.
B. Mathews, National Research Council;
George F. McEwen, Scripps Institute; Alfred
SCIENCE
431
G. Mayor, Carnegie Institution; William E.
Ritter, Scripps Institute.
The meetings will be arranged to place em-
phasis on the following topics:
1. Research desirable to inaugurate; projects
described in considerable detail with reference
to their significance, and their bearing on other
fields of study. Investigations designed to lay
the foundation for a higher utilization of the
economic resources of the Pacific may be in-
cluded.
3. Methods of cooperation with a view to
eliminating unnecessary duplication of money
and energy.
4. The best use of the funds now available
and the source of further endowments.
In addition to those maintained by the Fed-
eral and Territorial governments, the active
scientific organizations of Hawaii include the
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian
Ethnology and Natural History, the College of
Hawaii, the Sugar Planters’ Experiment Sta-
tion, The Marine Aquarium and the Volcano
Observatory.
Between Honolulu and San Francisco regu-
lar sailings are maintained by four steamship
companies, and established routes bring Hiawaii
into connection with Canada, New Zealand,
Australia, the Philippines, China and Japan.
Tn order to procure desirable accommodations,
reservations for both outward and return pas-
sage should be made at an early date.
Further information if desired may be ob-
tained from members of the Committee on
Pacific Exploration or from the undersigned.
Hersert E. GRecory,
Chairman, Pan-Pacific Scientific Congress
BERNICE PAUAHI BisHop MUSEM,
HOoNoLULU, Hawatt,
March 20, 1920
APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE NEW YORK STATE
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
Tue Governor of New York State has
signed the annual appropriation bill, provid-
ing for the maintenance and future develop-
ment of the State College of Agriculture at
Cornell University. The college thus becomes
assured of a total appropriation of $1,787,-
888.80, of which $517,000 is for the erection of
432
new buildings and $14,530 for the State Game
Farm,
Although the new law makes only a little
more than half a million dollars available at
once for new construction, it directs the state
architect to prepare plans for the further ex-
tension of the college; and it authorizes the
board of trustees, following the architect’s
plans, to enter into contracts for additional
construction to the amount of $3,000,000.
The remaining $1,256,358.80 is for the sal-
aries of the staff and expenses of operation
during the fiscal year from July 1, 1920, to
June 80, 1921. This appropriation is larger
than last year’s by $282,855, of which about
two thirds will go for increased salaries.
The law also provides for some new officers
of administration, principally a vice-dean of
resident instruction and a vice-director of
the Experiment Station. There is already a
vice-director in charge of the extension serv-
ice. The filling of the new positions will
therefore complete the administrative organiza-
tion in the three chief phases of work which
the law requires of the college.
SELENIUM AND TELLURIUM
At the recent meeting of the American
Chemical Society in St. Louis a report of prog-
ress of the sub-committee of the National Re-
search Council on The Uses of Selenium and
Tellurium was presented by Victor Lenher, of
the University of Wisconsin, at the request of
the Engineering Division of the National Re-
search Council. This sub-committee is work-
ing in close contact with all of the producers
of selenium and tellurium in the country, and
is carrying out one of the ideals of the National
Research Council, which is to promote and co-
ordinate research work in every direction.
The source of selenium and tellurium is in
the anode mud from the electrolytic refining of
copper. Copper refineries can annually pro-
duce under present conditions approximately
300,000 pounds of selenium and about 125,000
pounds of tellurium. A few hundred pounds
of these elements would amply supply the mar-
ket to-day. The large amounts of these ele-
ments available and for which there is no prac-
tical use, has caused the National Research
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1322
Council to create a committee whose duty it is
to find possible methods for their utilization.
This committee consists of Arthur E. Hall,
chairman, H. G. Greenwood, Victor Lenher, O.
C. Ralston, E. W. Rouse, S. Skowronski and
A. W. Smith, and it has been working in close
contact with the producers of selenium and
tellurium. Arrangements have been made
whereby large quantities of these elements can
be procured for experimental purposes at cost
price from the Raritan Copper Works, Perth
Amboy, N. J., the United States Metals Refin-
ing Co., Chrome, N. J., the American Smelt-
ing and Refining Co., Omaha, Nebraska, and
the Baltimore Copper Smelting and Rolling
Co., Baltimore, Md.
Mr. E. W. Rouse, of the Baltimore Copper
Smelting and Rolling Co., Baltimore, Md., will
ship at any time reasonable quantities of se-
lenium gratis to investigators upon the recom-
mendation of the Committee of the National
Research Council on the Uses of Selenium and
Tellurium. Mr. Arthur E. Hall, of the Omaha
plant of the American Smelting and Refining
Company, will forward reasonable quantities
of tellurium gratis under the same conditions.
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CONSTANTS
Tur American Chemical Society at its St.
Louis meeting passed the following resolution :
WHEREAS, every industry, for its successful
operation, depends upon an accurate knowledge of
the properties of the materials it uses and pro-
duces and the numerical values of these properties
which are known as their constant, and
WHEREAS, during the war, it became evident that
much of the published data on these constants was
found to be extremely inaccurate, entailing consid-
erable loss in time and money and it was found in
many cases that data very much desired was not to
be found in published records, and
WHEREAS, up to now publication of such con-
stants in tabular form has been mostly in some
foreign language and consequently of limited avail-
ability, and
WHEREAS, under allotment by the Inter-Allied
Council and the International Research Council, the
National Research Council of the United States
(an organization duly created by the President of
the United States) has decided that this deficiency
Apri 30, 1920]
could best be met by the compilation and publica-
tion in English of tables of constants which have
been critically reviewed as to their accuracy and
has decided that this could best be done by the
appointment of a committee to act as trustees in
charge of such compilation and as far as is neces-
sary to have charge of the determination of such
constants as have not already been published or
determined, and
Wuereas, the trustees so appointed were se-
lected as representing the American Chemical So-
ciety, the American Physical Society and the Amer-
ican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the repre-
sentatives being, respectively, Julius Steiglitz, Hd-
win P. Hyde and Hugh K. Moore, therefore be it
Resolved, that the American Chemical Society in
convention assembled heartily endorses this project
and promises to the trustees its support in every
way within its power.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Tue American Philosophical Society on
April 24 elected members as follows: Wilder
D. Bancroft, Washington; Gary N. Calkins,
New York; Edward Capps, Princeton; Heber
D. Curtis, Mt. Hamilton, Calif.; Leonard HE.
Dickson, Chicago; William Duane, Boston;
Moses Gomberg, Ann Arbor; Frank J. Good-
now, Baltimore; John F. Jameson, Washing-
ton; Douglas W. Johnson, New York; Vernon
L. Kellogg, Stanford University, Calif.; George
F. Moore, Cambridge; Paul Shorey, Chicago;
William ©. Sproul, Chester, Pa., and Pope
Yeatman, Philadelphia.
Tue Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia has conferred the Hayden Memorial
Medal for 1920 on Professor Thomas Chrowder
Chamberlin, professor emeritus of the Univer-
sity of Chicago, in recognition of his distin-
guished services to geologic science. This
medal is presented every three years for distin-
guished accomplishments in geology or paleon-
tology. It represents a memorial established
by an endowment fund by Mrs. Emma W. Hay-
den in honor of her husband, Dr. Ferdinand V.
Hayden, who was for many years director of
the Geological and Geographical Survey of the
Territories. The medal was first presented to
James Hall, formerly state geologist of New
York, in 1890, and has since been presented to
SCIENCE
433
various distinguished geologists both in Amer-
ica and in Europe. In the opinion of the
Committee on the Award, Professor Chamber-
lin’s numerous and remarkable contributions
to geologic science place him in a rank high
among the others who have received the Hay-
den Memorial Medal.
Dr. Victor C. Vaucuan, of the University of
Michigan, has been elected a member of the
Institute of Medicine of Chicago.
Proressor A. Fowuer, F.R.S., has been
elected a corresponding member of the Paris
Academy in the section of astronomy.
On the occasion of the dedication of its new
Agricultural Engineering Hall at University
Farm on April 14, the University of Nebraska
conterred the honorary degree of doctor of
agriculture upon Roscoe W. Thatcher, dean
of the department of agriculture and director
of the agricultural experiment stations of the
University of Minnesota, and the honorary
degree of doctor of engineering upon Charles
Rus Richards, dean of the college of engineer-
ing and director of the engineering experi-
ment station of the University of Illinois.
Dean Richards delivered the dedicatory
address.
THE intimate international relationships
with English and Continental laboratories held
by the members of the nutrition laboratory of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in
Boston, Mass., which were interrupted by the
war, are again to be resumed. Professor
Walter R. Miles, of the department of physio-
logical psychology of the Nutrition Laboratory,
has recently left for an extended tour in Euro-
pean countries and for attendance at the Inter-
national Congress of Physiology to be held in
Paris in July.
Dr. J. WALKER FEwKEs, chief of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, will return to the Uni-
versity of Texas in June to continue the work
of archeological research begun last year.
During Dr. Fewkes’ former visit to Texas in-
vestigations were made of the Red Burnt
Mounds extending from east of Austin west-
ward beyond the New Mexico boundary.
434
Dr. Joun L. Topp, of McGill University, and
Dr. Simeon B. Wolbach, of Harvard Medical
School, have gone to Poland to study typhus
fever. They are working under the Red Cross.
Dr. Don M. Grisworp has been appointed
state epidemiologist of Iowa to succeed the
late Dr. E. G. Birge. Dr. Griswold will also
act as head of the division of hygiene, pre-
ventive medicine and epidemiology of the de-
partment of pathology and bacteriology of the
University of Iowa.
Dr. E. G. Titus, technologist in sugar-plant
investigations, U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture, who has been in charge of seed-breeding
and other sugar-beet investigations in the
intermountain region, has accepted a posi-
tion with the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company,
Salt Lake City, as director of their new
department of agricultural research.
Proressor O. M. Lenanp, of Cornell Uni-
versity, has accepted a position with the J. G.
White Engineering Corporation and has taken
up his work at their offices in New York City.
He has been a member of the faculty of civil
engineering at Cornell for seventeen years.
During the war, Professor Leland was in
active service as Lieutenant Colonel of Engi-
neers, in the 78th Division, and, after the
Armistice, in the 89th Division.
Dr. JAMES Brown, formerly research chem-
ist for Zinsser and Co., Hastings-on-Hudson,
N. Y., has accepted a position as research
chemist with the Calco-Chemical Company, of
Bound Brook, N. J.
Proressor R. A. Sampson, F.R.S., astron-
omer royal for Scotland, has ‘been appointed
Halley lecturer in the University of Oxford.
THE courses and conferences arranged for
the physicists and mathematicians who will be
assembled at the University of Chicago during
the summer quarter, beginning on June 21 and
ending about September 1, include the subject
of the General Theory of Relativity, by Dr. A.
C. Lunn; the Theories of Quanta and Theories
of Atomic Structure, by Dr. R. A. Millikan;
New Developments in Optics, by Dr. H. G.
Gale; Thermionic Phenomena and their Appli-
cations, by Dr. A. J. Van der Bijl, of the Re-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
search Laboratory of the Western Electric
Company; the Theory of Sound, by Dr. Lunn;
and Electro-Magnetic Theory, by Dr. A. J.
Dempster. The facilities of the Ryerson Lab-
oratory for research and conference purposes
are extended to professors holding the doctor’s
degree from other institutions. A considerable
number of physicists of this type are to be in
attendance.
Sir RicHarp GLAZEBROOK, late director of the
National Physical Laboratory at Teddington,
England, was presented on March 17 by the
staff with his portrait in oils, painted by his
cousin, Mr. Hugh de T. Glazebrook. Accom-
panying the gift was an album, containing an
illuminated address, followed by the signatures
of past and present members of the staff and a
photograph of the laboratory taken from an
aeroplane. Mr. F. E. Smith, F.R.S., who pre-
sided, and Dr. T. E. Stanton, who made the
presentation, reviewed the rise and progress of
the laboratory under Sir Richard, and referred
to the harmony that had always existed be-
tween him and the staff. Sir Richard Glaze-
brook thanked the staff for their gift, and,
speaking of the future of the laboratory, said
ihe was sure Mr. Balfour and the members of
the council had its interests very seriously at
heart, and would do all they could in the future
to promote its prosperity. There was an in-
tention on the part of the Ministry to carry on
the study of aeronautics, which had been an
important feature in the work of the labora-
tory in the past, and he hoped that place would
be made one of the centers where research
work would be continued.
At the meeting of the Institute of Medicine
of Chicago on April 16, Professor R. A. Milli-
kan, professor of physics at the University of
Chicago, presented a paper on “Twentieth
century contributions to our knowledge of the
atom.”
Proressor VERNON Kebioca recently ad-
dressed the New York Alumni Society of Phi
Beta Kappa, and also the Washington Academy
of Sciences, on “Europe’s food in war and
armistice.”
Apri 30, 1920]
Dr. Winiiam Curtis FaraABEE gave an ad-
dress on “ Ethnography at the Peace Confer-
ence” before the University of Pennsylvania
chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at its twentieth
anniversary meeting on April 15. At the same
meeting Dr. Farabee was elected to honorary
membership in the society.
, Dr. Frep Heyu, of the Upjohn Company,
Kalamazoo, Michigan, recently lectured before
the chemical department of Yale University on
“The application of organic chemistry in the
pharmaceutical industry.” The next speaker
in this course of industrial lectures being given
this year in the Graduate School will be Mr.
Walter S. Landis, of the American Cyanamide
Company, who will give three lectures dealing
with the “ Fixation of nitrogen.”
Tue Lady Priestley Memorial Lecture of
the National Health Society was given by
Sir George Newman, K.C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P.,
on Thursday, April 22, at the house of the
Royal Society of Medicine. The title of the
lecture is “ Preventive medicine: the impor-
tance of an educated public opinion.”
Puans have been made for an expenditure
of about $10,000,000 for the establishment of
“a medical center” at Walter Reed General
Hospital, Washington, D. C. The hospital is
to be gradually developed into one of the main
hospitals of the Army, by the building of two
additions to the main hospital building for
various uses such as medical and surgical
wards, dental department, laboratory, eye, ear
and throat department and dispensary. Most
of these activities now are housed in tem-
porary buildings. The Mayo Brothers, of
Rochester, Minn., will assist in the approved
project for increasing its usefulness on mod-
ern lines.
THE Migratory Bird Act of 1918, designed
to carry out provisions of a treaty between the
United States and Great Britain for the pro-
tection of migratory birds, has been held con-
stitutional by the Supreme Court. The stat-
ute was attacked by Missouri authorities, who
alleged that it interfered with the sovereignty
of the state and with the property right of
the people of that state.
SCIENCE
435
EDUCATIONAL NOTES AND NEWS
Tue General Education Board has con-
tributed $350,000 to the Endowment Fund of
New York University, to endow the work in
engineering and collegiate work. It is con-
ditional on the raising of a total fund for
these purposes of $1,200,000 and the clearing
off of the floating indebtedness of the uni-
versity, now amounting to approximately
$400,000.
ANNOUNCEMENT is made of the establish-
ment in the Yale Graduate School for the
year 1920-1921 of a research fellowship in
organic chemistry by the National Aniline
and Chemical Company of New York. This
fellowship is supported by a gift of $750, and
the recipient must be a candidate for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
TuE total civil service estimates of the year
in Great Britain are put at £557,474,899. One
of the largest increases is for the Board of
Education. The following are typical in-
ereases :
Estimat d for Granted for
1920-21 1919-20
£ £
Board of Education .. 45,755,567 82,853.111
British Museum ...... 294.233 219,714
Scientific investigation,
GIRONA Ores cha 6 208,416 113,974
Scientific and Indus-
trial Research ..... 518,298 242,815
Public Education in
Scotland ~. 5.2.12. . 6,877,220 4,677,220
A RoyaL Commission has been appointed to
inquire into the financial resources and work-
ing of the University of Dublin and Trinity
College, Dublin. The commission is to con-
sider the application for state financial help
which has been made by the university. It
will consist of five members with three as a
quorum. The names of those appointed are:
Sir Archibald Giekie, O.M., K.C.B., F.R.S.,;
Sir John Ross, Bt., Judge of the Chancery
Division of the High Court of Justice in Ire-
land; Dr. A. E. Shipley, D.Se., F.R.S., Master
of Christ’s College, Cambridge; Professor J.
S. E. Townsend, F.R.S., Wykeham professor
of physics and fellow of New College, Oxford;
and Profesor John Joly, F.R.S., professor of
436
geology and mineralogy in the University of
Dublin. Professor Gilbert Waterhouse, LL.D.,
professor of German in Dublin University, is
to be the secretary to the commisson. The
commission will investigate the administra-
tion of the existing financial resources, and
also the constitution both of the university
and of Trinity College, and may make interim
reports if it wishes to do so.
Dr. L. D. Corrman, head of the department
of education at the University of Minnesota,
has been elected president of the university
to succeed Dr. Marion L. Burton, who is pres-
ident-elect of the University of Michigan.
THE trustees of the Peking Union Medical
College, Peking, China, announce the resigna-
tion of Dr. Franklin C. McLean as director
of the college, and the appointment of Dr.
Henry S. Houghton, formerly dean of the
Harvard Medical School of China, at Shang-
hai, as acting director. Dr. McLean retires
from the directorship in order to devote him-
self to the professional work of the depart-
ment of medicine of the Peking College of
which he is professor and head.
Dr. Lawson G. Lowery, for three years
chief medical officer of the Boston Psycho-
pathic Hospital, has been appointed assistant
professor in the psychopathic hospital of the
University of Iowa.
Dr. J. B. CLELAND has been appointed to the
newly created chair of pathology in the Ade
laide University, South Australia.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
UNIFICATION OF SYMBOLS AND DIAGRAMS
THE recent attempts to unify the mathe
matical symbols used in physics and chem-
istry are probably approved, in principle, by
practically every one. They have stimulated
and guided a large amount of voluntary effort
and cooperation. Their complete recognition
and adoption has been hindered by the difi-
culty of getting any one system to satisfy the
very varied requirements and personal prefer-
ences involved.
These two facts suggest, first, a further
field for the applying of unifying methods,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1322
and second, an advantageous way of making
the application. The field is the great num-
ber of special or minor subjects; such as
electron tubes, radio work, gas theory, calori-
metry. The notations used in most of these
would be better if more nearly unified; and
this could much more easily be brought about
if each subject is treated as deserving a nota-
tion of its own, founded on the general
scheme, but having also a special development.
Such a treatment of the special topics would
probably help solve the conilicts which impede
the general scheme also.
A possible advantageous method of getting
the work done is for the committees in charge
to act more or less as referees, allowing the
authors of new papers to do a good deal of
the work and even to furnish much of the
initiative. Most scientific workers seem to be
strongly of the opinion that unification in
these numerous subjects is desirable, but
among those who would most naturally be
expected to take the lead there is a lively ap-
preciation of the work and difficulties in-
volved. These obstacles should be diminished
by the plan here suggested. It really puts the
committee in a position just opposite to that
which similar committees have usually held.
Instead of canvassing the whole field and sub-
mitting a complete system to be judged by
others, the committee would have the final
judgment, and the constructive part would be
done mainly by active workers specially inter-
ested in each different subject, and specially
familiar with it. It might be that each
decision of the committee, like the decision
of a court, would apply to a single case sub-
mitted to it, that is, to a single paper. Fre-
quently, then, a brief might be submitted by
the author, giving reasons for the desired
selection of symbols, and some review of those
used by previous writers in the same subject
and in those allied to it. The method would
thus be flexible and the results capable of
modification, though as a rule after one im-
portant paper had been passed upon there
would be very little more work for the com-
mittee in that particular subject.
Whether any such general plan as that just
Aprit 30, 1920]
suggested is ever followed or not, it is at
least fairly clear that the use of symbols in
the various special and restricted subjects can
be regulated with far less perplexity and con-
flict than attends the attempt to provide a
single system to fit the whole of a very com-
plex science. Another important conclusion
is that voluntary effort and cooperation can
accomplish much, even without any formal
committee. For instance, most of the exist-
ing diversities in symbols are due to inad-
vertence or negligence, not to real difference
in opinion or taste. Most of them would
have been avoided if writers had simply made
it a rule to notice the symbols of their pre-
decessors, and not make changes without any
reason. There is little doubt that the major-
ity of writers are willing to follow this rule
as soon as their attention is directed to it.
Where previous usage differs, or where some
writer wishes to make changes for a reason,
the individual writer’s judgment may not be
wise. In such cases cooperation, through cor-
respondence or otherwise, between different
writers is advantageous. Such cooperating
writers, however, will usually desire the co-
cperation of a formal committee. Indeed,
my own reason for venturing to present
these suggestions to the public is that I
happen to belong to a small group who are
willing to make mutual concessions and so
secure a uniform set of symbols in a new
minor subject, and who wish to have their
work in this direction given the improvement
and greater promise of permanence that would
come by having it passed upon by a recog-
nized committee.
The symbols used in diagrams, and in
many cases the forms of the diagrams them-
selves, can also gain by standardization. Cer-
tain familiar conventions have long been used
in electrical diagrams, but in general the field
is so divided and varied that here, even more
than with the symbols used in equations,
piecemeal and detailed standardizations seem
“at once easiest and most useful. Sweeping
and absolute rules are almost sure to prove
detrimental in some cases, and have aroused
opposition. Even in striving for uniformity
SCIENCE
437
the greatest uniformity is not necessarily al-
ways the greatest benefit. Moreover, a set of
general rules, formulated once for all, does
very little to unify the special and minor
details, which are, if anything, the most im-
portant, since they are the most numerous,
and hardest for the reader to remember. The
value of general rules for symbols and dia-
grams will hardly be denied, but a large
measure of attention to separate subjects
seems likely at once to be of value in itself
and to avoid much of the difficulty and con-
flict which have hitherto impeded progress in
standardization of symbols by more wholesale
methods.
Wauter P. WHITE
CARNEGIE GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY
CARBON MONOXIDE
To THE Eprror oF So1eNncE: One of the char-
acteristic by-products of our industrialism is
earbon monoxide and the mild hysteria which
one finds in certain parts concerning the pos-
sible accumulation of this compound in our
atmosphere is interesting as an example of a
little learning. The report of the press that a
high percentage of this gas was discovered in
gome of our camps where automobiles, aero-
engines and gas engines in general were ope-
rating has given color to the fears expressed
by some of our scientists who should know
better. There is probably more carbon mon-
oxide produced during a severe lightning storm
in a given locality than is emitted by our coke
burners, gas engines and other sources in in-
dustry during much longer periods. The si-
lent discharge which proceeds during storms in
mountainous areas produces much of the gas.
Now while carbon monoxide is inert chemically
and scarcely absorbable by ordinary laboratory
methods, under natural conditions there are
sources of disposal which guarantee that the
gas does not accumulate rapidly, at least, in
our atmosphere. Chlorophyll “fixes” carbon
monoxide in a stable way, so that much
chlorophyll is lost to plants in regions where
there is an unusually high concentration of the
gas, being rendered impotent in photosynthesis
by the attachment of CO. In like manner,
438
hemoglobin fixes carbon monoxide and in all
probability a relatively large part of aerial CO
is disposed of in ‘this way. The hemoglobin
binding CO is destroyed in the liver, the CO
probably remaining attached to the protein end
of the globin, and not to the biliary and uri-
nary pigment which result from the decompo-
sition of hemoglobin. The globin is excreted
as urea, ammonia, etc., while some may be re-
tained as amino-acid, but doubtless the CO
globin is treated as foreign material and ex-
ereted. Another method of disposal of aerial
carbon monoxide is the union in sunlight, with
the halogens, bromine, iodine, ete., of our
atmosphere and with the fluorine freed in the
mountainous districts during storms involving
lightning. In such eases, the carbon monoxide
is converted to a carbonyl halide or to CO,, in
either case being capable of utilization by bac-
teria, plants with chlorophyll, ete.
The above communication was written pre-
viously to the publication of Lamb, Bray and
Frazer’s contribution from The Chemical
Warfare Service entitled “The removal of
carbon monoxide from the air” in the J. Ind.
and Engineering Chemistry, March 1920, Vol.
12, p. 213. W. M.
THE ATTAINMENT OF HIGH LEVELS IN THE
ATMOSPHERE
To tHE Epiror oF Scrence: In the April 9,
1920, issue of ScieNcE, Dr. J. G. Coffin, on be-
half of the Curtiss Aeronautical and Motor
Corporation, questions the record of Major
Schroeder, namely 36,020 feet, given in my
brief review of high level records, in Science,
March 19, 1920.
So far as I can now ascertain, Dr. Coffin is
justified in questioning this particular record.
The director of the Bureau of Standards in-
forms me that the bureau has not yet deter-
mined the true altitude and that when deter-
mined it will be for the Air Service to make
proper announcement. With such imperfect
data, as I can now obtain, the approximate
values are: Rohlts, 9880.5 meters (32,418 feet) ;
Schroeder, 9505.0 meters (31,184 feet). These
are the elevations corrected for mean air col-
umn temperature, vapor pressure, gravity, alti-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
tude and latitude. The main reduction factor
is of course the temperature. These results,
however, must not be accepted as final. Until
final and authentic data are forthcoming, the
Justice of Dr. Coffin’s criticism must be ad-
mitted. The words “ The record now stands—-
Schroeder, February 27, 1920, 10,979 meters”
in Scrence, No, 1816, p. 288, should be ac-
cepted with reservation. h
Let us hope, however, that before the end of
summer both of these plucky aviators will have
attained a true height of 10,000 meters.
ALEXANDER McApIE
BLUE HitL OBSERVATORY,
April 22
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
Introduction to General Chemistry. By
Herpert N. McCoy anp Etnen M. Terry.
Chicago, Ill., 1919. Pp. viii-- 605.
The subject matter covered in the course in
chemistry given to the freshmen class at the
University of Chicago is the basis for this
text-book. It does not aim to include all the
material usually considered in a course in
descriptive inorganic chemistry; the facts of
the science are used primarily to illustrate
fundamental principles and laws. A brief
statement of the order in which the material
is treated will bring out the point of view
of the authors. The first chapter deals with
the measurement of gases. In the next four
chapters the fundamental concepts of the
science are developed; these include inde
structibility of matter, a pure substance, an
element, analysis of substances, law of definite
composition derivation of formule. Acids,
bases, and salts, water and solutions, the
kinetic theory and the atomic hypothesis are
next considered. A chapter on chlorine and
its compounds with hydrogen and metals is
followed by a consideration of chemical
equilibrium, oxidation and reduction, heat
and energy. Three chapters are devoted to
the ionic hypothesis and one to electro-chem-
istry. Nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and
carbon and their simple compounds are then
described. A rather long chapter on organic
chemistry in which structural formule are
APRIL 30, 1920]
freely used follows. Attention is next turned
to the theory of dilute solutions, disperse
systems, some additional elements, the periodic
classification, and radio-activity.
In the discussion of the topics noted many
chemical facts are brought before the stu-
dent but stress is laid on principles and little
space devoted to facts of general interest un-
less they serve as examples of these principles.
For example, the only reference to the prep-
aration of iron from its ores is a paragraph on
earbon as a reducing agent, in which the
statement is made that metallic iron is made
from the mineral hematite by reduction with
coke at white heat.
The book is clearly written. It will be of
interest to teachers to see how rather diffi-
cult subjects can be handled effectively in a
simple manner. It will be looked upon with
favor as a text for beginners by those who
desire to teach facts only through the use of
laws and theories and do not think it ad-
visable to unduly emphasize the applications
of the science.
James F. Norris
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND
CLIMATOLOGY
RAINFALL INTERCEPTION BY TREES AND CROPS
For several years Mr. Robert E. Horton,
consulting hydraulic engineer, Voorheesville,
N. Y., has carried on investigations of the
various aspects of rainfall in relation to run-
oft.1 In such studies what the hydraulic engi-
neer needs to know first is how much rainfall
reaches the ground, over a watershed. Is it
the amount of precipitation that as shown by
well-exposed gages?2 No. Much rain and
snow is intercepted by trees, and evaporated.
1See ‘‘ Additional Meteorological Data Needed
by Engineers,’’ by R. E. Horton, Engineering
News Record, March 27, 1919, pp. 614-616; re-
printed in Monthly Weather Review, May, 1919,
Vol. 47, pp. 305-307.
2See ‘‘The Measurement of Rainfall and
Snow,’’ by R. E. Horton, Jour. New England
Water Works Assoc., 1919, Vol. 33, pp. 14-71, 21
figs., 12 tables; reviewed in Monthly Weather Rev.,
May, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 294-296.
SCIENCE
439
Thus the hydraulic engineer, unlike the
meteorologist, needs to study the catches of
rain-gages under trees as well as in the open.
[Some cooperative observers seem to haye an-
ticipated this need.]| Mr. Horton has made a
eareful study of the amount of precipitation
which falls through different kinds of trees
and of that portion of the intercepted rain-
fall which runs down the trunks. Also, in
order to enable him to form an estimate of the
water which reaches the ground over a varied
watershed he has determined the amount of
rainfall intercepted by different growing crops
in various stages. The results of his investi-
gations have been published in the Monthly
Weather Review.®
Mr. Horton coneludes that
Rainfall interception represents a loss of precipi-
tation which would otherwise be available to the
soil. The loss takes place through evaporative
processes, but may, for convenience be subdivided
into (a) interception storage, and (6b) evapora-
tion during rain.
The amount of interception loss is primarily a
function of the storage capacity of the plant sur-
face, the duration of precipitation, and the evapo-
ration rate during precipitation. Since there is
generally a fairly close correlation ‘between shower
duration and amount of precipitation, estimates of
interception loss can, for practical purposes, be ex-
pressed in terms of precipitation amount per
shower.
The interception storage loss for trees varies
from 0.02 to 0.07 inch per shower, and approaches
these values for well-developed crops.... The...
loss is greater in light than in heavy showers,
ranging from nearly 100 per cent. where the total
rainfall does not exceed the interception storage
capacity to about 25 per cent. as an average con-
stant rate for most trees in heavy rains of long
duration. [Of this] the amount of water reaching
the ground by running down the trunks of trees
...is... commonly 1 to 5 per cent. of the total
precipitation. The percentage increases from zero
in light showers to a maximum constant percentage
in heavy showers of long duration. Light showers
are much more frequent than heavy ones, and the
interception loss for a given precipitation in a
month or season varies largely according to the
rainfall distribution.
3 September, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 603-623, 17 figs.
Pp ? a ? p ?
440
Expressing the interception loss in terms of
depth on the horizontal projected area shadowed
by the vegetation, the loss per shower of a given
amount is very nearly the same for various broad-
leaved trees during the summer season. . . . The
interception loss from needle-leaved trees, such as
pines and hemlocks, is greater both as regards
interception storage and evaporation during rain
than from broad-leaved trees.
Data are insufficient for a final determination of
the relative losses from trees in winter and in
summer. Apparently the winter and summer
losses for a given monthly precipitation for needle-
leaved trees the winter interception loss appears to
be about 50 per cent. as great when the trees are
defoliated as during the growing season. The
average interception loss from 11 trees .. . dur-
ing the summer of 1918 was 40 per cent. of the
precipitation.
ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE IN THE UNITED STATES
Three years ago, Mr. P. C. Day, chief of
the climatological division of the Weather
Bureau, published a monograph on “ Relative
humidities and vapor pressures over the
United States, including a discussion of data
from recording hair hygrometers,”* and to
which recently Mr. W. J. Bennett, of Tampa,
Florida, has added an interesting discussion
of tables prepared along similar lines for
Tampa. The diurnal changes in relative
humidity (which is the water vapor present in
the air divided by the maximum which would
be possible at the temperature) are practically
the opposite of the temperature changes, there
being a change generally of 3 to 4 per cent.
for each change of 1° C. in temperature.
Vapor pressure (the pressure exerted by the
water vapor locally in the air) is a direct
index of the absolute humidity (water vapor
per unit volume of space). In summer in dry
climates, such as at Boise, Idaho, the vapor
pressure rises during the few hours imme-
diately after sunrise as the moisture from the
surface (e. g., dew) is evaporated. Then after
4 Monthly Weather Review, Suppl. No. 6, 1917,
61 pp. (mostly tables), 34 charts. Cf. review in
Geogr. Rev., February, 1918, Vol. 5, pp. 155-156.
5 Monthly Weather Review, July and October,
1919, Vol. 47, pp. 466-468, 710, 2 figs.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
about 10 a.m. the vapor pressure decreases as
conyectional currents reach higher and higher
and mix the lower air with the drier air above
until the principal minimum is reached at
about 6 p.m. After this, evaporation, even
though small is able to raise the vapor pres-
sure in the absence of convection. In a
moderately humid climate, such as that of
Columbus, Ohio, the maximum in summer
comes at about 10, as in the drier region, but
the minimum is not reached until sunrise,
when cooling has condensed a maximum of
the water vapor. In a marine climate, using
San Francisco as typical, the vapor pressure
depends almost entirely on the temperature,
and so the maximum comes at about 2 P.M.
and the minimum around sunrise.
In the annual period the relative humidity
is usually highest with the lowest tempera-
ture; but the vapor pressure varies directly
with the annual temperature changes. The
vapor pressure is 2 to 4 times as great in
summer as in winter in most of the United
States. The distribution of relative humidity
depends, (1) on the temperature of the air,
(2) on the proximity of the main source of
moisture, (3) on the prevailing wind direction,
and (4) on the topography to windward. East
of the Rockies, April is generally the month
of lowest relative humidity; while west, the
mid-summer months are driest. In most of
the United States, the highest relative humid-
ity comes in the colder months, except in the
southeast where it may occur in late summer
or early fall. The lowest relative humidities
occur in the far southwest, and in the lee of
high mountains elsewhere, while the highest.
occur near the oceans, similarly, on the lee
shores of the Great Lakes, and on the wind-
ward sides of mountains. On Pikes Peak and
Mount Washington the humidities are gen-
erally high and show little variation. In the
western half of the country the record minima
range from 2 to 10 per cent., while in the
eastern half, the lowest are 10 to 20 per cent.
Since absolute humidity is controlled by
temperature more than by any other factor
for most of the country, the lowest vapor
pressure comes in winter, and is experienced
Apri 30, 1920]
in the coldest part of the United States. In
summer, the lowest is in the lee of the Sierra
Nevadas. It is rather surprising to learn
that the July vapor pressures about Yuma-
Arizona, in almost the hottest and driest part
of the Arizona desert are as high as those
about the cool Great Lakes. Nothing could
emphasize more strongly the fact that we feel
in terms of relative humidity rather than in
terms of absolute humidity.
In all the humidity tables and maps of Mr.
Day’s contribution we. see a complex weather
element which depends on the two variables,
temperature and moisture. Humidity maps
are in this respect on a par with snowfall
maps; but they are less complex than those
of evaporation, in which wind enters as an-
other factor. i
Cuar.es F. Brooks
SPECIAL ARTICLES
LIMITS OF THE GENERA VANDELLIA AND
URINOPHILUS
My monograph on the Pygidiide was pub-
lished September, 1918. I was not able to
state the limits of the genus Vandellia nor to
indicate the type of the genus Urinophilus.
These minute fishes are found in the tropical
lowlands of South America. They attach
themselves to other animals and drink the
blood. Some of them are said to enter the
urethra of bathers, and being provided with
erectile, retrorse spines on the opercles can
not be withdrawn. If not excised they finally
enter the bladder and cause death.
It was found during the preparation of the
monograph that some of the species contain
teeth on the mandibles, others not. It was
not known whether the type specimen of the
genus Vandellia contained mandibulary teeth
or not. The specimens are in the Jardin des
Plantes, Paris, and were not accessible during
the war. Dr. J. Pellegrin has recently ex-
amined these specimens and reports that the
types of Vandellia cirrhosa Cuv. & Val. and
of V. Wiener do not have mandibulary teeth
and the name Vandellia may, therefore, be
restricted to those species without mandibulary
teeth, cirrhosa, plazai, wienert and hasemani,
SCIENCE
441
The name Urinophilus becomes, thereby, re-
stricted to the only known species with teeth
on the tips of the mandibular rami, Urin-
ophilus sanguineus (H.). The species Urin-
ophilus sanguineus is known from one speci-
men, 62 mm. collected by Mr. Haseman at
San Antonio de Rio Madeiro, Brazil. Its
alimentary canal was gorged with blood.
The genera Vandellia and Urinophilus are
members of the Pygidiide, a family of the
Nematognathi, the cat-fish-like fishes. In
most of these the maxillary is reduced to a
rudiment forming the base of the chief barbel
of the catfish. In Urinophilus and Vandellia
the maxillary bone carries peculiar claw-like
teeth. In the monograph mentioned above
the tooth-bearing maxillary was labelled “ pre-
maxillary” in the explanation of Figs. 35 A
and B, and in Fig. 37.
C. H. KiczEnmMann
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSY-
CHOLOGY. II
Racial differences in mental fatigue: T. R.
GartH, An experiment was given to school chil-
dren of three races—white, Indian and negro, in-
volving a simple task which all could perform.
The problem was to ascertain which race showed
least falling away in a task of continuous perform-
ance. The young group worked for twenty-eight
minutes and the older group for forty-two minutes.
The Indians, as a group, excel the whites in en-
durance but not in total performance.
Supernormal memory: P. F. Swinpur. Ordi-
narily, the term hysteria is a name applied to cer-
tain spectacular forms of behavior which arise
quite suddenly and which consist of strong and
very permanently associated responses. Such a
form of behavior may be called a somnambulism, a
fugue, a hysterical fit, or a special personality;
and it is manifested only by those persons in whom
associations are easily and at the same time quite
permanently formed. If, in this sense, a person
possesses an exceptionally good memory, a single
unusual occurrence will probably suffice to estab-
lish in him a series of strong responses which will
be manifested later as a somnambulism. It is
profitable to speak of ‘‘big’’ somnambulisms and
‘little’? somnambulisms, or spectacular somnam-
bulisms and ordinary somnambulisms. Hysteria is
442
entirely a relative term. The terms amnesia and
dissociation of the personality, which are so fre-
quently used in speaking of hystericals, are mis-
leading. Each of them should mean that if a per-
son is occupied in one way, he is ordinarily not
doing other things or thinking in other ways at
that time. For example, only a few minutes ago
T was oceupied in thinking about a certain demon-
stration that a katydid can exert a force of at
least thirty pounds with its ovipositor. While oc-
cupied in this way, I had complete amnesia for a
dog I once owned; and at the time that I was
thinking about my dog, I had complete amnesia for
the experiment with the insect. My dog and the
insect established in me two ‘‘little’’? somnam-
bulisms; and I am never active in both ways at
the same time. Likewise, a typical hysterical re-
members his somnambulism only under the con-
dition that he manifests it again; and when he
the eases of typical hysteria which have come
under my observation, many of the somnambulisms
manifests it he has amnesia for other things. In
or personalities were remarkably well associated.
This cireumstance makes it easy to produce arti-
ficially any of the existing states; and it is also
responsible for the remarkable periodicity in the
manifestations, by certain patients, of their es-
tablished somnambulisms.
Definitions of mind offered by college students:
0. R. GrirritH. The purpose of this investigation
was (a) to obtain a definite expression of the na-
ture of the beliefs and prejudices about ‘‘mind’’
which are held by common-sense, and (b), to point
out some of the antecedents of these notions. Defi-
nitions of ‘‘mind’’ obtained in a naive manner
from students at the University of Illinois are
suggestive of the beliefs of popular opinion at
large, and indicate, as well, the degree in which
the laymen lags behind the trend of scientific
thought. A tabulation of the definitions under ap-
propriate categories discloses the fact that popular
opinion engages in little or no critical reflection
upon the matter. Conceptions of mind as a power,
force, energy, guide or faculty are frequent, as are
also conceptions confusing mind with the brain, the
mervous system, or some internal organ. Less fre-
quent notions make use of such terms as ‘‘soul,’’
‘¢spirit,’? ‘“personality’’ or ‘‘storehouse.’? Most
of the definitions are, in fact, plainly reminiscent
of the days of magic and of worn-out philosophies
and discarded theories. Moreover, they represent
jm an undisguised way the wishes and desires of the
men who value them. Over the whole is a thin sur-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1322
facing of modern science. The opinions, thus:
formed, are garbled in the telling, and betray, for
the most part, a notable want in critical ability as
well as a lack of substantial knowledge.
Organization of course of study im the elemen-
tary school: HrteEN T. WOOLLEY.
, Contributions of experimental psychology to the
psychology of the elementary school branches: C. T.
GRAY.
Safety-first education in school: M. J. Mayo.
The loss of life and property in the United States
through avoidable accident has become well nigh a
national reproach. There is a growing public senti-
ment against the continuance of this evil. Largely
through the influence of the National Safety Coun-
ceil, industrial accidents have been materially re-
duced. This has been effected through two means:
(1) the appliance of safety devices to machinery
wherever possible; and (2) a campaign of safety
education among workmen. What are known as
public accidents, however, show no decline. In the
home and on the streets and highways an increas-
ing number of serious and fatal accidents occur.
The toll among the school population is large.
The teaching of accident prevention is now ad-
mittedly a school problem. No other kind of edu-
cation can more completely justify itself. Public
safety can be promoted through two means: (1)
the elimination of all avoidable sources of danger;
and (2) adequate safety education. Safety edu-
eation consists of (1) a thorough knowledge of all
common danger situations, (2) correct habits of
behavior in their presence, and (3) high ideals and
right attitudes in regard to safety. We must
teach definitely under what circumstances explos-
ives and poisons are dangerous, just how it is that
accidental burns and falls occur, just what our
habits of behavior on the streets should be. We
must act consistently and habitually in accord with
this knowledge. This behavior can be secured only
through high ideals of the value of human life and
limb and a positive attitude towards safety. Our
ideals must be dynamic in character. Only, for in-
stance, when we have created an active ideal among
the boys—a sort of public sentiment—that con-
demns riding on the rear end of street cars as a
piece of recklessness and stupidity, ean this source
of fatal accident be eliminated.
The distribution of grades in large lecture rooms:
CG. R. GrirritH. The distribution according to
seating arrangement of the grades of students reg-
istered in large lecture classes discloses a varia-
tion that can not be attributed to differences in
Apri 30, 1920]
mental ability or in physical well-being. Wor ex-
ample, the grades of students who sit at the peri-
phery 6f a group are appreciably lower than those
of students who sit in the center. Again, grades
at the rear of a room show greater variation than
do those at the front. In general, the grades ob-
tained by a given student are dependent par-
tially upon such factors as his mental ability and
physical condition, but partially also upon his posi-
tion with reference ito the rest of the group to
which he belongs. The disadvantages arising from
an unfavorable position in the group can not be
wholly attributed to the size of the lecture-rooms,
or to idiosyncrasies of the speaker. It is over-
come, in part, during the course of the semester,
and it may also be offset by the addition of fre-
quent small sectional meetings; it is increased by
such factors as intervening aisles and by unoccu-
pied seats. The disadvantage has been found inci- .
dentally to rest upon variations in certain per-
ceptual and attentional factors and upon differ-
ences in the type of self-instruction under which
the individual works; but essentially to rest upon
the varying degrees of social integration which are
always present among the members of an assembled
group. :
Speech and brain patterns: L. W. Cour. Asso-
ciation experiments with nonsense syllables indi-
cate that verbal recalls are due to the presence of
brain patterns in which each syllable is under the
influence of one branch of the pattern. The inter-
weaving of these patterns accounts for the con-
tinued suggestion by similarity of one idea by
another, or, in other words, it gives a neural basis
for association by similarity. It also gives a rea-
son for verbal lapses of memory in which there is
recall of part of one word with part of another
when the word sought for is partially forgotten.
The theory is merely an extension of Sherrington’s
conception of reflex patterns and it would replace
with a definite meaning such vague terms as
‘“mode’’ of impression, retention and recall, which
ate used by many writers for the lack of a more
definite term. Finally the experiments with non-
sense syllables show that rhythm is the most per-
sistent and permanent element of a verbal impres-
gion.
. A learning curve starting at approximately zero:
E. K. Strone, Jr. A boy of 5 years has been
given two minutes drill on addition combinations
a day for 150 days. Att the start he knew nothing
of additions except that one and one made two and
that one and two made three and that he could
SCIENCE
443
count orally to twenty-five. The learning curve ob-
tained in this ease does not follow the usual course
but runs nearly parallel to the base line for many
days and then rises with a positive acceleration.
At the end of 158 days it had not suggested a
change from positive to negative acceleration.
| Methods of error elimination in a mental maze:
T. PeTeRson. The mental maze method attempts
to study maze learning devoid of all the disturbing
spatial factors characterizing the usual mazes. The
experimenter has before him a picture of a cir-
eular maze, with the various parts lettered in a
random order. Sitting behind a screen, he calls
out to the subject pairs of letters representing bi-
fureations in the maze and the subject chooses
without seeing the maze. Whether the correct let-
ter is called first or last is a matter that is de-
termined by chance. The subject is instructed to
get to the goal with as few errors as possible, and
is told the number of errors each time on reaching
the goal, but he must find out for himself where
the errors are. Subject is also timed. Results
show backward elimination of errors of entrance
to ‘blinds, and relatively early elimination of re-
turn ‘‘runs,’’ thus substantiating results obtained
by the author on rats in different forms of mazes.
‘The tendency to return to the starting place in the
maze at first greatly exceeds that expected on the
law of probability, but this tendency rapidly
yields to that of keeping the forward direction.
‘Coefficients of learning’’ for the runs past the
several blinds are worked out statistically, each
coefficient representing the ratio of probable runs
past to probable runs into the blind. These coeffi-
cients are found to increase toward the goal end
of the maze, thus accounting for the backward
elimination of errors; and the advantage for learn-
ing at the goal-end of the maze over the entrance-
end is shown to be greater than in mazes with
many than in those with few blinds. Moreover,
this advantage is greater in the first trial than in
subsequent trials by any subject; it decreases with
suecessive trials, thus favoring more rapid learn-
ing in early trials. Statistical calenlations as to
the number of errors in each part of the maze on
the expectations of chance laws, lead to the con-
clusion that, independently of the backward elimi-
nation tendency, learning progresses more rapidly,
in proportion to exercise, in the first and in the
last part of the maze than between the extremes.
The development and functioning of a concept in
problem-solving: J. C, PETERSON. An objective
study is made of the reactions of adults to a num-
444
ber of series of closely related novel problems. In
the solution of successive problems of a series the
essential common elements are gradually abstracted
and associated with an appropriate symbol of some
sort. There thus develops a general concept which
funetions increasingly in succeeding problems in
directing observation and controlling re-formula-
tion of hypotheses, until finally new problems are
solved at sight or a general formula is given for
all problems of the series. In the solution of suc-
cessive series of problems further functioning and
development of the concept occur, enabling the
subject finally to generalize correctly in advance
for new series of problems of the same type. The
order of abstraction of essential situation-elements
_ was found to follow closely the order of frequency
of the subject’s reactions to them. This is also the
order of their temporal nearness to the goal or end
of the trial. The recombination of essential ele-
ments in connection with appropriate symbols, and
their association with effective responses, follow
the same order though somewhat less closely.
There was usually a high degree of transfer of the
effects of learning from problem to problem and
from series to series of problems. The median
percentage of transfer from the first to the sec-
ond series was almost invariably surpassed by
subjects who required more than the median num-
ber of trials for the mastery of the first series.
This high degree of transfer in the work of slow
learners appears to have arisen from the greater
strength of mechanical associations rather than
from a deeper insight into the causal relations in-
volved. However, the basic concept mentioned
above appears to have been the principal medium
of transfer, Yet it should not be forgotten that
this concept functioned through specifie associa-
tions which had become mechanized to a high de-
gree largely through repetition.
Epwarp K. STRONG, JR.,
Secretary
GENERAL MEETING OF THE AMER-
ICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Tue 59th meeting of the American Chem-
ieal Society was held at St. Louis, Mo., April
12 to Friday, April 16, 1920. The council
meeting was held on the 12th, a general meet-
ing on April 13th, both in the morning and in
the afternoon, divisional meetings all day
Wednesday and Thursday morning, and ex-
cursions, Thursday afternoon and Friday.
Full details of the meeting and program will
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1322
be found in the May issue of the Journal of
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. The
registration was slightly over one thousand,
eight hundred and twenty-five enjoying the
smoker.
General public addresses were given by Paul
W. Brown, editor and publisher of “ America
at Work,” on “The Physical Basis for the
Economical Development of the Mississippi
Valley,” by Chas. H. Herty on “ Victory and
its Responsibilities.” The chief public ad-
dress was given in the assembly room at the
Central High School on “ Chemical Warfare”
by Col. Amos A. Fries, director of the Chem-
ical Warfare Service.
The following Divisions and Sections met:
_ Agricultural and Food, Biological, Industrial
Chemists and Chemical Engineers, Organic,
Pharmaceutical, Physical and Inorganic, rub-
ber, and water, Sewage and Sanitation Divi-
sions and the Dye, Leather, and Sugar Sec-
tions. Further details of their meetings will
be found in the May issue of the Journal of
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.
The banquet, held on Thursday evening,
April 15, filled the large banquet hall of the
Hotel Statler.
A general business meeting was held on
Tuesday morning, at which resolutions pub-
lished in the Council Proceedings, this issue,
on the death of Professor Alfred Werner were
read by Dr. Chas. H. Herty. Also, Ernest
Solvay was unanimously elected an honorary
member of the American Chemical Society.
Cuas. L. Parsons,
Secretary
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ii SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
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SHULL’S
Principles of Animal Biology
McGraw-Hill Agricultural and Biological Publications
By A. FRANKLIN SHULL
Associate Professor of Zodlogy, University of Michigan
with the collaboration of
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Assistant Professor of Zoology
and
ALEXANDER G. RUTHVEN
Professor of Zoology and Director of Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan
441 pages, 6x9, illustrated, $3.50. Laboratory Manual to accompany
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This is the first expression in textbook form of the newer methods of teaching
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The book aims to present a body of principles that may be brought under such
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SCIENCE
Fripay, May 7, 1920
CONLENTS
Multiplex Telephony and Telegraphy over
Open-circuit Bare Wires laid in the Earth
or Sea: Major GENERAL GEORGE O. Squier. 445
Research in the Psychology of Aviation dur-
ing the Year 1919: CapTaiIn Harry M.
TOHNSONM Se AROS ee aeons Ria. toletinlebeaa Dees 449
General Biology and the Junior College: PrRo-
FESsoRS LEONAS L. BURLINGAME AND Er-
INEST GvVEARTING ceysyers cic oie ere: croilioteteisheue oepaeeee 452
Francis C. Phillips: PRorEsson ALEXANDER
STVER MAIN] airs) fn M es cera ae aha ee a ats 455
Scientific Hvents :—
Bird-banding Work being taken over by the
Biological Survey; The Pacifie Coast Di-
wision of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science; The Resignation
of the Director of the Bureau of Mines; The
Resignation of Professor E, L. Nichols
from the Yale University Faculty; The
Allegheny Observatory ................5-
Scientific Notes and News
456
459
462
University and Educational News ..........
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Singing Sands: AuBERT R. Lepoux. Modern
Interpretation of Differentials: PROFESSOR
ArtHuur S. HatHaway. Carbon Dioxide and
Increased Crop Production: PROFESSOR
BENJAMIN Harrow. Structural Blue in
Snow: Dr, JEROME ALEXANDER 462
Scientific Books :—
Haskell on Graphic Charts: Dr. R. von
HELUIEDIN see scsgayisyctte re occesia lal s acai atcha eae 466
Special Articles :—
The Heredity of Susceptibility to a Trans-
plantable Sarcoma of the Japanese Waltzing
Mouse: Dr. ©. ©. Littnr 22... 55.5...00-60 467
The American Association of Petroleum Geol-
OOUSUS ral ten Vetere reieycLetile ernst saan: oi oielsievonets 468
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Minutes of the Executive Committee of the
Council: PROFESSOR Burton E. Livingston. 470
MSS. intended for publication and books, ete.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
SS = SS
MULTIPLEX TELEPHONY AND TELEG-
RAPHY OVER OPEN-CIRCUIT BARE
WIRES LAID IN THE EARTH
OR SEA1
INTRODUCTION
THE. ‘“‘key problem’’ in the procure-
ment of essential Signal Corps supplies
in the United States during the World
War, curiously enough turned out to be
the production of the necessary braiding —
machines for finishing insulated wire.
The bare wire itself could be obtained, the
rubber insulation could be obtained, even
the cotton thread with which the braiding
was made could be obtained, but the nec-
essary machinery for braiding the thread,
which finally led us into the intricacies of
the procurement of steel, was never any-
thing like adequate for the enormous de-
mands required in the field.
The braiding capacity of the entire
United States, as of September 1, 1918,
was about 8,000 miles of twisted pair in-
sulated wire per month, while the require-
ments for the American forces alone at
that date were about 40,000 miles a month.
On October 1, 1918, the Allied Council
reached the decision that beginning March
1, 1919, it would be necessary for the
United States to furnish all of this type of
wire used by the Allied armies in the field,
and the estimated minimum requirements
for this purpose were equivalent to four
times around the earth a month. To sup-
ply this amount of insulated wire would
have required cargo space for overseas
1 Abstract of paper presented to the National
Academy of Sciences at the session held at the Na-
tional Museum, April 27, 1920.
446
shipment in the amount of 14,000 ship
tons a month, but had it been possible to
use single conductor bare wire in place of
the twisted pair insulated wire, the space
required would have been reduced to 2,500
ship tons a month, thus releasing the bal-
ance for transportation of food, and other
vitally necessary supplies.
It is therefore of paramount importance
to diagnose, as far as possible, the tech-
nical problems of equipment in the light
of past experience and of the present
trend of development.
The above facts show the necessity of
developing, if possible, new methods by
which a reduction may be effected in the
enormous quantities of expensive and
bulky insulated wire, which was so diffi-
eult to procure, and which must now be
‘buried in the earth to a depth of 8 or 10
‘feet throughout the advance sectors of the
front line of a modern army.
THREE MEDIA FOR ELECTRIC WAVE
PROPAGATION
The following reasoning led to the carry-
ing out of the experiments to be described :
1. Since we can already communicate by
radio means between one submarine and
another submarine, both completely sub-
merged, it was considered that connecting
two such stations by a submerged copper
wire could have no other effect than to
facilitate the propagation of the electric
waves between the stations.
2. It was considered possible that the
behavior of earth or water under the
action of ‘thigh frequency currents might
exhibit greatly different properties from
those with which we are familiar at direct
or low frequency currents.
3. It was realized that whatever high
frequency energy losses might occur in
the case of bare wires laid in earth or
water, yet the over-all efficiency would be
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
higher than in the ease of radio space
transmission where the plant efficiency is
so very low.
4, It was noted by the writer in Septem-
ber, 1910, andi discussed by him in April,
1912? that the three-electrode audion
could be used as a potentially operated
device on open circuits. This arrange-
ment was considered suitable for the
reception of the signals over bare wires in
earth or water.
PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS
The first experiment was an extremely
simple one as follows: A bare No. 18 phos-
phor bronze wire, such as is used for the
Signal Corps field antenna, was laid across
the Washington Channel of the Potomac
River from the War College to the op-
posite shore in Potomac Park. It was
paid out from a small boat with sufficient
slack to lay on the bottom of the river.
A standard Signal Corps radio telephone
and telegraph set, SCR 76, was directly
connected to each end of the wire, one set
serving as a transmitter and the other as
a receiver. At the receiving end of the
line the bare wire was directly connected
to the grid of the receiving set and the
usual ground connection left open. A fre-
queney of about 600,000 cycles a second
was used and the line tuned at each end
by the usual methods. Excellent teleg-
raphy and telephony were obtained. Care
was taken to make this preliminary experi-
ment as simple and basic as possible and
precaution taken to insure that the wire
itself should be bright and clean entirely
free from any grease or other insulating
material.
2 Journal of The Franklin Institute, April 1,
1912, ‘‘Some Experiments in ‘Wired Wireless’
Telegraphy for Field Lines of Information for
Military Purposes,’’ by Major George O. Squier,
Signal Corps, U. S. Army.
May 7, 1920]
The success of this simple experiment
immediately led to more thorough con-
sideration of the entire subject.
One of the questions to be investigated
was the general éfficiency of the electron
tube when used as a potentially operated
instrument. The following experiment
was made:
A strip of wire netting was buried in
the snow outside the office of the Chief
Signal Officer in Washington and a wire
attached thereto leading to the second story
of the building. The upper end of this
wire was connected directly to the grid of
an electron tube. The reason for con-
necting the grid to the upper end of the
antenna is of course obvious if we are to
use the tube as a potentially operated
device. It was necessary for maximum
sensitiveness to connect it to the point of
maximum potential of the antenna which
in the case of a linear oscillator occurs at
the open end. By this arrangement,
messages were readily received from dis-
tant points in the United States.
These two simple experiments, above
described, demonstrated the possibility of
transmitting electromagnetic waves along
bare wires submerged in water and the use
of an electron tube as a potentially
operated device for the reception of sig-
nals. The technical data will be published
later.
SUMMARY
For military reasons, if for no other,
as stated in the introduction of this paper,
the Signal Corps has recently undertaken
certain investigations in the phenomena
connected with the transmission of high
frequency electromagnetic waves over bare
wires in earth and in water.
In carrying out these investigations and
in attacking the problems from various
angles, the research staff of the Signal
Corps laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail,
SCIENCE
447
Little Silver, New Jersey, was directed to
carry out experiments on bare wires laid
on the surface of moist ground andi also
buried in earth. The staff at the Signal
Corps research laboratory at the Bureau of
Standards was directed to investigate fun-
damentally the transmission of electro-
magnetic waves over bare wires in fresh
water. In addition to this, the engineer-
ing staff of the Office of the Chief Signal
Officer has carried out from time to time
certain experiments of a more or less
crucial character which have come up for
solution in the prosecution of this work at
the other laboratories.
Certain data from each of these groups
of engineers have been presented above.
The phenomena associated with the trans-
mission of thigh frequency waves over bare
wires in earth or water are obscure and
complex, and the writer has formulated no
definite theory at the present time.
RESULTS OBTAINED
1. Telephone and telegraph communica-
tion has been established between Fort
Washington, Maryland, and Fort Hunt,
Virginia, across the Potomac River, below
the city of Washington, over a distance of
about three quarters of a mile, by the use
of a bare No. 12 phosphor bronze wire laid
in the water to connect the stations. The
transmitter consisted of an electron tube
oscillator which delivered a current of
about 270 milliamperes to the line at a
frequency of about 600,000 cycles a second.
At the receiving end of the line an elec-
tron tube and a 6-stage amplifier were
used without any ground connection.
With this arrangement good tuning was
obtained at both ends of the line, and
telegraphic and telephonic transmission
secured over the bare wires immersed in
fresh water.
2. A resonance wave coil has been devel-
448
oped. The coil is in the form of a long
helix wound with a large number of turns
on which stationary waves are produced
by the incoming radio signals. An elec-
tron tube is used as the detector, the grid
being connected to the point of maximum
potential on the coil. The wave coil may
be used either as a part of the usual
antenna system or a part of a line wire, or
it may act itself as the antenna for pick-
ing up the energy of the signals. In the
latter case the coil may be either free at
both ends or grounded at one end. Good
results have been obtained in either case.
It has been also found that the open coil
has directional properties and can be used
as a goniometer not only for horizontal
measurements but for vertical measure-
ments as well. This form of radio goniom-
eter has the great advantage that it per-
mits not only of determining the plane
where the signals are strongest but also
the direction from which such signals
proceed.
Telegraph and telephone communication
nas been also established between two sta-
tions at the Signal Corps Research Lab-
oratories at Camp Alfred Vail, Little
Silver, New Jersey, using a bare No. 16
copper wire buried in the earth to a depth
of about eight inches to connect the sta-
tions. The distance between the two sta-
tions was three quarters of a mile. Fre-
quencies as high as one million cycles a
second were used. Similar communica-
tion has been carried on over a bare wire
one and three quarter miles long laid on
the surface of moist earth. The current
at the transmitting station in these instal-
lations was about 100 milliamperes. It
has been shown that a bare wire buried in
moist earth with the distant end open can
be tuned both at the transmitting end and
at the receiving end.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1323
SUGGESTIONS
1. In the older art of ocean telegraphy,
the elaborateness of line construction has
already reached a practical limit. The
best Atlantic cable of the present day is
limited in operation to electric waves of
frequency of the order of magnitude of 10
per second. The electrical construction is
‘such as to limit the voltage employed on
any long cable to from 50 to 80. The rela-
tive values of the line constants in any
ocean cable preclude the possibility of
ocean telephony.
The most promising hope of improving
the line construction for ocean cables is
believed to be, to abandon the present
method of design and construction and to
start with the simple case of bare wires in
water using high frequency currents and
study the necessary changes to produce
optimum transmission.
The use of a high frequency ‘‘carrier”’
has the inherent advantage that the dis-
tortion phenomena accompanying present
methods of long distance transmission are
eliminated, and we are principally con-
cerned with the problem of reducing at-
tenuation. The most suitable voltage may
be employed and present multiplex meth-
ods may be utilized. The electron tube is
available for both the generation and the
reception of the waves.
2. During the last few years an inten-
sive study has been made of the surface
conditions of wires necessary to produce
the emission of electrons, and to this in-
tensive study, both by universities and in-
dustrial research laboratories, is due the
high state of efficiency of the present elec-
tron tube. Nothing short of a similar
study of the surface conditions of wires
for preventing the emission of electrons
instead of producing them, will finally
give us the wire conductor of the future.
3. The development of types of reson-
May 7, 1920]
ance wave coils, both open at one end and
at both ends, for general radio work offers
an interesting field for investigation. This
involves the study of the electron tube as
a potentially operated device. The appli-
cation of such coils properly designed
for specific purposes may lead to the prac-
tical solution of a number of radio prob-
lems such as directional effects, and wave
coils antenne of very small dimensions.
4, The account of the experiments thus
far conducted and the reasons which have
led to the undertaking of these experi-
ments on the part of the Signal Corps, are
presented to the National Academy of Sci-
ences at this time in conformity with the
new spirit of organization for national and
international research so admirably typi-
fied by the National Research Council
which is under the general direction of
this official body.
GrorcGE O. SQUIER
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER,
Wark DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, D, C.
RESUME OF RESEARCH IN THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF AVIATION
DURING THE YEAR 1919
THE writer has been in charge of the de-
partment of psychology of the Air Service
Medical Research Laboratory since January
15, 1919. Members of the department engaged
in research during that year included Drs. F.
C. Doekeray, D. C. Rogers, H. C. McComas
and J. E. Coover, as captains; Dr. English
Bagby and Mr. Schachne Isaacs, as lieuten-
ants; and Dr. F. C. Paschal, Miss Barbara V.
Deyo and Mrs. Cressie Campbell Merriman, as
assistants. Certain members of the group were
present for but a short time; and others were
present for several months. Dr. E. N. Hen-
derson and Mr. L. J. O’Rourke, as captain and
lieutenant, resepetively, were connected with
the department for some time, but the exigen-
cies of the service did not permit of their em-
SCIENCE
449
ployment in research. Since October last the
staff has consisted of Lieutenant Isaacs and
the writer, with Miss Deyo and Mrs. Merriman
as research assistants. :
During the year the department prosecuted
research along two distinct and independent
lines: (1) an effort to gain a somewhat more
intimate acquaintance with the effects of low
oxygen on the integrity of response; and (2)
an effort to develop more sensitive tests for the
detection of (a) general aptitude for aviation
work and (b) of its deterioration in the earlier
stages of staleness. The reports of this work
will probably appear in due time in the various
American psychological journals, under the
names of the authors who are individually or
jointly responsible. Meanwhile, a résumé of
the year’s activities of the department as an
organization may not be out of place here.
An extensive and detailed statistical study of
the records of over 6,000 classification-tests
for resistance to deprivation of oxygen, has
been made under the direction of Captain
Coover. He was assisted by Lieutenant
Isaacs, Dr. Paschal, Miss Deyo, Mrs. Merri-
man and the writer. The results indicate the
extent to which the subject’s performance
may be affected by atmospheric pressure, tem-
perature and humidity; by the absolute quan-
tity of oxygen supplied the subject in the air
to be rebreathed; by the duration of the test;
by the time of day at which the test is taken;
by the judgmental eccentricities of the psy-
chological and clinical observers; and by a
lowered morale, such as that which imme-
diately followed the armistice. With these
data available it is now possible, by control-
ling or correcting for the influence of these
variables, to approximate much more closely
to uniformity and constancy of the standards
of classification than has been possible
hitherto.
An attempt was made by the writer, in
collaboration with Dr. Paschal, to demon-
strate the progress of impairment of behavior
by the use of an objective record of the speed
and accuracy which the subject can maintain
in carrying on work of uniform difficulty as
the supply of oxygen is being diminished.
450
(The subject was required to encipher a num-
ber of sets of nonsense-material into specially
prepared codes, both the material and the
ciphers being selected for uniformity in the
distribution of difficulties.) Some interesting
records were obtained, which, however, do not
give the quantitative measure of impairment
which the appearance of the graphs suggests.
One reason for this fact is that many sub-
jects tend to compensate for impairment of
response by an increase of “voluntary”
effort. The fact can be noted by the observer,
and such clinical notes are necessary to cor-
rect interpretation of the “ quantitative ” data.
' Some tests on the fluctuations of visual
acuity over extended periods of observation
were made by the writer, using in general the
method described by Cobb; the test-field,
however being a real image of the pattern of
the Ives-Cobb visual acuity test-object, slightly
' magnified on one half and slightly reduced on
the other, projected into the plane of an open-
ing in a screen 60 em. from the eye. Some
results thus obtained were not fully expected;
e. g., (1) it appeared that fixation and accom-
modation upon a stationary object can be
maintained until the last stages of asphyxi-
ation have been reached; (2) that disturbance
of the visual function is not exhibited by this
type of test until the more highly coordinated
processes have actually begun to fail; and (3)
that in the last stages of asphyxiation, visual
impressions may become intermittent and the
entire field become darkened, without the out-
lines of objects appearing blurred, and with-
out diplopia developing under the conditions
of this particular test. It should be re-
marked, however, that these conditions are
much less trying than those which compel
coordinated eye-movements to be executed
within a limited time; and that the latter
conditions often elicit and exhibit marked
disturbances. This work will probably be
carried farther.
Dr. Rogers perfected an attachment for the
Henderson rebreather by means of which the
1Cobb, P. W., ‘‘The Influence of Pupillary
Diameter on Visual Acuity,’? Am. Jour. Physiol.,
1915, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 335-346.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1323
rate of diminution of oxygen can be con-
trolled, within reasonable limits, through the
replacement of a known proportion of the
oxygen consumed within a given time. The
apparatus is considered superior in some re-
spects to one previously used in another de-
partment, and its employment assures that
different subjects can be made to experience
comparable degrees of oxygen-hunger for com-
parable times.
An investigation was made by Dr. Mc
Comas on the influence of diminished air-
pressure, simulating an altitude of 20,000
feet, on the time required for selective re-
action to a number of combinations of signals
visually perceived. The experiment being ex-
ploratory in character, and the time of the
experimenter being limited, it was not feasible
to introduce certain controls which otherwise
would have been desirable. However, the data
as obtained indicate that the time required
for selective response is greatly lengthened
and its variability increased, by the abnormal
conditions of the experiment, until the sub-
ject by continued practise has rendered his
responses almost purely mechanical. The re-
sults obtained in the later stages of training
are open to more than one interpretation, and
it is planned to resume experimentation as
soon as may be practicable.
Dr. Bagby made a systematic contribution
in the form of a study entitled “A psycho-
logical point of view in psychiatry, with
special reference to pathological behavior
under deprivation of oxygen.” This report
calls attention to manifestations of emotional
instability which sometimes occur during the
rebreathing test in the absence of adequate
external stimuli. The display under such
conditions of anger, fear, destructiveness, ex-
cessive nonchalance, silliness and euphoria, is
compared with symptoms of alcoholic intoxi-
cation, and with characteristic symptoms of
certain types of insanity. The opportunity
incidentally afforded by the test, of observing
evidences of lack of poise which are not nec-
essarily prominent in the normal state, is
emphasized.
A study of associative responses was begun
May 7, 1920]
during the summer by Dr. Bagby, for the
purpose of exhibiting the extent to which
pathological reactive tendencies, existing nor-
mally in a state of repression, tend to be
released under diminished barometric pres-
sures corresponding to fairly high altitudes.
The author was separated from the service
before the work was completed, but not until
after an excellent collection of test-material
had been compiled and tested. Arrangements
have been made to have the work completed
by Lieutenant Isaacs, as soon as the low
pressure chamber has been installed in its new
location.
The results of the tests of aptitude for fly-
ing, administered by Drs. McComas and
Bagby at Taylor and Souther fields under
the direction of Major Stratton in 1918, were
worked up in the department under the
direction of Dr. Coover, with the assistance
of several members of the staff. The data
indicate that the tests taken as a group have
some diagnostic value and that certain of the
individual tests if further refined may have
considerable practical value. An important
fact exhibited by the data is that flying grades
do not adequately differentiate aviational
ability. About 85 per cent. of the cadets
tested at one field was rated within a range
of five points on,a scale of 100. This means,
practically, that a certain grade was taken as
expressing the rating “Fairly good,” for ex-
ample; and that practically all the men so
regarded received the same grade, no means
being provided for ranking them within the
elass within which they fall. This makes a
comparison of flying grade with other scores,
quite difficult of interpretation.
The results of a number of tests of avi-
ational ability used by Captain Dockeray and
Lieutenant Isaacs in the A. E. F. were worked
up by those authors here. The data show
that the scores of the subjects in two of the
tests are highly correlated with the estimate
of aviational ability as made by the training
department, the coefficients in both cases be
ing approximately 0.73. It is safe to say
that if six to eight tests as satisfactory as
these were developed, they would afford a
SCIENCE 451
better basis of prediction of flying-school per-
formance than is afforded by the cadets’
records in civil life, or by their performance
in ground school, ete. It is planned to con-
tinue the effort to develop such tests.
Preliminary work in the department sug-
gested that two forms of test, if sufficiently
refined, might prove to be quite valuable in
diagnosis of aviational ability and in exhibit-
ing its impairment. These tests are (1) of
the ability to control the coordinated activity
of certain systems of voluntary muscles; and
(2) of the relative time required for selective
reaction to one of three signals presented suc-
cessively and in irregular sequence (a) under
a standard condition of observation and (6)
under a condition of observation so difficult
as to be trying. This work is still in the
early stages, due largely to the delay in
making the annual appropriation available,
and to the general disorganization and tur-
moil incidental to the closing of Hazelhurst
Field and moving the laboratory hither.
In addition to the research activities re-
capitulated above, some considerable energy
of the department was devoted to supervision
of the psychological features of the routine
tests run at branch laboratories; to the ad-
ministration of classification-tests at the local
fields; and to cooperation with other depart-
ments in the administration of tests in which
the department of psychology was not directly
interested.
Courses in psychology were given to three
classes of military physicians in training for
the work of flight surgeons. These courses
coyered: fundamental presuppositions of the
science of psychology as defined by the more
prominent contemporary authors; the rudi-
ments of psychophysical methods and tech-
nique; an introduction to elementary statis-
tics, including measures of central tendencies,
yariability and correlation; the psychological
features of the classification-tests used in the
Air Service; and an introduction to the con-
cept of the wish as a unit in behavior. While
most of these students made quite a credit-
able showing it has since been deemed ad-
yisable to discontinue the work in statistics
452
and to substitute for it work bearing directly
on the “personality study ” which these phys-
icians are required to make of their wards.
Harry M. JoHNSON,
Sanitary Corps.
MiTcHEL FIED, L. I., N. Y.
GENERAL BIOLOGY AND THE JUNIOR
COLLEGE
Bionocists are much indebted to Professor
Nichols for his excellent summary of senti-
ment in respect to the so-called “General
Biology” course. His survey would appear
to indicate that possibly a majority of biol-
ogists believe that a year’s work, consisting of
a half year each of introductory botany and
zoology, is general biology or is at least a
preferable substitute for it. In a recent
article Professor Henderson expresses his dis-
sent from this view and raises the question of
the relation of this course to general culture
and the junior college. He says:
I take it as axiomatie that there is a certain
minimum of information regarding matters bio-
logieal which every educated man ought to
have...
and
It seems—at least some of us hope—that to-day
we are about to see a displacement of the academic
course in favor of the junior college, which would
give such general subjects as the languages, Ameri-
ean history, elementary chemistry and physics, and
the one or two other things which every one should
have; ...
The Junior College—That there is already
a strong current of sentiment toward the
junior college is a fact of which one can
scarcely remain unaware. For this there ap-
pear to be several reasons. In the first place
many of the larger universities are fairly
swamped with students of immature age in
respect to the nature and content of the
courses offered them. A second and possibly
more important reason is that such junior
colleges can be established and maintained in
most larger towns and cities. This results in
a desirable saving in expense to the student.
Its chief advantage to the university lies in
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1323
the fact that it frees it from overcrowding
and acts as a desirable preliminary period
during which there is likely to occur a sort-
ing out of the students better qualified by
ability and interest to pursue the professional
courses of the university.
In the third place our universities are shcw-
ing stronger and stronger tendencies away
from “general culture” courses. To the
small college is left, in large measure, the
task of imparting general culture. Modern
edueation consists, then, either in a series of
years devoted wholly to general culture, or in
an equal period of specialized, more or less
technical study, the determining factor being
whether the student happened to attend a
small college or one of the larger universities.
The exigencies of modern life forbid, in the
ease of many individuals, and render of
doubtful value for others, the spending of
four years in acquiring general culture. On
the other hand, a curriculum devoted wholly
to specialized training is thought by many
intelligent persons not to afford a liberal edu-
cation, at least in the best sense of that term.
The junior college offers a feasible, if not an
ideal, solution of the difficulty by allowing (or
perhaps requiring) two years of general cul-
ture on which may be superposed two or more
of specialized training.
An important feature of the junior college
which commends it to many is the limited
election which its organization permits. The
immature student may well be compelled to
form acquaintance in an elementary way with
the subject matter of the chief jines of human
endeavor, and, what is more important, with
the point of view and habits of thought of
workers along these lines. Too free a range
of election in the earlier years hinders this
attainment of broad outlook by tempting the
student to follow along familiar pathways.
With distressing frequency is the spectacle
presented of students clinging to certain
groups of courses because they feel reasonably
sure of success therein, whereas their own
best educational interests demand that they
venture into strange fields and feed on un-
tried pabulum.
May 7, 1920]
Whether the first two college years are
given on the university campus or in a sep-
arate junior college it seems highly desirable
to reconsider the nature and content of their
courses. As matters now stand in the larger
institutions there are likely to be from twenty
to thirty separate departments of instruction,
each of which offers an elementary course
introductory to its particular field of investi-
gation. Under these circumstances the stu-
dent finds it difficult or impossible to acquire
a general knowledge of the fields of human
endeayor. It is true, of course, that most de-
partments aim so to construct their intro-
ductory courses as to make them suitable
foundations for further and more specialized
work and at the same time afford as much
general information and training as possible.
The truth, in the opinion of many, is that
this double object is very difficult, or perhaps
impossible, of satisfactory achievement. It
is the old, old problem of serving two masters
and usually with “General Culture” cast for
the réle of Mammon. The general result is
that there are numerous excellent courses in
every university, considered from the point of
view of introductions to their respective sub-
jects, but very few general culture courses
worthy the name. But even granting that
some do achieve this two-fold object and that
all might do so, it still remains true that the
student must take too many courses to secure
what he desires and must learn many special-
ized facts and acquire special technique which
he neither ardently desires nor particularly
needs.
If, now, the case against the growing ex-
treme specialization in the first two college
years has been fairly put, we are faced with
the problem of attempting a resynthesis of
the subject matter of elementary courses
which will at once reduce the number of
courses and broaden their outlook. The chief
aim should be to remove them from the field
of specialization to that of general culture;
to make them fit into the general educational
scheme of the genuinely well-educated man.
However, sight must not be lost wholly of the
fact that these junior college courses will
SCIENCE
453
constitute, also, the collegiate introduction,
in some cases, to the specialized lines of study
to be pursued later. To be specific, the gen-
eral biology course must not only present a
broad view of the field of biology to the gen-
eral culture student but should also make
clear to the future physician, agriculturist, or
scientific investigator the relation of his spe
cial field of effort to that larger domain of
which it is but a specialized part.
Before considering the specific application
of these general ideas to the question of ele
mentary instruction in biology it seems de-
sirable to raise and discuss two preliminary
inquiries: (1) What is wrong with the “ Gen-
eral Biology” courses of the past? (2) Why
are the usual consecutive courses in botany
and zoology regarded as unsatisfactory ?
The Case against “ General Biology.” —Care-
ful reading of Professor Nichols’s paper shows
that the objections to general biology are
directed, for the most part, against the
“standard” course, based originally on the
text-book of Huxley and Martin; but with an
undercurrent of opinion that no course can
avoid certain pitfalls, among which are: the
difficulty of finding men of sufficient breadth
of view to give general biology adequate pre-
sentation; the equally serious difficulty of
finding zoologists and botanists who ean co-
operate harmoniously in giving a _ course
jointly; the danger that abstract principles
may be stressed unduly, to the exclusion of
concrete facts; and finally, the alleged un-
suitability of general biology as an intro-
duction to further study of zoology or botany.
Disregarding, as we should, those objections
that are based on interdepartmental or inter-
professional jealousies, and assuming, as we
may, that zoologists and botanists will cooper-
ate willingly, if the need for such cooperation
becomes clear, the problem boils down to the
question whether a “ General Biology ” course
properly designed to afford a maximum of
general culture would also be a useful and
desirable introduction to his field for the
future botanist, zoologist, or physician.
Objections to Consecutive Courses in Botany
and Zoology.—Consecutive courses usually are
454
not, and generally are not intended to be,
adequate presentations of general biology.
On the contrary these courses are commonly
admirable introductions to the sort of botany
or zoology taught in their respective institu-
tions. They are open to criticism from two
directions. In the first place they contain
much that is of little interest or importance
to the general culture student and they usually
involve an excessive amount of detailed lab-
oratory work for this type of student. We do
not mean to assert that a thorough training
in the laboratory is not good for any sort of
student but merely to point out the absurdity
of compelling him to acquire a different one
for each field of study if he is to become a
really well educated man. Not unnaturally
the majority of students, under a system of
relative freedom of election, decline to at-
tempt to secure a general education at this
exorbitant price.
On the other hand these courses are seri-
ously deficient, from this point of view, in
what they omit. This is more serious than
the inclusions, for one may reasonably be will-
ing to pay an excessive price for a worthwhile
article but he can hardly be expected to be
satisfied to pay for what he ardently wishes
and really needs and then not get it, even
after being overcharged.
Furthermore this criticism comes not alone
from the general culture student but also
from one of the largest groups of biologists,
namely, the medical students. The tandem
arrangement has never been satisfactory to
them, and now, with the increasing pressure
upon their time for technical zoological
courses, such as comparative anatomy, be-
comes virtually impossible. The present situ-
ation is that the prospective medical student
takes no botany at all, or does so only at the
sacrifice of valuable and important non-scien-
tific study, of which he obtains at best far too
little. And furthermore, whether he studies
botany or not, he goes through his course
without having had formal opportunity to
acquire a broad conception of life itself and
the interrelations of living things with one
another and with the inorganic world.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1323
What is General Biology.—To the writers
it seems clear that it does not consist in some
zoology and some botany, whether adminis-
tered in the old-fashioned mixture, improperly
called general biology, or in the more modern
separate dose method of consecutive courses.
To us it seems axiomatic that it must have
a much broader outlook and that it must in a
general way include somewhat the following
topics: (1) The structures and functions
common to all living things; (2) The dis-
tinguishing characteristics of plants as such
and their function in the world; (8) The
essential characters of animals; (4) The inter-
relations of plants and animals with one an-
other and with inorganic nature, with special
reference to competition, survival, injury,
death, disease, and decomposition; (5) The
processes of nature whereby matter and energy
are so conserved and transformed as to permit
the ceaseless and indefinitely continuous round
of life. To be more specific this means a
study of: (a) Protoplasm—its structure and
functions, cells, cell division, colonial and
multicellular organisms, growth and differ-
entiation; (b) the role of green plants in the
transformation of the free energy of sunlight
and simple inorganic compounds into complex
energy-containing organic compounds to be
used as foods—z. e., as sources of energy and
building materials—by animals and non-green
plant cells; (¢) how these foods are used by
animals in growth and work and how they
produce wastes, eventually to be used again
by plants; (d) the sensitivity of protoplasm
and its réle in relating the plant and animal
to their environment; (e) growth and repro-
duction; (f) heredity and evolution; (g) dis-
ease and death; (h) decomposition, putrefac-
tion, and fermentation and other processes in
the soil that render organic materials again
usable by green plants; (2) the transforma-
tions and conservation of matter and energy
as exemplified in the carbon, nitrogen, and
other organic cycles.
Administrative Difficulties—It seems prob-
able that much of the prejudice against the
“General Biology” course has actually had
its origin in the inter-departmental friction
May 7, 1920]
of administering a large joimt undertaking.
We have no doubt that this ean be overcome,
with patience and good will, even with the
present organization of our chief universities.
But, on the other hand, these difficulties are
greatly minimized under a junior college
organization. Presumably in most institu-
tions the first two years work would be placed
directly under the control of a dean or other
similar administrative officer with little or no
departmental bias. He would be empowered
and obligated to organize such general courses
—General Biology and others—without inter-
ference from departments or technical schools,
though he would doubtless wisely seek such
advice as he needed.
Under a junior college organization, general
biology is but one of the urgent needs. A
presentation of the general concepts of physics
and chemistry is certainly just as much
needed and doubtless equally feasible. Cer-
tainly the educated man should know some-
thing of the earth on which he lives and the
planetary system to which it belongs—inter-
esting subject matter for a general course.
It is possibly venturing afield for biologists to
suggest that a general course could also be
devised that would inform the student con-
cerning the human environment in which he
lives. What a fascinating course could be
made by a serious attempt to set before the
student the réle of the state, the church, labor,
capital, eugenics, and euthenics!
In conclusion the writers, a botanist and a
physiologist, respectively, would beg to record
their conviction not only that a course in
general biology, and other similar courses, can
be organized and that they are highly desir-
able but also that the advance of the junior
college will shortly force us to attempt it
whether we like it or not.
Lzonas L. Buriincame,
Ernest G. Martin
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
FRANCIS C. PHILLIPS
Dr. Francis Cxirrorp Puiurs died at his
residence, 144 Ridge Avenue, Ben Avon, Pa.,
on Monday, February 16, of influenza-pneu-
SCIENCE
455
monia, passing away in the same peaceful
manner which characterized his life. ;
He was born in Philadelphia, April 2, 1850,
the son of William S. and Fredericka Inger-
soll Phillips. He received his early education
at home from an unusually capable and de-
voted mother. In 1864 Dr. Phillips studied
at the Academy of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia and in 1866 entered
the University of Pennsylvania, where he ob-
tained his A.B. From 1871-1873 he studied
under Regimus Fresenius at Wiesbaden, Ger-
many. During the latter year he was private
assistant to Professor Fresenius. He then
spent a year at the Polytechnic School at
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). Here he was as-
sociated with Professor Landolt. Professor
Phillips was unable to complete his studies:
abroad because of the poor health of his
father. He returned to America and during
the following year became instructor in chem-
istry at Delaware College. In 1875 he was
appointed to the teaching staff of the Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh, then the Western Univer- |
sity of Pennsyvania, where he taught for forty
years, retiring as head of the Department of
Chemistry in 1915. For many years he taught
chemistry, geology and mineralogy. Even in
the writer’s student days (1898-1902) Pro-
fessor Phillips still taught all branches of
chemistry and mineralogy. In 1878-1879 he
also lectured to the students in the Pittsburgh
College of Pharmacy, where he succeeded the
late Professor John W. Langley, a brother of
the late Samuel P. Langley, then at the Alle-
gheny Observatory and afterwards secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1879 he
received the degree of A.M. from the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, and in 1893 the Ph.D.
He was married in 1881 to Sarah Ormsby
Phillips daughter of Ormsby Phillips, a
former mayor of Allegheny.
In 1915 Dr. Phillips retired from active
service in the University of Pittsburgh under
the pension system of the Carnegie Founda-
tion. Since that time he had been engaged
continuously in research and writing in a
laboratory provided by the Mellon Institute.
During the recent war he conducted researches
456
on gases in cooperation with the Gas Warfare
Service.
In June, 1919, Dr. Phillips received the
honorary degree of Doctor of Science from
the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Phillips was an authority on natural
gas in which field he held international recog-
nition. In 1904 he published the “ Methods
of Analysis of Ores, Pig Iron and Steel used
by the Chemists in the Pittsburgh Region,”
and in 1913 a text-book of “Chemical Ger-
man,” of which a second edition appeared in
1916. At the time of his death Dr. Phillips
had two other books well under way, one on
the “ Life and Work of Joseph Priestley,” the
other on “ Qualitative Gas Reactions.”
Dr. Phillips was a member of the following
societies :
Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity since 1867.
Engineers’ Society, of Western Pennsylvania
since 1880.
American Association for Advancement of
Science since 1887.
American Institute of Mining
since 1892.
American Chemical Society since 1894.
American Philosophical Society since 1894.
Phi Lambda Upsilon Fraternity since 1919.
Dr. Phillips was a member of the Chemists’
Club of New York City and the University
Club of Pittsburgh.
He has been a member of the council of the
American Chemical Society since the organ-
ization of the Pittsburgh Section in 1903.
Beside his widow, Mrs. Sarah Ormsby
Phillips, Dr. Phillips leaves two sons, Clifford
S. and Frederick I. Phillips.
ALEXANDER SILVERMAN
ScHooL oF CHEMISTRY,
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
Engineers
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
BIRD BANDING WORK BEING TAKEN OVER
BY THE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY
Tue Bureau of Biological Survey at Wash-
ington, D. C., has taken over the work
formerly carried on under the auspices of the
Linnaean Society of New York by the Amer-
ican Bird Banding Association. In taking
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
over this work the bureau feels that it should
express the debt that students of ornithology
in this country owe to Mr. Howard H.
Cleaves for the devotion and success with
which he has conducted its investigation up
to a point where it has outgrown the possi-
bilities of his personal supervision.
Under plans now being formulated this
work will give a great amount of invaluable
information concerning the migration and
distribution of North American birds which
will be of direct service in the administration
of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, as well as
of much general scientific interest.
It is desired to develop this work along two
principal lines: first, the trapping and band-
ing of waterfowl, especially ducks and geese,
on both their breeding and winter grounds;
and secondly, the systematic trapping of land
birds as initiated by Mr. S. Prentiss -Bald-
win, the early results of which have been pub-
lished by him in the Proceedings of the
Linnean Society of New York, No. 18, 1919,
pp. 23-55. It is planned to enlist the interest
and services of volunteer workers, who will
undertake to operate and maintain trapping
stations throughout the year, banding new
birds and recording the data from those pre-
viously banded. The results from a series of
stations thus operated will undoubtedly give
new insight into migration routes; speed of
travel during migration; longevity of species;
afinity for the same nesting-site year after
year; and, in addition, furnish a wealth of
information relative to the behavior of the
individual, heretofore impossible because of
the difficulty of keeping one particular bird
under observation.
The details of operation are now receiving
close attention, and as soon as possible the
issue of bands will be announced, with full
information regarding the methods to be fol-
lowed and the results expected. In the mean-
time, the Biological Survey will be glad to
receive communications from those sufficiently
interested and satisfactorily located to engage
in this work during their leisure time, for it
is obvious that. a considerable part must be
done by volunteer operators. It is hoped that
May 7, 1920]
a sufficient number will take this up to imsure
the complete success of the project.
E. W. Netson,
Chief of Bureau
THE PACIFIC COAST DIVISION OF THE AMERI-
CAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE-
MENT OF SCIENCE
Tue fourth annual convention of the Pa-
cifie Coast Division of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science will
meet at the University of Washington, Seattle,
on June 17, to continue three days. Delegates
from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada and British Columbia, will
be present. It is expected that more than 250
scientists will take part in the proceedings.
_ Delegates from California, Stanford, Ore-
gon, Idaho, Washington and Southern Cali-
fornia universities, California Institute of
Technology, Scripps Institute, Oregon Agri-
cultural College, Reed College and Washing-
ton State College have been asked to attend
the research conferences, which are under the
direction of the National Research Council.
Morning sessions the first two days, Thurs-
day and Friday, June 17 and 18, will be de-
voted to meetings of the affiliated societies, the
Western Society of Naturalists, Pacific Fish-
eries Society, American Physical Society, As-
tronomical Society of the Pacific, Cordilleran
Section of the Geological Society of America,
Pacific Coast branch of the Paleontological
Society, American Phytopathological Society,
San Francisco section of the American Mathe-
matical Society, Seismological Society, Ameri-
can Chemical Society, Cooper Ornithological
Club, Ecological Society of America, Society
of American Foresters and Research Society.
The program includes registration, programs
of the affiliated societies, a symposium on fish-
eries, Seattle automobile drives and welcoming
addresses by President Henry Suzzallo and
John C. Merriam, dean of faculties of the
University of California, president of the
Pacific Coast division of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science and
chairman of the states relations committee of
the National Research Council. A Sigma Xi-
Phi Beta Kappa lecture will be arranged for
SCIENCE
457
on Friday evening. Provision will be made
for excursions to Rainier National Park and
the Biological and Astronomical stations,
Snoqualmie Falls and other points of interest,
and a reception at the University of Washing-
ton last evening.
THE RESIGNATION OF THE DIRECTOR OF
THE BUREAU OF MINES
Dr. Van H. Mannine, director of the Bu-
reau of Mines, Department of the Interior,
has tendered his resignation, effective on
June 1, to President Wilson. Dr. Manning is
leaving the government service to accept the
position of director of research with the
recently organized American Petroleum In-
stitute, the most important body of petroleum
men of the country.
In his letter to the President, Dr. Mann-
ing says:
I hereby tender you my resignation, to take ef-
fect June 1, 1920, as director of the Bureau of
Mines.
It will be with reluctance and deep regret that
I shall sever my connection with the Department
of the Interior after thirty-four years of active
service therein, and it is the opportunity of being
able to continue in another capacity the work for
the advancement of purposes fostered by the de-
partment that has been the chief factor in deter-
mining my decision to resign.
I take this opportunity to express my sincere ap-
preciation of the confidence that you have reposed
in me as a public official and of the cordial co-
operation of the departmental executives whom I
have been able to serve. Especially I appreciate
your constant help in my efforts to develop an or-
ganization that has at heart the welfare of the
public, the advancement. of the mineral industry,
and the safety of the two million workers who con-
tribute to the success of that industry.
In leaving the government service there comes
t0 me, as it has over and over again, the thought
that although this government spends each year
many millions of dollars in useful scientific work
for the benefit of the whole people, the monetary
recognition of its scientific and technical servants
is not sufficient to enable them to continue in the
service for the people. This has been especially
true within the last few years when it has been
impossible for many men to remain in the govern-
ment service.
458
With the marvelous expansion of the industry
of this country and the growing necessity of science
to industry, the scientific bureaus have been utterly
unable to hold their assistants against the compe-
tition of industry which is taking their highly
trained men at salaries the government does not
pay or even approach.
_ I feel very deeply that there ought to be more
adequate compensation for the scientific and tech-
nical men in the government service so that none
of them may be compelled to accept positions on
the outside.
, Many of these scientific men are of fine type for
government work, eare little for the commercial
field, take an intense professional interest in their
tasks and are of inestimable value to the govern-
ment.
RESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR E. F. NICHOLS
; FROM THE YALE UNIVERSITY FACULTY
, ANNOUNCEMENT is made from Yale Univer-
sity that the resignation of Ernest Fox Nichols,
Se.D., LL.D., professor of physics, has been
tendered and accepted. Professor Nichols has
accepted the post of director of pure science in
the Nela Research Laboratories of the National
Lamp Works of the General Electric Company,
at Cleveland, Ohio.
a offering his resignation Dr. Nichols wrote
the following letter to the Yale corporation in
explanation of the conditions which had led to
his decision:
SLOANE LABORATORY,
YALE UNIVERSITY,
NEw Haven, CoNNECTICUT,
April 21, 1920
‘THE CORPORATION OF YALE UNIVERSITY.
Gentlemen: I have been offered the post of di-
rector of pure scence in the Nela Research Labor-
atories, National Lamp Works of the General
Electrie Company, at Cleveland, Ohio. The posi-
tion offers complete freedom in the choice of re-
search problems, and places at my unhampered dis-
posal such human and material resources as no
university I know of can at present afford.
I would like to accept this offer and therefore
respectfully ask you to release me at the close of
the present academic year from my post of pro-
fessor of physics in Yale University.
The thought of leaving present colleagues and
university surroundings is to me, in many ways, a
source of deep regret, and I have hesitated long
over my decision; yet the heightened opportunities
(
i
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
of the new position are in everything else so ad-
yantageous that the offer becomes finally irresist-
ible.
With appreciation and sincere regard,
Yours very truly,
Signed: Ernest Fox NIcHoLs
Dr. Nichols went to Yale University in the
fall of 1916 to occupy a new chair of physics,
having resigned the presidency of Dartmouth
College, in which capacity he had served since
1909, in order that he might have the desired
opportunity to continue his scientific work.
Professor Nichols is a graduate of the Kansas
Agricultural College in the class of 1888, and
has held professorships of physics in Colgate
(College, Dartmouth College and Columbia
University. During the war from 1917 to
1919 he was absent from Yale University, to
engage in research and development work for
the navy.
THE ALLEGHENY OBSERVATORY
Tue following minute was adopted by the
observatory committee and also by the ex-
ecutive committee of the board of trustees of
the University of Pittsburgh at its meeting
on January 14:
In complying with the request of Dr. Frank
Schlesinger that he be relieved of his duties as di-
rector on April 1, 1920, to take charge of the Yale
Observatory, the committee desire to express their
appreciation of his fifteen years of active and
fruitful service, during which the Allegheny Ob-
servatory has made many valuable contributions
to astronomical science, and worthily upheld its
international reputation ereated by Langley and
Keeler. While we regret to lose the valuable co-
operation and friendly personal relationship which
our long association with Dr. Schlesinger has de-
veloped, we sincerely congratulate him on the en-
larged and attractive field of scientific usefulness
which his new position offers; and heartily wish
for himself and family, continued health, happi-
ness and success. Moreover, we look forward with
pleasure to our continued cooperation in the solu-
tion of the great astronomical problems which are
rapidly bringing into closer fellowship the astro-
physicists of the world.
On the evening of March 22, a few days
before Dr. Schlesinger’s departure for New
May 7, 1920]
Haven, a testimonial dinner was given to
him by the observatory committee. Besides
the committee there were present other mem-
bers of the board of trustees and a few other
guests.
Dr. H. D. Curtis has been elected director
of the observatory and he is to assume charge
early in July, 1920. Dr. Curtis has been
connected with the Lick Observatory for about
twenty years. For a number of years he had
charge of the station of the Lick Observatory
at Santiago, Chile; more recently he has had
charge of the work with the Crossley Reflect-
ing Telescope on Mount Hamilton.
Dr. Frank Craig Jordan, assistant pro-
fessor at the Allegheny Observatory since
1908, has been promoted to a full professor-
ship and has been elected assistant director of
the observatory.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Mempers of the National Academy of Sci-
ences have been elected as follows: Dr. James
Rowland Angell, University of Chicago and
the National Research Council, president-elect
of the Carnegie Corporation, psychologist; Dr.
Henry Prentiss Armsby, Pennsylvania State
College, physiological chemist: Dr. Wilder D.
Baneroft, Cornell University and the Na-
tional Research Council, chemist; Dr. Hans
F. Blichfeldt, Stanford University, mathe-
matician; Dr. A. J. Carlson, University of
Chicago, physiologist; Dr. William Duane,
Harvard University, physicist; Dr. Lewis R.
Jones, University of Wisconsin, plant pathol-
ogist; Dr. Elmer Peter Kohler, Harvard
University, chemist; Dr. Charles K. Leith,
University of Wisconsin, geologist; Dr.
Clarence Erwin McClung, University of
Pennsylvania and National Research Council,
zoologist; Dr. Elmer V. McCollum, the Johns
Hopkins University, physiological chemist;
Dr. George Washington Pierce, Harvard
University, physicist; Harris J. Ryan, Stan-
ford University, electrical engineer; Dr. Joel
Stebbins, University of Illinois, astronomer,
and Dr. Bailey Willis, Stanford University,
geologist. Arthur L. Day, of the Carnegie
Institution, and T. H. Morgan, of Columbia
SCIENCE
459
University, were elected members of the
council.
AT a meeting held April 20, the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, in recog-
nition of their scientific accomplishments,
elected as correspondents the following:
William Berryman Scott, Merrit L. Fernald,
Hans Frederick Gadow, Johann P. Lotsy,
Daniel T. MacDougal, Raymond Pearl,
William E. Ritter, William Schaus and
William Lutley Sclater.
Dr. WittraM Morris Davis, emeritus pro-
fessor of geology at Harvard University, has
been awarded the Vega medal of the Swedish
Anthropological and Geographical Society.
AT its last meeting the Rumford Committee
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
made the following appropriations for re-
search: To Professor H. M. Randall, of the
University of Michigan, in aid of his research
on the structure of spectra in the infra-red,
five hundred dollars; to Professor L. R. Inger-
soll, of the University of Wisconsin, in aid of
his research on the polarizing effect of diffrac-
tion gratings, one hundred and fifty dollars;
to Professor A. G. Webster, of Clark Univer-
sity, in aid of his researches on new methods in
pyrodynamics and practical interior ballistics,
five hundred dollars.
ProFessor Jacques Hapamarp, Se.D., LL.D.,
of the Collége of France, is delivering at Yale
University the thirteenth regular course of lec-
tures on the Hepsa Ely Silliman Foundation.
The first of M. Hadamard’s lectures on “ Some
topics in linear partial differential equations ”
was given on April 23.
THE second series of the LeConte Memorial
lectures will be given in the Yosemite National
Park during the months of June and July.
These lectures were instituted in honor of the
naturalist and geologist, Joseph Le Conte, who
for thirty years was a member of the faculty
of the University of California. This year the
speakers and subjects are announced as fol-
lows: Dr. John C. Merriam, “ The philosophy
of Joseph Le Conte”; Dr. A. C. Lawson, “ The
geological history of the Sierra Nevada”; Dr.
Joseph Grinnell, “The vertebrate animals of
460
the Yosemite”; Dr. C. Hart Merriam, “In-
dian tribes formerly in Yosemite.”
Tue University of Copenhagen has awarded
the Salomonsen prize to Professor V. Eller-
mann for his work on leukemia in fowls. The
fund for promotion of research on diabetes has
been awarded to Dr. H. C. Hagedorn.
A PRELIMINARY committee has been formed
to give to Sir George Thane, who recently re-
signed the chair of anatomy at University Col-
lege, London, after forty-two years’ service,
some mark of the appreciation felt for him by
his old pupils and colleagues. The intention is
to ask Sir George Thane to sit for his portrait.
CLAUDE WAKELAND, deputy state entomolo-
gist of Colorado in charge’ of the alfalfa
weevil investigation during the three years
1917-19, has accepted the position of state
extension entomologist with the University of
Idaho. Mr. Wakeland’s permanent head-
quarters will be at Boise.
Dr. Davm Kern has resigned as associate
professor of biochemistry in the Johns Hop-
kins University School of Public Health and
Hygiene, and has taken a position with the
Hollister Wilson Laboratories, Chicago, IIl.,
as director of research and controi labora-
tories.
Ernest JENKINS HorrMan, who recently re-
signed as assistant chemist, U. S. Bureau of
Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa., has accepted a posi-
tion in organie research with W. B. Pratt,
Ine., Boston, Mass.
Frxine their base of scientific operations in
Death Valley at a level of 178 feet below the
sea at the mouth of Furnace Creek Canyon
which issues from the Funeral Mountains,
Dr. Francis B. Sumner, associate professor
and biologist in the Scripps Institute for
Biological Research, and Joseph Grinnell,
professor of zoology and director of the Uni-
versity of California Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology, are now making special studies upon
the mammals and birds of Death Valley.
The expenses of the expedition are being
defrayed from a special fund provided for the
purpose by Mr. E. W. Scripps.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
New M. Jupp, curator of American archeol-
ogy in the U. S. National Museum, left for
northwestern Arizona on May 1 to continue
his archeological investigations of the region
north and west of the Rio Colorado. It is -
expected that a report on the prehistoric re-
mains of this section of the southwest, cover-
ing researches of the past five years, will fol-
low this season’s work. At the request of the
National Geographical Society, the secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution has granted
permission for Mr. Judd to direct the
society’s archeological reconnaissance of the
Chaco Canyon region in New Mexico.
WHILE returning from the recent meeting
of the American Chemical Society at St.
Louis, Dr. J. H. Ransom, director of chemical
research at the Michigan Smelting and Re-
fining Co., Detroit, Mich. stopped off at
Purdue University and delivered a lecture on
Non-Ferrous Alloys before the students of
the school of chemical engineering. Dr.
Ransom was formerly professor of general
chemistry in this university.
, Iv is requested that any material or facts of
interest which will aid in the construction of
a biographical memoir of the life and work of
Henry Lord Wheeler, be mailed to Professor
Treat B. Johnson, of Yale University, who is
preparing a memoir of Professor Wheeler for
the National Academy of Sciences.
THE autumn meeting of the American
Chemical Society will be held in Chicago from
September 7 to 10, inclusive.
A SPECIAL meeting of the Colorado Academy
of Sciences which is the natural history sec-
tion of the State Historical and Natural His-
tory Society of Colorado, was held at the State
Museum, Denver, on April 2, when the follow-
img program was presented:
Work done and work that should be done by—
1. The Office of the State Forester, W. J. Morrill,
state forester, Ft. Collins, Colo.
2. The Office of the State Geologist, R. D. George,
state geologist, Boulder, Colorado.
3. The Office of the State Entomologist, C. P. Gil-
lette, state entomologist, Fort Collins, Colo.
THE annual convention of Sigma Gamma
May 7, 1920]
Epsilon, the national undergraduate fraternity
devoted to mining and geology, was held at
Columbia, Missouri, on April 2 and 3. The
fraternity passed resolutions urging 'the taking
of steps to eliminate the fake mining engineer
and geologist and offering its assistance to that
end. <A chapter of the fraternity is to be
shortly installed in the University of Texas.
THE University of Arizona through the Ari-
zona Bureau of Mines will this year conduct
its annual field course in geology and mining
for advanced students in the Dos Cabezas
Mountains in southeastern Arizona. The re-
gion selected is one of complex and highly di-
versified geology, and several different types of
ore deposits are under active development
there. The party will enter the field on July
1, and will remain in camp for eight weeks.
Proressor Dayton C. Minuer, of the Case
School of Applied Science, lectured under the
auspices of the Research Committee of Ober-
lin College on April 14, on “Scientific Re-
search at an army post.”
Proressor Doucuas JoHNSoN, of Columbia
University, addressed the Women’s Canadian
Club of Montreal, on March 19, on “ The in-
fluence of topography on the war”; and a joint
meeting of the Men’s Canadian Club and the
Women’s Canadian Club of Quebec, on Mareh
20, on “Geographic problems of the Peace
Conference.”
Proressor Max Mason, of the University of
Wisconsin, lectured on April 7 and 8 before
the department of mathematics and physics of
the University of Iowa on the “ Hinstein
theory of gravitation.” He gave also a gen-
eral lecture om “ Methods used for the detec-
tion of submarines.” Professor Mason is the
inventor of apparatus for the detection of sub-
marines.
Dr. H. J. WHEELER, of Boston, recently ad-
dressed the agricultural faculty and graduate
students in agriculture of the University of
Minnesota on “ The effect of crops upon those
which follow,” giving a summary of his earliest
work on this subject in Rhode Island and of
the continuation of it by Hartwell and
Pember.
SCIENCE
461
At the Royal Geographical Society on
March 17, Sir Ernest Shackleton gave an ac-
count of the geographical and scientific results
of the 1914-1917 Antarctic Expedition.
Dr. Gro. F. Freeman, botanist of the So-
ciété Sultanienne Agriculture, gave a lec-
jure before the Cairo Scientific Society, April
i, on “ The origin of agricultural plants.”
Tue New York Academy of Medicine held a
emonial meeting in honor of the late Dr.
Abraham Jacobi’s ninetieth birthday anniver-
sary on May 6. A bas-relief of Dr. Jacobi was
presented by George McAneny and was ac-
cepted by the president of the academy, Dr.
George David Stewart. The principal ad-
dress was delivered by Dr. George E. Vincent,
of the Rockefeller Foundation.
At an International Conference of Red
Cross Societies, held at Washington in 1912,
it was decided to establish a medal both as a
memorial to Florence Nightingale and to give
international recognition to outstanding work
by trained nurses in all parts of the world.
Owing to the outbreak of the war in 1914, the
first awards of this medal were postponed;
but it is announced that it is intended to
award fifty of these medals in January, 1920.
The medal is in silver and enamel, consisting
of a portrait of Florence Nightingale, “'The
Lady with the Lamp,” with the words “Ad
memoriam Florence Nightingale 1820-1910.”
On the reverse, surrounding a space reserved
for the name of the recipient, is the inscrip-
tion: “ Pro vera misericordia et cara human-
itate perennis decor universalis.” The medal
is attached to a white and red ribbon, on
which is displayed a laurel wreath in green
enamel surrounding a red cross on a white
ground.
Mr. CHartes Epwarp Groves, F.R.S., editor
of the Journal of the London Chemieal Society
from 1884-1899, and vice-president of the so-
ciety from 1899-1902, who died on February
1, aged 79, has left £10,000 to the Royal Insti-
tution for the “Groves Endowment Fund”
for the promotion of scientific research, to take
effect on the death of the last surviving mem-
ber of his family.
462
Tut Lake Laboratory, which is now per-
manently located at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie,
will open for the summer of 1920 on June 21.
Its facilities will be available for investigators
until the middle of August. Courses for stu-
dents in both plant and animal ecology, ento-
mology, the structure of fresh-water verte-
brates, and in icthyology will be conducted
until August 1. The staff will be composed
of Professor R. C. Osborn, director, Dr. F. H.
Krecker, acting director, Professor 8. R.
Williams, of Miami University, Professor M.
E. Stickney, of Dennison University, and Dr.
C. H. Kennedy, of the Ohio State University.
Some studies on fisheries problems were car-
ried on last year and others are to be started
during the coming session. It is desired to
have the laboratory as well supplied as possible
with recent biological literature and therefore
investigators will be of direct service to the
laboratory by including it in their mailing
list. All reprints of such articles and all cor-
respondence. should be addressed to the Lake
Laboratory, Ohio State University, Columbus,
Ohio.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
A pitt recently passed by the Maryland
legislature combines the Maryland State Col-
ege of Agriculture with the University of
Maryland School of Medicine under the name
of the University of Maryland. The legisla-
ture appropriated $42,500, each year, for the
medical school for the next two years and in
addition appropriated $186,476 for the other
departments of the university for 1921, and
$165,416 for 1922. An appropriation of
$203,000 was made for buildings and equip-
ment.
Dr. Wirtiuam H. Nicuous, of the General
Chemical Company, has given $100,000 to-
ward the endowment fund’ of New York
University.
Ir is planned to erect a new chemistry
building at Dartmouth College, which will
involve an expenditure of about $350,000.
Construction will be begun immediately.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1323
Tue board of trustees of the College of the
City of New York has authorized the grant-
ing of degrees of chemical, civil, electrical,
and mechanical engineer on the satisfactory
completion of a curriculum requiring five
years. The announcement of the details of
the curricula will shortly be issued. This is
one of the steps taken by the College of the
City of New York in the direction of closer
cooperation between industry and colleges
and colleges and universities.
Assistant Proressor GEorcE E. Nicuots, of
Yale University, has been appointed to the
teaching staff of the University of Michigan
Biological Station for the coming summer
session.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
SINGING SANDS
Proressor RIcHARDSON’s recent article about
“ Singing Sands” of Lake Michigan, suggests
to me that in analyzing the beach sands the
students may have taken needless trouble, for
the cause is certainly not dependent on their
composition.
The fascinating pages of Marco Polo have
numerous references to this phenomena, more
or less exaggerated and tinged with supersti-
tion, and many travelers have discussed and
some scientists have studied it.
A volume by Hanns Vischer confirms the
previous statements of Commandant Gadel,
Concerning the “voice of the mountain” near
the oasis of Bilma, he, Vischer, says:
There is a dark and forbidding rock frowning
over Bilma near the southern end of the oasis.
This mountain warns the inhabitants of the ap-
proaching arrival of a caravan; when it ‘‘sings’’
the men then know that a caravan is close at hand.
The noise is produced by the blowing of the wind
from a certain direction through crevices of the
torn rock.
. Says Gadel:
On the sixth of October in the morning, the old
Liman came to tell me that the mountain had
spoken. On ithe eighth of October, at ten in the
morning, the first Asbin caravan arrived, consist-
ing of 4,851 camels and 857 men. The mountain
had not lied.
May 7, 1920]
There is every probability that Mr. Vischer
is mistaken in his guess that the sounds are
made by the blowing of the wind through a
crevice in the rock, as will be seen by a gen-
eral consideration of the subject, before I at-
tempt to set forth the probable scientific expla-
nation of the phenomenon. It is not confined
by any means to the Sahara, or for that matter
to desert places.
Near the coast of one of the Hawaiian Is-
Jands is an old graveyard. The winds blow
ceaselessly across its barren expanse and it is
fast being buried by coral sands. Passing
fisher boats give this shore a wide berth, for
when the wind is right, there arises from the
white expanse a strange wail, like the howl of
a dog, which is attributed to the restless spir-
its of the departed.
On the coast of Lower California, there is a
locality which emits, at times, a bell-like sound.
Here too the winds have piled up fine sand,
and the peons declare that under its mounds
lie buried the ruins of a convent, the bells of
which toll with muffled tones, at the hour of
prayer.
The infrequent traveler in the region of Mt.
Sinai, camping at the mouth of the Wady el
Dér, sometimes hears at sunset, a deep musical,
booming sound, descending from the heights
above. It is the great wooden gong of a monas-
tery, perched upon the cliff. Such a gong is
common in Arabia and is named a “ Nagous.”
On the borders of the Isthmus of Suez stands
a hill known as “Jebel Nagous”; that is, the
Mountain of the Gong. The Arabs tell of
weird sounds heard at this mountain—in
storms, loud and wild, audible from a distance;
jm more quiet weather, low and musical. Jebel
Nagous is alluded to in the “ Arabian Nights.”
The American scientist, the late Dr. H.
Carrington Bolton, some years before his
death, organized an expedition to visit the
mountain. After four days’ journey from Tor,
they went into camp at the base of the hill,
which was found to be about 950 feet high.
Dr. Bolton heard the musiec—a song of several
notes, rising and falling, with one continuous
deep undertone, like an organ note, and was
able to ascertain the cause. Here, as in the
SCIENCE
463
other places named above, it is due to singing
sands. The winds continuously blow this sand
up against the sides of the hill, and impelled
by the wind, it rushes up the slopes, emitting a
multitude of tiny, tinkling notes, which when
combined, make a considerable volume of
sound. Then, just as the waves of the sea
driven up the beach, rush downwards again, so
the sand blown up the steep incline continu-
ally slides back, the angle of rest being about
thirty-one degrees. It is the returning flow
that gives out the steady undertone, increased
by the echo from a sandstone cliff, and vary-
ing with the ever-changing wind.
What are singing sands? Every one has no-
ticed the musical note made by the runners of
a sleigh on a cold, clear night, which is caused
by the impact of the snow or ice particles upon
each other under the pressure of the vehicle.
No ear could detect the sound made by two ice
erystals, but when this is multiplied a thou-
sand-fold, the combined effect is that of an in-
strument of music, playing one rather shrill
note. Something of the kind is observed on
parts of many sea beaches or other sand de-
posits; when they are walked upon, they give
forth a note which varies with the locality.
Ordinary “singing beaches” or “ musical
sands” are rather common, and the phenome-
non has often been described and scientifically
studied. The sounds are usually like the
musical note which may be evoked when the
wetted finger is rubbed around the edge of a
glass bowl. Up to 1908, seventy-four localities
had been noted in this country and eighteen
abroad. In spite of this study, the true cause
of the phenomenon is not yet certainly under-
stood. It does not seem to make any difference
whether the sands have been formed from erys-
talline or amorphous rocks. They differ widely
in different localities in their mineralogical
constituents, yet on the same beach, one place
will give out a sound when disturbed, while
another, a few yards away, is silent though ap-
parently identical in structure. The property
may be quickly lost or may be retained for
months. When the sand is kept in a paper
bag, its quality is best preserved; shaking in a
464
tin or glass receptacle quickly dissipates it;
once lost, it can not be restored. Observers
have been able to detect the sound from a New
England beach sand over 400 feet away, when
a small bagful is suddenly shaken.
While the analogy to the snow crystals may
account for part of the phenomenon in some
cases, it can not account for the singing of
limestone, coral or other non-crystalline sands.
‘Moreover, when one walks barefooted on
musical sands, or runs the hand through them,
there is felt a distinct tingling sensation. To
some, this has suggested an electrical prop-
erty.” The latest and most plausible theory is
that upon clean, dry sands, atmospheric gases
condense, iust as gases will adhere to particles
of some metallic minerals and not others, and
that the sounds and the sensations described
are due to the disturbance of these air cush-
ions. At any rate, the sensation experienced
when walking ‘barefoot through a patch of
musical sand is very similar to that felt when
the hand is immersed in a solution in which
nascent oxygen is being generated./
By the way, I wonder if it has ever occurred
to any archeologist that a possible explanation
of the “ Vocal Memnon” which Strabo and
other travelers attested some two thousand
years ago, might be the presence near the
colossi, of musical sands, long since buried
by the drift from the Libyan Desert.
Apert R. Lepoux
MODERN INTERPRETATIONS OF
DIFFERENTIALS
To THE Epiror or Science: Professor E. V.
Huntington, in an article entitled “ Modern
Interpretation of Differentials” (Scimnceg,
March 26), states with reference to the defi-
nition lim Ay=0, lim NAy= dy, that, “ The
inevitable consequence of such a definition is
that dy—=0, which is futile.” Every school
boy in the theory of limits knows that this is
not true when JN varies.
To take his figure of a graph of a function
_y=f(a), it is logically correct to denote a
point on the graph by P(a, y) without sub-
scripts, and P’(x+ Az, y+ Ay) is any other
point on the graph, where PQ = Az, QP’ = Ay.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou, LI. No, 1323
Produce PQ to PR’=NAxc=A’a, and draw
R'S’ = NAy=A’y, parallel to OY. Then
S'(a2-+ A’x, y+ A’y) is any point on the pro-
duced chord PP’ (it. e., variation in the same
ratio 1s along the chord).
Fie. 1.
Professor Huntington asserts that S’(#-—-+
A’z, y+A’y) inevitably approaches coinci-
dence with P(2, y) when Az, Ay, approach
zero, although it is obvious that it may, if NV
inerease appropriately, approach any chosen
point S(a+dz, y+dy) on the tangent at
P(a, y), so that lim A’a—da, lim A’y=dy.
Variation in the first ratio is therefore upon
the tangent.
Professor Huntington should also have in-
vestigated the historical questions involved
before venturing to assert that the above
theory of differentials “would prove highly
misleading to the modern student.” It is a
sad commentary on the present state of the
calculus in respect to its fundamental ideas,
when we note the variety of explanations of
these ideas by authors with little historical
knowledge, all of whom, no doubt, would term
their productions “modern,” though most ex-
planations will be found to date back several
centuries, if they be anything more than
vaporizing.
Sir William Rowan Hamilton in his Ele-
ments of Quaternions (Bk. III., p. 392) states
that ordinary definitions by derivative meth-
ods do not apply in quaternions, and that
after a careful examination of the Principia,
he would formulate and adopt Newton’s defi-
nition as follows:
May 7, 1920]
Simultaneous Differentials (or Correspond-
ing Fluaxions) are Limits of Equimultiples of
Simultaneous and Decreasing Differences.
As we have seen, Newton also made this
definition in “ Quadrature of Curves,” essen-
tially as Hamilton gathered it from the
“Principia.” Many better mathematicians
than myself, or than Professor Huntington,
have, in fact, examined this definition care-
fully, and have found it to be rigorous, simple,
and of great generality.
The infinitesimal method of Leibniz is to be
found essentially in. Newton’s first tract “De
analysi per aequationen .. .,” which Newton
himself later rejected as illogical. A third
method of explanation is that of Lagrange,
which consists in assuming (for independent
variables), dx = Aa, dy = Ay, and for a depend-
ent variable z dz—= principle part of Az, which
Lagrange proposed to determine as the terms
of first degree in the expansion of z+ Az in
ascending powers of Ax, Ay. Newton’s dz is
the same, if we put dx—=Az, dy=Ay. The
adoption of the derivative method, led to de-
vices to obtain the same significance of dz by
derivatives, without assuming expansions in
series. These involve various logical diffieul-
ties, especially when there are several inde-
pendent variables. Also the differentials ap-
pear to change their values by changing
the independent variables, whereas, Newton’s
method shows that for every equation be-
tween the variables, there exists (if differ-
entiation be possible) a definite corresponding
equation between their differentials, irrespec-
tive of the choice of independent variables.
Unquestionably, there has been a long con-
tinued propaganda, fostered at bottom to pro-
tect the claims of Leibniz, and aided by the
inertia of established usage, to keep the meth-
ods of Newton in abeyance. Imagine, if the
nationalities of these men had been reversed,
the number of pamphlets that would have
exploited the matter, and the number of text-
books in that method which would years ago
have been published.
Artuur S. Harnaway
Rost POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
SCIENCE
465
CARBON DIOXIDE AND INCREASED CROP
PRODUCTION
To tHe Eprror or Science: In 1912, at the
International Congress of Chemists held in
New York, Professor Ciamician, of the Uni-
versity of Bologna, presented a paper on the
“Photochemistry of the Future,” in which,
among other things, the suggestion was made
that crop production might be increased by
increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide
in the air. Of course, the idea underlying
such a suggestion is that since the carbon
dioxide of the air is a necessary constituent
in the synthesis of carbohydrate by the plant,
and since, furthermore, the percentage of the
gas in the air is comparatively small, any in-
erease in the amount of carbon dioxide may
tend to increase the amount of carbohydrate
produced.
That such is actually the case has been
found by a number of German chemists, ac-
cording to the Berlin correspondent of the
N.Y. Tribune (April 4). Working in green-
houses attached to one of the large iron com-
panies in Essen, and utilizing the carbon
dioxide (freed from impurities) obtained from
the blast furnaces, the yield of tomatoes was
increased 175 per cent. and cucumbers 70 per
cent. Further experiments in the open air,
on plots around which punctured tubes were
laid, and through the latter of which the
carbon dioxide was sent, gave increases of
150 per cent. in the yield of spinach, 140 per
cent. with tomatoes and 100 per cent. with
barley. BengamMin Harrow
STRUCTURAL BLUE IN SNOW
To THE Eprror or Science: The recent bliz-
zard began here with a heavy downpour of rain
on the evening of March 5, which later turned
into a glistening snow that was shattered by
the furious wind and formed a erystalline-
looking glittering coherent mass whose struc-
ture was maintained by the low temperature
(about 20° F.).
When the sun finally came out on Saturday
afternoon, I noticed that the shadows of the
trees and the shadow masses of the distant
snow, appeared unusually blue, and that the
466
snow itself looked blue-white, like paper or
sugar “blued” with ultra marine. Evidently
the snow, because of its structure, reflected a
larger proportion of the short wave-lengths of
blue; and we have here another illustration of
a structural blue color, which, according to
Wilder: D. Bancroft “may be obtained when
we have finely divided particles of liquid or
solid suspended in a gaseous medium (blue of
the sky) or a liquid medium (blue of the eye
or of the tree-toad); or when we have finally
divided air-bubbles suspended in a liquid or
solid medium (blue feathers).1
Incidentally there is some justification for
the somewhat brilliant blues used by the artists
in painting snow scenes, especially in the
shadows; and we recall the story told of
Whistler, who, when a lady visitor at his ex-
hibition remarked, “I’ve never seen a sunset
like that, Mr. Whistler,” promptly replied,
“Well don’t you wish you could?”
JEROME ALEXANDER
RIDGEFIELD, CONN.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
How to Make and Use Graphic Charts. By
Autan C. Hasxety, B.S., with an intro-
duction by RicHarp T. Dana. 539 pages.
First edition. Price $5.00.
The last years have seen a tremendous
progress in the application of graphic meth-
ods and while these methods must be regarded
as means rather than as ends they neverthe-
less play a most important part of scientific
analysis.
To most persons except the trained engi-
neer, biologist or statistician the principles of
analytic geometry which are the basis of most
graphic methods appear too difficult and in-
tricate as that they would be used for prac-
tical problems of every-day life.
Mr. Haskell’s book fills therefore a distinct
demand when it contributes to a clear under-
standing and wider application and recognition
of the graphic method. The treatment is
written from the standpoint of the practical
engineer who comes daily in contact with such
1See ‘*The Colors of Colloids,’’ VII., J. Phys.
Chem., Vol. 23, pp. 365-414.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
problems which will lend themselves to the
application of this form of analysis.
The 539 pages of the richly illustrated book
are divided into 18 chapters which go ex-
haustively into every phase and detail of the
possibilities and applications of graphic anal-
ysis. Special consideration is given to the
current engineering problems of to-day. One
‘whole chapter is devoted to the nomographic
or alignment chart. This subject is treated
in Chapter VIII. and taken up again in
Chapter XVI., “Computation, arithmetical
and geometrical” which devotes some thirty
pages to this interesting subject.
The author deserves much praise for faith-
fully collecting the manifold material on this
subject. On page 348 however I think it
would be worth while to mention the graphic
calculation of the polytropic curve based on
the equation
(1 + tgB) = (1 + tga).
The lack of space prevents a longer expla-
nation but for the rapid design of isothermal
and adiabatic curves in connection with com-
bustion engine design, this method! is ex-
tremely valuable on account of its accuracy,
rapidity and range covering all exponents
nm=1.10 (isothermal) to 1.41 (adiabatic).
Chapter VII. would have had room for the
smelting diagrams of Stead and Saklatwalla?
and of Shepherd.
Chapter XVII. is devoted to the graphic
methods of designing and estimating. The
civil engineer will find much of value and
interest here. I think however the chapter
could be extended to the advantage of the
mechanical engineer and his problems.
The wealth of references relating to the
graphic methods which are given at the end
of each chapter and which have been collected
by Mr. Haskell make the book valuable as a
source of information, in short the author has
responded to a vital demand for a practical
book, “How to make and use graphic charts.”
The practical man will find much material
ready for use and easily understandable and
1H. Braner, Z. d. v. d., I., 1885, p. 433.
2 Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1908,
No. 11, p. 92.
May 7, 1920]
the scientist much inspiration for further
research and investigation. R. von Hunn
New York
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE HEREDITY OF SUSCEPTIBILITY TO A
TRANSPLANTABLE SARCOMA (J. W. B.)
OF THE JAPANESE WALTZING
MOUSE
In 1916! the writer in collaboration with
Tyzzer reported on the inheritance of sus-
ceptibility to a transplantable carcinoma
(J. W. A.) of the Japanese waltzing mouse.
This tumor grew in one hundred per cent. of
the Japanese waltzing mice inoculated and
in zero per cent. of the common non-waltzing
mice. When these two races were crossed,
the F, generation hybrids showed sixty-one
out of sixty-two mice to be susceptible. -In
these mice growth was as rapid if not more
so than in the Japanese waltzing mice them-
selves. The one exception may well have been
due to faulty technique for a reinoculation
test was not made.
The F, generation gave a very interesting
result—only three out of 183 mice grew the
tumor. At that time the results were ex-
plained on the basis of multiple Mendelizing
factors? whose number was estimated at from
twelve to fourteen. Simultaneous presence of
these factors, themselves introduced by the
Japanese waltzing race, was considered nec-
essary for progressive growth of the tumor.
The analogy between this case and that of
eoat color in wild mice, dependent upon the
simultaneous presence of at least five known
Mendelizing factors was at that time pointed
out.
Later? while working with a transplantable
sarcoma (J. W. B.) of the Japanese waltzing
mouse, results were obtained which showed
what semed to be a somewhat simpler quanti-
tative condition of the same process. In this
case, the parent races and F, hybrids behaved
as before, but the F, hybrids gave a total of
1 Little, C. C., and Tyzzer, EH. E., 1916, Jour.
Med. Research, 33: 393.
2 Little, C. C., Screncz, N. S., 1914, 40, 904.
sTyzzer, E, H., and Little, C. C., 1916, Jour. Can-
cer Research, 1: 387, 388.
SCIENCE
467
twenty-three susceptible, to sixty-six non-sus-
ceptible animals. It was.previously estimated
that from five to seven factors were involved.
In order to determine more closely the num-
ber of factors, new experiments were devised
as follows: F, hybrid mice themselves sus-
ceptible were crossed back with the non-sus-
ceptible parent race. This has recently given
a back eross generation whose susceptibility
would depend upon the factors introduced
through the gametes received from their F,
parent. If one factor was involved, the ratio
of gametes containing it formed by the F,
animal, to those lacking it would be 1:1, if
two factors, 1:3; if three factors 1:7; if four
factors, 1:15; if five factors, 1:31; if six
factors, 1:63; and if seven factors, 1:127.
Susceptible and non-susceptible individuals
would occur in the back cross generation in
similar proportions.
The actual numbers obtained were twenty
one susceptible to 208 non-susceptible. This
result may be compared with expectations on
three, four, five, and seven factor hypotheses,
as follows:
-Sus-
Susceptible ee aie | Ratio
Expected 3 factor... . | 201 | ie7/
Observed’........... 208 1:90
Expected 4 factor....|_ i | 215 | 1:15
Expected 5 factor... . 7 222 1:31
Expected 7 factor... . acl 227.2 | 1:127
The observed figures fall between the three
and four factor hypothesis. The numbers
are not large enough to give a definite test,
but the F, generation already mentioned is
interesting as a supporting line of evidence.
If we compare this with the expectation, we
find that the observed figures lie between the
| sueepti Re TaBToN tae atlo
Expected 3 factor... 4 39 50 alk
Expected 4 factor... | 29 60 1:2.1
Observed ........... 23 66 1:2.8
Expected 5 factor....| 21 68 | 1:3.2
four and five factor hypothesis. In both
eases the four factor hypothesis figures are
close and the three and five factor hypothesis
468
are to be still considered as possibilities,
though not probabilities. The six and seven
factor hypotheses appear to be definitely elim-
inated.
The non-susceptible back cross animals
which should by the multiple factor hypothesis
contain in many cases part, but not all, of the
factors for susceptibility are being tested by
breeding back with the F, animals. If four
factors are involved, as seems likely, of every
fifteen such back cross animals approximately
four or 26.6 per cent. should have three; six
or 40 per cent. two; four or 26.6 per cent.
one; and one or 6.6 per cent. none of the four
factors necessary for continued growth of the
tumor. When crossed with F, animals these
back cross types should give the following
ratios of susceptible to non-susceptible ani-
mals in their progeny.
Ratio of Susceptible
to Non-Susceptible
Type of Back Cross Progeny
Having three factors ........ 1: 3.7
sc two factors ......... 1: 6.1
go ONG) WACO so0c0g2000 1: 9.7
G6 zero factors ........ 1:15
The first two categories should be easily
recognizable and together form 66.7 per cent.
of the back cross animals. Such tests have
now been begun.
The sex chromosome has been eliminated
as a probable carrier of any of the four fac-
tors as follows. If mice like other mammals
have the female XX and the male XY in
formula, the use of susceptible Japanese
waltzing males to form the F, animals used,
gives daughters carrying his X, and sons his
Y chromosome. If now “his sons only are
used to produce the back cross generation by
mating with common non-susceptible females,
all the X chromosomes in the resulting
animals will be derived from common non-
susceptible mice. Unless therefore, crossing
over between the X and Y chromosomes occurs
frequently, any susceptibility factor borne in
the X chromosomes of the original Japanese
waltzing males used, has been eliminated.
While further investigations are in prog-
ress, we may conclude provisionally that:
1. From three to five factors—probably
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
four—are involved in determining suscepti-
bility to the mouse sarcoma J. W. B.
2. That for susceptibility the simultaneous
presence of these factors is necessary.
8. That none of these factors is carried in
the sex (X) chromosome.
4. That these factors Mendelize independ-
ently of one another. C. C. Litre
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PE-
TROLEUM GEOLOGISTS
Tue fifth annual meeting of the American Asso-
ciation of Petroleum Geologists was held in Dallas,
Texas, March 18 to 20, with headquarters at the
Adolphus Hotel. The annual meeting of 1919 also
was held there, and Dallas was selected for a sec-
ond time because of its accessibility to the south-
western oil fields, where large numbers of mem-
bers are now working. Almost three hundred
members and more than a hundred visitors were
registered from all parts of the United States.
The association was honored by the presence of
Dr. George Otis Smith, director of the United
States Geological Survey, who was made an honor-
ary member of the association. Other distin-
guished members present from a distance were R.
P. McLaughlin, oil and gas inspector of California,
Dr. Ralph Arnold, consulting geologist, of San
Franeiseo, New York and London; Professor Ros-
well H. Johnson, of Pittsburgh; and Everett De-
Golyer and Donald F. MeDonald, of New York.
The opening session was called to order by
President I. C. White, state geologist of West
Virginia, well known as the father of the anti-
clinal theory. Greetings were given by a repre-
sentative of the Oil Development Committee of the
Chamber of Commerce of Dallas, and by Robert
H. Hill, president of the Southwestern Geological
Society, and responded to by President White.
The general subject of this session was New
Mexico and Northwestern Texas. Papers were
given by Dr. John K. Knox, on ‘‘The geology of
New Mexico as an index of probable oil re-
sourees,’’? by Dan L. Garrett on ‘‘The strati-
graphy of northeastern New Mexico’’; by Wal-
lace G. Matteson on the ‘‘Oil possibilities of north-
eastern New Mexico,’’ and by Dr. Chas. N. Gould
on ‘‘Types of structure at Amarillo, Texas.’’
The Thursday afternoon session was devoted to
a consideration of the Louisiana and Texas fields,
and papers were given by Chester A. Hammill on
‘<The structure of northwest Louisiana’’; by Sid-
May 7, 1920]
ney Powers on ‘‘The Sabine uplift,’’ and by Dr.
Irving Perrine on ‘‘Some problems of the Louisi-
ana oil fields.’? A paper on ‘‘The geological struc-
ture of Eastland and Stephens counties, Texas,’’
was read by H. H. Adams, one of the ‘‘ Position of
the Ellenberger formation in north central Texas’’;
by Dr. E. H. Sellards, and one on ‘‘ Unconformities
in the Texan Permian,’’ by Dr. J. W. Beede. A
paper by Dr. J. A. Udden, director of the Texas
Bureau of Eeonomie Geology, on ‘‘Suggestions of
& new method of making underground observa-
tions,’’ was read by Dr. Sellards.
On Thursday evening a public meeting was held
in the City Temple, and the citizens of Dallas had
the privilege of hearing Dr. George Otis Smith, di-
tector of the United States Geological Survey, in
a lecture on ‘‘The public service opportunity of
the oil geologist.’’ Dr. Smith emphasized the re-
sponsibility of the oil geologist as a public servant
and educator, and held that while it is the first
duty of the oil geologist to find ithe oil, it is no less
his duty to see that it is protected from the effects
of improper operations in its recovery, and to raise
his voice against the practise of mining oil with
total disregard of underground property rights.
He urged that membership in the association should
carry its guaranty of both professional ability and
moral reliability. The lecture was followed by an
informal reception and smoker, to give members
and visitors an opportunity to meet Dr. Smith.
A technical session was held in the municipal
auditorium Friday morning, and most of the
papers were illustrated by figures and diagrams.
Dr. E. A. Stephenson and H. R. Bennett had pre-
pared diagrams showing the decline of the Ranger
oil field, and Glenn H. Alvey gave ‘‘ Decline curve
predictions.’’ Papers were read by Charles V.
Millikan on ‘‘The interrelation of the folds of
Osage county, Oklahoma; J. L. Tweedy gave ‘‘A
criticism of the 10 to 1 inerease in Barrel Day
prices’’; and Professor Roswell H. Johnson and
Alden W. Foster one on ‘‘Barrel Day’’ versus
‘One Day costs.’’ Professor Johnson also gave
a paper on ‘‘The cementation process in sand-
stone.’’ A summary of the work of the California
State Mining Bureau in petroleum and gas was
given by R. P. McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin
brought to the convention a very interesting model
of a California oil field. This model was described
and illustrated in the Literary Digest of February
28, 1920.
Friday afternoon was given to a consideration of
the Kansas and Oklahoma fields. Dr. Hliot Black-
welder gave ‘‘Origin of the domes of central Kan-
SCIENCE
469
sas,’’ Dr. Raymond C. Moore and F. L. Martin
“‘The relation of granite to oil production in
Kansas,’’? and Dr, Moore and Dr. Winthrop P.
Haynes ‘‘The outcrop of basic igneous rock in
north central Kansas.’’ Dr. J. W. Merritt’s sub-
ject was: ‘‘Pennsylvania sedimentation around
Healdton Island, Oklahoma,’’ and Fritz Aurin gave
‘“Pre-Pennsylvanian oil and gas ‘horizons in Kay
county, Oklahoma.’’ A paper on ‘‘New oil de-
velopment in Oklahoma,’’ was given by C. W.
Shannon, state geologist of Oklahoma, at an earlier
session. f
A preliminary business meeting followed the
Friday afternoon program. The reports of officers
and committees were presented, new business in-
troduced, and nominations made. The business
session was concluded Saturday morning, and this
was followed by a regional session which was car-
ried over into the closing session on Saturday after-
noon. A paper by David A. Reger on ‘‘ Recent oil
developments in West Virginia,’’ was read by
Ray V. Hennen, and ‘‘ Notes on the Canadian foot-
hills belt,’’ by Wesley Purdy, was read by EH. De-
Golyer. F. W. DeWolf, state geologist of Illinois,
gave one paper on ‘‘The new Trenton develop-
ment,’’ illustrating it by maps and diagrams, and
one on ‘the ‘‘Blue sky laws of Illinois,’’ showing
that laws are being enacted for the protection of
the public against unscrupulous promoters. A
paper on the ‘‘Development of oil and gas in
Wyoming,’’ was given by C. H. Wegemann. Dr.
Edward Bloesch gave a résumé of ‘‘ Petroleum in-
vestigations in Switzerland,’’ showing that the
drill would have to decide whether oil was present
in commercial quantities.
The engineer’s side of the petroleum problem
was given by A. W. Ambrose, head of the Petro-
leum Experiment Station at Bartlesville, Okla-
homa, in a paper on ‘‘The petroleum production
engineer and his relation to future production.’’
Mr. Ambrose said that by present processes only a
small percentage of the oil is recovered, and em-
phasized the necessity of more effective methods.
The last paper of the session and of the convention
was one read by Harl A. Trager, who gave a ré-
sumé of ‘‘The oil shale industry, with an outline
of methods of distillation.’’ This is a subject
that will be given more attention as the demand
for oil increases and the supply from wells di-
minishes.
The following papers were read by title:
‘«Types of structures in Chaves county, Texas,’’
J. W. Merritt; ‘‘Problems of production and
methods of solving them,’’ T. E. Swigart; ‘‘Oil
470
shales of Wyoming,’’ Professor E. F. Schramm;
‘‘Recent oil developments in California,’’ Robert
B. Moran; ‘‘Some geological problems in oil and
gas recovery in Kentucky,’’ W. R. Jillson; ‘‘Prob-
ability of oil and gas in Montana,’’ Professor J.
P. Rowe. Prior to adjournment a vote of thanks
was extended to the retiring president, Dr. I. C.
White, and to the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and
the Southwestern Geological Society, for courtesies
during the convention. Invitations for the next
annual meeting have been received from San F'ran-
ciseo, New York, St. Louis and Oklahoma City, and
will be considered by the executive committee.
The proceedings of the convention will be published
as Volume IV. of the bulletin of the association.
The following officers were elected for the com-
ing year: President, Wallace EH. Pratt, chief geol-
ogist, Humble Oil Company, Fort Worth, Texas;
Vice-president, Alex. W. McCoy, consulting geol-
ogist, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Secretary-Treasurer,
Charles E. Decker, associate professor, University
of Oklahoma, Norman (reelected); Hditor, Ray-
mond C. Moore, state geologist of Kansas, Uni-
versity of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF
THE COUNCIL
THE meeting was called to order by the presi-
dent at 5 p.M., on April 26, 1920, in the Board
Room of the Cosmos Club, and Dr. Howard was
elected chairman for the meeting. The following
members were present: Cattell, Fairchild, Howard,
Humphreys, Livingston, MacDougal, Osborn and
Ward. Mr. Woodward, the treasurer, attended the
first part of the meeting.
1. Grants—A resolution was passed to the ef-
fect that appropriations made to the Grants Com-
mittee shall be limited to the calendar year for
which made. At the end of that year they auto-
matically revert to the Treasury. (The executive
committee may, of course, take special action be-
fore the end of the year, in cases where reversions
would oceur. For the year 1920 the amount of one
grant made in 1919 and not withdrawn had been
added to the 1920 appropriation of the grants
committee, making this appropriation $4,500 in-
stead of $4,000.)
2. Life Memberships.—A recommendation of the
treasurer was adopted, to the effect that the treas-
urer is to pay to the permanent secretary three
dollars each year for each life-membership requir-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 13823
ing a subscription to the journal. (This special
action was called for by the fact that the income
from the fifty-dollar life-memberships is not suffi-
cient to pay for the journal at the present rate.)
At the beginning of the treasurer’s fiscal year, the
permanent secretary is to inform the treasurer in
regard to the number of subscriptions to the
journal to be thus cared for.
3. Remission of Dues in Arrears.——A resolution
was passed to the effect that all members whose
accounts show arrearage in dues for the years
1917-1919 (3 years), 1918-1919 (2 years), and
1919 (1 year), be reimstated as if back dues had
been paid in full, providing they pay the annual
dues for 1920 before the end of the present fiscal
year. (This action was taken on account of war
conditions. )
4. Moratorium for Members Residing in Con-
tinental Hurope.—A resolution was passed to the
effect that members residing in continental Hu-
rope may retain membership and receive the jour-
nal on account for three years (1920, 1921 and
1922) if specifically requested. (The preceding
resolution of course also applies in these cases.)
5. Toronto Meeting (1921-1922).—The perma-
nent secretary was instructed to accept with ap-
preciation the invitation of the University of To-
ronto and of the Royal Canadian Institute and that
he notify the secretaries of sections, of divisions
and of affiliated societies to the effect that the an-
nual meeting for 1921-1922 will be held at the
Christmas season in Toronto.
The meeting was adjourned at 6 o’clock, to con-
yene again at 7 in the private dining room of the
Cosmos Club.
The adjourned meeting was called to order by
President Howard. The following members were
present: Cattell, Fairchild, Howard, Humphreys,
Livingston, MacDougal, Noyes, Osborn and Ward.
6. Science News Service-—Mr, MacDougal pre-
sented a report on the organization of the Science
News Service, supported by Mr. E. W. Scripps.
7. Representatives for Conference with Science
News Service.—At the request of the Science News
Service a committee was appointed, which con-
sisted of Messrs. Cattell, Humphreys and George T.
Moore, to confer with three representatives of the
National Academy and three representatives of the
National Research Council, and with representa-
tives of the Science News Service, in the organiza-
tion and operation of that service,
8. Minutes of Last Meeting—The minutes of
the last meeting were read and approved.
9. Action of Committee during Interim.—Mr.
May 7, 1920]
Cattell reported that the office of permanent secre-
tary had been filled by an arrangement with Mr.
Livingston to devote two days a week on the aver-
age to this work, dating from February 1, 1920.
Arrangement was made by which Mr. Howard
would help the new permanent secretary in taking
up the work.
10. Permanent Secretary’s Report on the Office.
—The former assistant secretary resigned and took
up a new position on April 1, 1920. Mr. Sam
Woodley was appointed to take charge of the office
beginning March 15, 1920. The permanent secre-
tary was given authority to employ the title of
executive assistant for Mr. Woodley.
The business affairs of the office were stated to
be nearly up to date.
The financial statement of April 26, 1920,
showed an apparent balance in the bank of $22,-
634.75. (There may be alterations in this to be
made when the vouchers of the former permanent
secretary become available.)
From the report on membership it appears that
there were 2,238 members owing the association
for dues for one, two or three years. (These ar-
rearages are to be cancelled according to resolu-
tion stated above—No. 3.) There were 8,034
members paid up for 1920.
11. Election of Sectional Officers—On nomina-
tion of the corresponding sectional committees, Dr.
Hliot Blackwelder was elected vice-president of
Section E (Geology), Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman
was elected vice-president of Section K (Social
and Economie Sciences), Dr. Edwin W. Allen was
elected vice-president of Section O (Agricultural),
and Dr. Frank N. Freeman was elected secretary
of Section I (Psychology).
12. Spring Meeting of this Committee in Fu-
ture—It was decided that, in order to have more
time and to avoid conflicts with other meetings,
the 1921 spring meeting of this committee will be
called for 12 o’clock noon on the Sunday preceding
the meeting of the National Academy.
13. Autumn Meeting of this Committee.—It was
decided that the next meeting of this committee
will oceur on Sunday, October 17, in New York, at
a place to be designated later.
14. Report on the Southwestern Dwision.—Mr.
MacDougal reported that the Southwestern Di-
vision had been organized. The geographic limits
are to include all members of the association resi-
dent in the states of Arizona and New Mexico and
in Texas west of the Pecos River. At the wish of
those involved some members will be transferred
from the Pacifie to the Southwestern Division.
SCIENCE
471
The Constitution and By-Laws of the Western
Division are appended.
This report was adopted and the organization of
the Southwestern Division was ratified by this
committee,
Mr. MacDougal presented the applications of
23 new members, who were duly elected to member-
ship.
Seventy-three names of members of the South-
western Division were nominated for fellowships
and were duly elected.
Mr. MacDougal called attention to the desire of
the officers and members of the Southwestern Di-
vision to have lectures in their region delivered by
scientists from other parts and requested that the
permanent secretary notify the secretary of the
Southwestern Division whenever it may appear
convenient, basing this notification on such infor-
mation as the permanent secretary may have from
time to time. It is understood that the Southwest-
ern Division will pay extra expenses incurred by
lecturers.
15. Applications for Affiliation—The applica-
tion for the affiliation of the National Geography
Teachers was favorably discussed, but final action
was deferred until the next annual meeting.
On motion duly made and seconded the Society
of Sigma Xi was affiliated with the association.
16. Correction of Published List of Affiliated
Societies —Attention was drawn to the fact that
the Wilson Ornithological Club has been listed as
an affiliated society, whereas it has never been
affiliated. It will remain on the list as.an associ-
ated society.
17. Books for Promoting Good Citizenship—A
request from the American Library Association
asking that the A. A. A. 8. aid in a movement
aiming to provide suitable literature to help in the
Americanization of immigrants was referred to
the president and permanent secretary with power
to determine whatever action seems to be feasible.
18. Preservation of Natural Conditions—A re-
quest from Dr. Shelford, representing the Ecolog-
ical Society, asking that the association appro-
priate funds to be used for the promotion of a proj-
ect of the society on this subject, was discussed
but it was decided that the association was unable
at the present time to comply with this request.
19. Collection of Portraits and Letters of Prest-
dents, A. A. A. S—A proposal that the association
purchase at a price of $300 a collection of 74 por-
traits and 74 autograph letters of all the presidents
of the association to date (which is now in the
possession of Dr. Marcus Benjamin) was favorably
472
discussed, but action was deferred until the next
annual meeting.
20. Committee on Bibliography of Science——The
permanent secretary read a letter from the chair-
man of this committee, Dr. C. B. Davenport, in
lieu of a formal report. No action was taken.
21. Publication of Proceedings——Plans for the
publication (membership list) were discussed and
it was decided to ask all members for the infor-
mation needed in the preparation of the next mem-
bership list, this request to be made at the time
the statements for the 1921 dues are sent out. It
was decided that members who remit $1 extra for
the Proceedings before the book goes to press
may receive it at this price. After the book goes
to press the price is to be $1.50. The price to non-
members is to be $1.50. It is planned to publish
about March or April, 1921.
22. Terms of Office of Members of this Com-
mittee Attention was drawn to the fact that the
terms of elected members of this committee elected
at the St. Louis meeting, had not been determined.
This matter was taken up and lots were drawn,
giving the following terms of office:
For the year 1920: Mr. Osborn and Mr. Mac-
Dougal;
For the years 1920 and 1921: Mr. Flexner and
Mr. Humphreys;
For the years 1920, 1921 and 1922: Mr. Cattell and
Mr. Ward;
For the years 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1923: Mr.
Noyes and Mr. Fairchild.
23. Plans for Chicago Meeting.—It was decided
that the official period of the Chicago meeting shall
be December 27, 1920, to January 1, 1921, inclu-
sive. On motion duly made and seconded, it was
decided that the next council meeting shall be
called for Tuesday, December 28, at 2. The gen-
eral session is scheduled for the evening of Tues-
day, December 28.
It was emphasized that a strong campaign for
new members in the Chicago region should be ecar-
ried out before the meeting by the local committee.
24. Interpretation of New Fiscal Year.—It was
decided that members joining the association may
defer the beginning of their membership and the
beginning of the subseription to the journal until
the beginning of the next year, if they so specify
at the time dues are paid. (This action seems de-
sirable on account of the fact that members enter-
ing between the time of the annual meeting and the
beginning of the next fiscal year—October 1—do
not receive the privileges of any annual meeting if
their dues are credited to the current fiscal year.)
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1323
25. Election of Members under the New Consti-
tution—On motion duly made and seconded the
permanent secretary was authorized to employ a
card method for handling applications for member-
ship without the requirement of two sponsors which
has hitherto been in effect. The permanent secre- _
tary was authorized to act as a sub-committee on
the election of members to the association after
proper application and remittances has been re-
ceived.
26. Election of Fellows.—As stated above (No.
14), 73 fellows were elected from the Southwest-
ern Division. Highty-one fellows were elected from
the American Society of Zoologists.
The procedure to be followed in the election of
fellows under the provision of the new By-Laws
(Art. IL., Sec. 4) was discussed, and it was decided
that the seeretaries of the sections of the associa-
tion shall furnish the permanent secretary with a
list of nominations for fellowship, at least once
each year, the data for this list having been ob-
tained from the secretaries of the affiliated societies
concerned,
27. Affiliation of Societies—The permanent sec-
retary was instructed to prepare a list of scientific
societies that presumably should be affiliated with
the association, but which are not now affiliated, to
the end that the affiliation of these societies may be
arranged. =
28. Affiliation of Academies—Mr, Ward pre-
sented a report on this subject.
29. Office Equipment.—The permanent secretary
was authorized to proceed with the geographic
classification of the members and other related
projects.
The committee adjourned at 11.07 to meet in
New York at 11 o’clock on October 17, 1920.
Burton HE. LIvINGsToN,
Permanent Secretary
SCIENCE
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CIENCE
Fripay, May 14, 1920
CONTENTS
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
The Stimulation of Research after the War:
ProFessor R. A. HARPER .............--- 473
James M, Macoun: Dr. HARLAN I. SmiTH.... 478
Scientific Events :—
The Anglo-American University Library for
Central Europe; Publications for European
Nations; Tables of the Motion of the Moon;
The Director of the Bureau of Mines ...... 480
Scientific Notes and News ...........++.0+ 483
University and Educational News .......... 484
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Aurora of March 22, 1920: PROFESSOR
JOEL STEBBINS. The Recent Auroras and
Sun Spots: Proressor E. D. Roz, Jr. Pos-
sible Connection between Sunspots and
Earthquakes: PROFESSOR DINSMORE ALTER.
Some Micro-plankton from Salton Sea: Dr.
W. EH. ALLEN. Conditions in Hungary: Pro-
FESSOR JAS. Lewis Hower. Journals for
Prague: PROFESSOR FREDERICK S. HAMMETT. 485
Notes on Meteorology :—
The Supposed Recurrent Irregularities in the
Annual March of Temperature: Dr. CHARLES
iN), IBACOMS SoanoauseHbEsobeapbouduboUooS 488
Special Articles :—
The Siphon in Text-books: Dr. Haroxp C.
ISAREEINS Bo oon ceggeds eeu mobsEdoasedsuuee 489
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section BH—Geology and Geography: Pro-
FESSOR ROLLIN T. CHAMBERLIN ........... 491
The American Geophysical Union: Dr. Harry
O2WOOD ee ersetareieutlereteb eee aeiel clon) ues 494
The National Academy of Sciences .......... 494
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
THE STIMULATION OF RESEARCH
AFTER THE WAR?
AT the time when I received from Dr. Cook
the notice of my assignment to this topic, the
phrase “ after the war” seemed to be of rather
indefinite and at least possibly remote signifi-
cance. There was a chance at least that any-
thing I might say would have time to be for-
gotten before its timeliness would be put to
the test.
To-day we are face to face with the problem
of stimulating research in this new epoch,
which the political and social cataclysms of
the past four years have ushered in. I am not
one of those who are inclined to minimize the
significance of the period through which we
have just passed in its relations especially to
the advance of knowledge. It is a reproach to
biological science that we are not able to pre-
dict evolutionary trends, but it is perhaps on
the whole a hopeful sign that we frequently
differ so widely in our judgment of the signifi-
cance of current evenits, and of the world prob-
lems which the great conflict involved.
It is for us, who conceive biology as in any
true sense the science of life processes and ac-
tivities in plants and animals alike from the
lowest to the highest, to look to our funda-
mental conceptions and take thought of the
responsibilities which our scientific preten-
sions involve. In my opinion we may find in
the final assessment of responsibilities for the
world war that a pseudo-scientific dogmatism,
and the promulgation in popular form of
superficial and wholly misleading views of such
evolutionary concepts as the struggle for ex-
istence and the survival of the fittest, have had
a share, both in the production of the false
national and racial ambitions which lead up
1 Read before Section G, American Association
for the Advancement of Science, at the Baltimore
meeting in the symposium on ‘‘ Research after the
War.’’
474
to the war, and the savage bitterness with
which it was fought by its instigators.
Tt certainly behooves us as evolutionists to
endeavor to clear up in a fashion not yet, in
my opinion, adequately accomplished, the re-
lation of Darwin’s great concepts to such
struggles, not that I assume that any one has
the illuminating word now ready to be spoken.
It is sufficiently obvious that a vast amount of
further study of the problems and relations in-
volved in the evolution of races, states, so-
cieties and civilization, as well as human in-
dividuals, is necessary before the concepts of
struggle, progress, survival, ete., will attain a
clearness which will finally prevent their use
as the shibboleths of barbarism and savagery.
As scientists we must all agree that in in-
ereased devotion to research and in the growth
of that passion for understanding the living
organism, its environment, its origin and its
possibilities, our safety for the future lies.
No ready made or lightly thought out theories
will suffice. The danger from lightly con-
ceived and lightly held political evolutionary
theories promulgated by visionary and ill-
trained statesmen and politicians, was never
more real. The misuse of scientific half
truths, misleading phrases and _ superficial
analyses, was never more threatening than just
now, when the central empires are endeavoring
to regain their poise after their debauch of
mad ambition. It is for scientists in the fu-
ture to set an example of discriminating judg-
ment and careful analysis of evidence of which
they have not hitherto been capable.
, The practical issues of the day we may say
in a sense are still in the hands of men rather
than of scientists and will be met and their
problems solved instinctively and in accord
with moral aspirations rather than by the ap-
plication of established principles and concepts
as to the nature and possibilities of further
development of human societies and civiliza-
tions. The great men, the leaders, are so by
virtue of an instinctive rather than analyzed
feeling as to what is possible and achievable
in the given conditions. The pragmatist with
his worship of the man in the street may feel
sure that this will always be the case, but in
SCIENCE
LN. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1324
this assertion he loses whatever of truth there
is in his philosophy and becomes the plain and
familiar dogmatist of the past.
It is for us to see that a continually increas-
ing number of those who are great leaders by
virtue of their instinctive grasp of the signifi-
cance of human movemenits and world situa-
tions, are also able to avail themselves of an
increasing mass of analyzed and tested data
bearing on the problems of life and evolution-
ary progress.
_ Asa physiologist I may note that the stimu-
lation of research does not involve the produc-
tion of the fundamental motive power back of
the advance of knowledge. Physiological stim-
uli liberate energies accumulated in the organ-
ism they guide and regulate activity but fur-
nish no appreciable energy for its maintenance.
They initiate reactions but do not cause them.
The familiar illustrations of their nature and
relations to organic activities are the pull on
the trigger or the engineer’s hand on the
throttle. If there is no research mechanism
well stocked with mental energy stimulation
can do nothing. It may even weaken and de-
stroy if the energies for normal reaction are
not available.
Physiologically speaking the regulative stim-
uli, those wonderful activities of the enzymes
and hormones which can accelerate or retard,
direct and coordinate reactions so as to pro-
duce the complex and wonderfully adaptive
phenomena of organic growth and behavior are
those most interesting in present-day biolog-
ical research and furnish the analogies on
which the widespread demand for better con-
trol and coordination of scientific research is
based. Why is it not our highest function as
scientists to so regulate control and coordinate
research that each problem shall receive its fit
proportion of attention so that now when the
world seems to need above all food supplies, a
speedy physical rehabilitation to repair the
wounds of war and a special set of political
and social maxims for the use of nations in
the transition from autocratic to more demo-
eratic governmental forms the whole energies
of the world of science, political, social and
biological, can be turned to producing these
May 14, 1920]
desiderata. This would be efficiency in the
German sense and a reasonable regard for such
demands is necessary and desirable. There are,
however, it seems to me, some more funda-
mental viewpoints that under stress of im-
mediate physical need may be overlooked.
And first among these is the fact that as noted
stimulation, initiation, regulation, coordina-
tion, do not furnish motive power, imply in-
deed an exhaustion of energy rather than its
increase. The withdrawal of men from the
active prosecution of their own investigations
in order that they may spend time on commis-
sions, boards and other executive agencies for
controlling and directing the research of others
is doubtless a necessary evil but is in danger
of being regarded as a useful end in itself.
The activity of such agencies in securing
funds and thus contributing to the motive
power back of research is quite another matter
but even there it is deplorable when a man of
first-class talent withdraws from his own work
and devotes his energies to obtaining financial
support for a group who thus become in a
sense his subordinates. If he makes efforts
to direct and coordinate in detail the activi-
ties of such a group with their diverse
capacities and widely separated lines of activ-
ity, his influence may even be positively harm-
ful. The importance and advantage of co-
operation in research have been very ade-
quately and effectively presented from many
quarters. The socialistic trend is obvious
here as in so many phases of modern thought
and action and it is at least worth while to
consider what may be said from other view-
points. Of spontaneous cooperation individ-
ually initiated there can not be too much,
but if it becomes the fashion to work only in
groups and on problems in which group inter-
est can be aroused in my opinion we shall be
disregarding many obvious teachings of ex-
perience. You may gather from this that I
am not hopeful that research can be socialized
in any very significant degree. It seems to me
that this is especially true of those higher
efforts of the human mind when it actually
breaks over age old barriers or enters on wholly
new and hitherto unsuspected fields for thought
SCIENCE
475
and action. Routine solutions of definite and
simple problems can be achieved by the factory
and piece work system but the highest achieve-
ments of the mind are always individual and
seem frequently to mock all attempts to re-
late them to the environment or the period of
their occurrence. In my opinion the distinc-
tion between routine research on the problems
which are already clearly stated and for which
methods of attack are obvious from data
available and the studies which really open up
new fields of hitherto unperceived interest and
importance or solve problems long given up as
ridiculous, is more significant than that be-
tween so-called pure and applied science. This
distinction, it seems to me, has been over-
worked at least in its relations to the develop-
ment of research. On the other hand, whether
or no we conceive ourselves as either practically
_or theoretically able, by taking thought, to in-
fluence the course of events, it may tend to
clearness of thought about what is actually
going on in these times of turmoil and excite-
ment if we recognize more fully that there are
these two types of research activity, each with
its own clearly marked prerequisites. The war
experience of the nation has shown plainly
enough that when the money and incentive are
at hand staffs of experts can be organized and
laboratories equipped on short notice which
can solve a vast number of important problems
relating to the chemistry of dyes, high ex-
plosives, gas warfare, aeroplane engines, etc.,
with a high degree of promptness and efii-
ciency. I am sure too that we should be mis-
taken if we expect from such efforts only new
applications of already known theoretic prin-
ciples. We are perhaps quite as likely to ar-
tive at theoretically significant new concep-
tions of matter and energy in the study of the
vastly practical problems of static disturb-
ances in wireless telegraphy (which problems
by the way the newspapers recently announced
had been solved by work in the laboratories of
a great commercial corporation) as in the
study of the wave theory of electricity as such
with no practical problem in mind.
A vast amount of useful and theoretically
highly important work is being turned out
476
yearly by investigators who either have defi-
nite problems assigned to them by others or
who see a problem so clearly that they can at
once present it to a board or committee or
executive agency in charge of funds, and im-
mediately win financial and other support for
its study. We can not have too much of this
sort of work and most of the research agencies
now under consideration, such as the National
Research Council, the various scientific de-
partments of the national government, the re-
search departments of the agricultural experi-
ment stations, the great research institutions
and commercial laboratories, are all well cal-
culated to foster and develop work on prob-
lems whose possibility of solution is fairly evi-
dent or whose significance is already so fully
understood that their study is suggested even
though they seem for the time insoluble.
It seems to me equally obvious, however,
that these agencies do not provide at all ade-
quately for the second type of problems, those
which at present lie outside of and beyond the
domain of clear thought at least on the part
of the majority of intelligent people, and this
again quite regardless of whether the problems
seem to relate to practical matters or to have
only a theoretic or philosophical interest. I
think we must admit that many of the great
advances in knowledge have been made by
some one’s breaking over these bounds of the
average scientists thinking and experiment-
ing and attacking some problem which had
been quite unthought of or was regarded so
unclearly as to be considered wholly visionary,
impossible of attack or even ridiculous. To
illustrate, I think we must admit now that the
Wright brothers were more favorably situated
for the solution of the problem of human
flight in heavier than air machines than was
Langley. Langley was in a great government
supported institution with supposedly all the
resources for the attack on the problem from
the mathematical, physical and experimental
mechanical side at his command. The Wrights
had to develop financial and other support as
they went along. The case illustrates perfectly
the weakness likely to inhere in governmentally
supported research. Langley in his position,
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1324
could not afford repeated failures in experi-
menting on a problem which was still regarded
as chimerical if not ridiculous by the great
mass of intelligent people of his time. The
Wrights, working on their own initiative, with
everything to win by final success and little to
lose by temporary failure, with no explana-
tions to make to governing boards or scientific
societies, were in a vastly more helpful and
normal environment, it seems to me, for estab-
lishing a new point of departure in a new field
of activity. At least the Wrights succeeded
and Langley was unable to push further his
partial success in an achievement which if it
had been followed up might have won him the
distinction which went to the vastly less well
supported efforts of the Wrights. Langley in
his position under the eye of the government
could not feel himself able to support tempo-
tary failure or even partial success, though in
reality the endeavor was worth prosecuting
through a thousand failures.
Another instance is the historic one of Pas-
teur’s discovery of the relation of microorgan-
isms to fermentation and decay. No more
fundamental and enlightening work has been
done in the whole ‘history of biological re-
search. It gave the final quietus to the doe-
trine of the spontaneous generation of germs
in decaying organic matter and laid the foun-
dations for a whole series of discoveries in
theoretic pathology as well as applications in
medicine and the practical arts. Yet if we
accept the current accounts of the attitude of
Pasteur’s colleagues and the general public to
his earlier work in these lines, we can see that
it would have been quite impossible for him to
have gained support in advance for his re-
searches on problems supposed to be settled,
or quite insoluble.
Pasteur, like the Wrights, won his way to
popular support, but it is certainly a question
whether the work, brilliant though it is, which
has so far come from the great institute
founded in his honor equals in significance
the work done by the great master.
It is the despair of organizers of research
that work of the first rank such as that of Pas-
teur and Darwin shows so little dependence on
May 14, 1920]
facilities, equipment, etc., and it is always to
be remembered that the problems on which
they worked, and the results they achieved
were not such as would have enabled them to
win in advance either financial support or
substantial recognition by the general public
or their scientific colleagues. Pasteur could
win his institute only by achieved results, not
on an advance program for laying the founda-
tions of a new science of bacteriology. Dar-
win could hardly have made the origin of spe-
cies seem a promising and feasible field of
research before he had the evidence of the effi-
ciency of selection which made the whole sub-
ject of evolution a new and vital one. It is
hardly conceivable that Darwin himself would
have been able or willing to attempt to formu-
late in advance’ a project which would have
covered the main field of his researches. He
was working out into lines of thought and ex-
perimentation where clearness and feasibility
became obvious after, and not before the event.
Im these days when in certain quarters it is
assumed that every research must be outlined
and made to appear reasonable in advance, it
is worth while to remember that really new
fields of study are very likely to look unprom-
ising if not hopeless or ridiculous to the execu-
tive mind. If we require for every research
project that it appear promising and workable
within a so-called reasonable time, we put a
premium on problems of the easy and less
fundamental type. There is also a psycholog-
ical factor here. The man who conceives
vaguely at first a great new possibility in the
advance of knowledge, is sometimes quite dis-
inclined to talk about it merely because it
seems so vague, hopeless, and perhaps even
ridiculous. If we organize research to such a
degree that it shall become the customary, if
not the inevitable routine for every worker in
an experiment station or research institute to
feel that he can only work on problems which
can be made to appear plausible and possible
of solution in advance, we shall, as in so many
socializing schemes, put a premium on medioc-
rity, and penalize real originality of the kind
which has led in the past to many of the really
great advances in knowledge.
SCIENCE
477
It is, however, always to be remembered that
there is probably a greater practical danger of
our institutions of research becoming the
refuges of incompetents and visionaries than
that their methods will nip incipient genius
in the bud. The illustrations I have used are,
of course, extreme cases, and represent the ex-
ceptions rather than the rule as to the mass
of scientific work now being done and which
has been done in the past. It may well be said
that the Darwins and Pasteurs will take care
of themselves and that our plans and organi-
zations should be for the average run of sci-
entific workers. Still this objection overlooks
the possibility that the case of the scientists,
like that of other matters of heredity, can not
be adequately analyzed on the basis of the
simple assumption of “ presence and absence”
—in this case of genius. There are many
grades of research ability. I have attempted
to differentiate two classes of problems: first,
those clearly conceived, and appearing more
or less readily capable of solution; and second,
those which, though obviously of vast impor-
tance if solved, are imperfectly conceived, or
appear hopeless, or even fantastic. Still it is
obvious enough that many if not most scien-
tific problems lie somewhere between these ex-
tremes. Any problem which is worthy of
serious effcrt will probably involve in its solu-
tion many lines of effort which were not fore-
seen at the beginning, and many important
problems will seem, even to their projectors, too
hopeless of solution to have any wide appeal,
or to win adequate cooperative support, or
even the approval of colleagues or superiors in
attacking them.
In considering the whole problem of the
stimulation of research we should recognize
the limitations of controlled and directed
effort, and learn if possible whether in our
schemes provision can not also be made for
that free and untrammeled environment where
personal inclination and initiative are the
major factors. Control and executive super-
vision become necessary in direct proportion
as research is paid for directly as such. This
is inevitable if government bureaus and re-
search institutions are to be sure of some
478
return for their money. It is the special ad-
vantage of the universities that in them re-
search can in a sense be regarded as a utiliza-
tion of by-products—not infrequently in mod-
ern industry a very important source of real
profits. The member of a university faculty
can give a return for his salary in the form of
teaching—the relatively prosaic, but impor-
tant work of passing on to the new generation
the achieved results of the science, literature
and arts of the past with all which that im-
plies of stimulus and moral development. This
is his modicum of contribution, but beyond
this, the spirit of the university, the environ-
ment of young students, the seminar, the sci-
entific conferences, the intercourse with col-
leagues in related but diversified fields—all
these are stimulants to research of the highest
efficiency, and constitute at once that free and
untrammeled environment which incites to
effort in purely ideal lines where no considera-
tion save the intrinsic interest of the work in
itself, and the desirability of the solution to
be attained need intrude. The universities
because of their functions in teaching, are the
natural homes for research on problems whose
appeal is to the desire of the human mind to
understand and control its environment.
I need hardly stop to add that all universi-
ties as yet do not furnish in the highest degree
possible this sort of environment. It is enough
for us that there is no intrinsic reason why
they should not all become such centers of
stimulation and motive power in research.
And for the warning of those who are too
much given to reforming that which is already
reasonably good, be it said that the tyranny of
majorities and of professorial trade unions is
quite as likely to meet with passive resistance
and the undermining effects of indifference and
superior interest in the real work of teaching
and research, as the attempts at financial, so-
cial, intellectual and executive overlordship
which have in the past been regarded as the
most insidious foes of our much-prized and
too frequently little understood academic free-
dom.
The further fundamental consideration
which confronts us is that after all research is
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
hard work and that the most important stim-
ulus thereto is the force of example. After
the exhibition of the past four years it is
hardly necessary to emphasize that man is still
very much of an animal. One of the oldest if
not the primitive mental trait is imitation.
We shall stimulate research in direct propor-
tion as we plunge into it ourselves each on the
problems that look large and appeal to him
especially. With the socializing tendencies of
the present day and the vast emphasis which
is being laid on organization it may sound like
serious heresy but I am willing to stand for
the proposition that in peace times at least no
one is justified in assuming executive work or
work in the planning and direction of the re-
search of others to the exclusion of his own
research work. On those minded to do so I
would urge first at least the need of research
that the justification of their viewpoint be
made more clear than it is at present. With
all our present-day divergence of views we can
perhaps agree that the advance of knowledge
in the future depends most on the possibility
of winning the brightest minds of the rising
generation for research and for accomplishing
this it seems to me the most important factor
is that we convince our students by our own
examples that research is really an absorbing
and satisfying occupation that it is interesting
in itself even independently of the immediately
obvious value of the results obtained. Not by
preaching research or organizing research or
talking about the stimulation of research, but
by showing a deep, insatiable curiosity about
the things of nature and of life, we shall ad-
vance and win others to engage in the pursuit
and practise of knowledge R. A. Harper
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
JAMES M. MACOUN
James M. Macoun, chief of the Biological
Division of the Geological Survey, Canada,
died January 8, 1920, aged 58. He was well
known as one of the best informed systematic
botanists, not only throughout Canada but
also in other countries, and was an expert on
the fur-seal industry.
May 14, 1920]
During the summer of 1919, while con-
ducting botanical field work in Jasper Park,
Alberta, Mr. Macoun was taken ill but
finished his field work before returning to
Ottawa early in October. He became gradu-
ally worse and went to a hospital, but was
found to be beyond surgical help.
Mr. Macoun was born in Belleville, Ontario,
in 1862. The members of the Macoun family
are known for their endeavors in scientific
lines and as staunch workers for democratic
good citizenship. Mr. Macoun was the son of
Professor John Macoun, naturalist of the
Geological Survey, Canada, now residing at
Sidney, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
He was the brother of Mr. W. T. Macoun.
Dominion Horticulturist at the Central Ex-
perimental Farm, Ottawa. The Macoun name
is connected with practically all the botanical
research work of Canada, and many of the
plant species of Canada bear the name of
Macoun. This alone is evidence of their au-
thoritative standing in the botanical world.
When young, James M. Macoun attended
Belleville High School, and Albert College,
where his father was then professor of botany.
In 1881, when nineteen years of age, he ac-
companied his father to the field on an ex-
ploration of the territory between Portage la
Prairie, Manitoba, and the head waters of the
Assiniboine.
In 1882, when his father, Professor Macoun,
moved to Ottawa to take charge of the botan-
ical and other natural history work of the
Geological Survey, James came as his assist-
ant, and he became a regular worker as a
civil servant of the Dominion Government in
1883. In this service he continued for thirty-
seven years, dying in harness. Mr. Macoun
specialized in botany from the time he entered
the service. He assisted his father in the
preparation and publication of his monumen-
tal botanical work, and the two editions of
the annotated list of the birds of Canada.
Mr. Macoun was appointed assistant nat-
uralist of the survey in 1898. Since 1912,
when his father moved to British Columbia,
much greater responsibility was thrown on
him, and he was appointed botanist in 1917.
, SCIENCE
479
In 1918, because of his wide knowledge, he
was appointed chief of the Biological Division.
In 1891, when the fur-seal industry of the
Pacific Islands was a subject of diplomatic
concern between Great Britain, Canada, and
the United States, he was chosen by Dr.
George M. Dawson, then director of the Geo-
logical Survey and Behring Sea Commissioner
for Canada, to accompany him on a trip of
investigation to Behring Sea. His services
in the study of the life history and habits of
the fur seal were so valuable that he was
retained on this work in 1892 and 1893, and
was sent to Europe as an expert in connection
with the fur-seal arbitration.
In 1896 and in 1914 he was again sent to
Behring Sea. In 1911 he spent 10 weeks in
Washington as one of the Canadian repre-
sentatives at the fur-seal conference. For his
special international work in connection with
the fur-seal he was highly commended by
Lord Bryce, then British Ambassador at
Washington, and received a C. M. G. for his
services. é
Mr. Macoun had his full share in the field
work of the staff of the Geological Survey,
which takes the members to many parts of
Canada and mainly to the outlying or least
civilized areas. On some of the expeditions he
endured very severe hardships; for instance,
in 1910, while studying the flora and fauna
of the west coast of Hudson Bay, his ship
was wrecked and the party had to attempt
the return to civilization in a small boat.
Fortunately they were rescued and taken to
Fort Churchill, from where they made the
overland trip to Lake Winnipeg on foot in
the depth of winter, reaching the telegraph
line after having been almost given up for
lost. Mr. Macoun was always the leader in
the morning and brought up the rear in the
evening to see that no one was left behind to
freeze. He always depreciated his own hard-
ships on this trip and the importance of his
effort, but it is no small task to bring forty
men unacquainted with snowshoe travel, from
Hudson Bay to Winnepeg in winter without
loss of life or limb.
To Mr. Macoun and his father is due the
480
National Herbarium of the Geological Survey,
containing over 100,000 specimens of the flora
of Canada, and about half of the 14,000
ornithological specimens in the museum.
Both were among the founders of the Museum
of the Geological Survey.
Mr. Macoun was remarkably genial, had
great ability as a clever conversationalist, and
possessed a faculty to help those in need. He
made many friends in all walks of life.
“Tabor” in particular will miss him greatly.
His motto was “Equal opportunity for all,”
and this he strongly proclaimed through many
organizations, whether wholly, in part, or not
at all devoted to the interests of labor. Both
labor and capital had so much faith in his
fairness that they allowed him to act as sole
arbitrator between them in the ease of strikes.
In this service he prevented much suffering
among’ the ranks of labor, loss to capital, and
inconvenience to the public. He took an
active part in all work for the progress of
humanity, engaging especially in work for the
blind. During the war he was energetic in
aiding relief measures; since then in assisting
the returned soldier.
One of the most prominent civil servants of
Canada, he did much to place the Civil Sery-
ice Association on a firm basis, and was al-
ways a strong supporter of it. He was one
of the founders of the People’s Forum of
Ottawa, and for a considerable time was its
chairman.
He was active in municipal, provincial and
Dominion affairs, and his interest in sociolog-
ical questions took a practical turn. He was
unostentatious in his wide philanthropies.
He was an individualist whose chief char-
acteristics were his humanness, and his demo-
cratic life. He was affectionately and re-
spectfully known as “Jim” across the conti-
nent, and prouder of it than of his C. M. G.
He was never too busy to grant a word of
advice and offer a word of cheer to any worker
in any branch of science, to any one needing
help, and to any worker for the common good.
Haruan I. Smith
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,
CANADA
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
FOR CENTRAL EUROPE
It is proposed to establish in, Central Europe
under British-American auspices libraries of
recent English books indispensable to univer-
sity teachers. The work is bemg organized on
a broad, non-political, non-sectarian basis, so
as to enlist the widest possble cooperation.
These libraries will supply on loan books
needed by the faculties of the different uni-
versities in Central Europe. They will be
under the charge of British and American
representatives, and committees of the foreign
universities will be asked to superintend the
local administration. A committee of the six
most important learned societies in Germany
and Austria has been formed for the carrying
out of the plan which, in addition to the loan
library, will include a system -of exchange of
publications and duplicates between any li-
braries and institutions willing to cooperate.
The preliminary statement of the trustees
says:
By thus taking the initiative in extending the
hand of fellowship to colleagues in former enemy
countries, British and American scholars are seiz-
ing a timely opportunity of helping to heal the
wounds of the war and of exemplifying in a prac-
tical and convincing way the true ‘‘international
mind.’’
Viscount Bryce, Lord Robert Cecil and
other English public men have expressed
their approval of the plan and have promised
their cooperation in carrying it out. The
supporters of the plan in Great Britain
include: Gilbert Murray, Oxford; A. E. J.
Rawlinson, Oxford; OC. S. Sherrington, Ox-
ford; Walter Raleigh, Oxford; A. E. Shipley,
Cambridge; J. J. Thomson, Cambridge; A. S.
Ramsay, Cambridge; Joseph Larmor, Cam-
bridge; Horace Darwin, Cambridge; W. B.
Hardy, M.A., Cambridge; Alfred Hopkinson,
Glasgow; Col. EK. H. Hills, Woolwich; Henry
A. Miers, Oxford; Alex. Hill, Cambridge;
George Paish, London; Rickman G. Godlee,
London, and Michael Sadler, Leeds.
University teachers in the United Kingdom
and American are requested to give their ap-
May 14, 1920]
proval and cooperation to the plan by sending
their names to the secretary, Mr. B. M.
Headicar, librarian of the London School of
Economics (University of London), Clare
Market, London, W.C.
PUBLICATIONS FOR EUROPEAN NATIONS
Owing to the depreciated currency of
Europe and the financial difficulties in which
many European nations find themselves, the
publication of some European serials has
been temporarily discontinued, others have
decreased in size, while the publication of
still others is irregular. Furthermore, the
purchase of American books at the present
rate of exchange is practically impossible.
Sinee it is essential for the intellectual life
of mankind, that students of all countries
should be in close touch, and since it seems
of importance to America that the results of
our intellectual activities should be known, the
undersigned urge all publishers, publishing
institutions and publishing societies to ex-
change their publications on the most liberal
terms with libraries, publishers, journals and
publishing institutions and societies of all
European countries, disregarding for the near
future the question whether the amount of
printed matter received in exchange corre-
sponds with the amount sent.
(Signed) Felix Adler,
James R. Angell, Franz Boas, Charles W.
Eliot, J. Cardinal Gibbons, Arthur T. Hadley,
David Starr Jordan, Harry Pratt Judson,
KE. H. Lewinski-Corwin, A. Lawrence Lowell,
John Bassett Moore, Henry Fairfield Osborn,
George Foster Peabody, M. J. Pupin, Jacob
Gould Schurman, Ellery Sedgwick, F. J. V.
Skiff, Munroe Smith, Antonio Stella, Henry
Suzzallo, Harlan F. Stone, William H. Taft,
F. A. Vanderlip.
TABLES OF THE MOTION OF THE MOON
Tue “Tables of the Motion of the Moon,”
by Ernest W. Brown, Se.D., professor of mathe-
matics in Yale University, has now been pub-
lished through the Yale University Press. It
is the result of thirty years of research and
preparation.
The first tables of the moon, founded on the
SCIENCE
481
law of gravitation, were published by Clairaut
in 1752, but the tables published in 1857 by
Hansen were the first which permitted the
position of the moon to be computed from
theory with an accuracy comparable with that
of observation. The only other set of like im-
portance is the tables founded on Delaunay’s
theory, appearing in 1911 under the final di-
rection of Radau. These have been used for
the ephemerides of tthe moon since their publi-
cation. The appearance of Professor Brown’s
tables is expected to constitute a new epoch in
the history of astronomical tables, and to exer-
cise a marked effect on navigation.
Professor Brown, a graduate of Christ’s Col-
lege, Cambridge, has held the chair of mathe-
maties at Yale University since 1907, having
previously been professor at Haverford College.
He is the author of “Treatise on the Lunar
Theory,” 1896; “ A New Theory of the Moon’s
Motion,” 1897 to 1905; and of many papers on
the lunar theory and on celestial and general
mechanics. He received the gold medal of the
Royal Astronomical Society in 1907, and the
Royal Medal in 1914. The latest honor which
has come to him is the Bruce medal of the As-
tronomical Society of the Pacific, which he re-
cently went to San Francisco ‘to accept.
Professor Brown is a fellow of the Royal
Society and of the Royal Astronomical Society,
a member of the London Mathematical So-
ciety, the Cambridge Philosophical Society, the
American Philosophical Society, the American
Mathematical Society, of which he was presi-
dent from 1914 to 1916, the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, being
vice-president of Section A in 1910, and the
American Aicademy of Arts and Sciences.
The work of Professor Brown has been
printed in three parts, bound in paper covers
in order that the various purchasers of the
tables may bind them to suit their individual
needs. The book has been printed on hand-
made paper, by the Cambridge University Press
in Cambridge, the size of tthe page being 104
by 183 inches. In concluding his preface to
the “ Tables of the Motion of the Moon” Pro-
fessor Brown has made the following state-
ment :
482
This volume brings to a close the work started
thirty years ago with a study of Hill’s papers made
at the suggestion of my former teacher and friend,
George Darwin. The undertaking of a complete
recalculation of the moon’s motions and later of
tables which should make the theory available for
practical and scientific use was no ambitious plan
formed at the beginning but grew naturally out of
the desire to continue the work as each stage in it
was reached. Some part of it has always been in
progress and there have been long periods during
which it has been my sole occupation outside of the
duties connected with an academic position and of
the hours given to recreation. The word ‘‘finis’’
brings with it some feeling of regret. The time
spent in actual calculation was often a relief from
attempts to solve more difficult problems in other
lines. To what extent it has been worth while as
a contribution to the subject must be left to the
future and to others for judgment. My hope is
that it will give some aid in unravelling the
tangled skeins of problems which our nearest celes-
tial neighbor has never failed to present, and that
the satisfaction to myself in seeing the work finally
brought to a conclusion will ‘be shared by those who
have been interested in watching its progress.
THE DIRECTOR OF THE BUREAU OF MINES
THE nomination of Dr. Frederick G. Cottrell
for director of the Bureau of Mines, Depart-
ment of the Interior, was sent to the Senate
on May 5 by President Wilson, to take the place
of Dr. Van. H. Manning, resigned. Dr. Cot-
trell was the assistant director of the bureau
under Dr. Manning.
Frederick G. Cottrell, chemist, metallurgist
and inventor, was born in Oakland, Calif.,
January 10,1877. He attended school in Oak-
land and matriculated at the University of
California in 1892. As a university student
he gave especial attention to science, particu-
larly chemistry. After graduation in 1896,
with the degree of bachelor of science, he was
a Le Conte fellow at the University in 1896-
1897 and taught chemistry at the Oakland
High School in 1897-1900. Then he went to
Europe, where in 1901 and 1902 he studied at
the University of Berlin and the University
of Leipzig, receiving from the latter the de-
‘gree of doctor of philosophy in 1902. On his
return to this country in 1902, he was ap-
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
pointed instructor in physical chemistry at the
University of California, and in 1906 was ap-
pointed assistant professor, holding this posi-
tion until 1911. While at the university Dr.
Cottrell’s chief contributions to science were
researches relating to the electrical precipita-
tion of fume and fine particles suspended in
the gases of smelter, blast furnace or cement
works flues, and he finally evolved what is
known as the Cottrell process for this purpose.
This invention was first utilized at the Selby
smelter in California for removing fumes from
the waste gases of a sulphuric acid plant at
the smelter, thereby abating a nuisance that
threatened ‘to necessitate shutting down the
works. Subsequently this electrical precipita-
tion process was installed at other smelters to
remove fume and solid particles contained in:
the escaping gases, and it was also successfully
used at cement planits, notably near Riverside,
Calif., to prevent the dust from calcining kilns
from damaging nearby orange groves and vege-
tation. To-day tthe Cottrell process of fume
and dust removal is in world-wide use, and is
recovering materials heretofore wasted to the
value of many thousands of dollars. One of
the latest installations is at a large smelting
plant in Japan; while the largest installation
is at the Anaconda smelter, Anaconda, Mont.
Dr. Cottrell in a desire to encourage scientific
research turned over his extensive patent rights
to a non-dividend-paying corporation, known
as the Research Corporation, a body formed
for that purpose. A fundamental require-
ment in the incorporation is that all net profits
shall be devoted to the interests of scientific
research.
In 1911 when Dr J. A. Holmes, the first di-
rector of the Bureau of Mines, was serving as
a member of commissions appointed by the
government to study alleged damages from
smoke and fumes from the Selby and the Ana-
conda smelters, and the Bureau of Mines was
investigating at length the smelter-smoke
problem, Dr. Cottrell, because of his scientific
attainments and his special knowledge of
metallurgical problems, was appointed chief
physical chemist in the bureau. Im 1914 he
May 14, 1920]
was appointed chief chemist, in 1916, chief
metallurgist, and in 1919, assistant director.
Aside from his work on smelter smoke Dr.
Cottrell has been intimately connected with
work on the separation and purification of
gases by liquification and fractional distilla-
tion. During the world war and subsequently
the development of the Norton or Bureau of
Mines process for the recovery of helium from
natural gas has been his special care, and it
was chiefly through his efforts that a plant for
recovering helium on a large scale for military
aeronautics has been erected near Petrolia,
Texas.
Dr. Cottrell is a member of the American
Chemical Society, Mining and Metallurgical
Society of America, the American Electro-
chemical Society, the American Institute of
Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science. He was awarded the Perkin medal
by the New York Section of the Society of
Chemical Industry in 1919 in recognition of
his work on electrical precipitation.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Dr. Aucustus Trowsrice, professor of
physics at Princeton University, during the
war lieutenant colonel and head of the sound
ranging service of the A. E. F., has accepted
appointment as chairman of the division of
astronomy, mathematics and physics of the
National Research Council for the year be
ginning on July 1.
Dr. Husert Work, of Oolorado, first
speaker of the house of delegates of the
American Medical Association, has been
elected president of the association.
THE council of the British Medical Asso-
ciation, at the meeting of April 14, resolved
unanimously to recommend the Annual Rep-
resentative Meeting that Dr. David Drum-
mond, should be elected president of the
association for the year 1921-22, to take office
at the Annual Meeting to be held at New-
eastle-on-Tyne in 1921. Dr. Drummond is
vice-chancellor and professor of medicine,
University of Durham, and consulting phys-
SCIENCE
483
ician, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.
The council decided also to accept an invita-
tion from the Glasgow and West of Scotland
Branch to hold the annual meeting of 1922
in Glasgow.
Dr. Orro Kuorz, director of the Dominion
Observatory, has been elected president of
the Seismological Society of America.
Dr. Wittrm H. Wencu and Dr. Ira
Remsen, both of Johns Hopkins University,
have been appointed to the Board of Electors
for the Hall of Fame of New York University.
Dr. Jonn H. Fintey has received the gold
medal of the Geographical Society of Paris,
in recognition of the English edition of his
book, “ The French in the Heart of America.”
The French edition of the same work was
erowned by the Academie with an award of
1,500 francs.
Proressor Ray S. Owen, of the department
of topographic and highway engineering of
the University of Wisconsin, has been made
Officier d’Academie by the French govern-
ment for his work in the intelligence depart-
ment of the army.
Tue Howard Taylor Ricketts prize of the
University of Chicago for 1920 has been
awarded to Ivan C. Hall for his work on
“Studies in Anaerobiology.” This prize is
awarded annually on May 3, this being the
anniversary of the death of Dr. Ricketts from
typhus fever while engaged in investigative
work on this disease in Mexico City in 1910.
THe Boylston Prize of $300 has been
awarded to Messrs. Stuart Mudd, Samuel B.
Grant and Alfred Goldman, fourth year stu-
dents of medicine, for their research on “ The
Effect of Chilling on the Mucous Membrane
of the Throat and Tonsil,” performed in the
pathological laboratory of the Washington
University School of Medicine.
Dr. Lyman J. Brices, formerly physicist in
the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, who had been on tem-
porary assignment to the Bureau of Stand-
ards for research on aeroplane problems
during the war, has been transferred per-
484
manently to the staff of the Bureau of
Standards.
H. H. Hansen, chemist in charge of feed-
ing stuff analysis in the West Virginia Ex-
periment Station, has been appointed state
chemist of Delaware in charge of a new lab-
oratory which has been equipped in Dover,
by the State Department of Agriculture to
conduct the chemical and seed testing work
of the state.
Dr. ArtHuR W. Dox has resigned as chief
in chemistry of the Iowa Agricultural Experi-
ment Station to accept the position of re-
search chemist for Parke, Davis & Co.,
Detroit, Mich.
Dr. E. H. Srarine, professor of physiology
in the University of London, who has gone to
India to advise the British government with
regard to the foundation of a central medical
research institute for India, will visit Bom-
bay, Poona, Bangalore, Caleutta, Delhi and
Kasauli.
Proressor RicHarp P. Stronc, of Harvard
University, will attend the annual congress
of the British Royal Institute of Public
Health, which is to be held this year, upon
special invitation from Belgium, from May
20 to 24, in the city of Brussels.
JosEpH T. SINGEWALD, JR., associate pro-
fessor of economic geology at the Johns Hop-
kins University, who has been on leave of
absence since December to carry on geologic
investigations in Peru, has returned to Balti-
more.
Dr. Wintarp J. FISHER, assistant professor of
physics in the University of the Philippines,
and since July, 1919, acting head of the de
partment, is leaving the university to return
to the United States this summer.
Mr. Catvert Towntey, president of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers,
visited the sections of that body at Chicago,
Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Toronto
during April. He delivered addresses at each
place.
THE meeting of the New York Section of the
American Chemical Society on the evening of
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
May 7 was devoted to papers on the general
subject of Colloids and Colloidal Chemistry
in accordance with the following program:
“The general chemistry of gelatine,” by
Jacques Loeb; “ Silica gel and its uses,” by W.
A. Patrick, and “ Electroendosmosis,” by T. R.
Briggs.
A Lirsig museum was opened at Giessen on
March 26, when an address was given by Pro-
fessor Burger on the relation of Liebig to
medicine.
_ Appiications for three Ramsay memorial
fellowships for chemical research will be con-
sidered by the trustees. They must be received
by June 15, by Dr. W. W. Seton, organizing
secretary, Ramsay Memorial Fund, University
College, London. The fellowships will each be
of the annual value of £250, with, possibly, a
grant of not more than £50 per annum for ex-
penses, and tenable for two years, with the
possible extension of a year.
_ Dr. E. Scuwatse, director of the patholog-
ical institute at the University of Rostock, was
killed during the recent rioting.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Tue Mississippi legislature has appropriated
$250,000 for a new chemical building at the
University of Mississippi which will provide
laboratory and other facilities for students in
the medical school. An additional appropria-
tion of $10,000 was made to secure permanent
equipment for the medical school, exclusive
of chemistry. Additional funds were appro-
priated for the university with which salaries
of all teachers could be reasonably increased.
The total appropriation for the university ex-
ceeds $1,000,000.
Mr. F. A. Heron has given to Queen’s Uni-
versity, Belfast, the sum of £5,000 to provide
the necessary equipment for teaching physical
chemistry, and £1,000 towards the provision
of accommodation for the department.
JAMES T. JARDINE, investigator for the
United States Forest Service, has been elected
director of the Oregon Agricultural College
Experiment Station.
May 14, 1920]
A. H. Futter, director of engineering at
Lafayette College, and previously dean of
engineering at the University of Washington,
has been appointed head of the civil engineer-
ing department of Iowa State College at
Ames, and will take up his new duties about
the first of July.
Dr. Orro V. Hurrman, who has resigned
as dean of the Long Island College Hospital
and has resumed practise in New York @ity,
has been appointed a member of the faculty
of the New York Post Graduate Medical
School and Hospital in the department of
internal medicine.
Proressor F. B. Iseny, of Central College,
Fayette, Mo., has accepted the position of
dean and professor of biology at Culver-Stock-
ton College, Canton, Mo., and will begin work
in June.
At Yale University instructors have been
appointed as follows: Leonard H. Caldwell,
in engineering drawing; Arthur H. Smith,
in physiological chemistry; Wilbur Willis
Swingle, in biology; J. H. Fithian, Jr., and
Howard B. Meek, in mathematics.
Mr. JouHn B. Fercuson, formerly of the
Geophysical Laboratory, of the Carnegie In-
stitution of Washington, and now a member
of the research department of the Western
Electric Company of New York City, has
accepted a position as associate professor of
chemical research at the University of
Toronto.
Dr. J. H. Anprew, chief of the Metal-
lurgical Research Department of Sir W. G.
Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., Manchester,
has been appointed to the chair of metallurgy
in the Royal Technical College, Glasgow,
vacant by the transfer of Dr. Desch to the
University of Sheffield.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE AURORA OF MARCH 22, 1920
Tue bright aurora of March 22 was first
noticed at Urbana about 7:00 p.m. It must
have developed quickly, for I had glanced over
the entire sky looking for clouds at 6:45, with-
SCIENCE
485
out noticing anything unusual. Soon after
7:00 the illumination was covering more than
half of the sky but it was a couple of hours
before the streamers were well marked near
the magnetic zenith. This aurora was the
longest in duration I have ever noticed at
Urbana, as it was followed continuously from
7» to 185, and observations of the apparent
radiant were made at times during two hours.
My assistant, Mr. C. C. Wylie, was also watch-
ing the display from a position a quarter of a
mile distant from the observatory, and our
independent estimates of the apparent radiant
or focus of the streamers high up in the south,
are given in the table. The times are Central
Standard Time, 6 hours slow of Greenwich
Mean Time.
Decli- | Hour b=
C. 8. T. nadon eit aetven aes
OPO 5 i Halse a iailae 20°8 | +4°0} S
ERS irs oictce sie e Sie 21.3 | +3.8 SS)
QR D2 tite ccapcro eyes: s 20.6 | +1.2 Ss
ON ZO Gi Sais er avciaeteke 19.0 | +1.1) W Fair
TOM OSL. ctoosrereoet sito 20.4 | —4.8| W Fair
LOM OU aa vctcrsvene sb cheres 20.7 | +2.5 iS} Fair
TOM 20 es hen ccs eae 19.6 | +3.0 Ss
LO S22 25. Suet he ae 22.3 | +2.0| W_ | Good
TO PRP A his Sere o erate ere 20.0 | +2.8 Ss Good
LOOSE, eter de crev tere 20.7 | +0.2 SS) Good
VOR ES SY Oy ae 21.0 | —1.6| W_ | Good
Dio PE aiesoiais stoke ms ea 20.5 | +1.5 Ss Fair
by aes Per Wore Sino oc 19.1 | +0.0} W_ | Good
Bp WR es Wa ae te Bde et 20.5 | +0.2 SS) Fair
Mean of S’s........... 20°5 | +271
Mean of W’s.......... 20.4 | —0.7
Mean of all............ 20.5 | +1.1
Magnetic zenith........ 21.2 | +1.1
Difference............. 0.7 0.0
The mean of all estimates differed by only
0.°7 from the magnetic zenith, as defined by
the magnetic elements for Urbana determined
by Mr. Merrymon of the Coast Survey in
1917. This agrees with previous results.t
The auroral light interfered with our photo-
metric observations at the telescope that even-
ing, because of the variable bright sky back-
ground for any star. A few rough measures
gave the result that a patch of auroral
streamer equal in apparent area to the full
moon gave about as much light as a second
1 ScreNncE, 47, 314, 1918.
486
magnitude star. This refers to the blue light
which most affects the photo-electric cell,
which is not very different from the photo-
graphic plate in color sensitivity.
JOEL STEBBINS
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS OBSERVATORY
THE RECENT AURORAS AND SUN SPOTS
THE object of this preliminary communica-
tion is to call attention to the coincidence
with the recent magnetic displays of a huge
disturbance on the sun approximately parallel
to the sun’s equator and over 205,000 miles
long so situated that the whole of it approxi-
mately passed centrally requiring at least two
days for its passage over the sun’s center.
The group of spots consisted of at least six
larger and numerous smaller ones, all string-
ing along in a line. My first observation of
it was on the 23d of March when most of
the group had already passed the center by
about a day. If the group existed prior to
the 23d without essential modification, it
began to pass the center between the 20th
and 21st, showing a lag in the propagation
from the sun to the earth, if. there be such, of
something like two days. This seems to
favor Professor Snyder’s recently announced
statement that there is a lag of 48 hours.
The observation seems at least to point to
the fact of there being some kind of propa-
gation. The central passage required about
two days and the aurora was evident on the
evenings of the 22d and 23d at least.
Again on the 16th of April a medium-sized
spot became central. It was probably one of
the six spots of the before mentioned group.
It was followed by a small spot some 200,000
miles after and also central about two days
later. It was possibly another remnant of
the old group, but too small to be of any
consequence. It had disappeared by the 19th.
Two or three days before the medium-sized
spot became central, I remarked to several of
my colleagues that I would not be surprised
at auroral display or at least magnetic dis-
turbances after it passed the center. I saw
no aurora, the sky was unfavorable, and prob-
ably also the time, but on the morning of the
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
17th telegraph operators noticed a disturb-
ance, which must have been due to the alleged
propagation. If so the lag was about one day
in this ease.
My measurements of the positions of all
the spots were made on the sun’s dise directly
with the micrometer and will yield helio-
graphic latitudes and longitudes of all the
points observed, but I have had no time to
make the computations. I would wish this
communication to be considered as a first
approximation to more accurate values.
E. D. Ros, Jr.
SyRACUSE UNIVERSITY,
April 24, 1920
POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN SUNSPOTS
AND EARTHQUAKES
In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronom-
ical Society for April, 1919, Professor H. H.
Turner has discussed data taken from the
Catalogue of Destructive Earthquakes com-
piled by Milne and from the Catalogue of
Chinese Earthquakes. He publishes tables of
earthquakes extending back to 49 a.D. and re-
fers to old Chinese records dating to 1820 B.c.
From these datta he slightly modifies two sus-
pected earthquake periods, first published in
the Report of the Seismological Committee to
the British Association in 1912. The short
period is shown by him to have minor and
major limits of 14.8421 and 14.8448 months.
The long period is taken as seventy-eight years.
His tables show these periods almost certainly
as real.
Nine times the limits of the short period
give 11.1316 and 11.1836 years. Newcomb has
derived the sunspot period as 11.13 years and
Larmor and Yamaga as 11.125 years. The
chance that this close commensurability is acci-
dental is as the difference, which is less than
one one-hundredth of a year, is to the period
of about 1.24 years. That is about one in two
hundred and fifty.
If the short period is so nearly commensur-
able the long period must be also. Seven times
the sunspot period is 77.91 years, agreeing to
0.09 years with his round figure of seventy-
eight years.
May 14, 1920]
It would be interesting in this connection to
analyze the counts by months of sunspots
through several cycles to find whether there is
any evidence of a short-period variation of this
length, no matter how small. I hope to be able
to do this within the next few months.
DinssoreE ALTER
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
SOME MICRO-PLANKTON FROM SALTON SEA
As is generally known Salton Sea is a body
of water covering a part of the Imperial Val-
ley in southern California which is 230 feet
below sea level, and it is formed by overflow of
flood waters, or by waters diverted for irriga-
tion, from the delta of the Colorado River.
On December 16, 1919, Captain W. C.
Crandall, of the Scripps Institution for Biolog-
ical Research of the University of California,
Dr. H. C. Bryant, of the California State Fish
and Game Commission, and of the museum of
vertebrate zoology of the University of Cali-
fornia, and Dr. Will F. Thompson, of the Cali-
fornia State Fish and Game Commission,
started over the recently completed San Diego
and Arizona railroad for a four days’ biolog-
ical investigation of Salton Sea.
_ Captain Crandall made a few plankton
catches in Salton Sea and secured a number of
water samples, temperatures, etc., besides ma-
king some rough physiographic observations.
Dr. Bryant found about fifty different kinds
of birds. Dr. Thompson’s fishing equipment
did not get through so he was not able to make
the expected studies of fish. It was found,
however, that Salton Sea is regularly fished
for mullet which reach large size and are found
in commercial quantities at present.
Four hauls were made for microplankton in
Salton Sea with a fine (Number 25) silk net
such as has been in use for some time for ma-
rine work. The catches thus made were purely
qualitative and were taken at the surface
under adverse conditions. One catch indicated
a rather abundant microplankton. Catches
made at other points showed very little. The
presence of the following organisms was noted
in a hasty examination of the catches: Kera-
SCIENCE
487
tella quadrata (Miiller), Brachionus pala Ehr.,
(most of these had female eggs attached),
Anabena sp., Oscillatoria sp., Celastrum sp.,
Amphiprora alata Kuetz., Fragillaria crotoneny
sis Kitton, Navicula sp., and Surirella sp.
Physiographie features of Salton Sea are
very remarkable. There has been a fairly con-
stant reduction of level at the rate of about
one foot per year for some years. Consequent
recession of the water has left exposed numer-
ous mud geysers, hot and cold springs, various
types of mineral springs and some excellent
paint pigments almost ready for use. In the
sea itself, near the mouths of its tributaries,
it is notable that the water is in two layers, the
heavy saline water below and the relatively
fresh above. It thus resembles ocean condi-
tions near tributaries.
The primary purpose of this memorandum is
to call general attention to the fact that the
Salton Sea locality offers extraordinary favor-
able conditions for continuous studies through-
out the year in the lines of physiography, hy-
drography and biology. Since the microplank-
ton is the biological group which gives the
clearest index to biological conditions in water,
it would be especially desirable to have that
particular phase of biological study carried on.
There is probably no other body of water in
the world so favorably situated and conditioned
for segregation and evaluation of major fac-
tors involved. It would be most fortumate for
the progress of science in general if a biolog-
ical station could be established in this region
and its work assisted by that of a competent
physiographer and hydrographer.
W. E. Auten
Scripps INSTITUTION,
La JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
CONDITIONS IN HUNGARY
To tHe Epiror or Scrmnce: [I have just
received a letter from a professor in Hungary,
which should, I think, be shared with the
readers of Scmence. The writer is one of the
leading scholars in that country in his de-
partment, and with him for many years prior
to the war I have had a most pleasant ac-
quaintance. I know that only real suffering
488
on the part of his friends and himself could
have induced him to write this letter, from
which I take the following extracts:
“The middle classes are suffering
frightfully in the present depreciation of
money. Our salaries (which are for the pres-
ent being paid) seem high according to the
figures, but they are insufficient for the pur-
chase of even the ordinary necessities of life.
We may, for instance, possibly once a week
have a bit of meat, but for the rest of the
time we have to rejoice if we can get enough
bad bread and vegetables to appease hunger.
Sugar is enormously dear and never to be had
in sufficient quantities. Clothing we can not
buy, for a single simple suit would cost more
than a month’s salary. It is the same with
underclothes and shoes. What our present
conditions will lead to in the near future it
is impossible to conceive.”
... “You can imagine it is in the highest
degree painful for me to write you such a
letter, and only real suffering would justify
aitee
. . . “While we are suffering in Austria
from actual need of food, packages of food
sent by individuals in America rarely reach
their destination. Money is practically of no
value, for there is little food to be purchased
with it.”
Professor , whose name I withhold,
writes that the American Relief Administra-
tion (whose office in this country is at 115
Broadway, New York), has established an
American food warehouse in Vienna, from
which food is distributed that has been
shipped from this country.
Jas. Lewis Howe
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,
LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA
JOURNALS FOR PRAGUE
To THE Eprror or Science: Dr. M. Kojima,
surgeon-commander, Japanese Navy, has but
now arrived from Tchecho-Slovak where he
visited Professor A. Biedl. The latter has
sent through him a message to American
scientists asking if they can arrange to have
sent to him the various scientific publications
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
and periodicals, since he is unable to pur-
chase the same on account of the rate of ex-
change, lack of funds, and general disturbed
conditions in Tchecho-Slovak. It seems to
me that the least we can do is to arrange
through our editing boards some procedure
by which Dr. Biedl may receive current
numbers of our scientific periodicals. I would
appreciate greatly your giving this communi-
cation publicity in “Scmncsz.” Dr. Biedl’s
address is Das Institute fur Experimentelle
Pathologie, Prag, Tchecho-Slovak.
Freperick §. HamMMetr
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY
THE SUPPOSED RECURRENT IRREGULARITIES IN
THE ANNUAL MARCH OF TEMPERATURE
“The belief that periods of unseasonable
heat and cold tend to recur at or about the
same time from year to year has prevailed
over a great part of the world for many cen-
turies and has been the subject of extensive
scientific investigation.” This is the opening
sentence in an extensive, scholarly discussion
of the “ Literature concerning supposed recur-
rent irregularities in the annual March of
temperature,” by ©. Fitzhugh Talman, li-
brarian of the Weather Bureau.®
Most of the literature deals with a cold
period in May.
Over a considerable part of continental Europe
it has been popularly believed since the Middle
Ages that destructive frosts were likely to occur
at a certain period in the month of May, and with
the elaboration of the ecclesiastical calendar these —
frosts became definitely associated with the days
dedicated to Saints Mamertus, Pancras and Ser-
vatius (May 11, 12, 13), or, in south-central Eu-
rope, Saints Paneras, Servatius and Boniface
(May 12, 13, 14), hence known as the ‘‘ice saints.’
. With the construction of synoptic weather
charts, the barometric conditions that accompany
depressions of temperature gradually became ap-
parent. ... [This cold period] was found to occur
when, owing to the rapid warming of the land re-
gions as compared with the ocean, a center of low
barometric pressure develops over southeastern
Europe while high pressure prevails over the ocean
6 Monthly Weather Review, August, 1919, Vol.
47, pp. 555-565.
May 14, 1920]
to the northwest, a situation that gives rise to cold
northerly and northeasterly winds in central Eu-
Tope. . . . While the immediate causes of these
interruptions of temperature has thus been made
elear, it is not yet certain whether or to what ex-
tent such interruptions, with their attendant baro-
metric conditions tend to recur from year to year
on certain dates, such as the days of the ice
saints. Irregularities in a curve showing the mean
annual march of temperature as deduced from a
record of 50 or 100 years may be due to excessive
departures in particular years rather than to a real
tendency to recurrence on particular dates, and, on
the other hand, a tendency to recurrence might
not manifest itself in the mean curve, especially, if
as some students have surmised the phenomenon is
one that undergoes periodic fluctuations.
Bearing on this question is a mathematical
discussion by Professor ©. F. Marvin, en-
titled, “ Normal temperatures (daily): are ir-
regularities in the annual march of tempera-
ture persistent?”? Average annual tempera-
ture curves based on the averages of the means
of each week over a period of years, may be
well-covered mathematically in a curve of one
or two harmonics. The residuals, which in a
given period are much the same over a large
part of the eastern United States, are mostly
due to some extreme departures occurring in
a single year of the record: which throws
doubt on the existence of recurrent irregu-
larities.
Professor Marvin’s mathematical analysis
of only 15-year averages shows that it is pos-
sible to get a surprisingly accurate, smoothed,
normal annual temperature curve from a
short record.
NOTES
The Monthly Weather Review® contains so
much material that these occasional notes in
ScrencE haye by no means covered even a
majority of the 150 contributions, not to
mention hundreds of abstracts and other items
of meteorological interest, published during
the past year. For a brief summary and men-
tion of many of the important contributions
published during 1919, and the reader is re-
T Ibid., pp. 544-555, 4 plates, fig.
8 Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.,
printed for the Weather Bureau.
SCIENCE
489
ferred to the American Year Book; and for
the articles and notes themselves, to the
Monthly Weather Review files maintained at
all Weather Bureau stations, and at a few
hundred college, university and public li-
braries.
Hereafter, these notes on meteorology and
climatology for Science will be continued by
Mr. C. LeRoy Meisinger, assistant editor of
the Monthly Weather Review.
Cuartes F. Brooks
WasHiInectTon, D. C.
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE SIPHON IN TEXT-BOOKS
Tue treatments commonly accorded to the
siphon in text-books of physics of college
grade may be classified in three groups. I
have attempted to reduce the characteristic
features of each group to a typical or stand-
C a WB eee
ard form. There is no intention to quote
and italics are strictly mine. Reference is
made to the diagram, which will serve in
common for the three methods of treatment.
I. The pressure at A is the resultant of an
upward pressure equal to the atmospheric
pressure and a downward pressure due to the
column of liquid AB. The pressure at D is
the resultant of an upward pressure equal to
the atmospheric pressure and a downward
pressure due to the column of liquid DB. As
DB is greater than AB, the resultant pressure
490
upward at A is greater than that at D. The
liquid must therefore flow from A to D.
It is evident from this discussion that a
siphon can not operate if AB is greater than
the barometric height for the liquid in ques-
tion.
TI. If we consider the pressures acting at C
we will find that the pressure toward D is the
atmospheric pressure minus the pressure rep-
resented by a column of liquid AB, while the
pressure toward A is the pressure of the at-
mosphere less the pressure represented by the
column of liquid DB. The resultant pressure
is therefore toward D, determining a flow in
that direction.
It is evident from this discussion that a
siphon can not operate if AB is greater than
the barometric height for the liquid in ques-
tion.
III. The end D being closed, and the siphon
filled, the pressure at D will exceed atmos-
pherie pressure by an amount represented by
the column of liquid DA, since all points at
the level of A are now at atmospheric
pressure. Upon opening D this excess pres-
sure causes the flow, and the atmospheric
pressure at A keeps the tube filled.
It is evident from this discussion that a
siphon can not operate if AB is greater than
the barometric height for the liquid in ques-
tion.
The refrain with which each treatment con-
cludes is a noteworthy element of uniformity,
to be considered below. Special features of
criticism are as follows.
I. Pressure at a point within a body of
fluid is not upward or downward, to left or
to right, north, east, south or west. It is
without direction.
The pressure at A, whether inside the tube
or outside, and whether the siphon be flowing
or not flowing, is never greater than the
pressure at D.
The flow of a liquid between two points
does not necessarily take place from high to
low pressure. See the discussion below, based
on Bernoulli’s principle, of this particular
case.
II. As above stated, pressure in a body of
SCIENCE
[N. §. Von. LI. No. 1324
fluid is without direction. The pressure at 0
is neither toward A nor toward D, and cer-
tainly does not have unequal components in
these two directions.
Ii. Except the concluding refrain, this
treatment correctly represents the facts, and
shows at least why the siphon ought to start
flowing. Curiously enough, Bernoulli’s prin-
ciple and the law of diminution of potential
energy having been known for a long time,
little attempt is made to show what happens,
and why, when the siphon is actually work-
ing, the discussions being chiefly hydrostatic.
If we assume that the siphon gives an ex-
ample of steady frictionless irrotational flow
of an incompressible fluid, an assumption
probably justified as a first approximation, we
ean apply Bernoulli’s principle.
Then, for any given stream tube
Pp + hdg + 4dv?= constant,
in which p represents fluid pressure, h height
above any assigned zero level, g acceleration
of gravity, d density of the fluid, and »v the
speed with which it is moving.
Considering now the siphon when in steady
flow, and assuming the reservoir indefinitely
large, we find that the stream lines begin at
the free surface, widely spread, the liquid
flowing here at a speed approaching zero;
converge into the orifice of the short limb,
with much increased speed; traverse the en-
tire length of the tube, supposed of uniform
cross section, without change in speed, and
that the stream emerges finally at this speed.
At the surface A outside the tube the
pressure is atmospheric. Inside the tube it
is less than atmospheric, for the stream has
gained speed at the same level. As the
stream ascends, at uniform speed, the pres-
sure diminishes continuously, the least pres-
sure being reached at the highest point.
Descending, at constant speed, the pressure
increases until at the lower orifice D the
pressure is once more atmospheric, and the
stream emerges in pressure equilibrium with
the air surrounding it.
Taking a stream tube beginning at surface
A outside the tube, and ending at D we have
May 14, 1920]
Dp; = p, =P (atmospheric pressure),
2,=0, v.=V (constant speed through tube),
and applying Bernoulli’s principle
P +h dg =P + h.dg + 34aP’,
whence
V? = 2g(h, — hk) =29DA4,
which expresses a simple interchange of po-
tential and kinetic energy, corresponding
strictly with the facts upon the assumption
that the operation is frictionless.
Tt will be easy to express the reduced pres-
sure at the level A, inside the tube, by com-
paring two points at level A, one outside, the
other inside
We have, outside
(Sle Th,
inside
CE =,
and thus
py +hjdg + 44V?=P +4 h.dg,
py =P — 3472,
but
4dV? = dg(h, — hz) 5
therefore
— dg (hy — hy).
We can now discuss the invariable refrain
or coda found in all the type treatments. It
appears to be based upon the assumption that
a liquid can not exist with a negative pres-
sure, or as sometimes expressed, under ten-
sion. This is hardly true; there is consider-
able experimental evidence to the contrary.
Let us make this assumption, however, and
limit the working height of the siphon to that
which makes the pressure zero at the highest
point.
Comparing points ( (at level B) and D we
have
At C
Dp =
Po—0, U—V.
At D
p= P, w.=V.
hod g + 4dV*—P + h.dg + 44V’;
whence
(Ito — In) dg = P.
Now h,—h, is the difference in level be-
tween D and B, which is thus shown to equal
the barometric height for the given liquid, in
SCIENCE
491
the assumed limiting case. The ordinary
statement asserts that AB equals the baro-
metric height in the limiting ease, the loss of
pressure at A inside the tube being over-
looked, and the concept being hydrostatic
rather than hydrokinetie.
This discussion is not original in sub-
stance; see some good treatises on hydro-
dynamics.
Harotp ©. Barker
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE .
SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY
THE seventy-second meeting of Section E (Geol-
ogy and Geography) of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science was held in the
Soldan High School building in St, Louis, Mo., on
December 30 and 31. In the absence of Professor
Charles Kenneth Leith, the vice-president elect of
Section E, Dr. David White, chief geologist of the
U. S. Geological Survey, was voted chairman for
the St. Louis meeting, and presided.
The address of the retiring vice-president, Dr.
David White, upon the subject, ‘‘Geology as
Taught in the United States,’’? was given on the
morning of December 31 in the main auditorium,
before a joint session of the Association of Amer-
ican Geographers, the American Meteorological So-
ciety, and Section E. This address will be printed
in full in ScrENcE.
The vice-president of Section E for the coming
year will be elected by the executive committee at
its meeting in April. Dr. Nevin M. Fenneman, of
the University of Cincinnati, was elected member
of the council,
The program which was so full that each session
overran the allotted time, comprised the following
papers:
The origin of glauconite: W. A. Tarr. Glauco-
nite is a hydrous silicate of iron and potash. The
composition is variable, but the amount of potash
rarely exceeds 8 per cent. The mineral is
amorphous, and is usually some shade of green. It
oceurs as rounded grains and irregular areas in
dolomites, limestones, conglomerates, marls, sand-
stones and shales. It is found in the Cambrian
formations of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, South
Dakota and Wyoming, and in the Cretaceous and
Eocene formations along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts. Geographically and geologically, glauconite
is associated with granites, usually being deposited
492
after a period of base leveling, when weathering
had been proceeding a long time. This long-con-
tinued weathering is thought to have furnished
colloidal silica, iron, potash and alumina to the
sea water, where through the action of the saline
matter in the sea water the silica and alumina were
precipitated, while the iron was thrown down by
oxidation. These colloids mlingled in varying
amounts and then absorbed the potash from the
sea water, thus forming glauconite.
A Mauch Chunk Island in the Mississippian Seas
of eastern Kentucky: WILLARD R. JILLSON, state
geologist of Kentucky, Frankfort, Kentucky. In
the eastern Kentucky coal fields on the divide be-
tween the Licking River and the Levisa Fork of the
Big Sandy River, there exists an elongated struc-
turally elevated area of between 700 and 1,000
Square miles. This structural high has been ealled
the Paint Creek uplift and is located so as to
overlap parts of Magoffin, Morgan, Elliott, Law-
rence, Johnson and Floyd counties. The Paint
Creek uplift has a slight east of north major axis
as mapped structurally on the Pottsville Fire-Clay
coal. The normal dip at the surface is slightly to
the south of east. The Paint Creek uplift eul-
minates in two pinnacles, the Paint Creek Dome
and the Laurel Creek Dome. There exists a
maximum reversal of about 250 feet. The con-
siderable amount of oil and gas prospecting drill-
ing on these structures during the past two years
has resulted in defining two pronounced oil and
gas fields, one on either dome. Production is se-
cured principally from the Weir sand which corre-
lates with the Cuyahoga sandstone in the Waverley
group toward the base of the Mississippian system.
An examination of the well records of recent drill-
ings in this locality shows an increasing interval
between the Fire Clay coal of the Pottsville and
the Big Lime (St. Genevieve-St. Louis) of the
Mississippian, as one proceeds away from the
highest structural points.
A summary conception of the structure of the
Weir sand shows it to be much more steeply tilted
than the persistent coals of the surface Pottsville.
The absence of expected thicknesses of the Mauch
Chunk on the top of this structure and the thick-
ness of the Pottsville and Mauch Chunk on the
sides coupled with the steeper inclinations of the
Weir sands suggests an anticlinal island in the
Mississippian seas at this point during the latter
part of the Mauch Chunk period with unconsoli-
dated Mauch Chunk sediments, subjected to sub-
aerial erosion. Following early Pottsville times,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
quiescent subsidence is conceived to have taken
place, which was followed during the time of the
Appalachian overthrusts by folding and faulting
along, and transverse to, the major axis of the
original Mississippian anticline.
A Geological Section from St. Louis to Kansas
City: E. B. Branson.
The Pre-Moenkopi unconformity of the Colorado
plateau: C. L. Dake. The area over which the
unconformity was studied embraces the region
from the Zuni uplift in New Mexico west to the
Little Colorado River in Arizona, and northwest to
the vicinity of the Henry Mountains in Utah. Sud-
den changes in the thickness of the Moenkopi
amounting to two hundred feet or more, in short
distances, show local erosion of at least that mag-
nitude during the pre-Moenkopi erosion interval.
Data gathered by the writer tend strongly to con-
firm a hypothesis advanced by Cross that the Per-
mian rests on progressively younger beds as the
unconformity is traced westwards, the erosion
amounting perhaps to all the Kaibab, the Coconino
and the Supai formations. In other words the
Moenkopi Red beds rest on the Kaibab formation
in the area about the Grand Canyon and probably
west of the Henry Mountains, while farther east
they rest on the Goodridge (correlated by Girty
with the Redwall) in the San Juan region, and
probably on equivalent beds near Moab. This
would involve the erosion of approximately two
thousand feet of Pennsylvanian strata in the east-
ern portion of the area under discussion, the equiv-
alents of which are present farther west. This
conclusion, if true, would place the pre-Moenkopi
unconformity among those of larger significance in
geologic history.
Notes on the geology of the Cove areas of east
Tennesese: C. H. Gordon, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. Within the western foothills of the
Unaka or Great Smoky Mountains in east Tennes-
see are a number of irregular open valleys known
locally as ‘‘coves.’’ The largest of these is
Tuckeleeche Cove on Little River. Wear Cove to
the northeast and Cades Cove on the southwest are
about half as large. The coves are underlaid by
the Knox dolomite uplifted in broad irregular
domes with the overlying Wilhite slates outerop-
ping in broad irregular bands around them. The
more fertile soils of the coves early attracted
settlers and each is now the locus of a prosperous
settlement. This and the region to the southwest
is the typical region of Safford’s Ocoee rocks con-
sisting of sandstones, conglomerates and slates
May 14, 1920]
more or less metamorphosed. These rocks were
placed by Safford in the Cambrian a reference at
first questioned by the government geologists but
afterwards accepted. In this area the Ocoee slates
overlie the Knox dolomite the larger part of which
is Ordovician. These relations indicate, therefore,
the presence here of a great overthrust fault
whereby the lower Ocoee rocks have been thrust
over the Knox dolomite to the distance of eight or
ten miles. Two periods of faulting are recognized
in the region, the first of which is recorded in the
above-mentioned overthrust of the Cambrian upon
the Knox. Later came another stage of folding
and faulting in which the faults of the first period
were involved giving rise to complex structures not
always easily decipherable. It was during this
second period of movement that most of the great
faults of the valley were produced.
The Oriskany sandstone faunule at Oriskany
Falls, New York: Harry N. Eaton. The type lo-
eality of the Oriskany sandstone is at Oriskany
Falls, in the southern part of Oneida county, New
York, where a lower Devonian section is exposed.
This occurrence has been known in the literature
since 1839 when Vanuxem noted it in his state
survey report. Structurally, the sandstone is a
small lens, ten feet thick, whose southern edge only
can be observed. The faunal list is interesting
chiefly (because it is larger than formerly supposed,
and as showing relations to other faunules in New
York and Ontario. This study was incidental to
more detailed work on the Oriskany in another
New York locality.
Salem limestone outliers in central Missouri:
CouRTNEY WERNER.
Geology of the Sullivan county, Indiana, oil
field: STEPHEN S. VISHER. Approximately 30
miles south of Terre Haute, and only a few miles
from the Illinois boundary, there are seven pro-
ducing oil pools aggregating in area about 12
square miles. About 500 wells are being pumped.
The daily production was recently about 1,000
barrels. No report on the geological conditions in
this oil field has been published. A study carried
on recently under the direction of State Geologist
Logan, has revealed several interesting facts.
Production is from four sands. The highest of
these, at a depth of approximately 620 feet, seems
clearly to ‘be along the unconformity between the
Allegheny and the Pottsville divisions of the
Pennsylvania Formation. The three lower sands
are in the Mansfield division of the Pottsville.
The second sand is about 660 feet below the sur-
SCIENCE
493
face; the third about 740 and the fourth about 800
feet. The presence of more than one oil sand has
not been recognized by most drillers. Many wells
have been abandoned only a few feet above a sand
in which wells not far away obtain profitable pro-
duction. No proof of local folding or doming was
obtained. The evidence at hand indicates that the
oil pools are lenses of sand along the buried valley
of an ancient aggrading river or rivers. The Indi-
ana Geological Survey is publishing the full re-
port.
The late Pleistocene submergence in the Colum-
bia River valley: J. HARLEN BRETZ,
The latest glacial features in the United States:
Herman L. Farrcump. These features are de-
picted on maps of a forthcoming Bulletin of the
New York State Museum, proofs of which are here
exhibited. The locality is the north boundary of
New York. Here, on the point of the northern
salient of the Adirondack mass the waning Que-
bee (Labradorian) glacier made its last stand on
American territory with the effect of impounding
glacial waters. Probably the ice sheet abandoned
northern Maine somewhat later. The extinction
features of Lake Iroquois, the last and most in-
teresting of the long series of glacial waters, lie
here; these being the second outlet channel through
Covey pass and the shoreline phenomena on the
west. On the Champlain side of the highland are
the remarkable denuded rock areas and channels
produced by the latest glacial drainage held to high
levels by the Champlain lobe of the wasting gla-
cier. Beneath these glacial stream features on the
east side of the salient, and the Iroquois shore on
the west side, lies the shore of the sea-level waters,
which had followed the receding ice front up the
Hudson-Champlain valley. This ‘‘marine’’ shore,
strongly marked by heavy cobble bars and deltas,
curves around the north end of the salient (Covey
Hill) and passes back into New York north of
Chateaugay village. At Covey pass the Iroquois
plane is to-day 1,030 feet altitude, and the marine
beach is 740 feet. The difference, 290 feet, is the
altitude of Lake Iroquois at the time of its down-
draining into the Champlain Sea, which figure is
the master key to the quantitative study of land
deformation in the Ontario-St. Lawrence valley.
Springfield, Missouri and the frontier of 1820:
Lewis F. THomas. Albout 1820 white settlers be-
gan to move into the Osage county of Missouri and
settle in the more favored localities. One of these
was the site of Springfield, which on account of a
favorable combination of natural advantages out-
494
stripped all the other settlements. An abundant
supply of sparkling water and a magnificent stand
of walnut and oak timber determined the location
of the cabins and stores. The near by grass lands
were easily broken by the plow into fertile fields or
left as open range lands for cattle. The greatest
advantage was the location of the settlement, situ-
ated as it was on the broad undulating surface of
the White-Osage River divide where an old north-
south Indian trail intersected an east-west White
River trail. These trails passed through the stages
of road and pike to railroad. Back and forth over
them moved the settlers and freight which gave
life to the city and made it the social, political,
manufacturing and commercial center of south-
western Missouri. Thus Springfield has been from
the beginning of settlement a densely settled popu-
lation outlier in the sparcely settled Ozark region.
The Chester series in Illinois: STUART WELLER.
The original section of the Mississippian forma-
tion is that along the Mississippi River in lowa
and Illinois. The upper portion of this section
constituting the ‘‘Chester Group’’ of Worthen
is typically exposed in southern Illinois. This suc-
cession of strata is now considered to be of Series
rank, and the upper Mississippian is now called the
Chester Series, while the name Iowa Series is sug-
gested for the lower Mississippian. In the course
of detailed mapping in southern Illinois, in prog-
ress since 1911, the Chester Series has been sub-
divided into sixteen distinct formational units. In
the more complete section, as exhibited in Pope
and Johnson counties, these formations are alter-
nately sandstone and calcareous members, the cal-
careous members being made up of considerable
amounts of shale interbedded with limestone. The
names used for these formations are as follows:
Upper Chester—16, Kinkaid limestone; 15, De-
gonia sandstone; 14, Clore limestone; 13, Pales-
tine sandstone; 12, Menard limestone; 11, Wal-
tersburg sandstone; 10, Vienna limestone; 9, Tar
Springs sandstone. Middle Chester—8, Glen Dean
limestone; 7, Hardensburg sandstone; 6, Golconda
limestone; 5, Cypress sandstone. Lower Chester—
4, Paint Creek limestone; 3, Yankeetown forma-
tion and Bethel sandstone; 2, Renault limestone;
1, Aux Vases sandstone. The limestone members
of this series of formations, with the possible ex-
eeption of the Vienna, exhibit a continuous distri-
bution across the state from Hardin county at the
southeast to Randolph and Monroe counties at the
northwest, but most of the sandstones are not con-
tinuously present. The Aux Vases sandstone has
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
its greater development in the Mississippi River
section and thins out to the southeast, being very
certainly wanting in the section east of Union
county. The Bethel, Cypress, Hardensburg and
Tar Springs sandstones have their great develop-
ment in the southeast and are either wanting in
the Mississippi River section, or are represented by
more or less discontinuous, thin beds. The Wal-
tersburg sandstone has its great development in
Pope and Johnson counties and thins out both to
the east and the west. The Palestine and Degonia
sandstones are about equally developed across the
entire Chester area in the state.
Correlation of the Upper Paleozoic rocks of the
Hueco Mountain region of Texas: J. W. BEEDE.1
Three great groups of rocks, the Mississippian,
Pennsylvanian and Permian, each separated from
the beds beneath them by unconformity, are rep-
resented in the Hueco region of Hudspeth county,
Texas. The Mississippian is composed of some
500 feet of limestones and shales, and is referred
to the Chester Group by Weller. Eleven hundred
feet of Magdalena beds composed of limestones
and marls represent the Des Moines Group of the
Pennsylvanian system. The Manzano Group cor-
responds to the Wichita beds of central Texas and
the Neva limestone to Summer Series of Kansas.
The Abo sandstone of New Mexico appears to be
wanting at localities studied; but belongs to Upper
Pennsylvanian system. These beds are followed
by strong unconformity carrying 100 feet of for-
eign conglomerate which cuts diagonally across the
upper beds and the Diablo plateau to the northern
Salt Flat. It is followed by part of the Leonard
formation and farther south the Word formation
comes in. This unconformity appears to be the
one at the base of the Leonard formation in the
Glass Mountains which extends from Salt Flat
southwest to the Hueco and southeast to the Glass
Mountains. From there northeastward to eastern
Coke county and Red River, and probably into
Kansas. It is the surface on which the Double
Mountain beds were deposited.
The Devonian rocks of southwestern Illinois: T.
E. Savage. The Devonian rocks in the lower
Mississippian embayment have an aggregate thick-
ness of nearly 1,000 feet. Of these, a thickness of
more than 800 feet occur in southwest Illinois.
In this state these rocks do not extend as far north
as St. Louis, and their outerops are restricted to
1 Published by permission of the director of the
Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology,
University of Texas.
May 14, 1920]
a belt a few miles wide near the Mississippi River.
In this succession of strata all of the series, or
larger divisions, of the Devonian system recognized
in the New York section are present, as shown in
the following table of formations:
Devonian formations present in southwest Illi-
nois:
Upper Devonian.
Chautauquan series.
Mountain Glen shale, 45 feet.
Senecan series.
Alto formation, 90 feet.
Middle Devonian.
Erian series.
Lingle limestone, 90 feet.
Misenheimer shale, 35 feet.
Ulsterian series.
Grand Tower limestone, 125 feet.
Dutch Creek sandstone, 30 feet.
Clear Creek chert, 300 feet.
Lower Devonian.
Oriskanian series.
Rocks of this age are not known to occur in
the state, but they are present farther north-
west in Missouri; and farther southeast, in
western Tennessee. Remnants are probably
present in Illinois, but concealed beneath
younger strata.
Helderbergian series,
Back-bone limestone, 65 feet.
Bailey limestone, 100 feet.
Rouuin T. CHAMBERLIN,
Secretary
(Zo be continued)
THE AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
Tue first annual meeting of the American Geo-
physical Union was held in the forenoon of April
23, 1920, at the offices of the National Research
Council in Washington. At this meeting the per-
manent organization of this body was completed,
amendments to its statutes were adopted, by-laws
were enacted, officers of the Union were elected and
the elections of officers of the sections conducted
by mail ballot were ratified.
Reports were submitted by the American officers
of the sections of the International Geodetic and
Geophysical Union describing the progress made
in the organization of these international sections.
A report was submitted from the acting execu-
tive committee covering the work of preparation
for the annual meeting.
A brief exposition was given of the status and
functions of the American Geophysical Union, on
the one hand, in relation to the parent bodies, the
International Research Council, the National Re-
search Council and the International Geodetic and
SCIENCE
495
Geophysical Union, and on the other, in relation to
the branches of science embraced under the term
“‘geophysies’’ and specifically included in the sec-
tions of the union.
For each of the sections addresses were made by
the chairman, setting forth in outline various
problems of interest to the sections. These ad-
dresses constituted brief surveys of the research
needs of the various branches of geophysics.
They will be prepared for publication and issued
at a later date.
Officers were elected to serve from July 1, 1920,
as follows: American Geophysical Union: Chair-
man, Wm, Bowie for two years; Vice-chairman,
L. A, Bauer, for two years; Secretary, H. O.
Wood, for three years; Section (a), Geodesy;
Chairman, Wm. Bowie, for two years; Vice-chair-
man, J. F. Hayford, for two years; Secretary, H
O. Wood, for three years; Section (b), Seismology;
Chairman, H. F. Reid, for two years; Vice-chair-
man, J. O. Branner, for two years; Secretary, H.
O. Wood, for three years; Section (c), Meteorol-
ogy, Chairman, C. F. Marvin, for two years; Vice-
chairman, W. J. Humphreys, for two years; Secre-
tary, A. J. Henry, for three years; Section (d),
Terrestrial Magnetism and Electricity, Chairman,
L, A. Bauer, for two years; Vice-chairman, W. F.
G. Swann, for two years; Secretary, J. A. Fleming,
for three years; Section (e), Physical Oceanog-
raphy; Chairman, G. W. Littlehales, for two
years; Vice-chairman, tie vote, no election; Secre-
tary, J. T. Watkins, for three years; Section (f)
Voleanology; Chairman, H. W. Washington, for
two years; Vice-chairman, R. A. Daly, for two
years; Secretary, H. O. Wood, for three years.
Harry O. Woon,
Secretary
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES
THE program of the scientific sessions of the an-
nual meeting, held in Washington on April 26 and
27, was as follows:
MONDAY, APRIL 26
Morning Session
Conservation of natural resources as a proper
function of the National Academy: Joun M.
CLARKE.
On the rate of growth of the population of the
United States since 1790 and its mathematical ex-
pression: RAYMOND PEARL.
Growth and development as determined by en-
vironmental influences: FRANZ Boas.
496
Plural births in man: CHARLES B. DAVENPORT.
Dynamical aspects of injury, recovery and death:
W. J. V. OSTERHOUT.
The importance of the presence of both sympa-
thetic superior cervical ganglia to the maintenance
of life; and their possible relations to respiratory
diseases: SAMUEL J. MELTZER.
The National Research Council:
ANGELL.
A psychological study of the medical officers in
the Army: Rosrert M. YERKES.
JAMES R.
Afternoon Session
Spectroscopic phenomena of very long vacuum
tubes: Ropert W. Woop.
The measurement of small time intervals and
some applications, principally ballistic (introduced
by Arthur G. Webster): L. T. E. THompson, C. N.
HiIcKMAN AND N. RIFFOLT.
The effect of molecular structure upon the reflec-
tion of molecules from the surface of liquids and
solids: Ropert A, MILLIKAN.
The Springfield rifle and the Leduc formula:
ARTHUR G. WEBSTER.
On the internal ballistics of the Springfield rifle:
ARTHUR G. WEBSTER,
The 100-inch Hooker telescope of the Mt. Wilson
Observatory: GEORGE H, HAE.
The vertical interferometer: Preliminary tests in
an attempt to measure the diameter of the stars;
A modification of the Foucault method adapted to
long-distance measurement of the velocity of light:
A, A, MICHELSON.
Preliminary measurements on the pressures in
the ‘‘ Onde de Choc’’: ARTHUR G, WEBSTER.
On the specific heat of powder gases: ARTHUR G.
WEBSTER,
Thermal conductivity of metals: EDWIN H. HALu.
Evening Session
The scale of the universe: HarLow SHAPLEY,
Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, and Hrprer D.
Curtis, Lick Observatory (open to the public).
U.S. National Museum (main auditorium). (Wil-
liam Ellery Hale Lectures.)
TUESDAY, APRIL 27
Morning Session
Distribution and villages of the Indian tribes of
the Klamath River region, California: C. Hart
MERRIAM.
Significance of correlation in function between
the dentition and skeleton of the Sabre-tooth tiger:
JOHN C. MERRIAM.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1324
On the colonial nervous system of Renilla:
GrorGE H. PARKER.
The genus Botrychium and its relationships:
Doventas H. CAMPBELL.
The influence of cold in stimulating the growth
of plants: FREDERICK V. COVILLE.
Some common foods as sources of vitamines:
THOMAS B. OSBORNE AND LAFAYETTE B, MENDEL.
The physico-chemical properties of hemoglobin:
LAWRENCE J. HENDERSON.
The direct combination of nitrogen and chlorine:
Wituram A, NoYEs.
Valance and chemical affinity: GiLBErt N. LEwIs.
Afternoon Session
Shock of water ram in pipe lines with imperfect
reflection at the discharge end and including the
effect of friction and non-uniform change of valve
opening: WILLIAM F. DURAND.
Recent notable progress in the theory of nuwm-
bers: LEONARD E. Dickson.
Geodesics and relativity: EDWARD KASNER.
The use of alternating currents for submarine
cable transmission (introduced by G. O. Squier) :
F. E, Prernor.
Improvements in telegraphy: GEORGE O, SQUIER.
The air resistance of spheres: LYMAN J. BRIGGS.
The possibilities of the rocket in weather fore-
casting: ROBERT H. GODDARD.
The distribution of land and water on the earth:
H. Fietpine Rew.
The alterations of limestones in contact-meta-
morphism: WALDEMAR LINDGREN.
Structure of Marrella and allied middle Cambrian
crustaceans: CHARLES D, WALCOTT.
On a single numerical index of the age distribu-
tion of a population (‘by title): RAYMOND PEARL.
Biographical memoir of George Jarvis Brush
(by title): Epwarp S. Dana.
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-effice at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattes
SCIENCE
New SERIES RID SINGLE Copizs, 15 Cts.
Vou, LI, No. 1825 F AY, May 21, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
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SCIENCE
- Fripay, May 21, 1920
CONTENTS
Local Anesthetics: Dr. HENRY G. BARBOUR.. 497
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Phenomena in the Ultra-violet Spectrum, in-
cluding X-rays: PRoressor Davin L, WEB-
ster, Proressor R. A. MILLIKAN, Pro-
FESSOR WILLIAM DUANE AND Dr. A. W.
ISRONIA Sb. aoe gon OKEORIE UOT Om.cc> o Domne obi 504
Scientific Hvents :—
Publications and Membership of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences; Mathematical
Meetings at the University of Chicago; The
Southwestern Division of the American
Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence; The Resignation of President Drinker
Of Lenigh University... 0.0... see ae 508
Scientific Notes and News ...........-.... 513
University and Educational News .......... 612
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Formule giving the Day of the Week of Any
Date: Dr. W. J. SPmLLMAN. Origin of the
Supposed Human Foot-prints of Carson
City, Nevada: Dr, CHESTER Stock. Scien-
tific Photography: A. J. NEWTON ........ 513
Quotations :—
Competition in Research .........--..+.+- 515
A New Statistical Journal: Proressor Ray-
MON) AVN Goadoodgaunbadodsouoareceoge 515
Special Articles :—
Foot-rot of Wheat: Proressor F. L.
SEVEN SH caie 4 ciphers sels siearaiet aperemttersays = 517
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science :—
Section E—Geology and Geography: Pro-
FESSOR ROLLIN T, CHAMBERLIN ........... 518
The American Mathematical Society: Pro-
WESSORPH Ney COMI tact lai. cr leie s 52
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
SS eee SS
LOCAL ANESTHETICS?
Since earliest times, those who have re
sorted to surgery for the relief of their fellow
creatures, have desired to mitigate their pro-
cedures by the exclusion of ‘pain. Generally
speaking, this has been brought about by a
complete abolition of consciousness, whence
the term anesthesia (“without sensation”).
To those cases in which sensation is re-
moved by the application of a drug only at
the point of operation is applied the term local
anesthesia; substances used for this purpose
are termed local anesthetics. Some authori-
ties consider this designation inaccurate be-
eause during the employment of these sub-
stances consciousness is fully retained. They
might therefore be described as local analgesics
(“without pain”) but the other term has the
sanction of usage.
Historians cite abundant instances of the
employment in ancient times of general
anesthesia, the oldest being a case of removal
of a rib. For this purpose we are told that
“the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam,” the patient. The commonest of
the age-old general anesthetics are alcohol
opiates and mandragora, all of which were
given separately or mingled with other in-
gredients.
Local anesthesia, on the other hand, was
attempted with comparative infrequency be-
fore the last century. Perhaps the earliest
authentic description of an approach to this
method is that which emanates from the
school of Salerno,2 in the twelfth century.
In those days was practised a form of general
anesthesia by causing the patient to inhale
the vapors of so-called “soporific sponges,” the
chief ingredients of these being poppy, hen-
1 Lecture given before the Brooklyn Institute of
Arts and Sciences, February 7, 1920.
2Cited by Husemann, Deutsch.
Chirurgie, 1896, 42, 585.
Zeitschr. f.
498
bane and mandragora. As moist poultices
the same substances were sometimes laid upon
the area where cutting, burning, or some
other surgical procedure was to be done. We
are told that sensation was thus removed and
no pain experienced, but the instance must
be assigned with great caution to the category
of local anesthesia. The abolition of pain
may have resulted only after absorption of
these drugs into the circulation, by which
means if earried to the brain in sufficient
quantity they would, by their central action,
produce general stupefaction. From what we
know of the action of these substances the
remote rather than the local action would be
expected. From among such old-time local
applications there has come down to us “lead
and opium wash,” but modern pharmacologists
are most skeptical as to the efficiency of
opium applied externally.
Prior to the school of Salerno, it is known,
of course, that oils and salves were frequently
applied to wounds and other painful areas.
For example Dioscorides refers to the employ-
ment as an eye lotion, of rose oil, a substance
about which we shall have more to say later.
Of the use of local applications during actual
surgical procedure in those days J am aware
of no direct evidence.
Many writers refer to the Memphis Stone,
of which the oldest descriptions are those of
Dioscorides and of Pliny, neither of whom
apparently saw it used. Husemann cites con-
flicting descriptions of its mineralogy. It
was called blunt, thick, the size of a pebble;
a soft black and hard white variety were ap-
lied to the forehead to relieve headache, while
an ash-gray variety was said to be of value
for snake bites. This talisman and panacea
according to both Dioscorides and Pliny was
of Egyptian origin and was used to produce
local anesthesia, for which purpose it was
sometimes powdered and mixed with vinegar.
In view of the fact that it was described as a
variety of marble the untenable hypothesis
has been suggested that the local anesthetic
effect was the result of the evolution of carbon
dioxide from this mixture when applied to the
area of operation.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
A second local anesthetic of Egyptian
origin and referred to in the sixteenth cen-
tury by a Dutch physician, Ronsseus; was
crocodile fat. In a Latin poem, “ Venatio
Medica,” this author tells us that crocodile
fat and a salve of oil and burnt lizard skin
were efficient as local anesthetics if applied
before cutting or burning.
In the seventeenth century, we are informed
of the use of another method of producing
local anesthesia, namely the application of
cold (for example, by ice and salt mixtures).
This was practised by Thomas Bartholinus,
who learned it apparently from a distin-
guished Danish physician, Mare Aurelio
Severino. Modern developments of this in-
clude the employment of ethyl chloride and
other substances of very low boiling point to
freeze the skin for minor operations.
The story of modern local anesthetics be-
gins with the isolation in 1860, by Niemann
in the laboratory of the German chemist,
Wohler,? of the alkaloid cocaine. From Lima,
had been brought the leaves of erythroxylon
coca, a plant which had for years attracted
the attention of travelers in Peru and Bolivia
on account of its widespread use by the
natives as a stimulant. The plant, native to
the slopes of the Andes, is a shrub attaining
a height of about six feet, with bright green
leaves, similar in size and shape to those of
tea, which are rapidly replaced when picked.
The annual consumption of these leaves in
South America is now estimated at one hun-
dred million pounds.
The “ coqueros” or chewers of coca leaves
had ascribed wonderful properties to them,
not only of abolishing hunger, fatigue, bodily
discomfort, ete., but also of psychic stimula-
tion of various sorts. When put to the test
in Europe these claims were but poorly sub-
stantiated owing, according to some, to dete-
rioration of the properties of the leaves in
transportation, but probably more to a differ-
ence in the subjective conditions of the test;
that is, the European investigators were prob-
ably neither as hungry and fatigued nor con-
8 Wohler, F. W., Ann. der Chem. u. Pharm., 1860,
114, p. 213.
May 21, 1920]
stitutionally as emotional as the “ coqueros.”
Nevertheless sufficient nervous stimulation is
derived to render cocaine a dangerous habit-
forming drug.
After the manner of chemists with a new
product, Wohler tasted cocaine and noted (to
translate literally), that “it is bitter and
exerts upon the tongue nerves a characteristic
effect in that the point touched becomes tem-
porarily numb, almost without sensation.”
Twenty-four years elapsed before the signifi-
eance of this finding was fully appreciated;
Koller, a Viennese oculist, in 1884 intro-
ducing it as a practical local anesthetic for
the eye. In the meantime, however, Parisian
workers had noted anesthesia of the tongue
when the leaves were chewed with alkali (De-
Marle, 1862); and Moréno y Maiz (1868),
had suggested the employment of the drug as
a local anesthetic. A number of fundamental
pharmacological facts about cocaine were
demonstrated by Von Anrep? (1880).
From the eye clinic the use of the drug
spread to laryngology and rhinology and later
to general surgery. As it is typical of a large
class of local anesthetics its action may now
be somewhat more fully detailed.
Cocaine is classed as a “ general protoplasm
poison,” since relatively small amounts exhibit
the power to interrupt or suppress the life
process both of lower and higher organisms.
In mammals it attacks nerve tissue in par-
ticular and there are acute and chronic types
of brain poisoning, the latter, of course, being
illustrated in the widespread abuse of the
drug. Acute poisoning (motor excitement
and high temperature followed by convulsions)
has been noted in all attempts at anesthetiza-
tion of animals by intravenous injection or
other means of introducing the drug into the
general circulation. The local or peripheral
action ean not be obtained by such methods.
The portions of the nervous system upon
which the action is useful are the nerve
trunks and their sensory endings, and as may
be judged from the above, one problem of the
surgeon is to keep the substance limited as far
4Von Anrep, B., Pfliiger’s Archiv. der Physiol-
ogie, 1880, 21, 38.
SCIENCE
499
as possible to these regions. On the nerve
trunks it has a selective action in blocking
afferent or sensory impulses much more
readily than efferent or motor impulses, both
of which are carried by the same bundle of
nerve fibrils. Its selective action is further
illustrated by the abolition, upon application
to the nerve ends, of pain and touch sensa-
tions, while the perception of heat and cold
remains uninterrupted. Again, on the tongue,
in addition to touch and pain, the perception
of “bitter” taste is completely eliminated, yet
those sensations which we describe as “ sweet ”
and “acid” taste are still dimly perceived,
while the presence of salt may still be appre-
ciated as well as ever.
That cocaine is not an ideal local anesthetic
can be readily appreciated. Aside from its
disadvantages as a habit-forming drug and
the possibility of the development of toxic
symptoms if unskillfully employed, there are
minor objections which include the possibility
of injury to the tissues or interferences with
natural processes of repatr if given in too
concentrated a solution and the fact that
solutions if sterilized by boiling undergo some
decomposition.
Since these facts began to receive attention
the production and testing of synthetic sub-
stitutes for cocaine has been a nearly con-
tinuous performance. As the _ structural
formula of the alkaloid shows, it is the methyl
ester of benzoyl ecgonin:
CH. CH=CH,
| |
N(CH)s CH-O-CO-CeHs Cocaine
CH.—-—CH CH-CO-OCH;
Its decomposition products are methyl alco-
hol, benzoic acid and the tropine-like base
ecgonine. Investigations by Filehne, Paul
Ehrlich, and others, were undertaken to deter-
mine in which of these chemical groups or in
what combination of radicals the anesthetic
virtues resided. The benzoic acid radical was
soon indicated as being of importance; for
example, neither ecgonin nor methyl ecgonin
were found at all like cocaine in their action.
On the other hand the isomer of cocaine in
which the methyl and benzoyl radicals were
500
made to exchange places, exhibited no local
anesthetic properties; when, however, the ben-
zoic acid radical was replaced in the cocaine
structure by other homologous acids, sub-
stances with eocaine-like action were evolved.
Einhorn, who had earlier been associated
with Ehrlich’s work, introduced as a local
anesthetic orthoform. This is the methyl
ester of an oxy-benzoic acid modified by the
introduction of an amino group to replace
the very complicated base ecgonine. This
substance, while poorly soluble, has found a
place in surgery as an anesthetic dusting
powder. Einhorn® next modified the ortho-
form grouping in such a way as to produce
more soluble compounds, but achieved his
greatest success by the introduction of the
“alkamine” esters of benzoic acid, notably
procaine (known also by the trade name of
novocaine) :
NEE OO Oe oe ee HEN (C2Hs)2, HCl
Procaine.
In other synthetic compounds (stovain,
alypin, and B-eucaine), no amino group ap-
pears on the benzene nucleus. In still an-
other series of compounds, the benzoyl group
has by an intervening side-chain been at-
tached to the nitrogen of the ecgonine mole-
cule. This work was reported recently by
Wichura® (1918) and one of the compounds,
apparently giving promise, is known as eccain.
Another natural alkaloid has been obtained
from the small coca leaves of Java. This
substance, tropacocaine, was found by Dr.
Arthur P. Chadbourne’ (1892), of Boston, to
possess valuable anesthetic properties. Simi-
lar in structure to cocaine (of which it is in
many ways the equal) it contains pseudo-
tropine in place of the ecgonine radical.
In the group of antipyretic drugs also are
found substances of value as local anesthetics,
5 Hinhorn, Liebig’s Annalen, 1908, 359.
6 Wichura, Wilhelm, Zeits. fiir Exper. Path. and
Therapie, Vol. 20, p. 1.
7 Chadbourne, A. P., Brit. Med. Jour., 1892, II.,
402. 4 ;
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
although these are chemically quite unrelated
to cocaine. Among them are holocaine, a
phenacetin derivative, and quinine, which is
used in combination with urea. In 1913,
Morgenroth showed that certain quinoline
derivatives have a similar action, including a
group of substances which also give promise
of a specific value in the treatment of pneu-
monia. Antipyrine may be included in this
and in the following group.
In 1888, Liebreich® called attention to the
fact that a large number of substances are
eapable of producing “anesthesia dolorosa.”
This term is applied to the phenomenon otf
smarting followed by loss of sensation.
Among the substances which he enumerated
were sodium bromide, ammonium chloride,
lead acetate, ferric chloride, resorcin, and
even the glucosides saponin and napéllin.
Carbolic acid affords the most conspicuous ex-
ample of this type, its action culminating as
is well known in the death of tissue.
In spite of the untoward effects of carbolic
acid, which is an aromatic alcohol, certain
closely related aromatic side-chain alcohols
are now yielding much promise of practical
value. Dr. David I. Macht,® of Baltimore,
the pioneer in this field, a few years ago noted
the anesthetic effect of benzyl alcohol upon
the tongue, demonstrated its highly innocuous
character, and was instrumental in intro-
ducing it into surgery.
In our laboratory three similar side-chain
aromatic alcohols have been tested, chiefly by
Dr. Axel M. Hjort,1° whose work has been
aided by the Committee on Scientific Re-
search of the American Medical Association.
As will be seen from the following summary
of Dr. Hjort’s findings, two of these, rose oil
and benzoyl earbinol, possess a high degree of
anesthetic efficiency combined with a low de-
gree of toxicity.
8 Liebreich, Verhandl. de 7 Kongr. f. tnn. Medi-
zin, 1888, S. 245.
9 Macht, D. I., Jour. Pharm. and Exp. Therap.,
1918, XI., 263.
10.Hjort, A. M., and Kaufmann, C. H., Proc. Soc.
Exp. Biol. and Med., January, 1920.
May 21, 1920]
Ba | eS
Ba Sane s on
ae Sisos ae
3 SSslease
Formula Bs a PEE
go S4S2)faa3
s2 (e088 =}
22/55 Ogle ee
Si sh
.Benzyl Alcohol. . ee 50 | 1.25 | 1/30
e Phenethylol . . ( ‘yououcmn 20 | 0.75 | 1/40
6 Phenethylol nt
(rose oil) ..... H:CH:0H} 40 1.00 | (1/40)
Ly
Benzoyl Carbinol /\COCH:0H 40 | 0.50 | 1/40
|
S
Rose oil, or B-phenethylol, it will be remembered,
was one of the preparations mentioned by Diosco-
Tides aS an eye wash; roses apparently were con-
sidered effective in many diseases at that time.
Blondeli1 (1889) describes the use of essence of
rose for its stimulant properties, its action when
taken by mouth not differing essentially from that
of other volatile oils. This substance as well as its
isomer a-phenethylol are liquids, the latter exhibit-
ing greater toxicity, the probability of which we
had deduced from the fact that it contains an
asymmetrical carbon atom. Benzoyl carbinol is a
solid at ordinary temperatures and of all the group
has yielded the most promising results.
While it is more practicable to make the
detailed toxicity tests upon mice, it is im-
portant to control the results by tests upon
higher mammals. In dogs it was found that,
like benzyl alcohol, rose oil and benzoyl
earbinol fail to cause more than the most
transitory symptoms when injected rapidly
into the veins in doses of 200 mgms. per kilo.
This contrasts very favorably with the toxi-
cities of the commonly used local anesthetics
which have been carefully determined by Drs.
Robert A. Hatcher and Cary Eggleston,!? of
New York. These investigators found, for
example, that by rapid intravenous injection
11 Blondel, R. E., Thesis, ‘‘Les Produits Odo-
rants des Rosiers,’’ Paris, 1889.
_ 12 Eggelston, C., and Hatcher, R. A., J. Pharm.
and Exp. Ther., 1919, 13, 433.
SCIENCE
501
in cats 40-45 mgms. per kilo of procaine or
15 mgms. per kilo of cocaine are fatal. Thus
the benzyl alcohol and rose oil appear at
least five times as safe as procaine.
The toxicity of benzoyl carbinol in com-
parison with a series of common local anesthe-
ties may be illustrated graphically by the
following adaption of Eggleston and Hatcher’s
diagram:
Fatal Dose.
Megms. per Kilo Relative Toxicity
SS BAUD nccson Benzoyl Oarbinol, benzyl alcohol, ete.
40- 45...... Procaine
WH BDo 55000 Nirvanine
25— 30.25... Stovaine
18— 22...... Tropacocaine
ANon sees Apothesine
Bea detalles Cocaine
10-12.5 . Beta-Hucaine
TO pays eae
—
Alypine and Holocaine
Hatcher and Eggleston point out that with
loeal anesthetics, as with other drugs, the de-
gree of toxicity may depend upon the rate
of injection or absorption into the circula-
tion. They show that slow injection allows
time for destruction by the liver.
On the basis of the results in dogs it would
appear that a man could safely tolerate the
throwing of solutions containing one half
ounce of pure rose oil or of benzoyl carbinol
directly into the circulation; used as a locaily
applied anesthetic, therefore, poisoning would
scarcely be anticipated.
For “surface” or “mucous membrane”
anesthesia the rabbits’ eye is a valuable test
object. Anesthesia of the surface of the
rabbit cornea may be identified by the failure
of the animal to respond by a wink when the
center of the eye is touched. Schliiter has
published interesting experiments in which
after a drop of local anesthetic was instilled
into the eye the threshold for touch sensation
was followed by means of hairs of different
weights. He showed that when solutions of
equal strength are compared, procaine is quite
inferior to cocaine as a surface anesthetic.
Benzoyl carbinol, as shown below, is partic-
ularly efficient in this respect, yielding com-
plete anesthesia of the cornea in 0.5 per cent.
502
concentration. This is the first of the
aromatic side-chain alcohols to equal cocaine
as a surface anesthetic.
The following diagram (adapted from Soll-
mann) illustrates the comparative efficiency
of phenolic side-chain alcohols and the com-
monly used surface anesthetics:
Minimum
Anesthetic
Percentage Relative Efficiency for Surface Anesthesia
WHS onine6 Cocaine, holocaine, benzoyl carbinol
a-phenethylol
Oe Oiarsi-te
TOU ecoat Beta-Bucame, rose oil
LCase Benzyl alcohol
PI a au. Tropacocaine, alypin, quinine-urea
Cie cig eS Kpothesine
cocoons Novocaine
OR rae cr. Antipyrine
The intracutaneous method of testing local
anesthetics was introduced by Hoffmann and
Kochmann (1914) and consists in the produc-
tion of wheals resembling mosquito bites, by
driving the anesthetic substance in between
the layers of the epidermis, under pressure,
with the hypodermic syringe. The subject of
the experiment, who is, of course, prevented
from watching the procedures, is required to
give a signal every time he perceives the
touch of a straw tipped with absorbent cotton.
None of our phenolic alcohols are found
irritating by this method and all destroy sen-
sation in a concentration of about 1/40 of 1
per cent., as low a strength as has proved
sufficient for any known anesthetic substance.
This is illustrated by the following diagram
(also adapted from Sollmann) :
Minimum
Anesthetic Relative Efficiency for Intracutaneous
Percentage Anesthesia
WED Soccoo Benzoyl] earbinol, rose oil, a-phene-
- ce
thylo
1/30-1/32...... Benzyl alcohol, cocaine, novo-
eee a ens ae
caine, tropacocaine, alypin
UG a eeerccr Beta-eucaine
YAN aren Quinin-urea
VY fy Sine a i Apothesine, antipyrine, K.SO,
comes
Dr. Arthur D. Hirschfelder,1? of Muinne-
13 Hirschfelder, A. D., A. Lundholm, H. Norr-
gaard, American Chemical Society, Division of
Biochemistry, September 4, 1919.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1325
apolis, and his collaborators, have recently an-
nounced the results of experiments with
similar side-chain aromatic alcohols. A num-
ber of these are based upon the salicylic acid
radical. From Hirschfelder’s results it is ob-
vious that saligenin in 2 per cent solution is
likely to prove a very valuable anesthetic.
In his hands this has given a 28-45 minute
human subeutaneous anesthesia and has com-
pletely anesthetized the mucous membranes
of the eye.
Several benzyl alcohol homologues, there-
fore, which are more stable than benzyl alco-
hol itself, better surface anesthetics than pro-
caine, and at least five times less toxic, and
which further are presumably very unlikeky
to become habit-forming drugs, are now re-
ceiving practical trials.
The two above described tests, surface and
intracutaneous, represent the most important
of the procedures employed by the surgeons.
Clinically, there are five main varieties of
local anesthesia, namely, (1) surface, (2)
terminal, (3) regional, (4) spinal, (5) venous.
1. To anesthetize mucous membranes such
as the linings of the eye, nose, and throat, the
solution requires only to be painted upon the
surface.
2. To anesthetize the nerve ends in the skin,
however, it is necessary that the drug be
injected into the skin by means of the hypo-
dermic needle. This is owing to the fortunate
circumstance that the living layers of the
epidermis are quite impermeable to most
solutions with which they may come in con-
tact. Obviously where deper incisions are to
be made, subcutaneous injections must follow.
Schleich! modified the method of terminal
anesthesia very acceptably by showing that
if hypotonic solutions be injected under
pressure to the point at which the tissues
become rigid, the anesthetic may be reduced
in concentration. This is in accord with
findings that either hypotonic or hypertonic
solutions of salts tend of themselves to pro-
duce local anesthesia, apparently owing to the
fact that in swelling or shrinking respectively,
14 Schleich, O. L., ‘‘Schmerzlose Operationen,’’
Berlin, 1906.
May 21, 1920]
the vital processes of the cells are partly inter-
fered with.15
8. To anesthetize the area supplied by a
given nerve, it is only necessary to inject a
sufficient amount of solution directly into the
nerve trunk. This often effects a great saving
of labor and material. The larger nerve
trunks were first blocked in this manner by
Dr. Harvey Cushing, of Boston.
4. Anesthetics are occasionally injected un-
der the sheath of the spinal cord itself.
Spinal anesthesia was introduced in 1885 by
Dr. J. Leonard Corning, of New York, in the
same year in which Dr. Halsted, of Johns
Hopkins, began his pioneer work in cocaine
surgery. Many of you may recall that in the
closing years of the last century a substance
known as stovaine, belonging to the orthoform
group, was widely heralded in connection with
spinal anesthesia.
5. To produce venous anesthesia an area is
made bloodless by tight bandaging and the
anesthetic solution injected backwards into
_the vein which ordinarily transports blood
away from that area.
Certain substances have been tested as ad-
juvants, to be added to local anesthetic solu-
tions. Among these epinephrin has been
found extremely valuable and is universally
employed, while sodium bicarbonate and potas-
sium salts are deserving of mention.
For terminal anesthesia procaine is injected
in solution with epinephrin, the active prin-
ciple of the adrenal gland. A concentration
of 1-100,000 of the latter suffices to blanche
the tissues by contracting the small blood
vessels with which it comes in contact. This
serves two useful purposes, to make the oper-
ation practically bloodless and to prevent any
rapid carrying off of the drug into the cireu-
lation.
15 Terminal used in combination with general an-
esthesia is believed to rob the latter of some of its
disadvantages, for while the patient, narcotized by
ether, chloroform, or nitrous oxid, does not per-
ceive the afferent nerve impulses set up by surgical
procedures, these reach the central nervous system
nevertheless and may contribute to the untoward
eondition known as ‘‘shock.’’ Local anesthesia
tends to prevent the transmission of such impulses.
(Crile.)
SCIENCE
503
Sodium bicarbonate as an adjuvant to local
anesthetics was suggested by Grost® (1910),
who believed that bringing the alkaloids into
their basic forms, would aid them in pene-
trating the tissues. Dr. Torald Sollmann,*
of Cleveland, has found that it does in fact
enhance the action of such alkaloids when
they are applied to mucous surfaces. On the
other hand, he denies that it has any special
value in terminal anesthesia.
With regard to potassium salts it may be
mentioned, that Hoffmann and Kochmann?®
(1912) claimed that potassium sulphate pow-
erfully potentiates the action of procaine in
intracutaneous anesthesia. Dr. Sollmann’s re-
sults conflict with this claim as do also the
results of a number of unpublished experi-
ments which I have made in association with
Professor Bernard E. Read, of Peking. In
short, salts of potassium, which in fairly high
concentration produce a certain amount of
intracutaneous anesthesia, when given in com-
bination with such a substance as procaine,
yield a result representing merely the al-
gebraic sum of the results obtained by giving
the two substances separately.
The theory of action of local anesthetic
drugs has not yet reached a satisfactory state.
Gros believes that their anesthetic power runs
parallel to the amount of free base which is
present and that esters such as cocaine and
procaine must therefore be hydrolyzed before
anesthesia can take place. The extent of the
anesthesia would therefore depend upon the
degree of hydrolysis of the drug taking place
in the tissues. The new findings concerning
substances of the benzyl alcohol series show
that phenolic alcohols contain all that is
essential to local anesthetic action and that
for introduction into the field of operation it
is not necessary to mask them as esters.
Exactly what happens to the nerve tissues
when brought into contact with a _ local
anesthetic drug has not been determined.
16 Gros, O., Arch. f. exp. Pathol. u. Pharmakol.,
LXIIT., 1910.
17 Sollmann, T., J. A. M. A., January 26, 1918,
p. 216.
18 Hoffmann, A., and Kochmann, K., D. M. W..,
1912, 38, 2264,
?
504
We can say, however, in view ot the results
of work initiated by Dr. A. P. Mathews, that
the vital processes in nervous tissue become
retarded. This is indicated by the lowered
carbon dioxide production exhibited by a
nerve exposed to cocaine. Niwat® (1918)
states that “there is a close relationship be-
tween the rate of nerve metabolism and the
state of excitability of the nerve” and that
“onesthesia in general is probably brought
about by interference with the tissue metab-
olism.” This does not differ greatly from
Verworn’s theory of anesthetic action.
While practise in this case, pending the
perfection of theory, proceeds with a toler-
able degree of satisfaction, we still await the
demonstration of the ideal local anesthetic.
This form of anesthesia, however, is extend-
ing its usefulness through an ever widening
field. Few are the types of major operations
which can not now be successfully conducted
under its sole employment, always provided
that numerous external conditions are satis-
fied. Among the advantages ascribed to it
when thoroughness of operative procedure is
not thereby sacrificed are its high degree of
safety and rapidity of induction, the exclu-
sion of shock and often of after-pain, the nec-
essity for fewer assistants, the shortening of
convalescence, and the absence of post-anes-
thetic complications. An additional factor of
importance is the better mental attitude with
which many patients approach such a pro-
cedure rather than an operation involving the
surrender of consciousness. Some enthusiasts
go so far as to say that many an operation
assumes the character of a social rather than
a surgical occasion, the patient perhaps
smoking throughout and enjoying a good
meal directly thereafter.
While we are not so advanced that serious
ceases are made thus attractive, the day of ideal
surgery will doubtless be hastened by the re-
placement of older for better local anesthetics.
Henry G. Bargour
DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY,
YALE UNIVERSITY ScHooL or MEDICINE
19 Niwa, Shuichi, Jour. Pharm. and Hap. Therap.,
1919, 12, 323.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1325
PHENOMENA IN THE ULTRA-VIOLET
SPECTRUM, INCLUDING X-RAYS
At the recent St. Louis meeting of Section
B, of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement ot Science, there was held a sym-
posium devoted to a comparative discussion
of the phenomena involved in the ultra-violet
“light” and “ X-ray” spectra. The follow-
ing abstracts of the papers have been pre-
pared by the authors:
A. Quantum Emission Phenomena—Radiation,
by Davin L. WezstEr, Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology. ;
This paper contained a review of the laws
of excitation of radiation by electron impact
in the best known cases in X-rays and light,
in which it appeared that the most essential
difference is the existence in light of the so-
called “single-line spectrum” which is un-
known in X-rays. The phenomena are ex-
plainable on any theory of stable electron
positions, such as the Bohr theory, if we
assume: (1) that in the normal atom all
positions involved in X-ray production are
full (IXossel), and (2) all positions above the
one corresponding to the series term 1.58 are
empty (Van der Bijl).
Such theories are very unsatisfactory for
absorption phenomena, especially since absorp-
tion is a continuous process but results in the
production of photoelectrons, each with an ab-
sorbing oscillator and a gradual accumula-
tion up to the value required for the photo-
electron. If energy is thus stored it seems
probable that it would be available to help in
the production of X-rays or light by impact,
and to produce other effects to be expected
from it. But no such evidence of it can be
found. The storage hypothesis is made only
because it is demanded by the law of the con-
servation of energy. But this law has been
observed only statistically, and the best way
to reconcile these phenomena of electron im-
pact with other radiation phenomena seems to
be to assume that the law holds only statistic-
ally and does not apply to every oscillator at
every instant.
May 21, 1920]
B. Quantum Emission Phenomena-Hiectrons,
by R. A. Minurman, University of Chicago.
Experiments on the potentials necessary to
apply to just prevent the escape of photo-
electrons from different metals, combined with
measurements on the contact E.M.F.’s_be-
tween the same metals demonstrate, not that
the energy absorbed by an electron which is
being photoelectrically ejected is hy, but
rather that the kinetic energy with which the
electron escapes from the atom under the-in-
fluence of incident radiation of frequency y» is
hy, and hence that the absorbed energy must
always exceed hy by the amount of the work
mecessary to detach the electron from the
atom. In other words the absorption of
energy can not take place quantum-wise at all
The energy which must be absorbed to
eause the escape of an electron must always
be more than a quantum and may exceed that
amount by any fractional part thereof. It
is only the kinetic energy of the escaping
electron which is always an exact quantum.
The emission of electromagnetic radiation
may or may not take place quantum-wise.
Characteristic or fluorescent radiation appears
to be emitted quantum-wise but scattered
radiation is not so emitted.
C. Spectrum Series, by Witu1aM Duane, Har-
vard University.
There is presented for discussion the fol-
lowing four topics: (a) The combination law
applied to the series spectra of ordinary light,
and a somewhat similar law for characteristic
X-rays; (b) the meaning of these laws in
terms of the energy of the radiating atom
from the point of view of the theory of radi-
ation in quanta; (c) the law of constant
angular momentum as used by Bohr in ex-
plaining some of the details of series spectra;
(d) Bohr’s theory applied to characteristic
X-rays, with special reference to critical ab-
sorption data.
(a) It has been found empirically that the
frequencies of vibration (or the wave num-
bers) corresponding to the lines in series
spectra may be represented as the differences
between any two of a set of terms, which may
SCIENCE
505
be denoted by symbols of the forms (18),
_(1P), (mP), (mD), (mF), (1s), (inf), ete.
These terms may approximate to, but do not
exactly equal a certain constant divided by
the square of a whole number. The differ-
ences between the correct values of various
pairs of terms, however, appear to represent
the wave numbers with great precision.
Turning to X-rays we find that the form
of the “terms” is much more complicated.
It is possible, however, to obtain empirically
a relation between the X-ray emission and ab-
sorption frequencies that resembles the above
combination law. Mr. Shimizu and I recently
published! the results of experiments, which
indicate that an emission frequency equals
the difference between two absorption fre-
quencies. From the data for the K and L
series of tungsten, it appears that the law is
eorrect to about one fifteenth of a per cent.
Since we presented this research to the Phys-
ical Society some measurements by Dr. Sten-
strom of the absorption frequencies in the M
series of uranium and thorium have come to
hand, and these together with de Broglies’
values for the L absorption frequencies and
Seigbahn’s values for the L emission fre-
quencies furnish data by which the law can
be tested. The calculations indicate that the
differences between the L and M absorption
frequencies equal the frequencies of some of
the L emission lines to within one per cent. .
Theories of the mechanism of radiation
such as that suggested by Bohr lead to laws
similar to the combination law, and Kossel
has deduced from these conceptions relations
between the emission frequencies themselves.
One of these relations is that the difference
between the K@ and the Ka frequency equals
the La frequency. This relation is not exact,
however, for Ka represents a group of lines
and recent experiments have shown that KB
also is not a single line. We get a much
closer agreement, if we take the frequencies
of the individual lines in the groups.
(b) For a long time spectrum analysis re-
mained a purely descriptive science, contain-
ing data of extraordinary accuracy, it is true,
1 Physical Review, July, 1919.
506
but of very little fundamental significance.
Recently, however, this data has furnished
evidence of great importance as to the struc-
ture of matter and the mechanism of radi-
ation. This is largely due to two funda-
mental laws: Planck’s law of radiation in
quanta, and Bohr’s law of constant angular
momenta.
According to the first law the amount of
energy radiated from an atom is proportional
to the frequency at which it is radiated, the
constant fh being the factor of proportionality.
In other words the atom changes from one
state into another when it radiates, and the
difference between the energy it possessed be-
fore and after the radiation equals the fre-
quency of vibration multiplied by h, thus:
hy =W,— W..
\
According to this conception the terms in
the combination law represent the energy of
the atom in its various states of equilibrium
divided by h, plus, of course, an additive con-
stant.
The complete expression of the law is
thy=W,—W.,
where + denotes any whole number, but spec-
trum lines corresponding to values of 7 greater
than 1 have not been observed. They may be
very faint, except, perhaps, in the infra red
spectrum. The chance of 7s being greater
than unity (in black body radiation) 1s very
small for high frequencies of vibration.
Extraordinary success has attended the ap-
plication of Bohr’s theory to the case of a
single electron revolving about an atomic
nucleus. In this theory the angular mo-
mentum of the electron equals some whole
number multiplied by a universal constant,
h/27, thus
mra= t(h/27).
The value of the universal angular mo-
mentum may be regarded as chosen to fit the
facts, i. e., to give the correct value for the
Rydberg fundamental frequency, or we may
assume, with William Wilson, that a certain
integral equation, occurring in the theory of
quanta, expressed in generalized coordinates,
namely,
SCIENCE
- applies to the revolving electron.
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1325
JS pdq=Tth,
Since the
force acting on the electron is a central force,
the angular momentum p is constant, and, if
we take the integral over a complete period
during which the angle q varies by 27, we
have
2rmva = th.
As an example of the application of Bohr’s
theory let us consider the values of the Ryd-
berg constant for hydrogen and for ionized
helium. In each ease a single electron revolves
about an atomic nucleus. The theory assumes
that the attraction between them is given by
Coulomb’s law, and from this together with
the two laws mentioned above the various un-
known quantities can be calculated, including
the frequency of the emitted radiation.
Since the helium nucleus is nearly four times
as heavy as the hydrogen nucleus, the common
center of gravity, about which the electron
and the nucleus revolve, is slightly nearer
the center of the helium nucleus, than is the
case with hydrogen. Bohr predicted that on
account of this fact certain lines in the hy-
drogen spectrum should have wave-lengths
slightly longer than certain lines in the en-
hanced helium spectrum, and experiments
prove this to be true. Further, the ratio of
the mass of the electron to that of the hydro-
gen atom, and the ratio of the charge to the
mass of the electron can be calculated from
accurate measurements of the wave-lengths
of these lines. The values of these ratios
calculated from data obtained by Pashen are
very nearly the same as the values deduced
from other methods of experiment. In fact,
granting the general truth of the theory, they
are, perhaps, the most accurate estimates we
have of these important ratios.
The Rydberg constant for the spectra of
ordinary helium, in which we may suppose
that there is one electron revolving in an inner
ring about the nucleus, appears to be slightly
less than that for the spectrum of ionized
helium. Bohr’s theory would seem to account
for some such decrease in the value of the
constant, for the influence of this electron on
May 21, 1920]
electrons in outer rings is slightly greater
than would be the ease, if it were actually in
the nucleus itself. The theory, applied to
cases where more than one electron revolve
about the nucleus, does not appear as yet to
be thoroughly satisfactory.
Bohr’s theory has been applied to the
characteristic X-ray spectra with some suc-
cess in particular cases. For instance, Som-
merfeld’s calculation of the frequency differ-
ence between the lines in the Ka group by
means of elliptic orbits, etc., seems to repre-
sent the facts to a considerable degree of
precision.
In general the theory does not indicate the
distribution of the electrons among the va-
rious orbits, and this distribution must be
determined by other considerations, or else it
must be chosen to fit the X-ray data. The
latter procedure has been followed by Debye,
Kroo, Wiggard and Sommerfeld. The calcu-
lation of the frequency of the a, line in the K
series by Sommerfeld seems to agree with the
facts to a remarkable degree of accuracy.
None of the formulas, however, appear to
give the frequencies of all the lines in the
X-ray spectra.
It might be interesting to calculate the
frequencies of the critical absorption asso-
ciated with the K series, using a distribution
of electrons similar to that adopted by Lewis
and Langmuir in their theory of a static
atom. In this theory the inner shell contains
two electrons, the second shell contains two
layers of 8 electrons each, the third, two
layers of 18 each, ete. Translating this dis-
tribution from the static atom over into the
dynamic atom I shall assume that the inner
orbit of one quantum (;7;—1) contains 2
electrons; that outside this are two orbits of
two quanta (;—2), one just outside the other
and each containing 8 electrons ete.
K ABSORPTION FREQUENCIES
The table contains the data. Two columns
of calculated values are given, one corrected
for the mutual influence of neighboring rings
of electrons on each other and one un-
corrected. The observed values represent our
SCIENCE
507
measurements of the eritical absorption fre-
quencies,2 which are the highest X-ray fre-
quencies known to be characteristic of the
chemical elements. Except for aluminium
the observed values differ from the calculated
values by less than the correction for the
influence of the rings on each other. Con-
sidering that none of the quantities used in
the ealeulations have been taken from X-ray
data, the agreement may be regarded as good,
especially for the chemical elements of high
atomic number.
The above distribution of electrons does
not give the proper values for the frequencies
of the emission lines of chemical elements of
low atomic numbers, so that the problem can
not be said to have been solved.
= AN —2— a) (A+ 38+ BB+ ---)
— (N — ¢2)?(1 + 462 + §B2-+ -+-)
BA (N — m= n= +++ = sa 9)?
— 35 (m= m— >—s.— +1)?
2r7e'
B= aN =o)
m= 2, n=8, n=8, nu=9,n=9, -::.
m1 = 2, 72= 2, 732 = 3, T= 38, -:-
vo = Rydberg Fundamental Frequency
Chemical Element | Atomic ee »/v9 Ob- hee (Con
Number | corrected) | Served rected
Aluminium .... 13 116.7 114.8 118.5
Phosphorus ... 15 157.0 158.4 163.9
Manganese.... 25 479.2 482.8 500.8
Bromine ..... 35 968.9 993.6 | 1000.0
Rhodium ..... 45 1696.0 | 1711.0 | 1717.0
Caesium...... 55 2584.0 | 2648.0 | 2643.0
Verbium ...... 65 3752.0 | 3803.0 | 3812.0
Tungsten ..... 74 5056.0 | 5109.0 | 5118.0
D. The Origin of Radiation, by A. W. Huut,
of the Research Laboratory of the General
Electrie Co.
The rapidity with which our theories of
atomic structure have advanced during the
last ten years has left the impression that
each new contribution was a new theory, and
that one must choose between these appar-
2 Physical Review, December, 1919.
508
ently conflicting theories. The purpose of
this paper is to show that these contributions
not only do not conflict, but that all of them
are essential parts of a picture, which is
nearer completion than most of us realize.
The main contributions may be summarized
as follows:
Ritz showed that by assuming the nucleus
to be magnetic, so that the force determining
the vibration of the electron depends on the
velocity instead of the position of the electron,
one obtains a frequency law involving only
the first power of the frequency, in accordance
with observations.
The essential part of Bohr’s beautiful
theory is the mechanism by which he accounts
for Ritz’s combination principle namely, that
the frequency of radiation depends not on
where the electron is, or where it came from,
but upon both.
J. J. Thomson added the idea that Bohr’s
stable orbits, and the quantum relations con-
nected with them, are due to a skeleton struc-
ture of the nucleus and not to any discon-
tinuity of energy.
Sommerfeld extended Bohr’s theory to
atoms of higher atomic weight, and has drawn
a beautiful picture. His main contribution is
the idea that the orbit may be either a circle
or an ellipse of definite eccentricity, which
accounts with extreme precision for the sep-
aration of doublets both in X-ray spectra and
the hydrogen spectrum. f :
Langmuir showed that all known chemical
properties are satisfied by an atom with rela-
tively stationary electrons, arranged in con-
centric shells about the nucleus.
By combining these contributions, namely,
the magnetic nucleus of Ritz, Bohr’s stable
orbits, Thomson’s skeleton nucleus, Sommer-
feld’s elliptical orbits, and Langmuir’s sta-
tionary electrons, we arrive at a composite
picture which represents our present knowl-
edge remarkably well. The rotating point
electron is replaced by a ring-shaped electron.
The constant angular momentum of the
rotating electron is replaced by constant
magnetic moment of the ring. In the case of
hydrogen and ionized helium the ring sur-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
rounds the nucleus, and the picture is iden-
tical with Bohr’s. In the case of the other
elements the rings lie on the surface of con-
centric shells, in positions corresponding to
Langmuir’s cells. The condition of constant
angular momentum of each ring electron
holds for all atoms, and Sommerfeld’s picture
of the circular and elliptical rings is applied
to the shape of the ring electron.
The discussion following the symposium
was of necessity brief. Hmphasis was given to
the clear advantage of preferring a theory of
atomic structure that gives correct quantita-
tive results. G. W. Stewart,
Secretary Section B
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
At the recent meeting of the academy the
home secretary presented the following report:
THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES.
Sir: I have the honor to present the following
report on the publications and membership of ‘the
National Academy of Sciences for the year ending
April 26, 1920.
Two parts of Volume 14 of the Memoirs of the
National Academy of Sciences have been completed
and distributed: the second memoir, ‘‘ Complete
Classification of Triad Systems,’’ by H. 8. White,
F. N. Cole and L. D. Cummings, and the fourth
memoir, ‘‘Minor Constituents of Meteorites,’’ by
G. P. Merrill.
The third memoir, ‘‘ Tables of Minor Planets,’’
by A. O. Leuschner, A. E. Glaney, and S. H. Levy,
and the fifth and final memoir of Volume 14,
‘Tables of the Exponential Function,’’ by C. E.
Van Orstrand, are now in page proof and will be
issued shortly, as will also Volume 15, ‘‘ Psycholog-
ical Examining in the United States Army,’’ by
Robert M. Yerkes.
Volume 16, first memoir, ‘‘ Lower California and
its Natural Resources,’’ by E. W. Nelson, and the
second memoir, ‘‘Studies upon ‘the Life Cycles of
Bacteria,’’ by F. Léhnis, are now in galley proof.
The third memoir, ‘‘A Recalculation of Atomic
Weights,’’ by F. W. Clarke, is now in the hands of
the printer.
Violume VIII. of the Biographical Memoirs has
been completed with the publication of the biog-
May 21, 1920]
taphies of Benjamin Osgood Peirce, and Cleveland
Abbe, and the bound yolume distributed. The fol-
lowing biographies forming a part of Volume IX.
have been completed and distributed: William Bul-
lock Clark by John M. Clarke; Arnold Hague by
Joseph P. Iddings; Eugene Waldemar Hilgard by
Frederic Slate; James Dwight Dana, by L. V. Pirs-
son; James Mason Crafts, by Charles R. Cross;
Lewis Boss, by Benjamin Boss, and Alpheus Spring
Packard, by T. D. A. Cockerell. That of Charles
Sedgwick Minot is now in page proof.
The Report of the National Academy of Sciences
has been issued and the fourth Annual Report of
the National Research Council will be issued in
separate form in a few days. The Proceedings
have reached the third number of the sixth volume.
Since the last meeting, two members have died.
Louis V. Pirsson, elected 1913, died December 8,
1919, and Horatio C. Wood, elected in 1879, died
in 1919. This leaves an active membership of 175
members, 1 honorary member and 31 foreign asso-
ciates. Gustav Retzius, foreign associate, died on
July 12, 1919. C. G. ABBort,
Home Secretary
MATHEMATICAL MEETINGS AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
THE twenty-seventh summer meeting and
ninth colloquium of the American Mathe-
matical Society will be held at the University
of Chicago during the week beginning Mon-
day, September 6, 1920. The sessions of the
Mathematical Association of America will
occupy Monday morning and afternoon. The
council of the society will meet on Monday
evening. The regular sessions of the society
will occupy Tuesday morning and afternoon
and Wednesday morning. The joint dinner
of the society and the association will be held
on Tuesday evening.
The University of Chicago will open two of
its dormitories, one for men and one for
women, during the week of the meeting, and
meals will be provided on the university
grounds. Advance information on these mat-
ters can be obtained from Professor H. EH.
Slaught.
The colloquium will open Wednesday atfter-
noon and will extend through Saturday morn-
ing. It will consist of two courses of five
lectures each, as follows: I. Professor G. D.
SCIENCE
509
Birkho#, of Harvard University: “ Dynamical
systems.” The last forty years have wit-
nessed fundamental advances in the theory of
dynamical systems, achieved by Hill, Poin-
earé, Levi-Civita, Sundman, and others. The
lectures will expound the general principles
underlying these advances, and will point out
their application to the problem of three
bodies as well as their significance for general
scientific thought. The following topics will
be treated: Physical, formal, and computa- |
tional aspects of dynamical systems. Types
of motions such as periodic and recurrent
motions, and motions asymptotic to them.
Interrelation of types of motion with partic-
ular reference to integrability and stability.
The problem of three bodies and its extension.
The significance of dynamical systems for
general scientific thought.
If. Professor F. R. Moulton, of the Univer-
sity of Chicago: “ Certain topics in functions
of infinitely many variables.” I. On the
definition and some general properties of
functions of infinitely many variables. II.
On infinite systems of linear equations. III.
Infinite systems of implicit functions. IV.
Infinite system of differential equations. V.
Applications to physical problems.
THE SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
A MEETING of the council of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
held in Washington on April 26, approved the
organization of the Southwestern Division of
the Association, which was tenatively made in
a meeting of delegates held at the University
of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday,
April 10.
At that meeting Dr. D. T. MacDougal was
delegate from the American Association.
Local delegates came from Prescott, Phoenix,
and Tucson, Arizona Albuquerque, New Mex-
ico and El Paso, Texas.
Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, of the School of
American Research, director of the Archaeo-
logical Institute, director of the State Mu-
seum at Sante Fe, N. M., and the Archaeo-
510
logical Museum in San Diego, was elected
president of the Southwestern Division;
Elliott C. Prentiss, M.D., of El Paso, Texas,
was elected vice-president and chairman of
the executive committee; and Dr. A. E.
Douglass, of the University of Arizona, was
elected secretary and treasurer.
The executive committee in its membership
besides the three officers just mentioned con-
sists of Dr. John D. Clark, Albuquerque;
- A. L. Flagg, Phoenix; Fabian Garcia, Mesilla
Park; Arthur Notman, Bisbee; Richard S.
Trumbull, El Paso; Milton Updegraff, Pres-
cott; and Charles T. Vorhies, Tucson.
A constitution was adopted. The area in-
eluded in this Division will be Arizona, New
Mexico and West Texas.
Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, the newly elected
president of the Southwestern Division, gave
a lecture entitled “ Our Place in Civilization,”
at the University of Arizona, Tucson, on
April 28 and at El Paso, Texas, on April 30.
In connection with the formation of this
division also Dr. A. E. Douglass, of the Uni-
versity of Arizona, gave a lecture entitled
“The Big Tree and its Story,” in Phoenix,
Arizona on April 1.
THE RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT DRINKER OF
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY
Dr. Henry S. Drinker has addressed to his
fellow-alumni of Lehigh University, the fol-
lowing letter :
I have felt for some time and have so stated, in-
formally, to the members of our board of trustees,
that as I reach the age of seventy this year, it
would be the part of wisdom for me to retire from
the presidency of the university. I have therefore
tendered my resignation to take effect at the close
of the commencement exercises on June 15th next.
So far as I know, I am in perfect health and in
good strength, but I wish to retire while my
friends still feel they desire my services to continue.
I am not willing to hold on for some time, as I
might do, and then feel that increasing years and
failing powers compel my retirement.
From the time of my graduation in June, 1871,
I have been devoted to the service of the univer-
sity’s interests, and have served as secretary of
the alumni, president of the alumni, alumnus trus-
tee, trustee and president, and now in proposing to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
drop out of active presidential duties, I have no
thought of lessening my interests in the alma mater,
nor is my retirement from the presideney prompted
by any ‘thought except that I have accomplished
the things for which I came here, and I now wish
to see the leadership of the university pass into the
hands of a younger man, one qualified by educa-
tional training and actual large experience in edu-
cational work, and possessing marked executive
ability. I am satisfied that the university has
reached a stage in its existence requiring for its
leadership and guidance, a man possessing these
characteristics.
_ It has been my privilege to bring to the service
of the university energy, devotion and business
experience. It was thought at the time of my
election, when the university was in financial strain,
and in need of greater facilities in plant and equip-
ment and a larger teaching force, that the energies
of its friends should be directed to these ends, and
I was asked to undertake the task. To-day, with
our plant in greatly improved shape, with our fac-
ulty increased from 15 in 1905, to 33 in 1920, the
entire teaching force raised from 57 to 89, with
our financial situation greatly improved and com-
paring favorably with that of our competitors, our
present need is, as above stated, for a man experi-
enced and trained in educational methods, and with
good executive ability; I feel content in the knowl-
edge that our board of trustees will well consider
the situation, and fittingly serve our university’s
needs.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
, Ar the recent meeting of the National Acad-
emy of Sciences the following foreign associ-
ates were elected: Frank Dawson Adams, Me-
Gill University; Marie Ennemond Camille
Jordan, Collége of Franee; Francois Antoine
Alfred Lacroix, Musée d’Histoire Naturelle,
Paris; Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, University of
Leyden; Sir David Prain, Royal Botanic Gar-
dens, Kew, Surrey; Santiago Ramon y Cajal,
University of Madrid.
Tue National Academy of Sciences has rec-
ommended to Columbia University that the
Barnard medal be conferred on Albert Ein-
stein “for highly original and fruitful devel-
opment of the fundamental concepts of physics
through the application of mathematics.” The
Agassiz medal has been awarded to Admiral C.
May 21, 1920]
D. Sigsbee, U. S. N., retired, “for his impor-
tant contributions to oceanography, both by
actual research, by publication of his results
and invention of new methods.”
In recognition of successful scientific re-
search in the prevention of disease and the
conservation of health, Dr. Theobald Smith,
head of the Laboratory of Comparative Pathol-
ogy of the Rockefeller Institute and formerly
of Harvard University, has been voted the M.
Douglas Flattery Medal and $500 in gold by
the Harvard Corporation. The medal is
awarded to the man of science whose efforts
have proved of the greatest value to mankind
in fighting disease.
A portrait of Dr. William H. Welch, of the
Johns Hopkins University, president of the
University Club of Baltimore, was presented
to the club recently at its monthly meeting.
Dr. W. W. KEEN has been elected an honor-
ary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine,
London, and of the American Surgical Asso-
ciation.
Dr. Raymonp F. Bacon, director of the
Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of
the University of Pittsburgh, who during
1918, was a colonel serving as chief of the
Technical Division of the Chemical Warfare
Service, A. E. F., has been awarded a cita-
tion by General Pershing for exceptionally
meritorious and conspicuous services in
France.
Proressor Sapao YosHipa, of Osaka Med-
ical College (Japan), has been awarded the
Katsurada prize and medal of honor estab-
lished by the Japanese government to be
given periodically to some distinguished
worker on tropical diseases. Professor Yo-
shida is spending his sabbatical year in re-
search at the Parasitological Laboratory of
the University of Illinois.
Mr. VinHsaLMuR STEFANSSON has been
awarded the La Roquette Medal of the Geo-
graphical Society of Paris. He had pre-
viously been awarded the following medals: In
December, 1918, the Daly Medal of the Amer-
ican Geographical Society, New York; in
December, 1918, the medal of the Explorers
SCIENCE
oll
Club of New York; in January, 1919, the
Hubbard Medal of the National Geographical
Society, Washington; in January, 1919, the
Kane Medal of the Geographical Society of
Philadelphia; in March, 1919, the Cullum
Medal of the Chicago Geographical Society.
All these medals are known as gold medals
but at Mr. Stefansson’s request they have
been struck in bronze and the difference in
eost has been given to Madame Beuchat, the
mother of the distinguished scientific man,
Henri Beuchat, who died on the expedition.
Proressor Konrap RoENTGEN retired from
his chair of experimental physics at the Uni-
versity of Munich and resigned the charge of
the Physikalisches Institut at the end of the
winter semester.
Tue board of trustees of the University of
Pennsylvania has accepted the resignation of
Provost Edgar Smith to take effect June 30.
Dr. Smith presented his resignation last Feb-
ruary. In accepting it now the board made
him emeritus professor of chemistry and
placed at his disposal the Harrison laboratory,
where Dr. Smith expects to devote the greater
part of his time to research work.
Dr. Epwarp T. ReicHert, professor of phys-
iology in the Medical School of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, has retired from active
service.
At the annual meeting of the Kentucky
Academy of Science ‘held in Lexington on May
8, the following officers were elected: Presi-
dent, Professor W. H. Coolidge, Centre Col-
lege, Danville, Ky.; Vice-President, Professor
George D. Smith, Eastern Kentucky State
Normal School, Richmond, Ky.; Secretary, Dr.
A. M. Peter, Experiment Station, Lexington,
Ky.; Treasurer, Mr. J. S. McHargue, Experi-
ment Station, Lexington, Ky.
Dr. A. HrouidKa, of the U. S. National Mu-
seum, has returned from a trip to the Far East
He visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, northern
China and Hawaii.
Mr. Irvine Perrine, vice-president of the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists,
is moving his office from Hutchinson, Kansas,
to 1415 West 31st Street, Oklahoma City,
512
Okla., and will there continue his work as a
consulting petroleum geologist.
Dr. Ira Remsen, of the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, will deliver the commencement ad-
dress at West Virginia University on June 15.
Dean W. M. Wueeter, of Bussey Institu-
tion, Harvard University, delivered an address
under the auspices of the Society of Sigma
Xi of Syracuse University, on May 6. The ad-
dress, which was on “ Worm-lions, ant-lions
and some eighteenth-century entomologists,”
covered the observations made by Réaumur and
other early naturalists upon the habits of the
worm-lion and ant-lion; and included the
studies of the lecturer upon the structure and
behavior of the worm-lions of California.
Dr. G. M. Srrarron, professor of psychology
at the University of California, has given the
Nathaniel W. Taylor lectures at the Yale
School of Religion.
Dr. Grorce F. Kay, head of the department
of geology, State University of Iowa, and
state geologist of Iowa, lectured on April 21
before the chapter of Sigma Xi of the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, on “The History of
Glaciation in the Mississippi Valley.”
Dr. C. E. KennetH Mess, director of the
research laboratories of Hastman Kodak Co.,
landed in England April 27. While there
he will deliver the following lectures before
various scientific bodies: “ Some Photographic
Phenomena in Relation to Astronomy,” “ Some
Results of Recent Investigations on the
Theory of Development,” “Photography of
the Air,” “Reaction of the Eye to Light,”
“ A Photographic Research Laboratory,” “ The
Production and Supply of Synthetic Organic
Chemicals in the United States,” ‘‘ Rochester
and the Kodak Works,” “ Scientific Research
and Industrial Production,” “The Theory of
Tone Reproduction with a Graphic Method
for the Solution of Problems.”
Dr. Harry N. Houmss, head of the chem-
istry department of Oberlin College and chair-
man of the National Research Council’s Com-
mittee on Colloids is on a five weeks lecture
tour to the Pacific coast. The series of from
one to four lectures on “ Colloid Chemistry ”
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
will be given at Northwestern University,
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle Sec-
tions of the American Chemical Society, Uni-
versity of Washington, State College of Wash-
ington, Montana School of Mines, Montana
State College, State College of North Dakota,
University of Wisconsin, Iowa State College
(Ames), Leland Stanford University and the
University of California.
Dr. JosepH Simms, a well-known lecturer
and traveler, who died of cerebral hemorrhage
in New York City on April 11, in his eighty-
seventh year, bequeathed his body to Dr.
Edward A. Spitzka for scientific study. The
brain of Dr. Simms, removed eighteen hours
after death, weighed 1,520 grams (53.58 onces
avoirdupois) and has been preserved by Dr.
Spitzka for the detailed study of its morpho-
logic features in comparison with the brains
of other notable men.
Ir is stated in Nature that botanists in
Great Britain have been considering the prac-
ticability of holding an Imperial Botanical
Congress in London at which botanists from
the overseas Dominions might meet their
colleagues at home for the discussion of
matters of common interest. Many subjects
are ripe for discussion, such as the methods
of training botanists for service abroad, the
relation between the pure science and its ap-
plications and between the botanist and the
vommercial men interested in industries in
which botanical knowledge should play an im-
portant part, more helpful cooperation be
tween the home and the overseas botanist,
botanical surveys of overseas Dominions, and
ythers. After careful consideration it has
been decided that it would be inadvisable to
hold such a congress during the present year.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
THE medical departments of Columbia, Har-
yard and the Johns Hopkins Universities re-
ceive $5,541,401 each, in the distribution of the
estate of Captain Joseph R. De Lamar. The
will, disposing of a sum of thirty-two million
dollars, provides these funds for the study and
May 21, 1920]
teaching of the origin and cause of disease and
its prevention and for the study and teaching
of dietetics.
Howarp University ScHoot or Meptcine,
Washington, has been promised $250,000 by the
General Education Board, provided the medical
school succeeds in raising the rest of a total
sum of $500,000.
THE trustees of the University of Southern
California, on April 13, decided to suspend
temporarily the medical department because of
inadequate endowment with which to main-
tain it.
_ Dr. Cornenius Brrren, secretary of the
State College of Agriculture at Cornell Uni-
versity, has been appointed vice-dean of the
college.
Curt Rosrenow (Ph.D., Chicago, 1917), of
the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute, Chicago,
has accepted an assistant professorship in psy-
chology at the University of Kansas.
Dr. A. RicHarpDs, professor of zoology at
Wabash College, has been appointed to a pro-
fessorship of zoology in the University of Okla-
homa, where he will be head of the department.
, Dr. Frep Horrmann Rwopes has been ap-
pointed professor of industrial chemistry and
will begin his work in the autumn at Cornell
University.
_ GENERAL Sim ArTHurR CurrigE has accepted
the position of principal of McGill University
in succession to Sir Auckland Geddes, who re-
signed to become British Ambassador at
Washington.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
FORMULZ GIVING THE DAY OF THE WEEK
OF ANY DATE
To officials who are required to fix the dates
of events beyond the end of the current year
and to historians who may desire to know the
day of the week of events in past years, for
which calendars are not ordinarily available,
the formule given below may be of consider-
able interest.
When the days of the week are numbered
thus:
SCIENCE
513
Sun. Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat.
1 2 3 4 By 6 0
the day of the week of any date in the Gregor-
ian (New Style) calendar is the remainder,
Ff, in the division
(Y+30+F+L+M4+D)/7=0+28/7,
in which the symbols used have the follow-
ing meanings:
Q is the integral part and R the remainder
obtained in the division indicated in the first
member of the equation.
Y is the year in which the date occurs.
C is the number formed by striking out the
last two digits of the year. Thus, for dates
in the year 1920, C=19.
F is the number of preceding leap days
occuring in centennial years. These occur in
the years 400, 800, 1200, 1600, ete. Thus, for
dates between :
Jan. als 1,and Feb. 29, 400, inclusive, F = 0
Mar. 1, 400,“ <‘* “* g00, “© F=1
Mar, 1, 800,** “* “©1900, “© F=2
Mar, 1,1,200,‘¢ “ ‘© 1,600, “* F=3
Mar, 1,1,600,‘* ‘* “2000, ‘* w=4
ZL is the number of leap ‘days between the
date and the last centennial year (not in-
elusive). It it the quotient obtained by
dividing by four the number formed by the
last two digits of the year in which the last
preceding leap day occurred.
M is a number which varies from month to
month as follows:
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June
0 3 3 6 1 4
July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
6 2 5 0 3 5
D is the day of the month.
Examples: Oct. 21, 1492 | Feb. 22, 1732 | Oct. 22, 1863
Y= 1492 1732 1863
3C= 42 51 54
F= 3 4 4
L= 23 7 15
M= 0 3 0
D= 21 22 22
7) 1581 7)1819 7)1958
225% 259% 2792
R= 6= Fri. 6= Fri. 5= Thu.
o14
For dates in the Julian (Old Style) calen-
dar the formula is
(¥+404+2+M4+D+5)/7=Q4+28/7,
in which the various symbols have the same
meanings as above.
Examples: Oct. 12,1492 Feb. 11, 1732 | July 4, 192
Y= 1492 1732 1920
4c = 56 68 76
L= 23 7 5
M= 0 3 6
D= 12 11 4
5 5 5
7) 1588 | 7) 1826 7) 2016
2268 | 260$ 2889
R= 6=Fri. | 6=Fri. 0=Sat.
W. J. SPILLMAN
H
ORIGIN OF THE SUPPOSED HUMAN FOOT-
PRINTS OF CARSON CITY, NEVADA
DurinG the summer of 1919 the writer found
occasion to visit Carson City, Nevada, and,
through courtesy of members of the prison
staff at the Nevada State Penitentiary, was
enabled to examine a number of specimens of
fossil mammals collected in the prison yard
during past quarrying operations for building
stone. In the material preserved in the col-
lections were fragments of a skull and a cer-
vical vertebra belonging to a ground sloth.
Warden R. B. Henrichs, of the Nevada prison,
was kind enough to loan the remains recovered
during the excavations to the department of
paleontology, University of California, and
further study indicates that the ground sloth
specimens pertain to an individual of the genus
Mylodon.
Many years ago the discovery of footprints,
bearing a superficial resemblance to imprints
made by a human foot, in a shale stratum ex-
posed in the yard of the penitentiary at OCar-
son City, gave rise to the view that the exist-
ence of primeval man in Nevada was definitely
established—a view that has taken a particu-
larly tenacious hold. The possibility that the
footprints were in reality those of a ground
sloth, presumably of a form related to the
South American Mylodon, was, however, ad-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1325
vocated by Joseph Le Conte, O. C. Marsh?
and others. In 1917, the writer? contrasted the
outline of the so-called human footprints with
that of a complete hind foot of Mylodon har-
lant reconstructed from remains of this species
secured in the asphalt deposits at Rancho La
Brea. The great resemblance which the artic-
ulated foot bore to the impressions, both in
outline and in size, seemed certain proof that
the latter were left by Mylodon.
The actual occurrence of osseous remains of
Mylodon in the Pleistocene deposits at Carson
City, Nevada, removes still farther the possi-
bility that the Carson footprints are to be at-
tributed to a member of the Hominide and
materially substantiates the suggestions of Le
Conte and Marsh. Further, the presence of
material referable to a mylodont sloth gives a
high degree of probability to the contention
that the footprints were made by Mylodon
rather than by some other quadruped.
CHESTER STOCK
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SCIENTIFIC PHOTOGRAPHY
To THE Eprtor or Science: The Royal Pho-
tographie Society of Great Britain is hold-
ing its sixty-fifth annual exhibition in Sep-
tember and October of this year. This is the
most representative exhibition of photographic
work in the world, and the section sent by
American scientific men heretofore has sufti-
ciently demonstrated the place held by this
country in applied photography. It is very
desirable that American scientific photography
should be equally well represented in 1920,
and, in order to enable this to be done with as
little difficulty as possible, I have arranged
to collect and forward American work in-
tended for the scientific section.
This work should consist of prints showing
the use of photography for scientific purposes
and its application to spectroscopy, astronomy,
1Le Oonte, J., Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 10 pp.,
August 27, 1882.
2 Marsh, O. C., Amer. Jour. Sci., Ser. 3, Vol. 26,
pp. 139-140, 1883.
3 Stock, C., Univ. Calif. Publ. Bull. Dept. Geol.,
Vol. 10, pp. 284-285, 1917.
May 21, 1920]
radiography, biology, etc. Photographs should
reach me not later than Thursday, July 1.
They should be mounted but not framed.
I should be glad if any worker who is able
to send photographs will communicate with
me as soon as possible so that I might arrange
for the receiving and entry of the exhibit.
A. J. Newton
EASTMAN KopAaKk CoMPANY,
RocusstEr, N. Y.,
QUOTATIONS
COMPETITION IN RESEARCH
THE resignation of Professor Hrnest Fox
Nichols from the department of physics at
Yale University in order to continue his re-
search work upon a larger scale in the Nela
Research Laboratories of the National Lamp
Works at Cleveland, offers a new impression
of the possible utilization of professional
talent. Professor Nichols resigned the presi-
deney of Dartmouth College to come to Yale
where there was a greater promise of his con-
tinuing his scientific work, and now leaves
Yale to enter the employ of a private corpor-
ation whose opportunities for scientific work
on a much enlarged scale are even greater.
The loss to Yale of the fine influence of Dr.
Nichols’ personality is obvious. That is some-
thing to be deeply regretted but, taking him
as a type of trained scientists, whether the
withdrawal of such men from the universities
of the country and their employment by large
corporations whose interest in scientific re-
search is more direct is to the common dis-
advantage may seriously be questioned. The
limitations which are necessarily set upon
work of this character even in the best
equipped of university laboratories disappear
in corporations where no limitations are set
when the importance of the end sought is
realized. In the ease of Dr. Nichols the work
which he wishes to accomplish has such great
importance in its actual accomplishment that
his transfer must be considered as of greater
general advantage because it may be accom-
plished the earlier under private rather than
under university encouragement. The the
oretical disadvantage which results to the
SCIENCE
515
university is in all likelihood offset by the
practical advantage to be commonly gained.
Speculation is here invited as to what the
effect will be upon the teaching force of a
university if the labor of research work of a
seientifie character is to be taken over by
private corporations. We might imagine
affirmative and the negative coming to blows
over this thesis at least until the lessons of
experience have been written into the record.
—The New Haven Journal-Courier.
A NEW STATISTICAL JOURNAL
TuerE has recently been founded a new
international statistical journal called Metron.
It is published at Padua, Italy, at a sub-
seription price of 40 lire per year. The
printer, where subscriptions should be sent, is
the Tipografia Industrie grafiche Italiane,
Via Viscovado, Padova, Italy. The journal
will appear quarterly, each number comprising
150 to 200 pages.
The founder and chief editor of Metron is
Professor Corrado Gini, of the University of
Padua. The fact that so brilliant and sound a
worker as Professor Gini is to be in charge at
once guarantees the scientific standing of the
journal in the- statistical field) An inter-
national editorial board has been formed,
which now includes the following persons:
Professor A. Andreadés, de science des finances a
1’Université de Athenes (Greece),
Professor A, E. Bunge, directeur de la Statistique
de la Republique Argentine, Buenos Ayres (Ar-
gentine),
Dr. F. P. Cantelli, actuaire au Ministere du Tresor,
Rome (Italy),
Dr. lL. V. Furlan, libre docent de statistique a
l’Université de Bale (Switzerland),
Dr. M. Greenwood, reader of medical statistics in
ithe University of London; statistician of the
Lister Institute, London (England),
Dr. A. Julin, directeur de la Statistique econom-
ique de la Belgique Ministére de 1’Industrie et
du Travail, Bruxelles (Belgium),
Dr. G. H. Knibbs, directeur de la Statistique de la
confederation australienne, Melbourne (Aus-
tralia),
Ing. L. March, directeur de la Statistique générale
de la France, Paris (France),
516
Dr. Raymond Pearl, professor of biometry and
vital statistics, School of Hygiene and Public
Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Maryland (United States).
The general editorial program may be set
forth as follows:
One of the great difficulties in connection
with modern statistics is that of becoming
acquainted with the relevant literature; this
is in fact derived from the work of very
different schools and published in a variety
of journals and transactions. It is necessary
to consult mathematical, astronomical, tech-
nical, physical, chemical, actuarial, economic
and financial, psychological, historical, legal,
physiological and pathological, hygienic and
medical, biological, genetic and eugenic and
even purely zoological, botanical and agricul-
tural publications.
It is true that generally such papers are
merely applications of interest to specialists
in the particular branch of knowledge. But
this is not always the case and sometimes
methods of general interest to all statisticians
are to be found, or, again, we find in par-
ticular connections methodological problems
enunciated and solved, the scope of hypotheses
contained in certain analyses brought to light,
the approximation of theoretical conclusions
verified and advances made by different
routes; progress of interest in all branches
of statistics. Still more frequently the results
of particular statistical investigations, even
when they do not interest all statisticians, are
of importance to those engaged in similar in-
quiries: thus results obtained in the field of
anthropology, zoology, genetics or eugenics,
hygiene, medicine, pathology, life insurance,
political economy or history may be of great
interest to the student of demography.
Whoever, desiring to enlarge the boundaries
of statistical science as far as possible, is
forced to consult the heterogeneous literature
containing statistical papers must be aware
of the inconvenience resulting from lack of
coordination.
Valuable statistical data, carefully collected,
scrupulously criticized, remain of no scientific
value owing to their presentation and analysis
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1325
by those unskilled in modern methods. Typo-
graphical difficulties offer obstacles to the
publication of the original data in their
integrity so that competent statisticians are
unable to harvest the grain which the original
author had not the skill to reap. Sometimes
we meet with tedious, inconclusive, or even
fallacious arguments where quite an ele-
mentary knowledge of statistical methods
would have led to a simple and exact con-
clusion. Sometimes indeed we merely en-
counter—and this is the smallest evil—the
rediscovery of an established truth or the
reinvention of a familiar method, but how
often do we not feel in reading the work of
a writer, sagacious and profound in his own
subject, that he would have greatly profited
by a knowledge of other statistics published
in journals quite disconnected from his
specialty !
Within the limits appropriate to a review,
Metron will endeavor to take the first step
towards remedying these defects. It is ad-
dressed to those who, cultivating different soils
with various implements, nevertheless are
busied with statistics; that the results of
their labors may become of general utility
to science. It is hoped that Metron may be
a bond of union between statistical workers
in different branches, perhaps at length an
organ of scientific coordination. ‘
With this object, Metron will be catholic;
its pages will be open to those who employ no
methods beyond the scope of ordinary culti-
vated men as well as to those who delight in
the most refined and subtle developments of
mathematical science. There is indeed scope
for both schools. Some problems can be
solved by the older methods now part of the
intellectual stock of all educated persons,
others must be investigated with the help of
more recondite procedures. Between these
extremes are insensible gradations and both
orders of inquiry interest science in general
and statistical science in particular. It is
hoped that both will find in Metron an appro-
priate treatment.
It can not of course be denied that, the
simpler the methods employed, the easier is
May 21, 1920]
the process of mutual enlightenment which
Metron is intended to facilitate, since the
number of readers capable of profiting by
the exposition will be larger. The editors
hope therefore that questions will be dealt
with as their nature permits. But this is
merely the expression of a desire not a con-
dition of publication. The editors do not
desire to put any compulsion upon contrib-
utors or to gainsay those who will forego a
numerous audience for the satisfaction of
expressing their ideas in the most concise and
accurate style.
The sole necessary condition of approval
for publication is that papers shall make a
contribution to the theory or practise of sta-
tistics of original value and likely to interest
a greater or smaller number of students of
statistics. Contributions will be inserted as
articles or notes in accordance with the im-
portance of the subject matter. Frequently
statistical researches lead to fragmentary re-
sults, insufficient to form the subject of a
paper or even a note, but still offering some-
thing of scientific interest or perhaps filling
a lacuna in other investigations. Such re
sults will be published under a _ special
heading.
In addition to a bibliography of publica-
tions received, each number of the review will
contain one or more analyses of statistical
works or of results perhaps taken from works
not exclusively statistical in character. Each
such analysis will deal with a particular
branch of statistics, e. g., demographic, sani-
tary, anthropometric or economic statistics.
There will also be an analysis of sources and
of mathematical work bearing upon statistics
(calculus of probabilities, interpolation, etc.).
Metron is an international review. As it
is published in Italy and consequently a
majority of the editorial staff are Italians,
no doubt the Italian language will at first
preponderate in its pages. But the other
great international languages, French, Eng-
lish and German, are admitted to its pages on
terms of complete equality. It rests with
contributors from other countries to increase
their share in its pages and to cause to dis-
SCIENCE
517
appear any such difference. It is the wish
ot the editors that the participation of non-
Italian writers shall become larger and larger.
It is believed that many American workers,
in the fields of biology, agriculture, and
genetics particularly, as well as statisticians
in the narrower sense, will be interested in
this new journal and wish to have it in their
libraries, as well as to use it as a medium of
publication.
RayMonD PEARL
SPECIAL ARTICLES
FOOT-ROT OF WHEAT
Earty last spring attention was called to
the occurrence of a foot-rot of wheat in Madi-
son Co., Illinois. Since that time I have made
a study of the disease assisted at first by Mrs.
E. Young True, employed by the Illinois Nat-
ural History Survey, and later by Mr. George
H. Dungan, of the Illinois Agricultural Ex-
periment Station.
From the first it appeared probable that a
certain fungus was the cause of the disease and
as early as last June our notes show that this
fungus was universally present and that inocu-
lations with pure cultures gave positive results.
The evidence is now so clear and conclusive
that I venture to present the following facts
as fully established.
1. This fungus was isolated by transfer to
agar plates from diseased lesions in practically
every case where the attempt, was made, even
when superficial leafy coverings were stripped
away and the remaining surfaces disinfected
with mercuric chlorid. In all several hundred
such isolations were made. Reports from
pathologists in other states indicate similar
findings there.
2. No other species of fungus or parasite of
any kind, was constantly present, or present in
any large percentage of cases.
8. The diseased lesions were always pene-
trated and largely occupied by a fungous my-
celium that agrees in general character with
the fungus in question.
4, The diseased wheat stems when placed in
conditions of suitable humidity become coy-
ered with spores of the fungus.
518
5. This fungus when inoculated in pure eul-
ture, either as spores, mycelium or infected
wheat tissue, on the unwounded lower inter-
nodes of wheat seedlings in moist chambers
produced a condition of disease indistinguish-
able from foot-rot as it occurred in the field.
6. Plants thus inoculated when placed in a
moist chamber soon bore numerous spores of
the fungus.
7. Wheat planted in soil in pots or benches
with an inoculum consisting of this fungus,
either as spores or as a pure culture on wheat,
developed typical foot-rot.
8. Wheat when planted in infested soil in
the greenhouse developed typical foot-rot and
when placed in a moist chamber bore the same
fungus found so constantly in association with
the disease in the field.
9. The fungus in question is a typical Hel-
minthosporium as the genus is now under-
stood. It grows luxuriantly on wheat agar,
corn meal agar and numerous other media and
on autoclaved leaves or stems of various ce-
reals. The spores, observed as grown on
autoclaved wheat leaves or stems in humid air,
are from 24 to 122 long, the majority of them
falling within the limits 80-90 with septa or
pseudo-septa varying from 0 to 13, usually
about 5-10. The spores are typically thickest
in the region about midway between the base
and the middle point of the spore, approaching
a narrow or broadly elliptical shape, tapering
somewhat toward each end. They possess an
outer dark wall that is thin and extremely
fragile and an inner, colorless, thick wall that
is frequently soft, gelatinous. Both of these
characters of spore wall seem to be common in
several other species of Helminthosporium.
The spores usually, perhaps always, germinate
either from one or both ends, not laterally,
and are functionally one-celled.
Further discussion of the morphological and
histological features and the relation of this
Helminthosporium to other species common on
cereals will be presented later.
All of the above refers solely to foot-rot as
observed and studied in material originating
in Madison Co., Illinois, or cultures derived
from such material.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1325
It is to be noted that this cereal disease,
while of the general type of foot-rot known
heretofore in Europe, Australia and elsewhere,
is caused by an organism not heretofore desig-
nated as a cause of foot-rot in any of the pub-
lications on foot-rot in such countries.
The foot-rot found in Illinois, therefore,
should be recognized as a disease quite distinct
from all others of similar type that have been
described previously. It is clear from experi-
mental evidence that it is soil-borne and it is
probable that it is also seed-borne. How seri-
ous the disease may prove to be, how depend-
ent upon environmental conditions of climate
and soil, can ‘be told only after one or more
years of additional observation.
F. L. Stevens
UNIVERSITY oF ILLINOIS,
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
SECTION E—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY
A Biochemical theory of the origin of Indianatte:
W. N. Loean.
Our decreasing natural gas supply: J. A.
Bownocker. A study was made of the nat-
ural gas supply from the records of four large
companies in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and
Ohio. It was shown that the open flow of
new wells in West Virginia has decreased 79
per cent. in 10 years; in northwest Pennsylvania
70 per cent, in 7 years, and in southwest Penn-
sylvania 12 per cent. in 10 years. Changes in rock
pressure of new wells are similar. Thus in north-
west Pennsylvania there has been a decrease of 37
per cent. in 7 years, and in southwest Pennsyl-
vania a decrease of. 34 per cent. in 10 years. In
the northern half of West Virginia there has been
a decrease of 38 per cent. in the same period.
Naturally there has been a proportional decrease
in the rock pressure and open flow of all wells.
In Ohio the drilling of new territory has kept the
averages at a higher figure, but in spite of this
the production of gas in the state is decreasing.
Ohio gets 60 per cent. of her supply from West
Virginia; Pennsylvania about 33 per cent.; Ken-
tucky about 75 per cent., while Maryland and
Indiana each draw on the state in a limited way.
Manifestly the future supply depends largely on
West Virginia. For the two years closing June 30,
May 21, 1920]
1919, the production of natural gas in that state
decreased 20 per cent.
Some characteristics of the Balcones fault zone
in Bexar county, Texas: E. H. Seuuarps. The
Baleones fault zone lies at the inner margin of
the Coastal Plains of Texas, and the scarp result-
ing from the faults is a conspicuous topographic
feature which in several counties separates the
coastal plains from the high plains of the interior.
The fault searp is most pronounced in Uvalde,
Medina, Bexar, Comal, Hayes and Travis counties.
The formations observed to have been affected by
these faults are those of the Lower and Upper Cre-
taceous and Hocene, while the Pleistocene forma-
tions have not been observed to be affected by
faulting. Hence the age of the faults may be be-
tween Hocene and the Pleistocene. The number
of faults within the fault zone as developed in
Bexar county can scarcely be estimated. A few
are seen at the surface; a number of others are
located by well records, but with little doubt there
are many more faults than have been located by
either of these methods. They are normal faults
with the downthrow to the south in most cases.
The faulting is accompanied in some places by
gentle folding, and the small oil fields of this
county are found apparently upon structurally
high areas produced by a combination of faulting
and more or less folding. The width of the zone
of faulting approximates 25 miles, and yet it re-
malins to be determined how much farther to ‘the
south or southeast faulting in this zone may be de-
tected.
The Ozarkian of Missouri: E. B. BRANSON.
The nature of Beatricea undulata: W. H.
SHIDELER. ,
The possibility of a relationship between crystal
types and the mode of occurrence of minerals: W.
A. Tarr. Along with other lines of research on
the origin of crystals, the question arises as to
whether the mode of occurrence shows an influence
upon the type in which a given mineral erystallizes.
If physical conditions influence the molecular ar-
rangement this should be the case. A study of
128 common minerals, classified into eight zones
shows that there is only a very general influence.
The influence of composition appears to be more
marked. The higher classes of symmetry are the
most abundant in certain zones, yet physical fac-
tors do not appear to control the class of symmetry
of a mineral. In large groups the physical condi-
tions appear to be a factor but it is questioned
whether the chemical factors are not of vastly more
importance in these same zones.
SCIENCE
519
An analysis of the process of thrust-faulting:
T. T. QuirKE. It is probable that there is so sharp
a zone of division between the surficial plastico-
frangible crust and the interior plastico-rigid mass
that the part subject to rupture may be considered
a separate member even though flow deformation
may extend beneath it. Earth stresses due to the
adjustment of a plastico-frangible crust to a shrink-
ing interior affect members as wide as the conti-
nents and oceans are broad. These members fail
near the ends under a stress which is rotational and
unequally transmitted throughout the length of
each member. The members fail after flexure
somewhat in the manner of long columns. This
type of rupture combined with a rotational stress
makes a strong tendency to rupture at angles low
at depth and high near the surface. Immediately
after rupture a geologic process of abrasion comes
into play. Abrasion is greatest where friction is
most intense, at the steep parts of the fault plane.
This movement of millions of tons of rock passing
several miles along the fault plane will abrade the
steep part of the plane to a lower angle and pro-
ject to the surface the original low angle break.
From which it follows that there may ‘be a relation
between the steepness of angle and the amount of
displacement after rupture.
The mechanical interpretation of joints: WALTER
H. Bucuer. On Mine Fork, Magoffin county, Ky.,
at the crest of an anticline in the upper third of
a thick sandstone formation exposed in nearly yer-
tical cliffs, two systems of joints are seen inter-
secting at an angle of approximately 120°, which
is bisected by the horizontal direction. In this
ease, undoubtedly the joint planes, representing
planes of shearing, were formed by simple tension
and were arranged in such a way as to have the
direction of maximum tension bisect the obtuse
angle. In 1896 the French engineer Hartmann
published the results of extended experimentation
on the planes of shearing in metals, in which he
found that the angle formed by the yield planes
differs the more from 90° the harder and the more
brittle the material is, and that the direction of
maximum tension bisects the obtuse angle while
that of minimum tension (generally negative, 1. e.,
compression) bisects the acute angle. O. Mohr,
in 1900, gave a mathematical theory to account for
this behavior. The author demonstrated the use-
fulness of this relation in interpreting the stress
conditions underlying the fracturing of materials
in well-known tension, compression and torsion
tests. He then proceeded to apply this method to
a number of joint systems taken partly from liter-
520 SCIENCE
ature and partly from his own field observations,
illustrating the three possible types of joint sys-
tems (1) max. tension = horizontal, min. tension —
vertical (weight of overlying beds) ; (2) max. ten-
sion = horizontal (anticlinal bending), min. ten-
sion horizontal and at right angles together
(synelinal bending); and (3) max. tension = ver-
tical (upward relief), min, tension — horizontal.
Notes on concretions: W. A. Tarr. Concretions
found in a black shale of the Pennsylvanian in
Boone county, Missouri, are believed to be syn-
genetic in origin. Reasons for so believing are the
composition of the concretions (mainly clay and
silica), the arching of the beds over them, absence
of stratification lines passing through the concre-
tions, lack of evidence of lateral erumpling, slicken-
sides due to the consolidation of the beds around
the concretion, and the volume of the concretions.
The Devonian of Ralls county, Missouri: GILBERT
P. Moore,
Notes on the coal industries of northeastern
France, Belgium, the Saar District and Westphalia:
H. F. CrooKss.
Data gathered by the writer for the War Dam-
ages Board of the American Commission to Negoti-
ate Peace, in Paris, on the coal industry of west-
ern Europe, shows, among other things, that, of
the reserves of coal, Germany now controls 28 per
cent., England 49 per cent., France 7 per cent. and
Belgium 4 per cent.
_ The acquisition by France of the Saar district
does not solve that country’s future requirements
of coking coal for her Lorraine iron ore, because
of the fact that it is impracticable to smelt the ore
with Saar coke unless it is mixed with about 20
per cent. of Westphalian or equally good coke.
Taken alone, Saar coke has been found to have
about 67 per cent. the efficiency of Westphalian
coke,
With the opening up of the Campine Basin in
Belgium, France will be able to reduce her coke im-
ports from Westphalia, but, even so, she must rely
on the latter district for her principal supply of
blast furnace coke.
Aside from a gain in actual coal reserves of over
16 billion tons, it is estimated that the net mone-
tary gain by the acquisition of the German in-
terests in coal lands, mines, equipment and coke
plants in the Saar district is 411 million franes.
The dependence of the French and Belgian metal-
lurgical industries on Westphalian coke is offset by
the former’s control of iron ore, for France now
controls about 85 per cent. of the iron ore reserves
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1825
of Europe. It has been advocated that a portion of
the German indemnity be paid annually in terms
of Westphalian coke. This would permit of the en-
tire domestic coal production of both France and
Belgium being diverted to industries other than
metallurgic, but at best would be only a temporary
arrangement. The exchange of iron ore for West-
phalian coke, arbitrated by a committee from each
country, might be a better solution, and is one that
has been recommended,
The influence of the differential compression of
sediments on the attitude of bedded rocks: MAURICE
G. Menu. The diminution of the height of a col-
umn of sediment upon consolidation is brought
about chiefly by the loss of water through the
weight of the column. The rate of compressibility
for shales is greater than for sands because of the
differences in the shape of the particles. In the
plate-like particles of shale there is a larger sur-
face and hence a greater separating water film
per unit volume of shale. The compressibility of
sand is very slight while for shale it may be as
high as 20 per cent. It follows that any difference
in the total thickness of types of sediments with
different rates of compressibility in adjacent col-
umns will impart secondary dips to all beds above
the irregularities. Unequal thicknesses of totals
may arise through the lateral gradation of one
type into another of through the actual thinning of
a bed of a given type. Likewise any irregularity
on an unyielding depositional surface will tend to
produce different totals in the overlying columns
of sediments. While the small isolated dome-like
anticlines typical of the Mid-Continent oil field may
have acted as localizing influences for the expres-
sion of later thrusts acting through great dis-
tances it is thought that these small structural
features are chiefly the result of the differential
compression of sediments,
Compression of sediments as a factor in the for-
mation of coal basins: E, B. BRANSON.
On the Pennsylvanian stratigraphy im the mid-
continent region: R. C. Moore.
Episodes in Rocky Mountain orogeny: C. Li.
Daxe. West of Cody, along Greybull and Sho-
shone Rivers, are a series of yellow sandstones and
red and gray shales with conglomerate layers. The
conglomerates, which inelude granite pebbles, in-
volve erosion down to the pre-Cambrian, and the
beds rest with slight angular unconformity on the
Cody (Niobrara and Pierre) shale. These con-
glomerates are themselves folded and are involved
in large overthrust faults. This implies two epi-
May 21, 1920]
sodes of deformation, one before and one after the
laying down of these beds. The conglomerates are
tentatively correlated with the Fort Union, as that
formation is deseribed by Hewett and Lupton in
recent papers. These workers also recognize two
episodes of disturbance, quite probably the same
two noted by the writer. One they place as post-
Lance and pre-Fort Union, the other as post-Fort
Union and pre-Wasatch. If their correlations are
correct they find both episodes of diastrophism to
be post-Lance. This appears to be contrary to the
idea of Knowlton and others who point very defi-
nitely to a pre-Lance (pre-Arapahoe) period of
folding. We must conclude, therefore, either that
the so-called Lance and Fort Union of the Big
Horn Basin, as the terms are used by Hewett and
Lupton, are not the equivalents of the Lance and
Fort Union described by Knowlton, or else we
must conclude that there are three episodes in the
orogeny of the Rocky Mountains, one pre-Lance
. and two post-Lance.
The present status of the Pleistocene in Illinois:
Morris M. LeicHToy. Detailed studies on the
Pleistocene in Illinois, begun in 1886 under the
supervision of Professor T, C. Chamberlin, led to
the publication in 1899 of Monograph XXXVIII.
on ‘‘The Illinois Glacial Lobe,’’? by Mr, Frank
Leverett. Aside from certain obscure problems
which were left for further study, two important
questions have since arisen from changes and shifts
in the classification of American drift-sheets.
When the verity of the Iowan epoch was questioned,
subsequent to the publication of Monograph
XXXVIII, the Iowan drift in Illinois was dis-
earded. Since then, the area has been referred to
the Illinoian stage, then to a substage of the
Illinoian, and still more recently a considerable
portion has been suggested as being possibly Early
Wisconsin. Whether the drift in northwestern Illi-
nois is wholly or in part Illinoian, Iowan or Harly
Wisconsin remains to be determined by critical
‘and comparative field-work. The Wisconsin drift
deposits were divided into two major drifts in
Monograph XXXVIII. but later were reduced to
two subordinate stages, and more recently a sus-
pension of the sub-stages ‘‘Harlier’’ and ‘‘Later’’
has been proposed. An early critical study of the
drift of northwestern Illinois and of the basis of
classification of the Wisconsin drift-sheets is con-
templated.
A possible factor in the origin of dolomite: W.
A. Tarr. It is believed from the study of the areal
and time distribution of dolomite that its origin
SCIENCE
521
is directly dependent upon shallow continental
seas, or lakes, for the necessary concentration of
magnesium salts in sufficient amounts for its for-
mation; that the deposition took place upon the
sea or lake bottom; that in such seas or lakes we
have an adequate source of magnesium; and that
such a mode of origin is compatible with the inter-
bedding of dolomite with limestone.
Some glacier studies in Alaska: RouLin T.
CHAMBERLIN. The ultimate purpose of these
studies was to obtain a better understanding of
the true nature of glacier motion. Some of the
more immediate purposes were to demonstrate
movement along definite shear planes which would
indicate brittleness and rigidity of materials; and
also to determine what relation there might be
between the rate of shearing and the temperature,
time of day, daily range of temperature, amount
of water entering the ice, and variable meteorolog-
ical conditions. This investigation was wunder-
taken by means of a self-recording clock-work
apparatus which was attached to two rods driven
into the ice, one above the fracture plane to be
investigated and the other below it. The appa-
ratus was sensitive to shearing amounting to as
little as one hundredth of an inch, Many diffi-
culties were encountered and only indifferent suc-
cess achieved. Such records as were obtained
seemed to indicate that shearing was more rapid
between 6 P.M. and midnight than between 6 A.M.
and noon. This would not be at the time of great-
est melting but lagging after it. It would be
when there was the most water in the ice. A study
of the ‘‘sloughing off’’ of Child’s Glacier and
especially the relation between the shearing planes
and the blue bands constituted an important and
critical part of the investigation.
The stratigraphy of the Chester series of south-
ern Indiana: CuyDE A. MaLorr AnD J. D. THomp-
son, JR. The following is the first attempt to give
the entire detailed stratigraphy of the Chester
Series of Indiana, using the names adopted by the
Kentucky and Illinois surveys and by the writer
in a former publication:
BurraLo WALLOw Siberia Is. at base, 1-12 feet;
Formation overlaid by some 60 feet of
’ sandy sh. and a thin ls.
Tar SPRINGS Massive ss., 0-75 feet, and sh.,
Formation 50-125 feet; thin impure
limestones in shale when ss.
is absent or thin.
GLen DEAN Massive, often oolitic lime-
Limestone stone; 10-45 feet.
SCIENCE
522
HARDINSBURG Hard, flaggy ss., with some sh.
Sandstone above and below; 25-40
feet.
GoLcoNDA Bedded to massive ls., often
Limestone oolitic; contains chert; and
INDIAN SPRINGS
Shale
frequently thin sh. bands;
0-40 feet.
20 feet of olive sh. character-
istically underlies the Gol-
conda limestone.
CYPRESS Massive, laminated, friable,
Sandstone yellow ss.; 25-45 feet.
BrrcH CREEK Bedded to massive, compact
Limestone Js.; 8-25 feet.
ELWREN Ss. not persistent; the inter-
Sandstone val often entirely sh.; 15—
60 feet. Local unconform-
ity at the base.
REELSVILLE Compact to oolitic, pyritifer-
Limestone ous; wethers red; one ledge
Branpy Run
Sandstone
BEAVER BEND
at north; some sh. at south;
0-12 feet.
Massive to bedded ss.; usually
some sh. above and below
the ss.; 10-65 feet. Local
unconformity at base.
Limestone Bedded to massive, cream-col-
ored, usually oolitie 1s.; 2-
20 feet.
SAMPLE Usually massive and accom-
Sandstone panied by sh.; interval fre-
quently all sh.; 10-40 feet.
MITCHELL LIMESTONE GROUP
GASPER OOLITE
Limestone
Compact to oolitie Is., 15-40
feet. Lower Gasper of K
Major unconformity at base.
Bottom of Chester following
Weller.
FREDONIA OOLITE Compact, lithographic and
Limestone white, finely oolitie 1s.; 60-
80 feet. Major unconform-
ity at base. Bottom of
Chester following Ulrich.
Sr. Lovis
Limestone
The correlation of coal seams by means of spore-
exines: REINHARDT THIESSEN.
On microscopic ex-
amination of sections of different coal seams it is
readily seen that each seam presents certain ap-
pearances and certain constituents that are com-
mon to all sections from the one seam but which
differ in some respects from those in any other
seam. The spore-exines in particular have very
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1325
definite and clearly defined characteristics, such as
form, size and seulpturing by means of which dif-
ferent kinds can easily be distinguished from one
another. These spore characteristics have been
so well preserved in almost all coals that the spores
of one species of plants can be clearly distinguished
from those of other species. In examining the
spore-exines of a number of sections of one seam,
it is soon found that by far the larger bulk of the
spore-exines of that seam are often very largely of
the same kind. In some, two kinds, while in others,
three kinds of exines may form the main bulk. In
comparing the predominating exines of one seam
with those of another it is not difficult to see that
those of one bed are different in some way from
those of any other. Occasionally there will be
found in a given coal seam a spore-exine that dif-
fers materially from those found in other seams.
This spore-exine is a distinguishing characteristic
of the coal seam in question but not in general the
predominant one. As is the case in the peat form-
ing bogs of to-day, where each bog or series of
bogs contains one, two or three species of plants
that predominate, so in the peat bogs of the Coal
Age, each bog giving rise to a future coal seam
must have contained one, two, or three, sometimes
perhaps more, species of plants predominating in
that bog and differing from those of bogs of any
other time or perhaps locality. There are sufficient
grounds for the broad statement that, as far as
they have been examined, each coal seam contains
one or more kinds of spore-exines that are predomi-
nant and characteristic, or if not predominant, are
at least characteristic of that seam. By this
means any seam may readily and easily be distin-
guished from any other.
Climate and geology: STEPHEN S. VIsHER. It is
being increasingly realized that a knowledge of cli-
mate is very helpful to geologists. (1) In order to
understand differences in weathering, erosion,
transportation and deposition, climate and its dif- |
ferences must be understood. (2) Paleoclimatol-
ogy, or the study of the climates of the geologic
past is an important aspect of historical geology.
Several very eminent geologists have studied an-
cient climates and the influence of climate and
have enriched the science of geology greatly by so
doing. They have urged further study of this by
no means exhausted subject. Davis, Barrell, and
Huntington have contributed much to an apprecia-
tion of the importance of climate in physiography
and sedimentation. Schuchert has given the best
summary of the climates of geologic time. Cham-
May 21, 1920]
berlin (T. ©.) was led fby his study of glacial cli-
mates to formulate several hypotheses which have
done much to advance geology (see ‘‘The Origin
of the Earth’’). The recently published work of
Ellsworth Huntington concerning changes of cli-
mate is of notable interest to geologists. The data
he has accumulated and the stimulating hypotheses
he has advanced to interpret these data are worthy
of most serious consideration. The importance of
climate and the promised fruitfulness of its study
has led the speaker to attempt to facilitate its
study by summarizing what is known as to cli-
mate under the title ‘‘Laws of Climate.’’ This
summary will be published soon in The Monthly
Weather Review.
A notable case of successive stream piracy im
southern Indiana: Cuype A. Matorr. This paper
deals with the Knobstone cuesta region lying be-
tween the Muscatatook and Ohio Rivers near the
eastern margin of the driftless area of southern
Indiana. Its purpose is to show specifically the
responsibility of the geologic structure and topo-
graphic condition in drainage adjustment. Details
shown how the particular lithologic units with their
regional westward dip are important conditioning
factors in giving rise to topographic forms. Other
conditioning factors scarcely less important are
the so-called time factors, such as various uplifts,
rejuvenation and glaciation. The peculiarity of
the streams flowing east from the Knobstone es-
earpment is noted. Blue River with its peculiar
unchanging gradient is discussed in some detail, as
it is representative of all the streams on the back-
slope of the cuesta. It is shown that the piracy
of the Muddy Fork of Silver Creek has taken place
as a result of the geologic structure and topo-
graphic condition along the Knobstone ecuesta. It
is not a single instance of piracy, but consists of
successive piracy wherein a large number of tribu-
taries belonging to a single system have been an-
nexed one after another to the drainage system of
the invading stream. Some 35 square miles have
been stolen. The conditions are highly favorable
for piracy to continue, and eventually the largest
part of the Muddy Fork of Blue River will be
taken over by the Muddy Fork of Silver Creek.
Such piracy will continue until a balanced condi-
tion of the gradients of the two stream systems is
reached. Such a condition will mark the begin-
ning of old age of the stream systems, when
stream adjustments are practically complete.
The Satsop formation and structure of the Cas-
cade range: J. HARLEN BRETZ.
SCIENCE
523
Geotectonic economy of thrust-faulting: CHARLES
R. KEyEs.
Roun T. CHAMBERLIN,
Secretary
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL
SOCIETY
Tue two hundred and tenth regular meeting of
the society was held at Columbia University on
Saturday, April 24, extending through the usual
morning and afternoon sessions. The total at-
tendance exceeded one hundred and thirty amd in-
cluded eighty-two members. President Frank
Morley occupied the chair, yielding it ito ex-Presi-
dent R. S. Woodward during the presentation of
the papers on relativity at the afternoon session.
The Council reported the election of the following
persons to membership in the Society: Professor
H. S. Everett, Bucknell University; Dr. J. L.
Rouse, University of Michigan; Professor Nilos
Sakellariou, University of Athens; Mr. H. L.
Smith, University of Wisconsin; Professor Eugene
Taylor, University of Wisconsin; Professor W. P.
Webber, University of Pittsburgh. Thirteen ap-
plications for membership were received.
Professor lL. P. Hisenhart was reelected to the
Editorial Committee of tthe Transactions, for a
term of three years. Professor P. F. Smith will
retire from the Editorial Committee on October 1,
after nine years’ service as editor, and Professor
G. D. Birkhoff will fill out Professor Smith’s un-
expired term. Professor Oswald Veblen was ap-
pointed a representative of the society in the Di-
vision of Physical Sciences of tthe National
Research Council for a term of three years. Pro-
fessor Veblen’s Cambridge Colloquium lectures on
Analysis Situs will be published by the society in
the fall. Committees were appointed to confer
with a committee of the Mathematical Association
on joint plans for future meetings and to prepare
nominations for officers for the annual election
next December.
On the recommendation of the Council it was
unanimously voted to incorporate the society
under the membership corporations law of the
state of New York. The new form of organization
will involve hardly any changes beyond those nec-
essary to comply with legal requirements. The
board of trustees will be composed of those mem-
bers of the Council who are elected by the society,
the ex-officio members not being eligible as trus-
tees. Otherwise the constitution and by-laws, which
have come down from the beginnings of the so-
O24
ciety and which are a highly efficient instrument
of government, well worthy of study, will remain
practically as they stand.
The committee on reorganization of the society
is actively engaged in preparing plans for carry-
ing on the administrative work after the present
year and enlarging the society’s income. It will
make specific recommendations at a later meeting.
A report was received from the committee on the
International Mathematical Union, and the forma-
tion of an American Section of the Union was
approved. The report of the committee on bibli-
ography, recommending the establishment of a
journal of mathematical abstracts, was approved,
and the committee was authorized to take steps
toward securing the necessary financial support.
In the interval between the sessions over fifty
members and friends took luncheon at the Faculty
Club; thirty gathered there at the dinner after
the meeting,
_ he greater part of the afternoon session was
devoted to a symposium on Relativity at which the
following papers were presented:
1. ‘‘The physical and philosophical significance
of the principle of relativity,’’? by Professor Leigh
Page, of Yale University.
2. ‘‘Geometrie aspects of the Einstein theory,’’
by Professor L. P. Hisenhart, of Princeton Uni-
versity.
The regular program consisted of the following
papers:
N. A. Court: ‘‘On a pencil of nodal cubies.’’
EB. L. Post: ‘‘Introduction to a general theory
of elementary propositions. ’’
E. L. Post: ‘‘Determination of all closed sys-
tems of truth tables.’’
Jesse Douglas: ‘‘The dual of area and volume.’’
J. K. Whittemore: ‘‘Reciprocity in a problem
of relative maxima and minima.’’
J. A. Barnett: ‘‘Linear partial differential equa-
tions with a continuous infinitude of variables.’’
I. A. Barnett: ‘‘Functionals invariant under
one-parameter continuous groups in the space of
continuous functions.’’
T. R. Holleroft: ‘‘A classification of plane in-
volutions of order four.’’
Tobias Dantzig: ‘‘A group of line-to-line trans-
formations. ’’
A. R. Schweitzer: ‘‘On the iterative properties
of the abstract field.’’
J. F. Ritt: ‘‘On the conformal mapping of a
region into a part of itself.’’
L. R. Ford: ‘‘A theorem relative to rational ap-
proximations to irrational complex numbers. ’’
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1325
L. E. Dickson: ‘‘Recent progress in the theory
of numbers. ’? j
G. D. Birkhoff: ‘‘Note on the ordinary linear
differential equation of the second order.’’
Joseph Lipka: ‘‘The motion of a particle on a
surface under any positional forces.’’
Joseph Lipka: ‘‘Note on velocity systems in a
general curved space of n dimensions.’’
J. BE. Rowe: ‘‘ Testing the legitimacy of empir-
jeal equations by an analytical method.’’
Oswald Veblen: ‘‘Relations between certain
matrices used in analysis situs.’?
O. D. Kellogg: ‘‘A simple proof of a closure
theorem for orthogonal function sets.’’
C. L. E. Moore: ‘‘ Rotation surfaces of constant
curvature in a space of four dimensions.’’
H. S. Vandiver: ‘‘On Kummer’s memoir of
1857 concerning Fermat’s last theorem.’’
Nilos Sakellariou: ‘‘A note on the theory of
flexion.’’
Abstracts of the papers will be published in the
secretary ’s report in the July issue of the society’s
Bulletin.
The Chicago Section held a two-day meeting at
Chicago on April 9-10, the program including a
symposium on the Maxwell field equations and the
theory of relativity. The San Francisco Section
met at Stanford University on April 10.
The twenty-seventh summer meeting and ninth
colloquium jof the society will be held at the Uni-
yersity of Chicago during the week of September
6-11. The colloquium will open on Wednesday,
and will consist of two courses of five lectures
each by Professor G. D. Birkhoff, of Harvard
University, on ‘‘Dynamical systems,’’? and Pro-
fessor F, R. Moulton, of the University of Chi-
cago, on ‘‘Certain topics in functions of infinitely
many variables.’’ F. N. Couz,
Secretary
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SCIENCE
Fripay, May 28, 1920
; CONTENTS
Suggestions for Physical Investigations bear-
ing upon Fundamental Problems of Physiol-
ogy and Medicine: Prorsssor RaupH S§.
ADs TEATATR pee cpevanche vor levepenedoveyereieveyer chess oioisesleva a) less 525
The Longneck Sauropod Barosaurus: Pro-
FESSOR G. R. WIELAND ................-- 528
Lows Valentine Pirsson: J. P. IppDINGSs ...... 530
The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science:—
The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Pacific
DU eSTO Mie \a¥oie)iarcris\svs yrs lake mielove tet suena sfaiiaheve pelelses 532
Scientific Events :—
The Mathematical Institute of the Univer-
sity of Strasbourg; The Forest Products
Laboratory Decennial Celebration; Engi-
neering Investigations of the U. S. Geolog-
ical Survey; Award of the Willard Gibbs
Medal; The Retirement of Professor Fair-
child of the University of Rochester ...... 534
Scientific Notes-and News ................ 537
University and Educational News .......... 540
Discussion and Correspondence :—
*¢Petroliferous Provinces’’: Dr. Morris G.
Merut. An Improved Method of holding
Large Specimens for Dissection: Dr. Hor-
Agia Crutist Hoogasenodsoodssucogneous 541
Scientific Books :-—
South—The Story of Shackleton’s Last —
Expedition: GENERAL A. W. GREELY ...... 543
Special Articles :—
The Ash of Dune Plants: Dr. W. D, RicH-
ARDS ON etevevotereloyotareyetecseyelsiaie/aletstele tetera afensisnate 546
The Utah Academy of Sciences: Dr. C. ARTHUR
SS MELT NS yo ete t at cexeystelal nyeied at s auchayel at aise satnia 551
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PHYSICAL IN-
VESTIGATIONS BEARING UPON
FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF
PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE?
Since diseased conditions imply deranged
cell-processes—leading to failure of local
functioning or to defective coordination be-
tween the activities of different parts of the
organism—it is clear that the problem of pre-
venting and rectifying such derangements in
man (the problem of medicine) resolves itself
ultimately into the means by which cell-
processes can be restored to the normal after
disturbance. A scientific (as distinguished
from an empirical) knowledge of how to re-
store normal conditions must be based on an
exact knowledge of the conditions determining
normal protoplasmic activity, and this knowl-
edge presupposes a fuller insight into the
fundamental physico-chemical constitution of
protoplasm, since it is only through an under-
standing of the properties of the essential
living substance that we can hope to under-
stand how the living system acts under differ-
ent conditions.
The fundamental questions are thus: what
kind of a system, in the physico-chemical
sense, is living protoplasm? and what are the
conditions of equilibrium, 7. e., of normal
self-maintenance, of such a system?
As a physico-chemical system protoplasm
is peculiar in various respects, of which per-
haps the chief are:
1. The self-maintenance of the system
through its own continued chemieal activity;
1. e@., the preservation of the normal equili-
brium—or continued life—depends upon the
active continuance of the chemical processes
1 Contribution to the discussion at the Conference
on Biophysics held by the National Research
Council, Division of Medical Sciences, at Wash-
ington, February 21, 1920.
526
of the protoplasmic system, 1% @.,
metabolism.
2. This metabolism involves a continual
construction of complex specific compounds—
typically compounds of high chemical poten-
tial—to replace those disintegrated (as a re-
sult or oxidation or otherwise) in the energy-
yielding or otherwise destructive processes of
protoplasm.
3. The rate and in part the character of
both the energy-yielding and the constructive
metabolism are readily influenced by changes
in the external conditions: 7. e., protoplasm
is a characteristically irritable system—one of
unstable equilibrium.
4. The ratio of constructive to destructive
metabolism may vary widely under different
conditions; excess of construction over de-
struction involves growth; equality of the two
is equilibrium, implying a stationary condi-
tion as regards size and properties; while
excess of destruction leads to regression, as
in starvation. Obviously regression, if sufii-
cient, must impair functional capacity and
eventually lead to death.
5. The power of growth is thus inherent or
potential in all forms of protoplasm during
life. Those pathological problems which re-
late to excessive or otherwise abnormal growth
or proliferation (e. g., the case of tumors)
thus require for their scientific solution a
knowledge of the physico-chemical conditions
of normal growth.
It is evident, since growth is an inherent
property of the living system—i. e., since the
continuance of the living state depends on
this power of specific construction—that the
problems just cited relate themselves directly
to the general group of problems having refer-
ence to the essential physico-chemical consti-
tution of protoplasm. The protoplasmic sys-
tem is primarily a growing or synthesizing
system, at the same time as it is a system
which continually yields material and energy
to the surroundings through the chemical
breakdown of certain components. The chief
aim of general physiology is to understand
the type of physical and chemical constitution
upon
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1326
that makes possible chemical activities of this
general kind.
Experiment shows that destroying the
structure of protoplasm, by mechanical or
other means, destroys most (though not all)
of its chemical activity (including the latter’s
susceptibility to electrical influence), and in
particular its power of specific synthesis or
growth. Hence this power must depend on
the special structure of the system. The
chemical reactions constituting metabolism
take place within a field or substratum having
a special type of structure (7. e., arrangement
of phases); and the nature and rate of the
metabolic reactions are controlled by the struc-
tural conditions present. These structural
conditions are themselves produced by the
growth of the system itself, or of another
system having similar properties.
It must be recognized that the problem of
the fundamental constitution of living proto-
plasm underlies all of the problems of biology
—including ultimately those of medicine, as
a branch of applied biology. It is therefore
all-important from the practical as well as
from the purely scientific standpoint that
this problem should be the subject of continual
and active study and investigation.
Physical Processes of Fundamental Im-
portance in Protoplasmic Activities—tThe re-
search of the past fifteen years has made
especially clear the importance of surface-
processes in the activity of living matter.
The behavior and properties of colloids (the
substances composing most of the solid mate-
rial of protoplasm) are largely determined by
surface conditions (adsorption, variations of
phase-boundary potentials, interfacial ten-
sions). Hlectrical stimulation depends upon
sudden changes in the electrical polarization
of the semi-permeable surfaces of the irritable
cell. Protoplasmic movement (muscular con-
traction, etc.) is almost certainly due in most
cases to the changing surface-tension of the
structural elements composing the contractile
fibrils. Growth processes show various sig-
nificant resemblances to structure-forming
processes occurring under the influence of local
electrolysis at metallic surfaces in contact
May 28, 1920]
with electrolyte solutions (formation of pre-
cipitation-tubules of zine or iron ferricyanide,
rust-patterns, etc.). Transmission-effects in
protoplasmic systems (7. e., in nerve, etc.)
may be closely paralleled by processes of
chemical transmission or distance-action in
film-covered metallic systems, like passive iron
in nitric acid or mercury in hydrogen per-
oxide. Many cell-processes are associated with
changes in the osmotie properties or per-
meability of the protoplasmic surface-films or
plasma-membranes. The high development of
surface layers or membranes is in fact a long-
recognized structural peculiarity of living
matter. The prevalence of the cellular type
of organization is in itself evidence of the
fundamental importance of this condition.
These general facts indicate strongly that
for the purpose of gaining further insight
into the physico-chemical constitution of
living matter a more thorough and detailed
study (1) of the general properties of surfaces
(their structure, tension, electrical properties,
ete.), (2) of the layers of material formed
at surfaces (surface-films, ete.), and (3) of
phenomena dependent on surface conditions
(adsorption, catalytic effects, flocking and pep-
tization of colloids, ete.), is all-essential. Prob-
ably the purely physical or chemical investi-
gation of these problems will best be under-
taken by students trained in the methods of
physics and physical chemistry. Data or prin-
ciples so obtained can then be applied to bio-
logical or medical problems by those specially
qualified to deal with such problems.
There is much evidence that living proto-
plasm is essentially emulsion-like in its fun-
damental physical constitution; and it is
known that the properties of emulsions are
largely determined by the presence of inter-
facial films and by the electrical and other
conditions resident at the phase-boundaries.
The general physical and chemical conditions
affecting the stability and properties of emul-
sion-systems are thus in large part identical
with those affecting the stability and proper-
ties of living protoplasm. As is well known,
emulsions are mixtures of two (or more)
mutually insoluble liquids, of which one is in
SCIENCE
527
a state of fine division and dispersed through-
out the other; for stability a third substance
(e. g., soap), forming a surface-film between
the two phases, is usually required. Recent
work has shown that the properties of oil-
water emulsions may be made to vary in a
remarkable manner by varying the salt-con-
tent of the system, and that these changes
depend upon the solubilities of the soaps
formed and upon their surface-activity. Many
surprisingly close parallels between the effects
of different combinations of salts on emulsion-
systems and on living protoplasmic systems
have been demonstrated. It is well known
that the presence of inorganic salts in definite
proportions is essential to the normal activity
of most living cells. Such results, therefore,
indicate the importance of initiating and ex-
tending researches which will have as their
object the determination of the relation be-
tween the soluble substances (both electrolytes
and non-electrolytes) present in emulsion-
systems and the general physical properties
and behavior of such systems. Light may
thus be thrown upon the general properties of
protoplasm (mechanical properties, structure,
permeability, electrical properties), in so far
as these properties are determined by the
emulsion-like constitution of the system.
This emulsion-structure, however, furnishes
only the field or substratum in which the
essential chemical reactions (or metabolism)
of the living protoplasm proceed. The special
nature of these chemical processes determines
the special properties and behavior of the
protoplasmic system. Hence the relation of
the film-pervaded or emulsion-like structure
of protoplasm to the special type of chemical
activity exhibited by the living system should
be thoroughly studied and investigated.
There are many indications that the extra-
ordinary chemical capabilities of living mat-
ter are dependent upon the extent of its sur-
face development: 7. e., that the influence of
protoplasm in inducing chemical reactions not
found elsewhere is essentially the result of the
special predominance of surface influences of
a peculiar kind. And since the sensitivity of
living matter to the electric current is one of
528
its most characteristic peculiarities, it appears
probable that the chemical reactions in proto-
plasm are largely controlled by variations in
the electrical potential-differences present at
the various protoplasmic phase-boundaries (the
surfaces of membranes, fibrils, ete.). At pres-
ent our knowledge of chemical processes oc-
curring under electrical control is almost en-
tirely confined to those observed at the sur-
faces of metallic electrodes in contact with
electrolyte solutions. These are the well-
known phenomena of electrolysis. Knowledge
of such processes should be extended to in-
clude the case of electrolysis at other inter-
faces, e. g., between an oil phase and a water
phase. The technical difficulty here appears
to be largely one of conducting the current
through the non-aqueous phase. But since
many of the chemical reactions in protoplasm
are demonstrably under electrical control, it
is clear that metallic surfaces (i. e., metallic
electrodes) are not necessary to the production
of chemical effects by the electric current.
Apparently in the living cell surfaces of other
composition play the same part. There seems
to be here a field of investigation which
should throw much light upon the conditions
of the chemical processes in protoplasm.
The phenomena of polar stimulation, polar
disintegration and similar effects in physiology
are an obvious counterpart of the polar differ-
ences between the chemical effects of anode
and cathode in electrolysis. Undoubtedly the
same fundamental basis exists for the polarity
in the chemical effects of the electric current
in the living and in the non-living systems.
The effects produced by passing currents
through appropriately constituted emulsion-
systems containing readily alterable (e. g.,
oxidizable) chemical compounds might well be
investigated to advantage in relation to this
problem. Closely related also would be a
study of the surface-films formed at the inter-
faces between pairs of fluids, or between
fluids and solids, and the effects of electrical
and other conditions upon such films.
Progress in these and related departments
of physical research would undoubtedly be of
great service to general physiology at the
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
present stage of its development. Many fun-
damental physiological processes—growth, cell-
division, muscular contraction, response to
stimulation, transmission of stimuli, chemical
control of metabolism, ete——must remain im-
perfectly intelligible without the extension of
exact knowledge in these fields. The possi-
bilities of the control of vital processes, in-
cluding the control of diseased conditions,
would certainly be greatly enlarged with a
more fully developed general physiology. The
problems suggested above have many aspects
of purely physical and chemical interest, apart
from their physiological bearing; and it is
to be hoped that properly equipped investi-
gators may be found to engage in their study.
Rape §. Linum
CLARK UNIVERSITY,
WorcESTER, Mass.
THE LONGNECK SAUROPOD
BAROSAURUS!}
Iy 1889 Professor O. ©. Marsh secured
from the shales overlying the sandstones
following the marine Jura, near Piedmont on
the eastern “Rim” of the Black Hills, va-
rious fragmentary caudals of a huge sauropod.
In these he recognized a new type which he
called Barosaurus lentus. He had been kindly
advised of the occurrence, and was accom-
panied by the: noted collector J. B. Hatcher,
but attempted no adequate excavation.
Nine years later, in the midwinter of 1898,
after a friendly letter from Professor Marsh,
T visited him at New Haven and discussed
the subject of field work in the west for
the succeeding summer. Knowing that after
Hatcher left Yale several years earlier the
field work on the Dinosauria had suffered, I
11890. O. C. Marsh, Barosaurus lentus gen. et
spec. nov. in ‘‘Deseription of New Dinosaurian
Reptiles,’’? Amer. Jour, Sci., January, page 86,
Figs. 1 and 2. 1919. R. 8. Lull, ‘‘The Sauropod
Dinosaur Barosaurus Marsh—Redeseription of the
Type Specimens in the Peabody Museum, Yale
University,’’ Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy
of Arts and Sciences, Vol. VI., pp. 1-42, with fig-
ures in text and 7 plates.
May 28, 1920]
wished to begin with that group, through
general interest in the reptilia. But two
other subjects also claimed attention—the
fossil cyeads and the great turtles of the
Pierre. The cyeads I had wished to hunt
for when in the Black Hills; and the studies
begun with the discovery of the huge
Archelon, the most remarkable of sea-turtles,
urgently needed continuation. However, as
to which subjects should take the precedence
Professor Marsh was close to obdurate—they
should be within my interest. This I recall
pleasantly; for mayhap vertebrate paleontolo-
gists are a bit prone to use the word “ direct ”
with a sort of obviousness. It may occur on
labels in letters of inconsistent size, or in
descriptions. But this was not Marsh, as I
ean testify. He advised with others, however
meager their experience, was anxious for
their best word, and valued the mental sanc-
tion of those he worked with. Only may this
be called direction in the sense of singling out
the roadway along which to make history.
And in this sense, when it came to the fossil-
bearing horizons of the west, was there ever
another such a man as Marsh? He said, as
I left for the field—“ The Black Hills are a
diamond edition of geology, prepared espe-
cially for the use of geologists by the
Almighty.”
Accordingly, in the latter part of August,
1898, I began the excavation for Barosaurus.
This I carried out alone. The quarry was
extended to a sixty-foot front, and ran some
thirty feet back to a depth of ten feet. The
first material secured was fragmentary and
seemed to run out following a group of good
caudals. Then a well-conserved portion of a
proximal caudal, probably No. 1 was un-
covered; but on interrupting the work for
further prospecting for the cyeads and dino-
saurs, the centrum was found cut off by an
ugly shear. Nearly decided that the lead had
come to an end, on working down to a two-
foot lower level, various dorsals, a few
chevrons, rib fragments, and a sternal plate,
promised a rather featureless aggregate.
Much checking with extreme lightness of the
vertebral structure made it necessary to hold
SCIENCE
529
all parts in place as uncovered. This slow
task lasted into the late fall, when cold and
dust storms made excavation difficult.
Finally, in the course of working forward,
there came four cervicals running up to one
with a centrum three feet long, ax once
recognized as unparalleled in the Dinosauria;
though much more robust types as long are
now known. It then appeared that the main
group of skeletal elements, although much
displaced, or only partly conserved, repre-
sented a single individual; but unluckily the
long cervicals led out to a gullied surface.
All possibility of further recovery was at an
end. Yet the result seemed a real triumph,
over which Marsh was quite elated; he held
in hand novel Dinosaurian material new from
the field.
And now, after twenty-two years Professor
Lull, of Yale, has described this unique type
in the excellent memoir of the Connecticut
Academy cited. Since its discovery, Riggs
has named a very striking sauropodan from
Colorado, Brachiosaurus altithorax, from the
huge humeri exceeding in size the femora;
while the related Gigantosaurus was later
found in the Tendaguru of East Africa.
These are quite the largest of Dinosaurs.
Also, Diplodocus has been redintegrated with
signal success at the Carnegie Museum of
Pittsburgh.
The Barosaurus has, as Marsh thought,
some resemblance to Diplodocus. In that
genus length of neck, dorsal shortness, and
great caudal length, are correlated with light-
ness of vertebral structure. In Barosaurus
the vertebral type is very similar, with short-
ness of the dorsum. But Professor Lull finds
a strong presumption that the humerus ex-
ceeded the femur in length, as in the Amer-
ican and African high-shouldered sauropods;
while the length of neck is extreme, with a
lesser caudal length.
Fortunately Barosaurus (type) includes in
good condition at least the proximal half of
the pubis. The pubis is one of the most
variable and characteristic skeletal elements
throughout the Dinosauria, and Lull finds a
primary resemblance to Diplodocus which may
530
possibly be contested. It is true that there
is in both forms a long shaft constriction.
But in Barosaurus the ischiatie contact is not
short, but long or rather deep, and concave
as in Apatosaurus. The type is in this
feature composite. In fact if a form uniting
features of the greater sauropods, including
the Camarasaurus, were sought, so far as
public features go, Barosawrus might well be
named.
Regarding a proximal femur fragment
which is found to far exceed the proportions
in Diplodocus, I may say that in no ease is
the femoral size absolutely determinate as
large. The group of fragments from a Pied-
mont village “rock pile” or “fossil heap”
purported to come from the Barosaurus
quarry site. But only seven miles northerly
there was an exposure of a fast disappearing
Dinosaur bone bed several acres in extent.
Being all outside the frost line, the material
present in variety was much checked and
broken. So fragments of limb bones could
have been taken from this point to the
“vock pile” at Piedmont, mainly, if not ex-
elusively from the real Barosaurus outcrop.
Or again, if the record fails, it is to be re-
called that a second (though actually smaller)
dinosaurian was recognized by Marsh in the
material from the outer edge of the quarry,
as confirmed by Lull. The point is that if a
second form could so occur on the erosion or
quarry front, then there might also be a third.
A waterway, stream, or trend of some kind
is indicated.
It is worthy of addition that in the Baro-
saurus quarry well inside the frost line, there
were various fragments of charred or ear-
bonized wood passing into silicified structure.
Such material from the Morrison has not
been studied. Also, various pebbles of a
singular smoothness were noted at only one
point close to the main group of dorsals. As
the specimen was incomplete the reasonable
explanation that these were stomach stones,
or as later called, dinosaurian gastroliths, did
not then occur to me, their true character
being first recognized in examples from the
Big Horn mountains.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vout. LI. No. 1326
Obviously Barosaurus lentus is a remark-
able dinosaur from several points of view. It
comes from far to the north and east of
the Wyoming localities, and shows the great
extent of the Como beds, as Marsh called
them. The parallel with the African types
adds great interest to Barosaurus. As a
specimen it promised little of determinate
value after two months quarry work, and then
suddenly turned out to be, “except for the
lack of limbs, one of the finest of all Yale
specimens.” The type remains somewhat
isolated because collecting along the inner
edge of the Black Hills “ Rim,” though never
hopeless, is always much limited by the long
talus slopes hiding the Morrison. This for-
mation encloses the Hills and the Bear Lodge
horseshoe-like, with the open heel on the
southeast from north of Buffalo Gap to near
Minnekahta. On the west side of the Hills
the maximum thickness of 200 feet is reached.
There, as further west in the Big Horn Rim
and in the Freeze Outs, is found the asso-
ciation of the smaller silicified eyeads with
the sauropod Dinosaurs. And both in the
Morrison, and in the overlying Lakota, from
the lowermost strata of which comes the fine
eyeadeoid Nilssonta nigracollensis, a long con-
temporary cycadophytan and dicotyl record of
the Comanchean is yet to be brought to light.
Reconnaissance in this important field is but
begun.
G. R. WIELAND
YALE UNIVERSITY
LOUIS VALENTINE PIRSSON
Proressor of physical geology in the Shef-
field Scientific School of Yale University for
twenty-one years, after rapid promotion from
the position of instructor in geology and
lithology, to which he was appointed in 1892;
Professor Pirsson also occupied a position of
commanding importanee in the administra-
tive work of the Scientific School, as member
of the governing board, and as assistant to
the director, Professor Chittenden, in matters
of discipline and general policy. An assistant
in analytical chemistry for six years after
graduation from the Scientifie School, he
May 28, 1920]
taught for a year in the Brooklyn Polytechnic
Institute, and then became interested in geol-
ogy and petrography as an assistant field-
worker for the U. S. Geological Survey in
the Yellowstone National Park; carrying on
studies in mineralogy and petrography in
Professor Penfield’s laboratory, and afterwards
with Rosenbusch in Heidelberg and with
Lacroix in Paris. For nine years he was an
assistant and special expert on the U. 8. Geo-
logical Survey, and since 1904 a geologist in
this service.
Although a successful teacher of physical
geology to undergraduate students, his special
interests were in petrology, which he taught
to graduate students, and to which he devoted
more than half of his time and most of his
thought, as may be seen in his publications.
His research work was almost wholly petro-
logical. Beginning with his observations of
igneous rocks in the Yellowstone Park, he
studied independently, and in conjunction
with W. H. Weed, the districts of Castle
Mountain, Judith river basin, the Highwood
and Little Belt Mountains, and other local-
ities in Montana; and he contributed numer-
ous papers on the petrography of New Hamp-
shire in the region of Squam Lake. He was
joint author with Cross, Iddings and Wash-
ington of a Quantitative System of Classifica-
tion of Igneous Rocks.
Professor Pirsson was especially successful
in the preparation of text-books. His ele-
mentary work on “ Rocks and Rock Minerals,”
written for a course of instruction without
the use of microscopical methods of diagnosis,
has been in general use for the past twelve
years. Later he prepared a text-book for his
undergraduate class in physical geology which
is highly esteemed and widely used; the his-
torical part of the volume having been written
by Professor Schuchert. A more elementary
form of the work was under consideration
shortly before his death. He had begun an
elementary petrography which was left un-
finished, greatly to the regret of teachers of
the subject.
In addition to being a careful observer and
a painstaking and industrious student, he was
SCIENCE
531
methodical and systematic in his work, and
thorough in his treatment of a subject.
Moreover, he recognized the importance of
emphasizing fundamental principles. He was
an associate editor of the American Journal
of Science from 1897 to the time of his death.
There was a definiteness in his conceptions
and in his statements that rendered his teach-
ing effective and commanded the respect of
his students. Confident in his own judgment,
and tenacious of his convictions, he was at
the same time considerate of the opinions of
others and conscientious in his dealings with
them.
By temperament cautious, he was reserved
in his intercourse with strangers, but genial
and outspoken in the company of friends. A
man of great patience and of simple tastes,
he enjoyed a quiet life in the study of nature,
being especially fond of watching birds and
wild animals, and of the sport of fishing;
and having a photographic memory for de-
tails and a fine sense of humor, he was an
entertaining story-teller, and occasionally con-
tributed his experiences to Forest and Stream.
In recognition of his scientific attainments
he was made a member of the National
Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical
Society, Geological Society of America, of
which he was vice-president in 1915; fellow
of the American Academy of Arts and Sci-
ences, Connecticut Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Washington Academy of Sciences,
Geological Society of Washington, and an
honorary member of the Geological Society
of Stockholm.
Louis Pirsson was born in New York City,
November 3, 1860, was prepared for college
at a private school, graduated from the Shef-
field Scientific School of Yale with the degree
of Ph.B., in 1882, and was given the degree
of A.M. by Yale University in 1902. He
studied petrography in Heidelberg and Paris
in 1892. In 1902 he married Eliza Trumbull
Brush, of New Haven, daughter of Professor
George J. Brush. His death, after prolonged
illness from rheumatism, is a severe blow to
the science of petrology, of which he was the
foremost teacher in this country, and a sad
502
bereavement to his colleagues with whom he
maintained the friendliest relations.
J. P. Ippines
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Tue fourth annual meeting of the Pacific
Division, of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science will be held at
Seattle in quarters provided by the Univer-
sity of Washington on June 17-19, 1920.
The 1919 meeting held at Pasadena was a
pronounced success, exceeding in point of
interest and attendance any previous meeting,
and fully justifying the wisdom of the
national council in providing for a geo-
graphic division of the American Association
to accommodate the large and active member-
ship residing west of the Rocky Mountains.
Notwithstanding the long distance between
centers of population on the Pacific coast, or
perhaps rather on account of them, the ex-
ecutive committee has pursued the plan of
holding the annual meetings alternately in
different and widely separated sections of the
Pacific Coast area, believing that although
the largest attendance is not to be realized in
this way, it best subserves the purposes of
the organization in stimulating an active
interest in science throughout the district
and in promoting that cooperation among
scientific men which must be effective in
meeting local problems.
The Exploration of the North Pacific
Ocean was discussed at the Pasadena meet-
ing in a symposium which outlined in a
general way the urgent need of launching
this project and the great practical benefits
which must accrue. Some of the many
scientific problems involved in the under-
taking were also presented by prominent
specialists who took part in the symposium.
Credit should be given to Dr. William E.
Ritter, of the Scripps Institution for Bio-
logical Research, who fathered this symposium
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1326
and whose vision of the great economic and
scientific advantages to be gained by inter-
national cooperation in this enterprise now
seems in process of realization. At least the
attention of the National Research Council
is directed to the matter and a committee has
been appointed which will report on ways and
means. This committee has already held one
meeting and will meet again in Honolulu in
August of this year. This great enterprise is
felt to be of peculiar significance to the
Pacific coast, and a second symposium on
“The Animal and Plant Resources of the
North Pacific Ocean” will be presented at the
Seattle meeting. Naturally the fisheries, as
constituting the most considerable present
resource of the ocean, will receive major
consideration in this symposium, and Seattle
as the center of the fishery industry, seems
the logical place in which to develop this
phase of the subject. Quoting from the pre-
liminary announcement of the Seattle meet-
ing:
The thorough presentation of the fisheries prob-
lems as they confront the industry to-day should
prove to be a direct contribution to a better
understanding of what this great project means.
International in its scope, involving the vital in-
terests of all peoples bordering on the Pacific, it
perhaps offers the only solution that will meet the
needs of the teeming populations of the Orient,
and thus remove by peaceful, scientific means the
menace of future conflict. The resources of the
Pacifie—by what shall they be gauged? A com-
paratively unknown field awaits our conquest.
Following is the arrangement of the sym-
posium which will be held on Thursday after-
noon June 17:
THE ANIMAL AND PLANT RESOURCES OF THE NORTH
PACIFIC OCEAN
Marine biology in relation to the North Pacific
fisheries: Dr. C. McLEAN FRASER, director, Bio-
logical Station, Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Relation of scientific investigations to the fisheries:
Mr. W. F. THompson, fisheries investigator,
Cailfornia Fish and Game Commission.
Present condition and needs of the Alaska salmon
fisheries: Dx. HucH M. SmirH, commissioner,
Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C,
May 28, 1920]
Future of the Alaska fisheries: PROFESSOR JOHN
N. Coss, director, College of Fisheries, Univer-
sity of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
The methods of the salmon fisheries and salmon
culture in Alaska should be completely changed.
How can this be done? Dr. BARTON WARREN
EVERMANN, director, California Academy of Sci-
ences, San Francisco.
Ocean pasturage and ocean fisheries: Mr. W. E.
ALLEN, Scripps Institution of California, La
Jolla.
Thursday evening, June 17, will be devoted
to the address of the retiring President Dr.
John C. Merrian who will speak on “The
research spirit in everyday affairs of the
average man.” President Henry Suzzallo, of
the University of Washington, will welcome
the delegates and response will be made by
the chairman of the executive committee Dr.
Barton Warren Evermann. Following the
address of the evening a public reception will
be held.
Friday afternoon, June 18, a public address
will be given by Professor R. W. Brock, of
the University of British Columbia, speaking
on “The last crusade under Allenby.” Pro-
fessor Brock will speak of his personal experi-
ences with General Allenby and will relate
something of the contributions of science to
the winning of the campaign in Palestine.
Following are the affiliated societies which
will hold meetings at Seattle under the
auspices of the Pacific Division:
AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
J. S. Ames, President, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity.
Dr. C. Miller,
School.
E. P. Lewis, Local Secretary for the Pacific
Coast, University of California.
Secretary, Case Scientific
AMERICAN PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, PACIFIC
DIVISION
F. D. Heald, President, Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, Pullman, Wash.
W. T. Horne, Secretary-treasurer, of the Uni-
versity of California.
SCIENCE
533
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC
J. H. Moore, President, Lick Observatory.
D. S. Richardson, Secretary-Treasurer, 2541
Hilgard Avenue, Berkeley.
CALIFORNIA SECTION AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Robert E. Swain, President, Palo Alto.
Bryant S.. Drake, Secretary-Treasurer, 5830
Colby Street, Oakland.
COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB
Northern Division-
Curtis Wright, Jr., President, Oakland.
Mrs. James T. Allen, Secretary, Berkeley.
Southern Division
Loye Holmes Miller, President, State Normal
School, Los Angeles.
L. E. Wyman, Secretary,
Street, Los Angeles.
CORDILLERAN SECTION, GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
AMERICA
George D. Lauterbach, President, University
of California.
A. F. Rogers, Secretary, Stanford University.
3927 Wisconsin
THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Barrington Moore, President, American Mu-
seum of Natural History.
A. O. Weese, Secretary-Treasurer, University
of Mexico.
NORTHERN INTERMOUNTAIN SECTION, AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Charles H. Hunt, Secretary, State College of
Washington.
PACIFIC COAST BRANCH, PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY
John C. Merriam, President, University of
California.
Chester Stock, Secretary-Treasurer, Univer-
sity of California.
PACIFIC FISHERIES SOCIETY
C. McLean Fraser, President, Biological Sta-
tion, Nanaimo, British Columbia.
S. H. Dado, Secretary, California Fish and
Game Commission, San Francisco.
PACIFIC SLOPE BRANCH, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS
BE. M. Ehrhorn, Chairman, Honolulu, H. T.
E. O. Essig, Secretary, Berkeley.
504
PUGET SOUND SECTION, AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
A. L. Knisely, President, C. A. Newhall Co.,
Seattle, Wash.
R. T. Elliott, Secretary, U.
Chemistry, Seattle, Wash.
S. Bureau of
SAN FRANCISCO SECTION, AMERICAN MATHE-
MATICAL SOCIETY
H. F. Blichfeldt, Chairman, Stanford Uni-
versity.
B. A. Bernstein, Secretary, University of
California.
WESTERN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS
J. R. Slonaker, President, Stanford Uni-
versity.
Tracy I. Storer, Secretary-Treasurer, Museum
of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley.
MEETING OF PACIFIC COAST ECONOMISTS
A meeting of Pacific Coast economists will
be held and a program arranged for Thursday
and Friday afternoons, June 17 and 18. An
effort will be made to organize a Pacific Coast
Division of the American Economic Society.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE MATHEMATICAL INSTITUTE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG
Hewrep by the favorable exchange level, a
number of students are going to study in
French universities. It is important to bring
to their attention that, since November, 1919,
the University of Strasbourg, completely re-
organized, is working in full order. Its teach-
ing staff is more than equal in number to
what it was under German rule, and its
equipment, already excellent in many respects,
has been greatly improved where it was
deficient.
For mathematical study, students will be
offered in Strasbourg the usual standard
courses on analysis, mechanics, astronomy,
ete., the program of which is permanent and
requires the students’ time for two or three
years. Research courses have been arranged
for candidates for the “ Doctorat de l’Univer-
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. LI. No. 1326
sité de Strasbourg,” and of scholars generally.
French diplomas are required for registration
with a view to the doctorate, but can be dis-
pensed with on presentation of equivalent
foreign diplomas, with a statement of the
student’s ability by one of his former pro-
fessors.
The program of research courses during the
academic year 1920-21 is as follows:
First Semester (November 1, 1920—February 28,
1921)
‘Mathematical Physics: Mr. BaAver: Quantum
Theory; Atomic Structure: 3 lectures a week.
Higher Analysis: Mr. Fricners Theory of
Chance: 2 weekly lectures; Integral Equations:
- 1 weekly lecture.
Second Semester (March 1, 1921-June 30, 1921)
Mathematical Physics: Mr. Baver: Statistical
Applications of Quantum Theory: 3 weekly lec-
tures,
Higher Analysis: Mr. Fricurtr: Applications of
the Theory of Chance: 1 weekly lecture—Func-
tions of Lines: 2 weekly lectures.
Hydrodynamics: Mr. ViiuaT: Researches on the
Motion of a Solid in a Viscous Fluid: 2 weekly
lectures.
Differential Geometry: Mr. Péris: Transforma-
tions of Surfaces Applicable on Quadries: 2
weekly lectures.
Theory of Functions: Mr. VauiRon: Dirichlet’s
Series and Facultative Series: 2 weekly lectures.
For further information apply (in French or
English) to M. le Directeur de 1’Institut de Mathé-
matiques de Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France,
Details concerning lodgings, ete., will be sup-
plied by the Comité de Patronage des étudiants
étrangers Université, Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France.
Students who wish to improve their knowl-
edge of the French language during the vaca-
tion may apply for the circular on “ Summer
Courses,” organized by the “Faculté des
Lettres de Strasbourg.”
THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY DECEN-
NIAL CELEBRATION
Tue Forest Products Laboratory was or-
ganized by the U. S. Forest Service in 1909
and formally opened in June, 1910. It is con-
ducted in cooperation with the University of
Wisconsin.
May 28, 1920]
During the ten years of its existence the
efforts of the laboratory have been devoted to
the development of improved methods and
processes for the better utilization of forest
products of all kinds, and to the direct assist-
ance of the industries concerned. Among the
major lines of endeavor are the following:
Pulp and paper,
Hardwood and softwood distillation,
Preservation of wood,
Decay and decay prevention,
Mechanical properties of wood,
Glues for wood,
Kiln drying and air seasoning,
Grading structural timbers,
Grading lumber,
Laminated construction,
Chemistry of wood,
Boxing, crating, packing,
Needle and leaf oils,
Ethyl alcohol from wood waste,
Wood finishes,
Aireraft parts,
Veneers and plywood,
Steam bending,
Identification of wood,
Microscopy of wood.
During the war direct assistance was rend-
ered the War and Navy Departments and vari-
ous other braniches of the government in the
solution of many important problems, partic-
ularly in connection with aircraft, gun-stocks,
artillery wheels, escort wagons and the boxing
and crating of arms and stores for overseas
shipment. It was necessary, throughout this
period, to abandon all work on the regular
peacetime program.
A good many men acquainted with the work
of the laboratory have expressed the thought
that the laboratory and the service rendered by
it should receive some mark of recognition or
appreciation from the industries which it
serves. In response to this thought, the de-
cennial celebration hias been planned, and a
general committee organized to carry out the
detailed arrangements.
The present plans call for a two-day pro-
gram, including addresses by men prominent
in science, industry and commerce; inspection
of the laboratory ; a banquet; and various other
SCIENCE
585
forms of instruction and entertainment. It is
proposed to make a permanent record of the
decennial in the form of a souvenir publica-
tion to contain all of the addresses and other
relevant matter, including the names of those
who can permit a permanent record of their
cooperative contributions to be made.
ENGINEERING INVESTIGATIONS OF THE U. S.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
A CORRESPONDENT writes:
In these days of econ®mizing in government ap-
propriations it is refreshing to note some of the
remarks on the floor of the House by Representa-
tive Good, of Iowa, chairman of the Sundry Civil
Appropriations Committee and Representative
Byrns, of Tennessee, ranking minority member of
that committee, in which they urged additions to
appropriations. Their arguments were in defense
of an item of $125,000 providing for an engineer-
ing investigation by the U. S. Geological Survey
of the super-power project for the eastern United
States. Mr. Byrns stated: ‘‘This proposition is
one that looks forward to the conservation of our
resources and, as has been stated, the time is at
hand when something must be done looking to the
conservation of our fuel supply because those in
authority state that at present the known supply
of oil will be exhausted within a very few years
at the present rate of consumption.’’? He further
characterized this Geological Survey investigation
as one that should be made ‘‘by government ex-
perts in order that if the investigation discloses
that such a plan is practicable, those who are asked
to make these investments will have confidence in
the accuracy and impartiality of the report.’’
Chairman Good in reporting the Sundry Civil bill
had already made special reference to the super-
‘power item in the bill as unique but as believed
vitally important and he stated that such a survey
would represent ‘‘Government initiative and co-
operation which will result in the savings to the
‘country of hundreds of millions of dollars an-
nually. It will result in a great saving in the di-
rect cost of fuel. It will furnish a reserve source
of power for transportation and utility companies,
which will be of large value in time of labor dis-
putes and public emergencies. The principle ean
be applied broadly. Its benefits will accrue to
towns and villages and to the farms of the coun-
try.’’ Chairman Good also stated that this pro-
vision ‘best illustrated the policy of including in
the appropriation bill items providing for the fu-
536
ture. He said ‘‘Government can not stand still.
It must advance. It must provide for healthy
growth of every useful governmental activity.’’
In concluding the debate on this item which was
followed by a favorable vote, Chairman Good re-
marked: ‘‘We may smile at this proposition. We
may laugh it out of Congress, just as we did by
ridicule the proposition of Mr, Langley in regard
to the aeroplane.’’
To those who are interested in scientific and
engineering investigations under government aus-
pices such expressions by leaders in Congress are
encouraging. It is also werthy of note that neither
Mr. Good nor Mr. Byrns represent sections of the
country that would primarily and immediately be
affected by the proposed investigation; they seem
to represent the country as a whole.
AWARD OF THE WILLARD GIBBS MEDAL
THE presentation of the Willard Gibbs
medal to Dr. Frederick G. Cottrell, director of
the United States Bureau of Mines, from the
Chicago Section of the American Chemical
Society, took place on May 21. This medal
was founded by William A. Converse, of Chi-
cago, and is conferred “In recognition and
encouragement of eminent research in theo-
retical and applied chemistry.”
At a meeting, which took place in the City
Club, Lawrence V. Redman, chairman, ad-
dressed the section on The Willard Gibbs
medal. The presentation was made by Dr.
Willis R. Whitney, director of the Research
Laboratories of the General Electric Company,
and the Willard Gibbs address on “ Interna-
tional scientific relations,” was given by Dr.
Cottrell.
While a professor at the University of Cali-
fornia from 1902 to 1911, Dr. Cottrell devised
a process for removing fumes from the waste
gases of a sulphuric acid plant at a copper
smelter. There had been numerous complaints
that the noxious vapors were imperilling the
health of the surrounding population, destroy-
ing animal life, and injuring vegetation. The
process devised by Dr. Cottrell consisted of
placing chains at the bottom of the flues.
These chains were charged with currents of
electricity, the effect of which was to cause
the particles to fall and thus prevent ‘their es-
caping into the air.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
Dr. Cottrell patented the device but turned
over his rights to a non-dividend-paying or-
ganization, formed for that purpose and known
as “ The Research Corporation.” A charge for
the use of the process is made and the net
profits are devoted to the promotion of scien-
tifie research.
THE RETIREMENT OF PROFESSOR FAIRCHILD
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
Proressor Herman Le Roy Farrcuitp, head
of the department of geology and curator of
the geological museum at the University of
Rochester, reached his seventieth birthday on
April 29 and will retire from active service
at the close of the present academic year. As
a tribute to his contribution to science and
his service to the university, undergraduates
and members of the faculty joined in paying
homage to him. Gifts from his classes and
from the faculty expressed the esteem in
which Professor Fairchild is held by the
undergraduates and his associates on the
teaching staff. His entry into the chapel in
Anderson Hall on April 29 was the signal
for an outburst of applause and cheering,
which was renewed on the presentation of the
faculty gift.
President Rush Rhees and Professor John
R. Slater, head of the department of English,
were the speakers. Pointing to Professor
Fairchild’s successful career as an indication
that “a prophet is not without honor in his
own country, even if he is a weather prophet,”
Professor Slater lauded his contribution in the
field of science and scholarship, and after read-
ing an original poem written for the occasion
presented the faculty gift.
Professor Fairchild received the bachelor of
sciences degree from Cornell University in
1874, and the honorary doctorate of science
from the University of Pittsburgh in 1910.
He was professor of natural science in
Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pa., from
1874 to 1876, and from there he went to New
York city as a lecturer on natural science
and on geology in Cooper Union. He was
recording secretary of the New York Academy
of Sciences from 1885 to 1888, going to the
University of Rochester in that year. He
May 28, 1920]
served as president of the Rochester Academy
of Science from 1889 to 1891, secretary of
Geological Society of America from 1890 to
1906, and president of the society in 1912.
He was chairman of a section of geology of
the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in 1898 and is a member of
its executive committee. Professor Fairchild
is an authority in glacial and dynamic geology.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Proressor JoHN C. Merriam, of the Uni-
versity of California, was elected president of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington on
May 25, to succeed Dr. R. S. Woodward, who
will retire at his own request at the end of the
year, after sixteen years of service. Dr.
Merriam is professor of paleontology and
dean at the University of California. He was
last year acting chairman of the National
Research Council.
At the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences held on May
12, it was voted upon the recommendation of
the Rumford Committee to award the Rum-
ford Premium to Dr. Irving Langmuir, of
the General Electric Co., for his researches
in thermionic and allied phenomena.
At a stated meeting of the Franklin Insti-
tute on May 19 the Franklin Medals were
presented to Sir Auckland Geddes, British
ambassador for the Honorable Sir Charles A.
Parsons, Neweastle-on-Tyne and to His Ex-
eellency, Mr. A. W. F. Ekengren, minister
of Sweden for Professor Svante August
Arrhenius, of the Nobel Institute, Stockholm.
Papers were read on “Some Reminiscenses
of Early Days of Turbine Development,” by
Sir Charles A. Parsons and on “ The World’s
Energy Supply,” by Professor Arrhenius.
Tue Société de Pathologie Exotique has
elected the following members from the United
States: Dr. S. Flexner, Rockefeller Institute,
associate member, already corresponding mem-
ber; Dr. B. H. Ransom, U. S. Bureau of
Animal Industry, corresponding member.
Proressor Hiram BincHam has been dec-
orated by the French government with the
SCIENCE
537
Ordre de l’Etoile Noire, grade of officer, for
his services in France during the war. Dr.
Bingham was recently elected an alternate-at-
large to the Republican National Convention
to be held in Chicago in June.
Proressor A. D. Witson, director of the
division of agricultural extension of the col-
lege of agriculture of the University of
Minnesota, has declined the post of assistant
secretary of agriculture, tendered him by the
Secretary of Agriculture, E. T. Meredith.
At its meeting on May 12 the Rumford
Committee of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences voted an appropriation of $200
additional to former appropriations to Pro-
fessor Norton A. Kent, of Boston University,
in aid of his research on spectral lines.
CuariEes W. Tricc, incumbent of the Coffee
Fellowship at the Mellon Institute of Indus-
trial Research, while still retaining his former
connection, has moved to Detroit, Michigan,
to assume charge of the chemical department
of the donors, the King Coffee Products
Corporation.
GENERAL W. C. Goraas has left for England
accompanied by Brigadier-General Robert E.
Noble. They will proceed to Wset Africa to
study what is alleged to be an outbreak of
yellow fever in that district.
Dr. Louisrt Pearce, of the Rockefeller In-
stitute for Medical Research, thas sailed for
England ‘and Belgium en route to the Belgian
Congo for the purpose of studying the chemo-
therapy of African: sleeping sickness.
Mr. Frank C. Baker, curator of the Mu-
seum of Natural History of the University of
Ilinois, will spend the months of July and
August in making a survey of the molluscan .
fauna of Winnebago Lake, Wisconsin, in the
interests of the Wisconsin Geological and
Natural History Survey. Material will also
be obtained for the exhibits and research col-
lections of the Illinois University Museum.
Winnebago Lake is similar in origin to the
large Oneida Lake in New York, which Mr.
Baker surveyed several years ago for the Col-
lege of Forestry at Syracuse University, and
a comparison of the faunas of the two bodies
538
of water is expected to add to our knowledge
concerning the life of shallow lakes.
Governor Smita of New York, has an-
nounced the appointment of five commission-
ers of the Enfield Falls Reservation, the prop-
erty recently conveyed to the state by Mr. and
Mrs. Robert H. Treman, of Ithaca. They are
Robert H. Treman, giver of the reservation;
Liberty Hyde Bailey, of Ithaca, former dean
of the New York State College of Agriculture;
Mayor Edwin ©. Stewart, of Ithaca; George A.
Blauvelt, former state senator, and William
E. Leffingswell, of Watkins, former assembly-
man.
Tue council of the British Institution of
Civil Engineers has made the following awards
for papers read and discussed during the ses-
sion 1919-20: Telford gold medals and Tel-
ford premiums to Mr. David Lyell, Mr. J. K.
Robertson, and Major-General Sir Girard M.
Heath; a George Stephenson gold medal and
a Telford premium to Mr. Maurice F. Wilson;
a Watt gold medal and a Telford premium to
Mr. P. M. Crosthwaite; and Telford premiums
to Major E. O. Henrici, Sir Francis J. E.
Spring, Mr. F. O. Stanford, Mr. J. Mitchell,
Mr. J. W. Sandeman, and Dr. A. R. Fulton.
Dr. Corin G. Finn, of New York, recently
lectured before the graduate students in
chemistry of Yale University on “The Or-
ganic Chemistry of Metal Carbides” and on
“ Contact Catalysis.”
Unpver the auspices of the Southwestern
Division of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Mrs. M. D. Sulli-
van gave a lecture, entitled “Scientific Re-
search and the Library,” at the Carnegie
Public Library of El Paso, Texas, on May 20
and on May 27, Professor Daniel Hull, assist-
ant superintendent of the El Paso High
School, gave a lecture on “The Einstein
Theory of Relativity,” at the Chamber of
Commerce.
Dr. E. B. Rosa, chief physicist of the Bu-
reau of Standards delivered an address on
May 20 before the Washington Academy of
Sciences on “The Economic Value of Sci-
entific Research by the Government.”
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
Tur Linacre lecture of the University of
‘Cambridge was delivered on May 6, by Dr.
Henry Head on “ Aphasia and Kindred Dis-
orders of the Speech.”
Dr. Joun Netson StocKwELL, of Cleve-
land, known for his contributions to mathe-
matical astronomy, at one time professor in
the Case School of Applied Science, died on
May 18, aged eighty-eight years.
Grorce Girpert Ponp, dean of the School
of Natural Science of Pennsylvania State
College, died at Hartford. He was born in
Holliston, in March 1861. For five years he
was instructor in chemistry at Amherst and
then became a professor in the same depart-
ment. He left Ambherst to accept the ap-
pointment with the Pennsylvania State
College.
_ Dr. H. P. Barrows, who resigned recently
as professor of agricultural education at the
Oregon Agricultural College and as state
supervisor of agricultural education under the
Smith-Hughes act to accept the position of
federal regional agent for agricultural educa-
tion with headquarters at San Francisco, died
at San Francisco, on May 3.
DratHs of scientific men are recorded in
Nature as follows: John Alexander McClel-
land, professor of experimental physics in Uni-
versity College, Dublin, and known for his re-
searches on secondary radio-activity; T. G.
Bartholomew, the head of the cartographical
firm which has been known since 1899 as the
Edinburgh Geographical Institute; Rudolph
Messel, president of the Society of Chemical
Industry and past vice-president of the Chem-
ical Society, London; L. T. O’Shea, professor
of applied chemistry in the University of
Sheffield and honorary secretary of the British
Institution of Mining Engineers, and A. K.
Huntington, emeritus professor of metallurgy
at King’s College, London.
Tur Civil Service Commission announces
an examination for supervising metallurgist.
A vacancy in the Bureau of Mines, Depart-
ment of the Interior, for service in the field,
at $4,000 to $5,000 a year, will be filled from
this examination.
May 28, 1920]
THe U. 8. Civil Service Commission an-
nounces an examination for assistant for fish-
ery food laboratory. A vacancy in the Bureau
of Fisheries, Department of Commerce, Wash-
ington, D. C., at $2,000 to $2,400 a year, and
vacancies in positions requiring similar quali-
fications, will be filled from this examination.
The duties of appointees will be to make
analyses of fishery products, including canned
products, oils, fish scrap, fish meal, etc., and to
aid in the technology of development of meth- .
ods of preservation and utilization of fishery
products in the laboratory and in the field.
Competitors will not be required to report for
examination at any place, but will be rated one
education, experience and a thesis.
_ Tue Ellen Richards Research prize offered
by an association of American college women,
hitherto known as the Naples Table Associa-
tion, is available for the year 1921. This is
the tenth prize offered. The prize has been
awarded four times, twice to American women
and twice to English women. The competition
is open to any woman in the world who presents
a thesis written in English. The thesis must
represent new observations and new conclu-
sions based upon laboratory research.
_ Tue Indiana Academy of Science held its
annual spring meeting at the McCormack’s
Creek Gorge State Park near Spencer, Ind.,
on May 13 and 14. At the business meeting
on the thirteenth the academy voted to direct
the officers to prepare a suitable clause amend-
ing the ‘constitution of the academy, so that
affiliation with the American Association for
the Advancement of Science would be pos-
sible. Final action on this matter will, in all
probability, be taken at the regular winter
meeting next December. The academy mem-
bers dined together in the dining rooms of the
Christian Church at Spencer on the evening
of the thirteenth and early the next morning
proceeded by automobile to the State Park,
where, under the leadership of Professor
Malott, of Indiana University, who has made
a special study of the region, the members ex-
plored the Flatwoods district and the gorge of
MeCormack’s creek, which drains it. Pro-
SCIENCE
539
fessors Mottier and Scott, of Indiana Univer-
sity, led the botanists and zoologists on the
trip.
Durine the past year the following papers
have been presented before the Society of the
Sigma Xi at the University of California
under the presidency of Professor Herbert M.
Evans:
September 27, Research behind the battle line: J.
H. HILDEBRAND. —
October 29, The processes of social phenomena: A.
L. KRozser,
November 20, A study of anger and pugnacity: G.
M. STRATTON.
December 9, Low temperature research: W. H.
RODEBUSH.
January 28, Hookworm and military efficiency:
C. A. Korop.
February 18, The effect of alkali on plants: D, R.
HOAGLAND.
March 3, On the construction of a geological scale
for the Great Basin of North America: J. C.
MERRIAM.
March 24, Physiological studies on aviators: J. L.
WHITNEY.
April 21, Recent research in the organic compounds
of nitrogen: T. D. STEWART,
May 5, Some aspects of the development of the
anatomical sciences in America: H, H. Evans.
CREATION of a Canadian Bureau of Scien-
tific Research, at an initial cost of $600,000
for the site and construction and equipment
of the building, and $50,000 for the first
year’s salaries and upkeep, has been endorsed.
The leader of the Government and of the Op-
position both supported it. The standardiza-
tion of all measures used in Canada of length,
volume, weight, etc., of all forms of energy
and of scientific apparatus used in industry
and the public services will be one of the
main functions of the Bureau of Research.
THE Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation quotes from the Progresos de la Clinica
of Madrid giving the royal decree establishing
the Instituto Cajal as a center for scientific
research in different branches of biology, and
to prepare students to carry on research in
other countries. The institute is also to offer
facilities to a limited number of foreign re-
540
search workers, especially those from Latin
America, and will invite foreign professors to
lecture on their specialties. The new institu-
tion will include the laboratories already in-
stalled in 1901 for biologic research and the
laboratories maintained for research on ex-
perimental physiology, neuropathology and his-
tology. A new building is planned and the
whole will form a part of the National Insti-
tute of Sciences.
Twn order to stimulate more general research
along the lines of better preparation and
packing of foods and beverages, and to in-
crease our knowledge of such changes in-
duced by preparation or storage of such prod-
ucts, the Glass Container Association of
America, Dr. A. W. Bitting, director of re-
search, 3344 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IIl.,
will make seven awards in value from $50 to
$150 for theses submitted prior to June 10,
1921. A thesis may cover any phase of the
subject of foods or beverages—technological,
bacteriological, or chemical. It may treat of
any legitimate method of preparation, as
sterilization by heat, pasteurization, salting,
drying, smoking, pickling, sugaring, ete., the
product to be packed in glass. The thesis
may be bibliographical with abstracts, or may
be a translation from work along the lines
indicated. Any student working for a degree
in any college or university is eligible to com-
pete.
Tue proceedings of the Paris Congress of
Physiology under the presidency of Professor
Charles Richet, will begin on Friday, July 16,
and will end on the following Tuesday. The
last congress was held at Groningen in Sep-
tember, 1913, and it was then decided that the
next should be held in Paris. The subscrip-
tion (35 francs) should be sent to M. Lucien
Bull, Institut Marey, Avenue Victor-Hugo,
Boulogne-sur-Seine (Seine).
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
In recognition of the great and increasing
need for competent specialists in the medical
SCIENCE
LN. S. Vou. LI. No. 1326
sciences, a new course leading to the degree
of doctor of medical sciences (D.M.S.) has
been established at the Harvard Medical
School. The first two years’ work of this
course lis substantially identical with that of
the regular medical students and this general
training in the medical sciences is followed
by a minimum of two years of concentration
work in one of the laboratory departments.
The qualifications and character of work re-
quired of those admitted to the concentration
course are essentially the same as for Ph.D.
students. The granting of the D.M.S. degree
gull be based on the same standard.
It has been planned for some time to found
a university at Cologne. The Journal of the
American Medical Association reports that
the necessary formalities were complied with
last year, and the new university has recently
come into being very quietly. The various col-
leges and institutes have thus been collected
into a state university which offers a chance
to relieve the overcrowding of the university
at Bonn. The new university starts with
2,000 students and over forty instructors.
Proressor Ceci, H. Preasopy, head of the
department of naval architecture, the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, has resigned
after thirty-seven years. Dr. Peabody has
been in charge of the marine engineering
course since its formation in 1883. Professor
J. R. Jack will succeed Professor Peabody.
_ Dr. Wurm E. Forp, of Yale University,
has been promoted to a professorship of min-
eralogy and has been: made a member of the
governing board of the Sheffield Scientific
School.
Dr. H. E. Wetts, formerly professor of
chemistry at Washington and Jefferson Col-
lege and captain in the Chemical Warfare
Service, U.S. A., has been appointed professor
of chemistry at Smith College.
Dr. J. P. MusseuMan, of Washington Uni-
versity, St. Louis, has been appointed associ-
ate in mathematics at the Johns Hopkins
University. Dr. Musselman is the national
president of the Gamma Alpha Graduate Sci-
entific Fraternity.
May 28, 1920]
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
“PETROLIFEROUS PROVINCES ”
Ty a discussion of Petroliferous Provinces in
a recent number of Mining and Metallurgy,+
Dr. Charles Schuchert has quoted from an
article on “Some Factors in the Geographic
Distribution of Petroleum”? by the present
writer, and has drawn certain conclusions and
made certain inferences which are decidedly
at variance with the ideas the author intended
to convey. In order that some of the appar-
ently ambiguous statements in the article on
Geographic Distribution should not be gener-
ally misconstrued, it is desired to call atten-
tion to certain points which the reviewer has
apparently overlooked.
Dr. Schuchert says:
Since the previous paragraph was written there
appeared the suggestive paper by Mehl, already
cited, in which he points out that all the major oil
fields of the world are situated between 20° and
50° north latitude. Further, that there are no
major oil areas within the tropics or in tthe south-
ern hemisphere. As the known major oil fields lie
between the present isotherms of 40° and 70° F.,
he thinks that this distribution ‘‘does suggest a
distinctly zonal distribution of petroleum in which
temperature may have ‘been an important factor.’’
The question that here arises is, Is this suggestion
‘of present climatic conditions also true for the
times when the oil was deposited in the strata in
which it is now found, remembering that the oil
fields were not made recently but are the aceumu-
lations of hydrocarbons of the seas of geologic
ages? The answer is not at all in harmony with
Mehl’s suggestion, for we are living in an excep-
tional time of stressed climates and marked zonal
conditions, while the mean temperature conditions
during the geologic ages were warm and equable
throughout most of the world, and this is even
more true of the temperature of oceans than of
the lands.
The paragraph that called forth this com-
ment follows:
1 Bull. Amer. Inst. Mining and Metallurgical
Engineers, No. 155, pp. 3058-3070, November, 1919.
2 Bull. Scientific Laboratories, Dennison Univ.,
Vol. XIX., pp. 55-63, June, 1919.
SCIENCE
541
Attention ds further called to the general corre-
spondence between the position of the twentieth
and fiftieth parallels in both hemispheres with the
average annual isotherms of 70° and 40° respect-
ively. Although these parallels are, in reality,
nothing more than imaginary lines of geographic
references, each does, in much probability, mark
the average position of some isotherm as it has
shifted in past geologic times. While the disposi-
tion of maximum accumulations as here bounded
does not indicate a definite temperature zone within
which petroleum has been formed, it does suggest
a distinctly zonal distribution of petroleum in
which temperature may have been an important
factor.
There follows a few paragraphs further on:
Very often the rapid decay of organisms is
pointed to as illustrating the manner in which pe-
troleum is formed. In certain parts of the Medi-
terranean Sea, for instance, the accumulation and
deeay of organic detritus is so rapid that the lower
levels of the water are filled with scattered globules
of oil. Instead of illustrating how petroleum is
formed, however, it points to the effectwe manner
in which fatty matter is ordinarily separated
out from accumulating sediments. Certainly, the
‘globules which are escaping into the water offer
no suggestion of being retrapped and converted
into petroleum. It is only that part of the or-
ganic matter which is converted into oil so slowly
that the accumulating sediments form a sufficient
thickness and suitable succession to retain it against
the tendency of the associated waters to drive it
off, that may become petroleum.
So much has been added to our knowledge
of the climates of past geological ages by the
work of Dr. Schuchert and others that it does
not seem appropriate, in an article not in-
tended primarily for the beginning student in
geology, to call attention to the fact that the
present average annual isotherms are not nec-
essarily coincident with the same isotherms
throughout past geologic periods. Further-
more, it would appear that one might logically
take for granted a general knowledge of the
principles underlying temperature zones and
the nature of their boundary lines as follows:
_ 1. The sinuosity of isotherms is determined
largely by the extent of the land masses and
their configuration.
542
2. In general, the more widespread the
oceans the less sinuous the isotherms.
3. During periods of more nearly universal
oceans, the closer the parallelism between iso-
therms and parallels.
It would appear that the logical conclusions
to. be drawn from the two immediately pre-
ceding quotations, providing we may take for
granted a knowledge of the general conditions
of past climates, are as follows:
1. The belt between the parallels 20° and 50°
north latitude was, during the periods when
the petroleum of the zone was forming, some
definite temperature zone the boundaries of
which, the average annual isotherms, were es-
sentially coincident with the parallels.
2. The temperatures of this zone very likely
fluctuated within a single period and showed
more or less marked differences from period
to period.
3. The average of the fluctuating tempera-
tures for this zone was not necessarily the
same as that of this belt for the present time,
viz., 40°—70° F.
4, The only reference to the formation of pe-
troleum in this zone at present day tempera-
tures (the Mediterranean Sea) does not illus-
trate the manner in which petroleum is
formed.
_ The obvious inference of these conclusions
is that could we determine the exact tempera-
ture conditions under which petroleum is
formed there would be available another means
of testing the temperatures of the various areas
in which the petroleum was formed, during the
periods when it was forming. In other words,
some estimate could be made of the average
temperature of the “petroleum zone”—that
belt bounded ‘by the parallels 20° and 50°
north latitude—during ‘the “petroleum pe-
riods.”
There is one more point on which the pres-
ent writer’s view was, perhaps, not adequately
stated, although his intention would seem to be
clear. The following is from Dr. Schuchert’s
criticism :
... The writer also knows that hydrocarbons
have accumulated in large amounts in seas within
the tropics, yet seemingly the amount is far the
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1326
greatest in what is now the north temperate zone.
That this zone has the greatest amount of pe-
troleum is apparently due wholly to the greater
land masses here, along with the necessary storage
strata accompanied by the proper amount of de-
formation.
Even if Mehl’s suggestion were correct, and we
should accordingly think of next exploiting the
temperature region of the southern hemisphere, we
must not overlook the fact that the northern hemi-
sphere is a land hemisphere, while the southern
one is a water hemisphere, and therefore has greatly
reduced continents.
To quote from the article on “ Geographic
Distribution”:
Regardless of the lack of thorough prospecting,
however, there is reason to believe that of the three
zones, the equatorial ‘belt between the twentieth
parallels and adjacent belts in the northern and
southern hemispheres extending north and south to
the fiftieth parallels, the northern belt will, when
investigations are carried to completion, be found
the more productive. For instance, one may safely
assert that, all other factors being equal, the
amount of petroleum underlying a given area is di-
rectly proportional to the size of that area. It is
evident that in the area of exposed lands neither
the southern nor the equatorial belts compare fav-
orably with the northern zone.
And again, in summarizing:
If we may grant, then, that within a limited
zone, the equatorial belt, conditions have been un-
favorable for the formation of accumulations of
petroleum, on the average, it is logical to seek a
belt in the southern hemisphere suitable for such
deposits, to correspond with the belt in the north-
ern hemisphere. Were the temperature factors
alone to be considered, there is little dowbt but that
much might be expected from the southern zone.
It has already been pointed out, however, that the
area of exposed land within this zone is relatwely
small and of this a very large proportion consists
of Pre-Cambrian or igneous rocks. Apparently
little more is to be expected from the southern
belt than from the equatorial zone.
As the writer stated in the article quoted by
Dr. Schuchert, it was hoped “that the specula-
tions would call forth a discussion of the prin-
ciples involved and possibly stimulate investi-
gations in the several branches of science in-
terested.” He was much surprised to learn
May 28, 1920]
that these principles had been so stated as to
convey a meaning quite different from that
intended. It is hoped that these notes con-
cerning the writer’s statements that have been
eriticized will throw a somewhat different
light on their interpretation.
Maurice G. Meni
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
AN IMPROVED METHOD OF HOLDING LARGE
SPECIMENS FOR DISSECTION
Mr. Joun M. Lone recently published a
scheme for holding large specimens open
while dissecting them in which he uses “ trays
of galvanized iron with four or more loops
of metal soldered on the sides to which ordi-
nary heavy rubber bands are attached. To
these rubber bands are tied small fishhooks
which have had their barbs filed off. These
hooks are to be fastened to any part of the
anatomy so as to hold the specimen firmly, or
to pull certain parts to the desired position.”
As these rubber bands with the sharp fish-
hooks attached are permanently tied to the
sides of the trays, there is some danger and
inconvenience in handling the latter. This
difficulty can be overcome and the whole
scheme improved upon by fastening small,
blunt hooks to the rubber bands at the op-
posite ends from the fishhooks, thus making
them so that they can be easily removed from
the trays. It is also a good idea to file the
points of the fishhooks down somewhat so
that they are not so dangerous to handle, and
yet they can be easily thrust through the
skin or flesh of the specimen to be held.
Horace GuntTHORP
WASHBURN COLLEGE,
ToPEKA, KANs.
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
South. The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expe-
dition, 1914-1917. By Sm Ernest SHacx-
LETON, C.V.O. With 88 illustrations and
diagrams. The Macmillan Company, New
York, 1920. $6.00.
It has been well said that peace has its
1Sorence, Vol. XLIX., pp. 120-121.
SCIENCE
543
victories as great as those of war. Too much
praise can not be given the men who for
country alone, or for the whole world, have
struggled and suffered, bled or died. But
peace, not war, is the normal phase of our
life, and its unwarlike victories—material,
mental and spiritual—most deeply affect us.
For this reason the world delights to read this
straightforward tale of Shackleton, wherein
are embodied high adventure, unique experi-
ences and thrilling situations with displays of
courage and persistence, of fidelity and sol-
idarity—qualities which ennoble mankind.
The scientific work in view was the most
comprehensive and ambitious ever attempted
by a polar expedition. In extent and impor-
tance it approached, if it did not surpass, the
International Polar Conference program of
1881-1884. Geographically the vast ice-clad
continent of Antarctica was to be crossed
from Weddell Sea to Ross Sea, and its
glacier-lined, unknown coasts charted by
cruises in unvisited waters of the Antarctic
Ocean. Scientifically were to be studied the
fauna of the sea, the hydrography of the
ocean, the geology of the land, the mete-
orology of the air, and the mysteries of mag-
netism. The primary base, under Shackleton
personally, was to be established near Vachsel
Bay, Luitpold Land, discovered in Weddell
Sea by Filchner in 1912.
It is of special interest that this south-
polar area, through the comprehensive policy
and timely application of England’s colonial
methods, is a part of her empire. By procla-
mation of July, 1908, this region was declared
to be British territory which was defined as
' “Situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to
the south of the 50th parallel of south lati-
tude and lying between 20 degrees and 80
degrees. west longitude.”
The second party—to enter Ross Sea—will
be later considered. Sailing from Plymouth,
August 8, 1914, after the Admiralty had
declined the offer for war purposes of his ship
Endurance, Shackleton made his final arrange-
ments at Grytvikin, South Georgia whence
he steamed south on December 5. His ship
was fitted for every contingency, and his crew
044
of 28 were men selected from nearly 5,000
volunteers, eager for polar adventure.
Two days later the ship entered the pack
which was found very far north, and proved
to be increasingly unfavorable. Five hundred
bergs were passed in a single day, and the
Endurance sailed over the projecting foot of
a berg 150 feet high. After steaming over
700 miles through the pack Coats Land, dis-
covered by Bruce in the Scotia, 1904, was
sighted from 72° 20’ S. on January 10, 1915.
This land was skirted its entire length, from
42° 34’ S., 16° 40’ W., to about 74° 04’ S.
92° 48’ W. Beyond this coast Shackleton
discovered new land, which he named Caird
Coast, which he followed about 200 miles to
its junction with Leopold Coast of Filchner,
1912. The extreme northerly point of Caird
Coast is in about 73° 20’ S., 26° W. and the
southern point in 76° 30’ S., 28° W.
Shackleton thus describes it: “It is fronted
by an undulating barrier, which terminates
usually in cliffs ranging from 10 to 300 feet
in height, but in a very few places sweeps
down level with the sea. At the southern
end of Caird Coast the ice-sheet, undulating
over the hidden and imprisoned land, is burst-
ing down a steep slope in tremendous glaciers
bristling with ridges of ice and seamed by
thousands of crevasses. Along the whole
length of the coast we have seen no bare land
or rock. Not as much as a solitary nunatak
has appeared.”
On January 18, 1915, the Hndurance was
beset in the pack, in 76° 34’ S., 81° 30’ W.,
never to be released. Thus ended the chance
of landing and of crossing Antarctica.
This besetment occurred in midsummer, when
unusually low temperatures of zero and below
were observed.
Held fast the ship drifted with the main
ice-pack and reached an extreme southing of
77° §S. 85° W. The drift was first to the
west and then to the north-by-west attaining
April 9, 1916, 62° S., 54° W. Crushed by the
ice the Endurance sank November 21, 1916,
in 69° S., 58° W. when the crew took to the
ice. They were then 346 miles from Paulet
Island, the nearest place of safety, which two
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
separate attempts to reach, by travel over the
ice-floes, proved impossible of attainment.
They were forced to depend on the northerly
drift of the main pack for safety. Their
drift life of four and a half months was
marked by vicissitudes and miseries insep-
arable from storms, with tent-shelter only,
and lack of heat. Food was also insufficient,
their daily ration for a while being below ten
ounces of food, and despite continuous hunt-
ing they finally were forced to eat their dogs.
Storms were frequent and one blizzard caused
intense suffering with temperatures of 21 to
34 degrees below zero. Dredging, soundings,
weather observations, hunting and games were
carried on in such manner as to preserve the
morale of the men.
There had been a northerly drift of about
1,500 miles, making good a northing of 573
miles before the Endurance sank. This drift
continued until the end of the antarctic sum-
mer, in March, found them outside of the
antarctic circle and in sight of Joinville
Island, with the close ice-pack so disintegrated
as to make travel thereto impossible, either
by boat or by sledge. On April 7, 1916, after
the breaking up of floes had several times
threatened the loss of boats and party they
sighted Elephant Island. Launching their
three boats under conditions of great and
continuing danger they were day after day
obliged to take refuge from closing ice on the
nearest floe or berg of size. Almost as by
miracle they reached and landed on glacier-
covered Elephant Island, where a narrow
fringe of tide-swept beach was the only visible
land. Fortunately penguins and seal were
present in such numbers as to save them from
immediate starvation. With coming winter
there was such danger of the party perishing
that Shackleton with five men sought relief
from South Georgia, over 800 miles distant.
This journey, across the most tempestous
storm-swept southern ocean in approaching
winter, and the crossing of South Georgia by
land, are among the most thrilling experi-
ences in polar history. Tortured by thirst,
benumbed by cold, water-soaked whether on
duty or in their sleeping bags, their skill as
May 28, 1920]
navigators was all that enabled them to make
the journey, while they were exhausted by the
necessity of bailing the boat continuously for
days, to keep her from swamping under pour-
ing sprays and whelming waves.
Four relief expeditions were necessary
under Shackleton before the party on Ele-
phant Island were rescued. Through the
energy and direction of Frank Wild, the
marooned party of 22 men lived through four
and a half months of winter in huts with
stone walls, and boat-covered, as had been
done by the Greely Arctic Expedition at Cape
Sabibe in the winter of 1883-1884.
At Elephant Island the food supply was
limited almost to a starvation point, though
their regular food was supplemented by pen-
guins, seals, seaweed and sea-limpets. While
the Weddell Sea scientific observations have
not been published some items of interest are
given in this narrative. In 77° S. 34° W. the
magnetic variation was found to be six
degrees west; auroras were rare. Meteoro-
logically clear sky increased steadily from 7
per cent. in January to 45.7 in July; it
decreased to below 30 from September to
November and nearly to zero in December.
Temperatures were fairly high, the minimum
for the year being 35 degrees below zero in
July. Generally southerly winds brought
clear weather with low temperatures, while
_ the reverse conditions obtained with northerly
winds. The ice-drift, due partly to currents
but more largely to winds of Weddell Sea, is
eontrary to the movements of the hands of
a watch. Doubtless it conforms almost en-
tirely to a course nearly parallel to the gen-
eral contours of the land masses of Ant-
arctica. Geographically the only direct con-
tribution is the connection of Coats Land and
Luitpold Land, which determines the con-
tinuity of the continent of Antarctica from
6 to 48 degrees west longitude, and from 72.5
to 78 degrees south latitude. The North
Greenland of Morrell disappeared long since
from charts, but the reviewer’s belief, in his
Hand-Book of Polar Discoveries, that Mor-
rell’s longitudes were to blame would throw
this land some 12 degrees west to Palmer
SCIENCE
549
or Graham Land. Astronomical observations
proved that Shackleton’s chronometer longi-
tudes were one degree in error. Again he
throws Foyn coast two degrees to the west of
its reported position, and states that his ob-
servations place Sanders Island three miles
east and five miles north of its charted posi-
tion. These corrections indicate clearly the
liability of explorers, unless highly skilled,
to material errors when making observations
under abnormal and difficult conditions.
Hydrographically Weddell Sea is very deep,
averaging in the large over 2,000 fathoms.
Shackleton mentions three soundings of 2,400,
2,810 and 2,819 fathoms. He mentions the
shoaling of the sea as he drifted “north
either to east or west, from 77° S., and the
fact suggested that the contour lines ran east
and west roughly.” The reviewer thinks that
this indicates the existence of a continental
shelf, off land trending westerly along the
"7th parallel, and changing to north-north-
west between longitudes 55° and 60° west.
The summary of Lieutenant Clark on the
whaling industry of the Dependencies of the
Falkland Islands is of special interest. The
total value of the fisheries, in pounds sterling,
were: 1918, 1,252,842; 1914, 1,300,978; 1915,
1,333,401 and in 1916, 1,774,570. In 1916
11,860 whales were captured in this area.
The industry is now dependent on large fin
and blue whales, humpbacks having been
largely reduced in numbers.
The Ross Sea story is one of heroic effort
not unmixed with disaster. The Aurora, Cap-
tain Mackintosh, left Hobart in December,
1914, and reached Cape Evans January 16,
1915, and after preliminary movements went
into winter-quarters. While Mackintosh was
absent, and all stores for the expedition not
yet landed, the Aurora was forced by a violent
blizzard into the pack on May 6, 1915, and
drifting north was not able to clear the pack
until March 14, 1916, in 62° 28’ S., 158° W.
The marooned party, ten men only, by heroic
effort, succeeded in establishing, as planned,
a supply depot for the party which was ex-
pected to cross Antarctica from Weddell Sea.
This depot was laid down at the base of Mt.
546
Hope, at the foot of the Beardmore, Glacier,
in 83° 30’ S. These field parties in 160 days
traveled 1,561 miles, of which distance 830
miles were made in laying down from Hunt
Point the depot at Mt. Hope. Scurvy at-
tacked the main party in the field and one
man, Spencer Smith, died the day before their
return journey was completed. Later Cap-
tain Mackintosh and Hayward perished in a
blizzard during a short journey—probably
from disruption of the ice-pack. Shackleton
went at once to the rescue of this party, sail-
ing in the Aurora, which was commanded by
the veteran polar captain, Davis, in December,
1916. The voyage was short and the marooned
men were brought safely to Hobart.
The illustrations are of unusual value,
conveying as they do a clearer and more
accurate view of polar scenes and lands, and
especially as to Caird Coast and Elephant
Island. The set illustrating various types of
ice are important, and should become
standard.
The narrative is marked by its appreciation
of the members of the two expeditions, and
from it one is confirmed in the realization
that Shackleton is a leader of men of unusual
ability and force. Considerate of his subor-
dinates, he never spared himself, and under a
less able leader the Weddell Sea party would
have perished.
A. W. GREELY
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE ASH OF DUNE PLANTS
Sanp, the final residue after weather and
water have worked their will on the silicate
rocks, is possibly the poorest substratum in a
chemical sense for the growth of plants.
Under the action of glaciers and running
water followed or accompanied by the hydro-
lyzing action of water in the presence of
carbon dioxide and lastly subjected to the
monotonous attrition of particle against par-
ticle acutated by wave motion, nothing is left
of the original rock masses except partially
rounded particles of quartz accompanied by
grains of the more resistant silicate minerals
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1326
and magnetic oxide of iron (Fe,0,). The
finely divided silt and clay produced during
the formation of the sand by wave abrasion
and containing the most valuable mineral
constituents for plant growth, consisting as
they do of particles approaching colloidal
dimensions, remain easily in suspension and
are carried away by very slight water cur-
rents to be deposited far apart from the sand
in quiet places. That which remains with
the sand after deposition on beach or shore is
carried away by the wind and redeposited at
a distance, so that beach, shore or dune sand
contains a minimal quantity of clay—not
enough in a handful to cloud a tumbler of
water.
In ordinary sand the silica content varies
from approximately 92 to 98 per cent. A
part of this exists free as quartz and a part
in combination in silicate minerals which
have resisted decomposition. The following
analyses from Clarke! show the composition
of sands from various sources.
A B C D EE F
SHOW Gan goce 77.78| 90.74| 82.13} 89.99] 55.03) 91.39
AlsOs....... 9.95| 5.16) 9.04) 7.36) 14.12) 5.44
Fe203 . 2.55) 1.14) 2.94 72) 10.15 -89
FeO. .. 21 ROS |e Seis oa sc 16
MnOyesk calikrsoe AMEXCS hog coco Ama cel|pnien. Trace
OBOpicisas oil 69} 1.28 46| 6.88) Trace
MgoO....... -17| Trace .84| Trace} 6.38) Trace
KO ....... 2.50) 1.19) 1.93 33] 1.66) 1.19
Na2O...... 1.82 -26 .95 33) .87 -70
PO pese ee teyera settee ee eee pa: EAU) Real loos ollaidoicow
Ignition . 2.74; 1.30) 1.01 60) 4.55 65
98.43! 100.56! 100.01) 100.43! 99.64' 100.42
A Glacial sands.
B
C. Average of five river sands.
D. Sea sand. :
E. Sea sand derived from subsilicic igneous
rocks.
F. Blown sand.
In spite of its chemical poverty and its
inadequacy as a soil for the support of nearly
all agricultural plants, sand, nevertheless, has
certain physical advantages which are of im-
portance and valuable to such vegetation as —
1‘‘The Data of Geochemistry,’’ by F. W. Clarke,
Bull. 616, U. 8. Geological Survey.
May 28, 1920]
can maintain life on low mineral rations;
(1) on account of its porosity it is always
well drained; (2) it is likewise well aerated;
(3) it allows free lateral and vertical move-
ment of ground water; (4) on account of its
low capillary absorption of water it has a
very low wilting limit;? in other words, it
Water per 100 of Dry Soil
When Plants Hygroscopic
Wilt Water
Coarse sand .......... 1.5 1.15
Sandy garden soil .... 4.6 3.00
Fine sand, with humus. 6.2 3.98
Sandy loam .......... 7.8 5.74
Chalky loam ......... 9.8 5.20
SR OAILE. fe refeiciehe cecil lacs aleiae 49.7 42.30
gives up its water readily to plants and even
though it contains little, that little is avail-
able for the growth of vegetation; (5) it
offers little obstruction to the growth and ex-
tension of roots, when compared with stiffer
soils such as clay loams and clay.
Probably its greatest physical disadvantage
is its tendency to drift with the wind with the
resultant root-uncoyering or top-burying ac-
tion. However, this is not a serious menace
to typical dune vegetation for the great root
systems of most dune plants permit uncover-
ing in some degree while even a continuous
“hilling-up” of most of them during their
growth appears to work no harm.
The dune region of Northern Indiana along
the south shore of Lake Michigan, with which
the writer is most familiar, has been the sub-
ject of numerous botanical as well as general
investigations, and has attracted much inter-
est recently since the proposal has been made
to establish a National Park there. Cowles
in a series of interesting papers? has discussed
the plant ecology of the region and Shelford‘
the animal ecology. ;
2A. D. Hall, ‘‘The Soil,’’ p .85.
8 ‘Ecological Relations of the Vegetation of the
Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan,’’ Bot. Gaz., 27, pp.
95, 167, 281, 361 (1899). Also ‘‘Plant Societies of
Chicago and Vicinity,’’ Bull. 2. Geog. Soe. of Chi-
eago,
4‘“ Animal Oommunities in Temperate America,’?
Bull. No. 5. Geog. Soe. of Chicago.
SCIENCE
547
The variety of plants in the district be-
tween Gary and Michigan City and extend-
ing about 1 or 14 miles back from the lake
shore is very great. The storm beach, to the
upper limit of storm waves and driftwood
(the region of the “singing sands”) prac-
tically devoid of. vegetation, is usually about
40 to 100 feet wide, but naturally varies with
the season and wind intensity. There may be
a few quick growing annuals such as sea kale
(Cakile americana), bugseed (Corispermum
hyssopifolium), ete., in this belt, especially
during a few weeks of summer calm. Be-
tween the storm beach and the fixed dunes
lies the belt of young dunes in the making,
and here grow both annuals 'and perennials.
The sand cherry (Prunus pumila) is here,
perhaps of all the most characteristic shrub,
but along the same stretch grow red osier
dogwood (Cornus stolonifera), cotton woods
(Populus deltoides), low willows (Salix glau-
cophylla, Salix adenophylla), artemesia (Arte-
mesia caudata), Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium
Pitcheri), the grasses, Calamovilfa longifolia
(abundant) and Ammophila arenaria (less
abundant. Andropogon scoparius (littoralis)
does not grow as a rule near the storm beach
but higher up on the fixed or partially fixed
dunes.
Back of the storm beach and the embryonic
dunes rise the permanent or wooded dunes,
well fixed by vegetation, except where blow-
outs have cut through and started the sands
to drifting once more. In some places the
fixed dunes rise abruptly from the rather
narrow storm beach, and in others low,
moving or semi-fixed dunes run back from the
shore for long distances. But the first ex-
ample is typical.
Usually in the region discussed the shore
consists of the fine sand described with rela-
tively little shingle, but after a succession of
severe storms as during the past two years,
the amount of shingle increases until the
shore is covered with it for a width of ten to
forty feet. Undoubtedly this assists in hold-
ing the sand and preventing its drifting.
The sand of the northern Indiana dune
region is considerably finer than that of some
548
others, for example Cape Cod, and in fact the
entire Atlantic coast, drifts easier with the
wind and is less stable unless indeed it is
stabilized by growing vegetation. A rough
sieve analysis gives the following proximate
physical composition, the percentages shown
being the amounts passing or retained on
sieves of the indicated mesh.
PHYSICAL ANALYSIS LAKE MICHIGAN SAND
Shore Sand Dune Sand
Finer than 100 mesh .. 3.3 3.4
Finer than 80 mesh.... 9.4 11.3
Finer than 60 mesh.... 49.2 46.3
Coarser than 60 mesh.. 50.8 53.7
When examined chemically the sand shows
no remarkable peculiarity with the possible
exception of a rather high percentage of cal-
cium which may be accounted for by the fact
that the native rock of the region is limestone
and the gravel of the boulder clay of the west
shore of the lake is composed largely of the
same rock. Analyses of the shore sand and
of the dune sand give results which are prac-
tically identical. The following analyses
were made in 1911.°
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SHORES AND DUNE SAND
Shore Sand Dune Sand
Loss on ignition ..... 1.00 0.90
Silicayes. .. sate Nae 92.00 91.90
Tron and Al. oxides... 3.24 4.30
Caleium oxide ....... 1.36 1.36
Magnesium oxide .... 0.56 0.72
Sodium oxide ....... 0.47 0.63
Potassium oxide ..... 0.85 1.00
Another analysis of sand from a blowout
was made in 1918 and gave the following
results:
ANALYSIS OF SAND FROM BLOWOUT
stiiivor, (SHOR) scoccéduccoaccocconpagancca, 90.28
Iron oxide (Fe,0;) ...............------- 1.03
Aluminum oxide (Al,O;) ...............-- 3.55
Caleium oxide (CaO) ..........-. ee ee eee 1.67
Magnesium oxide (MgO) .............--- 0.73
Sodium oxide (Na.O) .............------ 2.22
Potassium oxide (KO) ................-- 1.05
Phosphoric anhydride (P,0,) trace, less than 0.01%
5 Analyses by L. S. Paddock.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
Approximately 90 to 92 per cent. of the
sand is silica but it should be remembered
that the remaining 8 to 10 per cent. consist-
ing of calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminium,
sodium, potassium, ete., is contained in un-
decomposed silicate minerals. Under the
hand lens, while the clear white, yellow or
red sand quartz grains greatly predominate,
there is present also, in characteristic fashion,
a considerable proportion of bright-colored
and dark particles, red, brown, green and
black feldspar, mica, hornblende, magnetite,
etce., making up, let us say, approximately 25
per cent. of the total. From these particles
the dune plants must in the main derive their
supply of soluble inorganic substances nec-
essary for nutrition. It should be noted that
these rock particles are practically in their
unaltered condition, any decomposed or finely
disintegrated portions having been mostly dis-
solved or washed away by the waves or blown
away by the wind. However, when the sand
is agitated with water there is always present
a very small quantity of colloidal particles or
clay which is undoubtedly important for the
growth of plants. The amount, however, is
so slight that it scarcely fails to leave the
water clear and could be entirely disregarded
for the purpose of the argument.
The integration of chemical infinitesimals
by the living organism is not an isolated or
unique phenomenon, particularly in the vege-
table world. It is nevertheless a matter of
the greatest interest, whether it consists in
the elaboration of complex carbon compounds
from the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere,
wherein this substance occurs at a dilution
of about 3 parts in 10,000, or the concentra-
tion of potassium salts by the giant kelps of
the Pacific (Macrocystis, Pelagophycus, Nereo-
cystis, ete.) from sea water which contains
about 4 parts potassium per 10,000 or only
about 1/30 the amount of sodium present;
but in the two instances cited, the raw mate-
rial is brought to the plant in suitable quan-
tity and form of combination, if in a condi-
tion of great dilution, from the enormous
May 28, 1920]
reservoirs of air and ocean. In the case of
dune plants the root systems must go after
their mineral food supply and search the sand
grains for it. Not only this, they must con-
vert the needed portions of insoluble silicates
into soluble compounds suitable for absorp-
tion and metabolism. This they are well
equipped to do; for whatever other character-
istics various species of dune plants may have
and howsoever greatly they differ from one
another, they are alike in possessing extra-
ordinary root systems. This does not mean
that all the root sytems belong to one type or
class but that all are of relatively large
dimensions and well adapted to exploring for
their food supply or failing this to storing up
a supply by slow accumulations through the
year for a brief season of active growth or
short blooming period—for example, the bird-
foot violet (Viola pedata). The distances
which some of the longer roots travel, hori-
zontally, parallel with the surface, or in a
downward direction, are astonishing and all
but unbelievable unless one has traced such
roots by pulling them out; distances to be
measured in units of yards or rods rather than
feet or inches. Even quick-growing annuals
like sea kale (Cakile americana) will send out
horizontal root branches in length many times
the height of the plant—a plant ten inches
high may have horizontal root branches ten
feet long.
For the determination of ash constituents,
seven typical species were selected. The sand
cherry (Prunus pumila), artemesia (Arte-
mesia caudata), black oak (Quercus coccinea
tinctoria), the three grasses, Calamovilfa,
Ammophila and Andropogon, and the scour-
ing rush (Hquisetum hyemale var. inter-
medium).
The sand cherry sample consisted of stems
and a few leaves, the artemesia of stems,
leaves and seeds, the oak of a section of
trunk, the grasses of stems, leaves and seeds,
and the scouring rush of stems. These were
first carefully burned on clean iron pans to
a blackish or gray ash, then taken to the
laboratory and the ashing completed at a
SCIENCE
549
moderate red heat in muffles. The analyses
follow :§
ANALYSIS OF ASH FROM ARTEMESIA AND PRUNUS
Artemisia Prunus
SK ses oneauencocosacadoodend 12.12 1.50
Iigan, Gray (ANNO) Ssadcsdaccsue 1.74 0.71
Aluminum oxide (Al,0;)......... 0.42 0.02
Calcium oxide (CaO) ........... 35.47 44.13
Magnesium oxide (MgO) ........ 6.41 4.25
Phosphoric anhydride (P,0;)..... 3.95 3.25
Carbon dioxide (CO,) .......... 21.40 35.48
Mangano-manganie oxide (Mn,0,) 0.12 0.06
Chlorine present as chlorides ..... 1.75 0.26
Sulphurie anhydride (SO;) ...... 6.00 0.79
Sodium oxide (Na,O) ........... 0.52 0.40
Potassium oxide (K,O) ......... 11.61 10.94
ANALYSIS OF ASH FROM QUERCUS AND COMMERCIAL
SAWDUST
Saw-
Quercus dust
Shuliey GoocsugocncooDS soowaDOUdOO 32.38 12.84
IAA Gal 46 soqcccabocconceGOU" 1.50 2.55
Aluminum omide ................ 0.70 3.05
Mangano manganic oxide (Mn,0,) 0.24 0.72
Phosphoric anhydride ........... 0.91 1.40
Sulphuric anhydride ............. 3.33 2.09
Carbon dioxide ................. 18.04 22.40
Chlorine present as chlorides...... trace trace
(pilot G26) Ssoncccasc0aadeado 28.86 36.00
Magnesium oxide ............... 3.42 4.13
Potassium oxide ................ 9.51 13.39
‘Sodiumitoxmdet ryrereeiiielerieisielerte 0.82 1.26
ANALYSIS OF ASH FROM FOUR DUNE PLANTS
Eqns | “outa | pacon | phate,
setum || ‘ash | ash | “Ash
Bilicaerye reise eye 49.44| 58.74)| 65.40} 48.56
Ingen Orel Sab dococoaes 1.04) 1.61} 2.52) 2.85
Aluminum oxide....... 2.26) 1.69) 2.57) 3.02
Calcium oxide ......... 13.36 | 11.61) 10.19) 19.00
Magnesium oxide ...... BO SHG) Sel Cee)
Potassium oxide ....... 6.01| 10.70; 6.68} 6.32
Sodium oxide.......... 10.37) 4.52) 4.00] 8.18
*+@hlorinelcaeese eee 3.83 1.83) 2.57) 1.10
Sulphuric anhydride....| 8.97) 4.58) 1.55) 4.95
Phosphoric anhydride...| 2.55} 2.04) 2.04} 2.05
*Oxygen equivalent ....! 0.86] 0.40] 0.55] 0.25
For comparison with the black oak ash, an
analysis was made of the ash on a sample of
ordinary commercial oak sawdust, source and
6T am indebted to Messrs. L. S. Paddock and W.
B. Cochrane for the analytical work on the ash of
the various dune plants.
550
soil unknown This sawdust would represent
a mixture of samples from numerous trees
and possibly represent several species grown
on ordinary forest soils.
From these analyses several interesting con-
clusions are to be drawn. The dune plants
have obtained and concentrated in their
tissues, the same mineral constituents com-
monly found in plants growing on good soils,
and these have been accumulated in approxi-
mately the same relative proportions. It is
natural to suppose that the concentrations of
the various substances in the soil would have
some influence on the composition of the ash.
If a soil contain a relatively large amount
of potassium or phosphorus, or calcium or
silicon, one might expect that these elements
would be contained in the plant ash in rela-
tively large proportion. While this influence
of total quantity present in the soil is of some
effect, it is not determinative. The plant
takes what it needs. Contrast Prunus with
Artemisia, Quercus or the three grasses or
the scouring rush and note the astonishingly
low silica content of Prunus ash compared to
any of the others and the relatively thigh cal-
cium. It is astonishing indeed to find a
negligible quantity of silica and an extremely
large proportion of calcium in the ash of a
plant grown on such a highly silicious soil.
Consider those elements derived from the
soil which are assumed to function in the
essential metabolism of the plant, iron, man-
ganese, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phos-
phorus, sulphur. From most inadequate and
insufficient sources the dune plants have ob-
tained their requirements of these necessary
elements. On such a soil as beach sand, the
ordinary plants of agriculture would wilt and
starve. It would probably not be possible to
successfully grow any sort of plant which in
addition to maintaining itself normally,
stores up abundantly large quantities of or-
ganic compounds suitable for human food in
roots, leaves, fruits or grains. Plants of this
sort would probably not reach maturity or
grow at all. Certainly they would not de-
velop into a food-producing crop, but the
characteristic dune plants are at least sufi-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
cient unto themselves, carry through their
life cycle successfully and win from a most
refractory soil their necessary mineral sus-
tenance. Prunus refuses silicon and gathers
in large supplies of calcium whereas the
grasses and the scouring rush store up large
quantities of the former and are satisfied with
one fourth to one third as much calcium as
Prunus requires.
Those other elements, aluminium, silicon,
sodium and chlorine, consistently present in
plants, but apparently not essential to growth
(as determined by pot and water cultures)
are yet present in the ash of dune plants,
although, with the exception of silica, in
small proportion. Must we conclude that
these elements although not essential to
growth, are nevertheless not harmful, and
that they are absorbed by a selective apparatus
which while highly efficient is not absolute in
its action, since the physiological require-
ments of the plant are satisfied short of
positive rejection of harmless non-essentials?
Or, on the other hand, are some or all of
these elements, while not necessary for the
normal metabolism of the plant, at least
desirable in some unknown way in connection
with osmotic pressures ?
The older chemists puzzled much over the
meaning of plant ash composition and not
without reason. However regrettable the fact
is, we are forced to admit that to-day we know
little more in regard to the fundamental re-
quirements of plants as regards mineral sub-
stances and the ability to obtain them from
various soils and under various conditions
than they did. In Liebig? are some hundreds
of analyses in the old chemical notation un-
classified save as to species and with the com-
ponents in every conceivable proportion. The
names of the analysts are appended but this
throws little light on the subject as some of
them are known to fame, others all but lost in
oblivion, and as the methods of analysis used
by the various investigators are not given,
the degree of accuracy attained in the various
cases remains unknown. Undoubtedly the
7 ‘‘Die Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricul-
tur und Physiologie.’’
May 28, 1920]
methods used were less perfect than those in
use to-day but even assuming that the analyses
are reasonably accurate, the varying propor-
tions and the various ingredients in the case
‘of different species and different analyses are
such that it is impossible to discern any rule
or law governing their absorption by the
plant. It is evident that certain mineral con-
stituents are necessary for the plant’s growth,
but the minimum amount required of indi-
vidual elements or the relative amounts of
various elements apparently depend on a
number of variables, such as species and race
of plant, the soil, the season, the rainfall, the
state of cultivation, etc., to such an extent
that it is doubtful whether or not any sort
of rule governing these proportions can ever
be formulated. About all we can say is that
certain elements are necessary for the normal
growth of the plant and either the plant ob-
tains these at the proper time or it suffers
injury or death.
Small wonder that the older chemists
failed to find the rule and all credit to them
that they did ascertain the main fact.
Considering plants of all sorts, and all
parts of plants, silicon is the greatest variable
of all. It is invariably present but only in
small amount, even to a fraction of one per
cent. in fruits and edible grass seeds (grain),
whereas in the stalks of the same plants it
may constitute as much as seventy-five per
eent. of the ash. In the light of these facts,
it has been looked upon by some authors as
a material of construction (the first and most
natural thought) rather than as a physio-
logically functioning substance. This view
receives some confirmation from those ob-
vious cases in which silica serves as a struc-
tural support, as in the scouring rush and
diatoms. There can be no doubt that plants
acquired the silica habit early in their evolu-
tionary history and it yet may be found to
function physiologically, osmotically or struc-
turally. It is difficult to think of an active,
surviving, plant organism absorbing and stor-
ing up such a substance or any substance
which has and can have no real and positive
use in its life cycle. Unless silicon functions
SCIENCE
551
in some way in plant metabolism or serves as
a building material, it is most difficult to ex-
plain the high relative portion of this element
in the grasses and scouring rush, the mod-
erate amounts in Artemesia and the almost
negligible quantity present in Prunus.
It is interesting to visualize the activities
of the growing root tip as it projects itself
among the sand grains, moving under the re-
actions of the various tropisms in such wise
that the weal of the growing plant is con-
served; turning as necessity arises first in one
direction, then in the other, but on the whole
maintaining its direction, since there are no
serious obstructions in the dune soil; wedging
its way molelike underground, expanding,
holding fast; neglecting grains of silica, lying
close to potash silicates, absorbing chance
molecules of calcium bicarbonate and phos-
phates, furnishing the chemical means if need
be, of bringing the insoluble substance it re-
quires into solution; keeping the cell pumps
going to furnish the water supply to the plant
in time of rain or drought; a very center of
ceaseless, slow, sure activity, in which all the
forces of nature seem to be at work to main-
tain a useless bitter plant.
W. D. RicHarpson
Curcago, Int.
THE UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Tue thirteenth annual convention of the Utah
Academy of Sciences was held im the physics lec-
ture room of the University of Utah at Salt Lake
City on April 2 and 3, 1920.
At the business meeting at the close of the ses-
sion, April 3, the following members were elected
to fellowship in the Academy: O. W. Israelson,
Utah Agricultural College, Logan; T. B. Brighton,
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and R. A.
Hart, Springville.
The following were elected to membership: Dr.
EK. L. Quinn, University of Utah; Dr. E. H. Er-
ricksen, University of Utah; Orin A. Ogilvie, Uni-
versity of Utah; Wm. Z. Terry, Ogden; Geo. P.
Unseld, Salt Lake City, and Albert S. Hutchins,
Springville,
The constitution was amended raising the an-
nual dues to two dollars, effective for the present
year,
502
A resolution, urging the United States Senate
and House Committees on Civil Service, to an early
adoption of the report of the Congressional Com-
mission on the reclassification of government em-
ployees was unanimously adopted.
The following officers were elected for the en-
suing year:
President, Carl F. Korstian, U. 8. Forestry
Service, Ogden.
First Vice-president, Dr. Frank LL. West, Utah
Agricultural College, Logan.
Second Vice-president, Hyrum Schneider, Uni-
versity of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Councillors, Dr. M. C. Merrill, Utah Agricultural
College, Logan; Carl F. Eyring, Brigham Young
University, Provo, and H. R, Hagan, Salt Lake
City.
At the Friday evening session, the program con-
sisted of a symposium on the subject of ‘‘The
constitution of matter’’ and consisted of the fol-
lowing papers:
The theory of the constitution of matter: Dx. ORIN
TUGMAN, University of Utah, president of the
academy.
The oil drop method of measuring the electric
charge: CaxL F,. Eyrine, Brigham Young Uni-
versity.
The electron theory of the conduction of electric-
ity: Dr. Frank L. West, Utah Agricultural
College.
The theory of valencies: Dr. W. D. Bonner, Uni-
versity of Utah.
The relativity theory: E. W. PEHRSoN, University
of Utah.
The Einstein theory: Guo. P. UNSELD, West High
School, Salt Lake City.
Matter from the point of view of a personalistic
philosophy: W. H. CHAMBERLAIN, University of
Utah.
The program for the Saturday morning session
was as follows:
Capacities of soils for irrigation water: 0. W.
IsRAELSON, Utah Agricultural College.
The breeding of canning tomatoes: Dr. M. C. Mzr-
RILL AND TRACY ABELL, Utah Agricultural Col-
lege.
The value of farm manure for Utah soils: Dr. F.
S. Harris, Utah Agricultural College.
Research work of the experiment station of the
Bureau of Mines: THomas VaRLEY, U. S. Bureau
of Mines, University of Utah.
Hydrometallurgy as applied to the mineral indus-
try: CuarENcE A, Wricut, U. S. Bureau of
Mines, University of Utah.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1326
Oil shales and their economic importance: MARTIN
J. Gavin, U. S. Bureau of Mines, University of
Utah.
Pyrometallurgy and its future possibilities: JOHN
C. Morean, U. S. Bureau of Mines, University
of Utah.
Chemistry and its relation to metallurgy: EDWARD
P. Barrett, U. S. Bureau of Mines, University
of Utah.
Complementary luncheon to the members of the
academy by the University of Utah at the dining
hall. At the luncheon, an address was given by
President John A. Widtsoe, University of Utah.
At the afternoon session the following papers
were read:
A capillary transmission constant and methods of
measuring it: WILLARD GARDNER, Utah Agricul-
tural College.
Mid-tertiary deformation of western North Amer-
ica: Hyrum ScHNEDER, University of Utah.
Electrical conductivity of thin metal films: Dr.
Orin TucMaN, University of Utah.
Is disinfection a reaction of the first order? Dr. L.
F, SHACKELL, University of Utah.
Some problems in daylight illumination: C. ARTHUR
SmirH, East High School, Salt Lake City.
Equilibrium conditions in the system calciwm sul-
phate-manganous sulphate-water: A. G. KLINE
AND Dr. T. B. BricgHToNn, University of Utah.
Standardization from constant boiling hydro-
chloric acid: J. T. BoNNER AND Dr. T. B.
BriGHToN, University of Utah.
Comparison of the action of potassium cyanide and
sodium cyanide on alkyl halides: W. D. KuIne
AND Dr. W. D. BONNER.
The determination of arsenic as lead arsenate: A.
E. ANDERSON AND Dr, T. B. BricHTon, Univer-
sity of Utah. C. ArtHuR SMITH,
: Corresponding Secretary
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
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CIENCE
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( JUN? 1920 }
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McJunkin’s Clinical Microscopy and Chemistry Yona ese
This work is really a clinical pathology, omitting no step from obtaining the
pathologic material to interpretation of the findings. It is a book on the
use of the microscope and chemical analysis in the diagnosis of disease.
Octavo of 470 pages, illustrated. By F. A. McJuNKIN, M.D., Professor of Pathology at Marquette Uni-
versity School of Medicihe. Cloth, $3.75 net.
Todd’s Clinical Diagnosis
Dr. Todd’s work is more than a clinical diagnosis—it is a complete clinical
laboratory guide as well. In every case it clearly points out the significance
of the findings. Its illustrations are numerous, instructive and accurate.
i2mo of 687 pages, with 262 illustrations several in colors. By JAMES CAMPBELL Topp, M.D., Professor
of Clinical Pathology at the University of of Colorado. Fourth Edition. Cloth $4.00 net.
Hill’s Histology and Organography
This manual for elementary students presents the fundamental facts clearly
and concisely. The figures have been chosen with great care, and the de-
scriptive terms are placed right on the figures. The treatment of the oral
cavity, of heredity, glands, blood and lymph, is unusually full and explicit.
r2mo of 494 pages, 338 illustrations. By CHARLES HILL, M.D., President and Professor of Anatomy,
Chicago Hospital College of Medicine. Fourth Edition. Cloth, $3.00 net,
Mallory and Wnght’s Pathologic Technic
This work gives the technic of bacteriologic methods, bacteriology of
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The new matter includes amylase, Trichinella spiralis, anaphylatoxin, vita-
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SCIENC:
Frmay, JuNE 4, 1920
CONTENTS
The Effect of the War on the Chief Factors
of Population Change: PROFESSOR RAYMOND
PEARL 553
Colored Photographs of Plant Disease Speci-
mens: Drs. Max W. GARDNER AND Gao, K.
SCG AT STINKS aah ates event a (ciebalarat tisretevessavelehwlinfoners ©
William Dixon Weaver: WimL1aM EH. Kety..
566
558
State Grants for Scientific Investigations in
England 559
Scientific Events :—
The Manufacture of Synthetic Ammonia in
England; Spanish Edition of the Journal of
the American Medical Association; Grants
for Research made by The American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science .... 562
566
566
Scientific Notes and News
eee ee tw tee e ea eee
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Fenewal of our Relations with the Scientific
Men of Europe: Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD Os-
BORN. The Meteor of November 26, 1919:
WittiamM Ketiy. Formule for Dates: Dr.
W. J. Sprmuman. The Library of the late
Professor Zuntz: PROFESSOR YANDELL HEN-
DERSON 567
Quotations :-—
Work of the Mayo Brothers .............. 569
The Journal of Mammalogy: PRoFEssoR
CuHartes E. JOHNSON 569
Special Articles :-—
Fluorescence, Dissociation and Ionization
in Iodine Vapors: Drs. K. T. Compton AND
Isl ADS (Sivndnet oa cope oodes RESO sn SEB oOdoosd
The American Philosophical Society: Pro-
FESSOR ARTHUR GOODSPEED
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
—————_
eo ysonian Institingps
ow “On ~~
\
UN 7 1920 )
=
THE EFF
CHIEF
CT OF THE WAR ON THE
ACTORS OF POPULATION
CHANGE?
TuerE have recently appeared some figures?
regarding the “mouvement de la population”
in France, Prussia and Bavaria which appear
to deserve somewhat more careful analysis
than they have received. These figures are
derived from official sources and are con-
veniently collected in the place to which I
have made reference.
There are three factors fundamentally con-
cerned in producing changes in the absolute
size of the population in a given fixed area
(country, province, ete.). These are:
1. The birth-rate,
2. The death-rate,
3. The net immigration rate.
Of these factors the two first are, generally
speaking, of the greatest biological interest.
This is particularly true of such political
units as France, Prussia and Bavaria, where
in normal times net immigration makes no
significant contribution to the population.
Under war conditions permanent immigration
to these units was nzl and may therefore be
safely neglected in the following discussion.
The relation of birth-rate and death-rate
changes to population changes is a simple one
and may be put this way. If in a given time
unit the percentage
100 Deaths
Births
has a value less than 100, it means that the
births exceed the deaths, and that the popula-
tion is increasing within the specified time
1 Papers from the department of biometry and
Vital statistics, School of Hygiene and Public
Health, Johns Hopkins University, No. 14. This
paper recently formed the basis of an evening’s
discussion at the writer’s seminar.
2Jour. Soc. Stat. Paris, Soixantieme Année, pp.
356-361, December, 1919.
504
unit. If, on the other hand, the percentage
is greater than 100 it means that the deaths
are more frequent than the births, and that
the population is decreasing, again within the
specified time unit. The ratio expressed in
(i) may be conveniently designated as the
vital index of a population.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
were of the births for (a) the 77 non-
invaded departments of France; (b) Prussia;
and (c) Bavaria; and (d) England and Wales,
from 1913 to 1918 by years, with the results
shown in Table I. The English data were
obtained from the quarterly returns (No. 284)
of the registrar-general.
TABLE I
Percentage of Deaths to Births
Some SEN ee eranes Prussia Bavaria England and Wales
CHE mine eos Sab baOO On 97 per cent. 58 per cent. 57 per cent.
GT A reperarete rates tetelolereiernie, w:evelie i, 66 per cent. aac SORES hig
TONES So cao comnodomaoccals 169M Sats TO es 98: te. 69“ S
MOG ends ae asl abo on be TO Sean we aL tot ae SHS ics Ae Hap IN a
QA Rares ver cicicvave in tele Tote eit ZO cheek 140)" Arran 18 Toca
TO ees Gre cgoeae ASO ee Sees LOS SS Sir 323s T4650 ins yar eel
_—
5 a cat
. Ss
100_DEATHS
BIRTHS
19/4-
19/6 19/7 1918
YEAR
Fic. 1. Showing the change in the percentage, which deaths were of births in each of the years 1913
to 1918 in France (non-invaded departments) (
land and Wales (—-—-).
From the raw data of births and deaths
given in the source referred to above I have
calculated the percentage which the deaths
3 This percentage is based upon returns for the
first three fourths of the year only.
), Prussia (——), Bavaria (----) and Eng-
These percentages are shown graphically in
Fig. 1, together with straight lines fitted to
each, by the method of least squares. The
equations to the straight lines, where y de-
notes death/birth ratio, and x time, are:
Tunez 4, 1920]
France, y= 84.0669 + 21.0285 «. Origin at
1912. (ii)
Prussia, y=59.9-+17.1 x. Origin at 1913,
(i)
Bavaria, y= 42.4668 -+ 18.0571 x. Origin at
1912. (iv)
England and Wales, y= 45.9335 + 6.2571 x.
Origin at 1912. (v)
From this diagram and the data of Table I.
we note.
1. In the year prior to the beginning of
the war the death-birth ratio of France was at
nearly twice as high a level as in any of the
other countries dealt with. This fact was of
course well known. With a very low birth-
rate and a death-rate of the same general
order of magnitude as that prevailing in other
European countries the French death-birth
ratio could not be anything but extremely
high.
2. In all the countries here dealt with the
death-birth ratio in general rises throughout
the war period. This means that the pro-
portion of deaths to births increased as long
as the war continued. In France it was
slightly more than double in 1918 what it was
in 1913. The same was in general true of
Prussia and Bavaria. These states started
from a very different base in 1913, and the
relative rise was even greater.
3. In England and Wales, while the death-
birth ratio imereased throughout the war
period, the rate of this increase was markedly
slower than in any of the other countries
dealt with.
4. A straight line is not a particularly good
fit to the French curve, but it has been used
in order to demonstrate more clearly the gen-
eral trend. In 1915 and 1916 the French
percentage rose markedly above the straight
line. These were perhaps the years when the
forces of war impinged most heavily upon the
French.
5. It is noteworthy that despite the epi-
demic of influenza in 1918, unprecedented in
its severity so far as this disease is concerned,
none of the curves shows any sharp or marked
rise in that year. The curve for England and
Wales comes nearest to showing an effect of
SCIENCE
595
the epidemic, but even then the rise in 1918
is not so marked as one might have expected.
6. The straight lines for France, Prussia
and Bavaria are nearly parallel, or in other
words have slopes of about the same order of
magnitude (cf., the values of b which deter-
mine the slope in the straight line equations).
The slope of the line for England and Wales
is very different from that of the other three.
These facts raise many interesting points
for discussion. The people of Prussia and
Bavaria suffered progressive deprivations in
respect. of food and other comforts of life
throughout the war. The sufferings of the
French people in these respects were undoubt-
edly less severe than those of the Germans.
All, however, lived for several years on an
inadequate diet. “This fact alone unquestion-
ably contributed to an ever-increasing death-
rate, particularly at the two ends of the life
eyele. This same dietary factor undoubtedly
also played a considerable part in producing
the steady fall in the birth-rate. Here, how-
ever, the psychological factor also had a large
role, and this introduces a point of great
interest.. Psychologically, the civilian French
population and the civilian German popula-
tion were on a different footing. In the one
ease, until well into 1918, the attitude was
that of the potential conqueror, fighting as an
invader in the other’s territory. In the other
ease a war of defense against invasion and
further destruction of the home land was
being fought. Yet the net effect on the vital
indices of the population was, as is shown
by the essential parallelism of the straight
lines, substantially the same in the one case as
in the other. In any other game than war
the psychological attitude of offender pro-
duces far different results from that of de-
fender. Here the essential and out standing
fact is that the net biological outcome of the
complex interplay of forces resulting from
war was almost identically the same in
France and Germany.
Another interesting point is that while
France started in 1913 with a death-birth
ratio 40 per cent higher than that of the
German states—she having at that time an
506
approximate equality of births and deaths—
nevertheless the biological changes induced by
the war, as expressed in this ratio, were the
same for the one as for the others. We are
evidently dealing here with deep-seated and
fundamental phenomena of racial biology.
The biological reactions of French and Ger-
mans in respect of a most fundamental phe-
nomenon, the death-birth ratio, were essen-
tially the same, though they started from such
different pre-war bases.
The case of England is obviously entirely
different. Starting from about the same base
as the German states England’s biological re-
action to war was much less pronounced.
There are many explanations, such as better
food conditions, different race psychology from
any of the other belligerents, ete., which
might be brought forward. There appears at
the moment no way of accurately evaluating
any of these possible explanations. We must
perforce rest with the setting forth of the
facts. It is worth noting, however, that
though England’s vital index changed less in
degree than that of the other countries, its
movement was the same in kind. x
There are two other points which one would
like to have information upon. The first is:
What will be the course of these death-birth
ratio curves in the years following 1918?
Will they come back to the pre-war level, and
if so, how soon? For England and Wales
alone is it now possible to get an indication
on this point. For the year 1919 the relation
aE had the value 73 per cent. This
represents a marked drop, though it does not
bring the curve back to the pre-war level.
The appearance of official statistics which will
make possible the further plotting of the
curves of Fig. 1 will be awaited with great
interest. In the second place, one would like
to know what the appearance of the curve for
the United States would be. Unfortunately,
we have for the Registration Area of births
data only for the years 1915, 1916, and 1917
now available. So few years appear inade-
quate to set against the longer series for the
other countries. RayMonpD PrEarb
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1327
COLORED PHOTOGRAPHS OF PLANT
DISEASE SPECIMENS
In the preparation of a handbook of the
diseases of vegetables by the U. S. Bureau of
Plant Industry for the Food Products In-
spection Service of the U. S. Bureau of
Markets, it has been found practicable to
make colored illustrations by the aid of a
firm of commercial photographers.
The specimens of diseased vegetables were
collected by the writers to a large extent in
the Chicago markets and freight yards. In
addition numerous field excursions were made
into the region surrounding Chicago for the
purpose of securing specimens. To date, over’
two hundred illustrations have been com-
pleted, a number of which were exhibited at
the Baltimore and St. Louis meetings and
aroused a very general and real interest on
the part of the botanists. So many questions
were asked concerning the process by which
the illustrations were prepared that the writers
are using this means of making the answers
as generally known as possible.
A vertical camera was used and the speci-
mens were arranged on a ground-glass back-
ground which eliminates shadows. Occasion-
ally a black velvet background was used, and
leaves usually were laid on wet blotting paper
to prevent curling. In making the exposures,
artificial light was seldom used. Most of the
subjects have been reproduced in natural size
on 8 by 10 inch negatives. The camera was
equipped with Cooke Process Lenses, Series 5,
of 16 or 18 inches focal length, or with a Goerz
Dogmar lens of 12 inches focal length. Color
filters, usually the K2 yellow or the green, and
occasionally the red, were used in about 75
per cent. of the exposures. About two-thirds
of the exposures were made on Seed’s Pan-
chromatic plates and the remainder on Poly-
chrome or Standard Orthonon plates. The
legends are etched in the gelatin of the nega-
tive. The majority of the subjects have been
photographed in duplicate to insure against
loss of the record by breakage.
Prints are made either on Defender or
Kresko printing-out paper or on Defender or
1 Webster Bros., Chicago, Illinois.
JUNE 4, 1920]
Azo developing paper, preferably the latter
in each case. The coloring is secured by
painting directly upon the dry prints with
transparent dyes. The detail of the image is
supplied by the lines of the print itself.
Water-soluble aniline dyes in the colors
yellow, orange, red, brown, blue and royal
blue are commonly used. The original plate
is colored with the specimens before the artist
and, while it has been necessary to supervise
closely the color work on this print, a sur-
prising degree of skill and accuracy has been
developed by some of the operatives. Since
most truck crop disease specimens are highly
perishable and change considerably during the
time elapsing between exposure of the nega-
tive and the completion of prints, even though
held in a refrigerator, it has been found ad-
vantageous to register the exact colors on
some other print of proper color value at the
time of exposure, or if possible to collect
fresh specimens of a similar character.
Inasmuch as the print is to serve as a back-
ground for the color, the kind of paper chosen
and the intensity of the image depend upon
the color effects desired. For example, the
printing-out paper is desirable for most yel-
lows, browns, and reds, while for purples,
blacks, and dark greens the developing paper
is preferable. However, the printing-out
paper serves very well for the majority of
greens and has been more extensively used.
After the dyes are mixed and diluted to
secure the desired shade, the gelatin surface
of the print is prepared for coloring (prob-
ably softened and swelled) by wiping with a
cloth moistened with alcohol, ammonium
hydroxide, or more commonly saliva, and the
dye is applied with a brush in rather liberal
amounts of which the excess is removed by
means of a blotter. The quality of the color
is determined by the proportions of the dye
mixture and the type of paper used for the
print; the intensity of color is determined by
the dilution of the dye, the intensity of the
photographie image, and the length of time
the excess dye is allowed to remain on the
print before blotting. In case of error the
SCIENCE
507
color can be removed with ammonium hy-
droxide. In some instances a very small
amount of this substance added to the dye
eauses the latter to spread and adhere more
satisfactorily. Details in white or background
color, such as holes in a leaf, can be con-
served by coating with a paste or enamel
which is insoluble in ordinary solvents and
is removed with benzine after the coloring is
completed. Details in black, such as the
blackened veins in cabbage black rot, can
best be shown by the image on Azo paper.
After the coloring is completed, the prints
are run through a mordant bath to fix the
colors. Combinations of acetic acid, formalin,
and other mordant reagents constitute this
bath, the exact composition of which depends
in part upon the colors to be fixed. The
gelatin surface must be thoroughly wetted by
the solution. The prints are then rinsed in a
water bath, placed face downward on squeegee
boards, sponged, and passed through rollers
to remove the excess water. The prints are
mounted while wet on muslin or Japanese
paper with a cardboard flap and allowed to
dry on the squeegee board.
While these colored photographs are ulti-
mately to be used for lithographs, it has been
found feasible to reproduce about ninety sets
of fifty duplicates each for immediate use by
hand coloring of duplicate prints, the original
colored print being used as a guide. How-
ever, this process is too laborious and un-
reliable for large scale production and the
colors will not endure indefinite exposure to
light. Colored lantern slides of a very grati-
fying quality have also been made.
This process of color reproduction could
well be utilized in other branches of science
and there appears to be no reason why it could
not be perfected and employed by educational
and research institutions. The results of this
method of scientific illustration are far supe-
rior to uncolored reproductions and are, it is
believed, an improvement over other types
of color reproduction because of the accuracy
of detail afforded by the photographic image.
Such illustrations should find wide use in
508
technical publications and especially in charts,
stereopticon slides, and extension bulletins.
Max W. GARDNER,
Gro. K. K. Linx
WILLIAM DIXON WEAVER
Dr. WituiaM D. Weaver, for a number of
years editor of the Electrical World, a man of
the true scientific spirit, a friend of education
and scholarship, a devotee of literature, an
upholder of the finer things of life, and one
of the most delightful of companions, died at
his home in Charlottesville, Va., on Novem-
ber 2, 1919.
Dr. Weaver was born on August 30, 1857,
at Greensburg, Pa. After a year spent in pre-
liminary study at the University of Kentucky,
he entered the United States Naval Academy,
from which he graduated as cadet engineer in
1880. Only a few months ago Dr. Weaver re-
ceived the honorary degree of LL.D. from the
University of Kentucky. After graduation the
young officer served in the Navy for twelve
years except for one year’s leave of absence in
1884, during which he studied electricity and
conducted some investigations in the electrical
laboratory of the Sorbonne, Paris, and the
School of Electrical Engineering, London.
In 1883 he was a member of the U. S. S.
Yantic expedition sent to the relief of Lieu-
tenant Greely, the Arctic explorer. When he
resigned from the Navy in 1892 he held the
relative rank of ensign.
Mr. Weaver’s life work was that of an edi-
torial exponent of the science, art and indus-
try of electricity. After resigning from the
Navy he spent a year in the business of manu-
facturing electrical appliances, and he became
editor of the Llectrical World in 1893. In
1896 the American Electrician was established,
and this magazine, a monthly, with Mr. Weaver
as editor, became notably successful. Mr.
‘Weaver accomplished the difficult task of ma-
king a magazine that was useful and interest-
ing to the “ practical” man and at the same
time of high technical standing. His gifts as
a technical journalist were indeed of a high
order. In 1906 the American Electrician was
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
absorbed by. the Hlectrical World, and Mr.
Weaver retaining his connection with that
paper until May, 1912, when he retired, re-
moving to Charlottesville, Va.
Of a modest, retiring nature, Mr. Weaver
did a great deal for electrical advancement,
although often he remained in the background,
cooperating with others whose names appeared
in connection with the particular task in hand.
He became an associate of the American Insti-
tute of Electrical Engineers in 1887 and be-
came successively a member and a fellow of
the society. For six years Mr. Weaver served
as manager of the institute, and it is probable
that he could have been elected president had
he not refused to entertain the honor. On
May 16, 1919, as the result of the work of a
group of friends and admirers, a bronze tablet
was unveiled at the headquarters of the Ameri-
can Institute of Electrical Engineers in recog-
nition of Mr. Weaver’s services. It bears a
bas-relief portrait and this inscription:
This tablet is dedicated to William Dixon
Weaver, engineer, journalist, scholar, to record his
influence in the development and promotion of the
art and science of electrical engineering.
In 1900 Mr. Weaver was appointed by the
United States government as an official dele-
gate to the International Electrical Congress
at Paris, but, upon his suggestion, the ap-
pointment was transferred to Dr. A. HE. Ken-
nelly, of Harvard University. He had much
to do with the St. Louis (1904) International
Electrical Congress, of which he was treasurer
and business manager. With Dr. Kennelly,
who was general secretary, he supervised the
publication of the Transactions of that con-
gress in three large volumes, published in
1905.
An excellent judge of engineering literature,
Mr. Weaver was for several years chairman of
the Library Committee of the American In-
stitute of Electrical Engineers. In 1901 Dr.
S. S. Wheeler purchased the Latimer Qlark
collection of electrical books and pamphlets
and presented it to the institute. Thereafter,
as a labor of love, Mr. Weaver edited the
Catalogue of the Wheeler Gift of Books,
JUNE 4, 1920]
Pamphlets and Periodicals in the Library of
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
This catalogue raisonné, in which the late
Brother Potamian collaborated with Mr.
Weaver was published in two handsome vol-
umes in 1909 and stands as a monument to
Mr. Weaver’s learning and taste.
It is believed that Mr. Weaver was the first
to lay before the late Andrew Carnegie a plan
for a home for the engineering societies in
New York City which later resulted in the
Engineering Societies’ Building and the Engi-
neers’ Club.
A French scholar and an admirer of French
achievements in science and much in French
literature, Mr. Weaver was a collector for many
years of books, pamphlets and pictures relating
to the French Revolution. It is said that few
private collections in the United States of
books relating to the French Revolution were
more complete than his. At one time he wrote
about Paris:
I feel more at home in that city than in any
other in the world, on account probably of my first
impressions of the real world having been received
there.
But Lieutenant Weaver was nevertheless a
thorough American. During the Spanish-
American war of 1898 he served as volunteer
chief engineer on the U. S. S. Glacier. In
1915, after his retirement, he was asked to be-
come a member of the Naval Advisory Board,
but declined on account of his health.
After taking up his home in Charlottesville
Mr. Weaver became at once at home in the
scholastic atmosphere of the University of Vir-
ginia. It is reported that he was offered a
place on the faculty of this university a few
years ago. Some time before his death Mr.
Weaver gave nearly his entire collection of
technical books to the University of Virginia.
An independent thinker, Mr. Weaver was
tenacious in adhering to his opinions, although
quiet and pleasant in manner and not vocifer-
ous in advancing his views. He felt strongly
that cultural studies should not be neglected
in technical education, and deplored a purely
materialistic attitude in schools of engineering.
SCIENCE
509
Mr. Weaver was one of the founders of the
Illuminating Engineering Society and also of
the American Electrochemical Society. He
served for three years as manager of each. He
had also much to do with the formation of the
Commission on Resuscitation from Electric
Shock. He was a member of the Société In-
ternationale des Electriciens and had been hon-
ored by the French government as an officer
de Instruction Publique.
, With an acute distaste for public appear-
ances, Mr. Weaver found his greatest pleasure
in his home and library. His home life was
ideal. In 1900 he married Miss Mildred Nie-
buhr and the union was blessed with six chil-
dren. He had been a sufferer from heart
trouble and passed away in his sleep.
WituaM E. Kemy
STATE GRANTS FOR SCIENTIFIC
INVESTIGATIONS IN ENGLAND
A goint deputation from the British Med-
ical Association and the British Science
Guild waited upon the Right Hon. A. J. Bal-
four, Lord President of the Council, at the
offices of the Privy Council on March 2, to
place before him certain considerations with
regard to state awards for scientific research.
According to the report in The British
Medical Journal Sir Watson Cheyne said
that the object of the deputation was to bring
forward the question of state awards for
scientific work after such work had been done.
Scientific workers were assisted by scholar-
ships and so forth while doing their work,
but after it was done there was at present no
provision for them, although, excited by the
interest of their investigation, they had often
neglected to make any provision for them-
selves. Moreover, it was the tradition that a
scientific man should immediately publish his
discoveries, making no attempt to conceal any
knowledge in order to secure personal advan-
tage.
Sir Clifford Allbutt, president of the Brit-
ish Medical Association, referred in partic-
ular to the conditions under which medical
men worked. Those conditions were gov-
erned by the very high-standard of ethics
560
maintained in the profession. No medical
man could have honor in the profession if he
descended to any kind of direct or indirect
advertisement. No medical. man was _ per-
mitted to take out a patent. The large hos-
pitals no doubt gave a field to the clinical
worker which might offer considerable in-
direct reward, but that did not apply to the
research worker, who was rather hidden be-
hind his work. He knew men of very high
academic attainments working enthusiastic-
ally at research who were declining lucrative
appointments in order that they might finish
—which they never did, of course—their ex-
perimental investigations. It was from such
disinterested research—not utilitarian nor
aimed at sensational or immediate results—
that the greatest benefits accrued to mankind.
He himself was chairman for some years of
the Scientific Relief Committee of the Royal
Society. Mr. Balfour would perhaps be sur-
prised if he were to tell him privately the
names of the very distinguished scientists
who, or whose representatives, came forward
to ask for grants in order to tide over a time
of great difficulty. It was desirable to attract
a great many more potential workers. The
field of comparative pathology, for example,
lay untilled; at present it offered no reward,
direct or indirect. It would be said that the
Treasury must be careful about expenditure,
but he feared that the expenditure under this
head would not be very great. He was afraid
that the highest kind of intellectual research
was rather scarce, and consequently the de-
mands for grants would not be so heavy as
might be anticipated.
Sir Richard Gregory said that in medicine
the great experimental work was rarely done
by the successful practitioner or consultant.
It was carried out in the research laboratories
by men who occupied posts carrying only
moderate salaries. There was the further
consideration that the highest type of worker
—the genius—in medicine or any other de-
partment of science was precisely the man
who was not amenable to control—the free
worker who followed up a clue in some de-
partment of knowledge to the willing sacrifice
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1327
of himself. There should be a fund of some
kind for making suitable awards, to be con-
sidered as payment for results achieved, and
not as grants for favors to come. The scien-
tific worker (he added), unlike the worker in
literature or art, could not dispose of his
achievement to the public for profit.
Mr. Balfour said that he had always been
an advocate—even a vehement advocate—of
two things which, until quite recent years,
the British public had been very slow to
realize: the one, that the material progress of
mankind depended upon the applications of
science, and the other, that there must be
pure science before these could be applied.
While that was still worth saying even now
on the public platform, it was a commonplace
to everybody sitting around that table. They
were all agreed that the state—which, after
all, represented the people of the country
and could not be in advance of them by more
than a certain amount at any given time—
had been backward in the past in its support
of science. The only difference among them,
if there was any difference, was as to the way
in which the stimulus could best be given to
those brains in the country best qualified to
further scientific research and the subsequent
industrial research based upon it. The view
of the deputation, as he understood, was that
when a man whose opportunities and genius
permitted him to work at research had turned
out some brilliant discovery the state should
give him a reward.
Everybody must feel that the straits to
which many distinguished men of science
were reduced after devoting their whole lives
to research without any desire for pecuniary
reward were rather pathetic, and in many
cases discreditable. For his own part he
thought it most desirable that some remedy
should be found. But he wondered how many
such people would get the reward under the
scheme which in rough outline had been laid
before him that day. He thought the truth
was that in the case of the very great dis-
coveries, while it was often possible to go
back to the individual who started the train
which led to the great result, he himself
JUNE 4, 1920]
had not directly produced that result. Fara-
day did not discover the telephone or wireless
telegraphy or a practical method of electric
lighting; what Faraday did was to make all
those things possible, to lay the scientific
basis of them. It was not easy to see how the
reward was always or even commonly to be
got into the right pocket. The amazing
progress which medical science had recently
made in stamping out certain forms of
zymotie disease was, indeed, a wonderful tri-
umph; but it was very hard to pick out the
individuals to whom that triumph was due.
If he might put himself in the unfortunate
position of a Prime Minister, the difficulty of
saying that A. should have the money which
was available, or that B. should have it, would
be very great, even though he took the best
advice obtainable. There would be certain
dramatic cases in which the whole public
would be behind the Prime Minister in appor-
tioning a particular reward, and yet when the
historian came to look back upon the long
labors which had made the triumph possible,
might not he have to say that the genius to
whose intuition and inspiration the achieve-
ment was really due had died unrewarded ?
Did anybody think that Maxwell, for instance,
would ever have come in for any share of this
parliamentary grant, seeing that his discoy-
eries were such as very few were capable of
comprehending in the form in which he gave
them to the world? Yet his discoveries lay
at the root of much of the subsequent prog-
ress in physical science. Sir Clifford Allbutt
had pointed out that this was not asking very
much from the taxpayer, because the number
of people who would actually get the reward
was so small. But, looked at from the point
of view of the encouragement of research,
that meant that a young man, going into re-
search, and surveying the possibilities of re-
ward, would find he had the chance only of
one in ten thousand. He might contribute
himself as a colloborator to the great dis-
covery for which somebody else, quite prop-
erly, got the chief credit. The collaborator,
on this plan, got nothing, yet without the
collaboration of people not in the first rank
SCIENCE
561
could progress be made? Germany had never
excelled this country—he would like to use a
stronger phrase, but he would be nationally
modest—in the production of those geniuses
who started original discovery; but it had sur-
passed this country in the organization of
men not of the front rank whom it had
brought together in cooperation towards a
common end. He did not see how the in-
vestigations of a body of cooperative workers
could be stimulated by rewarding a few
isolated individuals. At any rate, he saw
difficulties. Was there not more to be said
for some attempt to stimulate research by im-
proving the position of the researchers while
they were doing their work? He was told the
other day that there were people carrying on
research work at Cambridge for a smaller
remuneration that the town council of Cam-
bridge paid to its unskilled employees. This
showed that there was still a great deal to be
done in the way of aiding research while it
was proceeding. He agreed entirely with Sir
Richard Gregory that while the state might
aid research it would only destroy research if
it were resolved to control it. The best men
would not be controlled. The state was in-
capable of forming a judgment on the merits
of an abstruse physical of physiological in-
quiry. That must be left to the genius of the
men themselves. But he hoped it did not
follow that it was quite impossible to combine
with that independence of the worker some
better reward for the work he was doing. He
was afraid, however, that if the Treasury were
represented at that assembly, it would say it
preferred the original scheme laid before him
by Sir Watson Cheyne. The framing of any
such ideal scheme would require a great deal
of thought.
In conclusion, Mr. Balfour said that while
he had spoken for himself alone, he was also
there in some sense as representing the Prime
Minister, and he would like to add that there
was no man living who had shown a greater
sympathy with scientific development than
Mr. Lloyd George, who had been responsible
for some of the greatest advances which had
been made in the direction of state aid for
562
scientific and medical research. When he re-
ported to him what had passed that day, they
might be sure the Prime Minister would give
it the most sympathetic consideration. He
was far from laying it down that the state
should not on occasion imitate our forefathers
in the ease of Jenner and offer a pecuniary
reward to some great man of science whose
services had been exceptional and whose
achievements were obviously his own. But he
would not wish that to be a part of the regu-
lar system of dealing with discovery in this
country. He hoped that what the govern-
ment had already done would be found to be
far greater in its ultimate results than per-
haps the public at large, or even men of
science, as yet had realized. He feared that
they had not been supported as they might
have been by men of great wealth in this
country. There had been admirable excep-
tions, but either we had fewer millionaires
than the Americans or we were less lucky in
them, for there was no doubt that private
individuals across the Atlantic had contrib-
uted on a scale which did justice to their
generosity and was likly to produce great re-
sults for the whole world. Probably it was
out of the question to hope completely to
emulate them, but he did not despair that
among the wealthy men in this country some
might be found, in addition to those who
had already shown themselves generous bene-
factors, who would do much to aid and stim-
ulate that research into the laws of nature
and that application of those laws upon which
our main hopes for the amelioration of the
lot of the human race must depend.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE MANUFACTURE OF SYNTHETIC AMMONIA
IN ENGLAND?
Tuer Ministry of Munitions announces that
Lord Inverforth has arranged for the sale of
H. M. Nitrate Factory of Billingham-on-Tees
to Messrs. Brunner, Mond, and Co., Ltd. The
purchasers will form a company to take over
the factory, and will be responsible for all
1From Nature.
SCIENCE
LN. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1327
outstanding liabilities of the ministry in con-
nection with the project. This factory, the
erection of which was commenced early in
1918 by the Department of Explosives Supply,
was designed for the manufacture of synthetic
ammonia and for the production of 60,000 to
70,000 tons of ammonium nitrate annually.
During 1916 the Nitrogen Products Com-
mittee had established a laboratory in prem-
ises placed at its disposal in the new Ramsay
building of University College, London, and
the Committee’s research staff, under the
direction of Dr. J. A. Harker, was engaged
in an experimental investigation of a number
of problems relating to nitrogen fixation.
Although it was not anticipated that there
would be any shortage of supplies of am-
monia, yet it was deemed desirable, in view of
the special ability of the synthetic ammonia
process for the needs of this country, that an
experimental study of it should be made
forthwith, so that the required information
should be available if necessary.
After a year’s experimental work, the prog-
ress made was considered so encouraging that
the Committee decided to establish a mod-
erate-sized technical trial unit, and funds for
the purpose were allocated by the treasury.
It was hoped, by means of this plant, that a
study of the chemical engineering problems
could follow upon that already made of the
pure chemistry of the reactions involved, but
the committee did not suggest the establish-
ment of the process as a war measure upon an
industrial scale. In 1917, however, the Ex-
plosives Supply Department considered that
the position reached in the experiments justi-
fied it in recommending the erection of a
large works, in substitution for the com-
mittee’s cyanamide project, and a site at Bill-
ingham, some 260 acres in extent, was ulti-
mately chosen for this purpose. But a num-
ber of difficulties supervened, and construc-
tion was slow, and at the time of the armistice
only a few permanent buildings and a number
of temporary structures had been erected,
though a large amount of plant had been
ordered.
The purchasers of the factory now undertake
JUNE 4, 1920]
to complete the scheme by providing the addi-
tional buildings and plant required for the
synthesis of ammonia and its oxidation to
nitric acid and nitrates suitable for the manu-
facture of explosives and fertilizers. It is
understood that the company has acquired a
large amount of additional land and that it
intends to develop the project on a very large
scale. The factory has been re-designed on a
peace as distinct from its former war basis,
and in many particulars the new plant will
represent a substantial advance, both in the
ammonia and nitric acid sections, on any-
thing previously used in Germany.
i
SPANISH EDITION OF THE JOURNAL OF THE
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Art the meeting in New Orleans the board
of trustee’s presented the following report:
The first year of the Spanish edition of The
Journal has been reasonably satisfactory. Its pub-
lication was undertaken with some hesitancy be-
cause it meant a venture in an entirely new field.
Other periodicals had been published in this coun-
try in the Spanish language for circulation in
South and Central America, but their publication
was undertaken for commercial reasons. Our
Spanish edition entered the field solely as a scien-
tifie periodical for educative and scientific pur-
poses, and it has heen received with approbation.
The field was a difficult one to work in the first
place because there was not available any physi-
cian’s directory, or any even fairly reliable list of
physicians of standing. However, a list of such
physicians has been gradually assembled so that
now there is a fairly reliable one at the association
headquarters. Imcluded in this list are the physi-
cians of Central and South America and the Philip-
pine Islands.
Another difficulty has been the mailing facilities;
these have been anything but satisfactory. Under
normal conditions it takes a long time for a com-
munication to reach the South American countries,
with the exception of those bordering on the Gulf
of Mexico.
At the end of the year the subscription list com-
prised 2,908 names. To those who appreciate the
difficulties and know the conditions that prevailed
at the beginning, this must be regarded as quite
satisfactory. Roughly, this cireulation is as fol-
lows: The largest number of subscribers naturally
are in Mexico—539; in Cuba next, 530; Argentina,
SCIENCE
563
270; Brazil, 194 (in Brazil Portuguese is the lan-
guage in general use, therefore it is rather remark-
able that this number has been secured there) ;
Chile, 179; Spain, 142; Peru, 101. The rest of the
circulation is in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Keuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Para-
guay, Salvador, Santo Domingo, Uruguay, Vene-
zuela, Panama and Porto Rico.
It is not to be expected that this journal could
be published without a loss for the first few years.
As will be remembered, the venture was under-
taken at the request of the International Health
Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, which agreed
to pay half the loss. It should Be explained in
this connection that the number of copies of each
issue printed was 4,500 to 5,500, and that the ex-
cess above those subscribed for was sent out as
sample copies. Hereafter, of course, there will be
fewer sample copies distributed; consequently a
Jess expense with an increased income. During
the months of January, February and March the
circulation has been steadily increasing. The ac-
tual loss to the association to date has been less
than $10,000, which amount promises to be re-
turned with more than gratifying results within
the first five-year period of its publication.
GRANTS FOR RESEARCH MADE BY THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Tur Committee on Grants of the associa-
tion held a meeting in April, and distributed
grants amounting to forty-five hundred dollars
as given below. The next meeting of the
committee will be in connection with the
annual meeting of the assocation in Decem-
ber, when grants for the year 1920 will be
made. Applications or suggestions in regard
to grants may be made to any member of the
committee, and should be received before
December 1. The present membership is:
Henry Crew, chairman; W. B. Cannon, R. T.
Chamberlin, G. N. Lewis, George T. Moore,
G. H. Parker, Robert M. Yerkes, and Joel
Stebbins, secretary.
Following are the grants for 1919:
MATHEMATICS
, Three hundred dollars to Professor Solomon
Lefschetz, of Kansas University, to assist in the
publication of his memoir on algebraic surfaces,
which was awarded the Bordin prize of the Paris
Academy of Sciences.
i
564
One hundred dollars to Dr. Olive C. Hazlett, of
Mount Holyoke College, in support of her work
on the theory of hypereomplex numbers and in-
variants,
PHYSICS
Two hundred dollars to Professor A. A. Knowl-
ton, of Reed College, in aid of a determination of
the relation between chemical composition and
magnetic properties in Heusler alloys. The par-
ticular problem is to find the precise proportions in
which the elements must be mixed in order to get
the maximum value of magnetic intensity at satu-
ration.
, One hundred dollars to Professor John C. Shedd,
of Occidental College, in aid of a further study of
snow crystals, similar to that which he has already
published.
4 ASTRONOMY
Six hundred dollars to Professor Philip Fox, of
Dearborn Observatory, Northwestern University,
in support of his work on the photographic determi-
nation of stellar parallaxes. This is a renewal of
the grant made for the same purpose in 1917, but
the use of which was interrupted by the war.
One hundred dollars to Professor Anne S.
Young, of Mount Holyoke College, for the determi-
nation of the positions and proper motions of stars
from photographie plates already taken. The work
is being done in cooperation with the Yerkes and
McCormick Observatories.
GEOLOGY
Two hundred and fifty dollars to M. Ferdinand
Canu, of Versailles, France, to carry forward
toward completion the very significant studies upon
the classification of bryozoa in which he is col-
laborating with Dr. R. S. Bassler at the U. S.
National Museum.
Two hundred and fifty dollars to Mr. Frank B.
Taylor, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for a field study
of the moraines of recession in the St. Lawrence
Valley.
ZOOLOGY
Two hundred and fifty dollars to Professor S. I.
Kornhauser, of Denison University, for a continu-
ation of his work on the sexual characteristics of
the membracid insect Thelia bimaculata. The
first part of this work was published in September,
1919, in the Journal of Morphology.
Two hundred dollars to Dr. P. W. Whiting, of
St. Stephen’s College, for breeding outfit and tem-
perature apparatus to be used for genetic and
cytological researches on Ephestia and Hadro-
bracon.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
BOTANY
Five hundred dollars to the editorial board of
Botanical Abstracts for editorial and office ex-
penses in connection with the preparation of manu-
seripts. The general interests of botany, in both
its national and international aspects, would seem
to be best served at this time by aiding this ab-
stract journal for another year.
Five hundred dollars to Dr, I. W. Bailey, of the
Bussey Institution, Harvard University, for aid in
investigations upon: (1) Myrmecophytism; par-
ticularly certain supposed symbiotic relations be-
tween ants and higher plants. (2) Relations be-
tween ants and fungi, particularly ants as dis-
seminators of disease. (3) Cytology of the cam-
bium. . The entomological work involved will be
done in collaboration with Professor W. M.
Wheeler, and the headquarters for the summer
will be at the British Guiana Tropical Research
Station of the New York Zoological Society.
ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION
One hundred dollars to Mr. S. D. Robbins, of
the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, for meas-
urements of blood pressure of a trephined stam-
merer,
Two hundred dollars to Professor Daniel W. La-
Rue, Stroudsburg State Normal School, Pennsyl-
Vania, in support of experimental work on a pho-
netic alphabet.
, Two hundred dollars to Professor Margaret F.
Washburn, Vassar College, for a study of emo-
tional characteristics of certain racial groups in
New York City.
Two hundred dollars to Professor Joseph Peter-
son, George Peabody College for Teachers, Ten-
nessee, in support of a study of the qualitative dif-
ferences in the mentality of whites and negroes.
Two hundred dollars to Professor A. A. Schaeffer,
University of Tennessee, in support of an experi-
mental study of orientation and the direction of
movement of animals, and particularly of the
‘“spiral path’’ in man,
{ PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
One hundred dollars to Professor Theodore
Hough, University of Virginia, in support of his
studies with Dr. J. A. Waddell on blood changes
after severe hemorrhages.
One hundred and fifty dollars to Professor Carl
J. Wiggers, Western Reserve University, in sup-
port of his investigations of the cardiac function
by optical registration. JOEL STEBBINS,
Secretary
June 4, 1920]
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Feritows elected at the annual meeting of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
include Cecil Kent Drinker, Harlow Shapley,
William Underwood and Clark Wissler.
Maurice Caullery and Jacques Solomon
Hadamard were elected foreign honorary
members.
Art the annual meeting of the Association
of American Physicians held in Atlantic City,
N. J., May 4 and 5, Dr. William S, Thayer,
Baltimore, was elected president; Dr. Herbert
C. Moffitt, San Francisco, vice president; Dr.
Thomas McCrae, Philadelphia, secretary; Dr.
Thomas R. Boggs, Baltimore, recorder, and
Dr. Joseph A. Capps, Chicago, treasurer.
Dr. Rem Hunt, of Harvard University,
was elected president of the United States
Pharmacopeial convention, on May 12, to suc-
ceed Dr. Harvey W. Wiley.
CotonEL Marston Taytor Bocert, professor
of chemistry in Columbia University, has
been elected president of the American Sec-
tion of the Société de Chemie Industrielle of
France.
Dr. Stantey H. Osporne, formerly epide-
miologist of the Massachusetts State Depart-
ment of Health, has been appointed director
of the Division of Preventable Diseases in the
Connecticut State Department of Health.
We learn from Nature that at the annual
general meeting of the Marine Biological
Association, held in London on April 28, Sir
E. Ray Lankester was reelected president and
Sir Arthur Shipley chairman of the council.
The Right Hon. Sir Arthur Griffith Boscawen
was added to the list of vice-presidents, and
Messrs. T. H. Riches and Julian S. Huxley
became members of the council.
Sik Henry A. Miers, vice-chancellor of the
Victoria University of Manchester, formerly
professor of mineralogy at Oxford, has been
reelected president of the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society for the session
1920-21.
Mr. Witrrep H. Parker has been appointed
director of the British National Institute of
Agricultural Botany. The institute, includ-
SCIENCE
565
ing the Official Seed-testing Station for Eng-
land and Wales will be housed in quarters in
course of erection at Cambridge.
Dr. E. S. Moore, professor of geology and
mineralogy and dean of the School of Mines
of the Pennsylvania State College, has been
appointed a member of the committee on
sedimentation of the National Research
Council. He will represent the colleges and
universities in the eastern states in an
organization for the stimulation of research
work on sedimentation.
Proressor W. W. Row es, of Cornell Uni-
versity, has been engaged to make a further
investigation of balsa wood in Central Amer-
ica. Sailing to Costa Rica immediately after
Commencement, he will resume the work
which he began on his first trip in 1918-19.
He will be accompanied by Instructor Harvey
E. Stork.
Prorressor L. C. Guienn has recently been
on leave of absence from Vanderbilt Univer-
sity investigating for the U. S. Department
of Justice the physiographic and geologic
problems involved in the disputed jurisdiction
between Texas and Oklahoma in the Red
River valley part of the Burkburnett oil field.
He plans to spend a part of the coming sum-
mer there in further studies of the river’s
changes in that region.
W. L. Wuitrnead, recently of the geo-
logical department of the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, has gone to South
America to carry on geologic exploration in
Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.
It is noted in Nature that the Royal
Academy’s exhibition thig year includes a
presentation portrait of Sir Clifford Allbutt
painted by Sir William Orpen. The picture
hangs in the first gallery and bears the in-
scription: “ Sir Clifford Allbutt, K.C.B., M.D.,
F.R.S., Regius Professor of Physics in the
University of Cambridge; President of the
British Medical Association. Presented to
him by his Profession, 1920.” A proof of the
mezzotint engraving of the portrait is ex-
hibited in the room devoted to engravings,
drawings and etchings.
566
THe John Calvin McNair lectures at the
University of North Carolina were delivered
this year by Professor Edwin G. Conklin, of
Princeton, who spoke on the subject of
“Human Evolution in Retrospect and
Prospect.”
Tue University of North Carolina chapter
of Sigma Xi was installed May 26 by Pro-
fessor OC. E. McClung, of the University of
Pennsylvania, president of Sigma Xi. The
charter members of the North Carolina
chapter are Drs. James M. Bell and Joseph
Hyde Pratt, initiated at Cornell and Yale
respectively, and Drs. F. P. Venable, H. V.
Wilson, W. D. MacNider, A. S. Wheeler,
W. ©. Coker and William Cain, all members
of the faculty.
THE meeting of the University of Pennsyl-
vania Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi
on May 26 was held at the Flower Observa-
tory, Highland Park. Addresses were made
by Professor Erie Doolittle on “Star Clusters
and Star Nebule” and by Professor Horace
C. Richards on the “Einstein Theory of
Relativity.” Preceding the addresses, supper
was served on the lawn to one hundred and
fifty members and guests. Officers elected for
1920-21, are M. J. Babb, president; O. L.
Shinn, vice president; H. C. Barker, secre-
tary; H. S. Colton, treasurer.
Proressor Gerorce B. Mancorp recently
spoke before the Anthropological Society of
St. Louis on “Ethnic Types in America.”
On May 5, Dr. W. W. Graves gave a lecture
on the “Scaphoid Seapula.”
Tuer Croonian lecture of the Royal Society
will be delivered by Professor William Bate-
son on June 17 upon the subject of “Genetic
Segregation.”
Sm Artuur NerwsHoime, who has returned
to England, has in press a volume of American
addresses on Public Health and Insurance,
which will be published by the Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Accorpine to the English correspondent of
the Journal of the American Medical Asso-
ciation, Sir William Osler left an estate of
the gross value of $80,000 with a net per-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1327
sonality of $53,000. He left his medical and
scientific library (as cataloged) to the McGill
University, Montreal, and all other property
to his wife. At her death or earlier, if she
should wish it, his residence, 138 Norham
Gardens, Oxford, is to be given to the dean,
canons and governing body of Christ Church
as the residence of the regius professor of
medicine.
We learn from Nature that a committee of
fellows of the Royal Society and members of
the University of Cambridge has been formed
for the purpose of collecting funds for a
memorial to be erected in Westminster Abbey
to the late Lord Rayleigh in recognition of
his eminent services to scence. Lord Rayleigh
was both president of the Royal Society and
Chancellor of the University, and an appeal
has been issued by the society and the uni-
versity. It is thought, however, that there
may be some men of science unconnected with
either of these bodies who may wish to show
their appreciation of Lord Rayleigh’s work.
Donations may be sent to the hon. treasurers
of the fund, Sir Richard Glazebrook and Sir
Arthur Schuster, at 63 Grange Road, Cam-
bridge.
Marvin Henprix Stacy, professor of civil
engineering and dean at the University of
North Carolina, has died at the age of thirty-
seven years.
FREDERICK Konprn Ravn, professor of plant
pathology in the Royal Agricultural College
of Denmark, Copenhagen, died from blood
poisoning on May 24, in East Orange, N. J.,
aged forty-seven years.
Dr. ALEXANDER FERGUSON, professor of
pathology in the School of Medicine, Cairo,
has died at the age of forty-nine years.
Captain Errrick WiniiAM Creak, F.R.S.,
known for his work on the compass and on
magnetism, died on April 8, at the age of
eight-five years.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS >
Mr. T. Harrison Hueues has given £50,000
and the Cunard Steamship Co., £10,000 to the
JUNE 4, 1920]
University of Liverpool as a contribution to
the appeal for funds.
TEN members are reported by the Journal
of the American Association to have resigned
from the faculty of the Marquette University
School of Medicine on account of a disagree-
ment between them and the president over
several ethical questions, one of which is that
of sacrificing an unborn infant when nec-
essary to save the life of the mother.
Proressor J. H. Cro, of Tulane University,
has accepted the position of professor and
head of the department of physics at the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Hiram Byrp, now of the University of
Mississippi, has accepted an invitation to be-
come head of a new department of hygiene to
be established at the University of Alabama.
Leo F. Pierce, professor of chemistry at
Washburn College, has resigned to work for
a doctor’s degree at Tulane University.
Dr. Cuartes Louis Mix has accepted the
position of head of the department of medi-
eine of Loyola University School of Medicine.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
RENEWAL OF OUR RELATIONS WITH THE
SCIENTIFIC MEN OF EUROPE
To THe Eprror or Science: A flood of pub-
lications is now coming in from all parts of
Europe, especially from the long pent-up
workers of France, of Austria, and of Ger-
many, as well as in lesser degree from those
of Great Britain and the Scandinavian coun-
tries. The German and French publications
are as elegant in form and appearance as of
old. The Austrian publications show very
stringent conditions.
Arrangements are being made for coming
scientific congresses and meetings. Certainly
so far as science is related to human progress
and welfare, it was never more widely needed
all over Europe or all over the world than at
the present moment. Certainly no one would
shut off a British discovery, which would
double the productive value of wheat, from
the people of the ancient Central Empires.
SCIENCE
567
Certainly also any discovery made by savants
of the Central Empires, which would mitigate
human suffering or extend our knowledge,
should be immediately transmitted to the
people of the former Allied Powers. I, for
one, am in favor of renewing scientific rela-
tions with the people of all countries of the
world irrespective of whether they have been
fighting with or against me in the great war
for civilization. On this subject we have
recently received very wise counsel from an
entirely neutral party, Svante Arrhenius and
his confréres. I may also quote from a letter
of January 12, 1920, received from Arrhenius:
I was very glad to receive your kind letter of
December 3. I am in the highest degree thankful
to you for your decision to keep up the perfect in-
ternationality of the Hugenics Congress. Now
France and England have peace with Germany, and
in old times it was always written in the peace
treaties that the contracting parties should live on
the best footing for the time to come. . . . Before
the war the situation in Europe was one cause of
the expensive armaments such that every German
believed a (short) war would be much cheaper than
the steadily increasing military expenses.
In Austria the common expression was, ‘‘ Lieber
ein Ende mit Elend, als ein Elend ohne Ende.’’
Now they have in reality the ‘‘Ende mit Hlend.’’
People are starving to death, many thousands
every day. The children are infected with tuber-
culosis. The professors have their salaries of
12,000 kronen, which is now about 100 dollars, a
year. The institutions are not heated. Series of
experiments, which have taken many years, must
be given up. The better classes are giving their
clothes and their family relics for getting some
foodstuffs from the peasants, who do not take the
valueless paper money. The coal mines, which be-
longed to the companies in Vienna, have been given
to the peasants of the state of Bohemia, which is
according to letters from a Bohemian patriot
under a bolshevist government, enriching itself
and its friends through bribery. No coals are sent
to Vienna, which is beset by starvation and cold.
What have these old agreeable people in Vienna
committed that they should be extirpated... .
From one of the most eminent men in
Vienna, in fact, one of the most brilliant men
in his subject in Europe, a colleague has
received the following:
568
I perceive from your letter that my friend Dollo,
whom I had informed of the critical conditions
here with us, turned for aid to my friend Osborn.
In fact, the past winter in Vienna was literally
frightful. Your people have done a great deal for
our children and in this way have aided materially
in reducing the number of cases of sickness due
to privation and hunger. The circumstance that
Austria is reduced by the peace treaty to a rela-
tively small country, and especially that it is lim-
ited to the mountain territories, which could not
previously raise their own food supplies, and
under ithe present bad conditions are still less able
to provide for themselves, has shaped the situation
since the end of the war for a catastrophe, as we
are surrounded all about by new states which in
part are unwilling to help us, as with Czecho-
slovakia and Hungary and Jugoslavia, and in part
are unable to help because they themselves are in
want, as with Germany. . .. Up to the present
time destitution has attained terrible dimensions
with us, and people have been dying like flies.
The middle classes especially have been most
heavily affected by these conditions as they were
in no position to pass over to other classes the
enormous increase in prices occasioned by the des-
titution, as the business and labor classes were
enabled to do. We can only hope that as soon as
political conditions will permit, Austria, now 80
much reduced in size and productivity in conse-
quence of its geographical limitations that it will
seareely in the future be self-supporting, may ‘he
able to shape up some possibility for a continued
existence. . . . (April 4, 1920.)
Despite these circumstances the writer of
the above letter has succeeded in publishing
a monumental work, printed on paper of the
poorest quality, which must be used by all
American students.
I have taken the liberty of quoting from
these personal letters from two men in the
very front rank in Europe, in order to present
the actual situation to some of my colleagues
who are still in doubt as to what their attitude
should be. We geologists can not cut off com-
munication with a country which has produced
Edouard Suess. We paleontologists welcome
the works of Othenio Abel.
As regards others, with whom personal rela-
tions are less close, I have decided neither to
forgive nor to forget nor to extenuate, but to
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
carry on. In brief, I find that it is my duty
to renew scientific relations with all the
specialists of Europe who are engaged in my
lines of work, regardless of past or present
geographic boundaries. Needless to say, I am
now renewing personal relations with my
former friends and colleagues, whatever their
nationality.
Henry FarrimrtpD OsBorn
AMERICAN MUSEUM,
New Yorx,
May 12, 1920
THE METEOR OF NOVEMBER 26, 1919
To tHE Enitor or Science: From the Clima-
tological Data, Michigan Section for Novem-
ber, 1919, issued from the Grand Rapids,
Michigan Weather Bureau Office under the
heading of “ Remarks of Observers” on page
132, the following has been taken:
Newberry—A large and brilliant meteor was ob-
served iat about 8 p.m. of the 26th; it looked to be
about 38 inches in diameter. It was first seen in
the southwest—raither low but considerably above
the horizon—with its course southeastward and
downward. At a point about 9° west of south,
and near the horizon, it appeared to be bursting
like a rocket as it sank from view.
This probably is an observation of the same
meteor which was noticed in southern Mich-
igan and supposed to have fallen into Lake
Michigan near its southern end. This obser-
vation is 300 miles or more north of the
previously supposed position of the meteor’s
descent.
WintiaM Kenny
VULCAN, MICH.
FORMULZ FOR DATES
In my formule for finding the day of the
week of any date (Somnor, May 21, 1920,
p. 513) the explanation of the method of find-
ing the value of the symbol Z is not sufii-
ciently clear for dates in centennial years.
The following modification is therefore
offered: Z is the number of leapdays (not
counting the one in a centennial year, if any)
preceding the date and subsequent to the
beginning of the centennial year having the
JUNE 4, 1920]
same first two digits as the year of the date in
question.
Further study also reveals the fact that the
formula for Old Style dates requires modi-
fication for dates in January and February
of centennial years. This modification may
best be made by starring the figure 5 of the
formula and inserting the following footnote:
*Use 4 instead of 5 for dates in January and
February in centennial years.
W. J. SPILLMAN
THE LIBRARY OF THE LATE PROFESSOR
ZUNTZ
To THE Eprror or Science: A letter received
from a friend in Berlin a few days ago brings
information of the death of Professor N.
Zuntz. The very great services of Professor
Zuntz, extending over a long life time,
devoted to the advancement of physiology and
nutrition, his broad-mindedness and kindly
character render his death at this time, when
renewal of scientific associations severed by
the war is so important, peculiarly sad.
The information comes also that, for the
support of his widow who is a hopeless invalid,
funds are needed. To this end it is desired
to sell the large library which Professor Zuntz
had collected. It includes complete sets of
practically all of the journals in his field of
work. By disposing of the library direct to
some purchaser, or purchasers, in this country
the advantage of the rate of exchange would
accrue to the widow instead of to some book
dealer.
I shall be glad to supply the address and
such further information as 1] have to any
one interested in the purchase of this library.
YANDELL HENDERSON
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY,
YALE UNIVERSITY
QUOTATIONS
WORK OF THE MAYO BROTHERS
A Friend of Christian civilization and a
supporter of the present social order rejoices
to visit such a shrine of philanthropy as can
be found at Rochester, Minnesota. To that
obscure and remote town came from England
SCIENCE
569
a good many years ago a physician and sur-
geon named Dr. W. W. Mayo. He had been
brought up in an atmosphere of scientific
progress and had studied with the English
physicist, Dalton. He settled down to a
general practise in Rochester and attained
eminence in his profession. He had two
sons, William and Charles, who followed his
profession and developed the highest known
skill in surgery, acquiring a reputation that
brought people from the country around to
seek relief at their hands. They soon dis-
covered that their income was quite beyond
their own need, and they conceived in their
breadth of vision the opportunity of philan-
thropie progressive work for relief of their
stricken fellowmen. They turned half of
their income over to a business friend, with
the request that he invest it and increase it;
and thus in the days of rapid increase in
values this fund became $2,000,000. Mean-
time their reputation grew, the demand for
their service and for the enlargement and
development of their plant greatly widened.
They adopted the principle that no one need-
ing surgical aid and coming to Rochester
should be turned away without receiving it;
that the rich and the moderately circum-
stanced should me made to pay in proportion
to their means, and that the man without any-
thing should receive aid for nothing. The
amount received from the wealthy they ap-
portioned with a view of creating a founda-
tion for their clinic, which should continually
enlarge its usefulness. Rochester is now 2
town of 14,000. It now has constantly 4,000
to 6,000 transient residents who are there for
treatment. There are 900 beds all told in the
various hospitals, and something more than
300 are being added. Sixty-thousand cases of
all kinds are received and treated a year.
The iron rule is that the poorest shall receive
as careful and as good treatment as the
wealthiest. The result has been that the
name of the Mayos and Rochester has spread
to the uttermost quarters of the world, and
to-day a most cosmopolitan group greets the
visitor in all the buildings in which this great
philanthropy is carried on. As one notes the
570
crowds of people that gather from 7 in the
morning until late in the evening exery day
to await their turn for examinaton, diagnosis
and treatment, he thinks that he has come
to the shrine of a saint.—William Howard
Taft in the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
THE JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
On April 3, 1919, the American Society
of Mammalogists was founded at Washington,
D. C. One of the principal objects of this
society was the publication of a journal of
mammalogy and on November 28 the first
number of this journal appeared, from the
press of Williams and Wilkins Company, Bal-
timore.
The arrival of the journal must have been
a matter of gratification to the many stu-
dents, scientific workers and others who are
interested in the subject of mammalian life,
for the need of such a publication has long
been felt. In its aims this journal is broad,
including within its scope morphology, evclu-
tion, paleontology, taxonomy, life histories and
habits, in fact “every phase of technical and
popular mammalogy.” It is the announced
purpose to make the journal indispensable to
all active workers in mammalogy and of value
“to every person interested in mammals, be
he systematist, paleontologist, anatomist, mu-
seum or zoological garden man, big game
hunter, or just plain naturalist.”
In its make-up the journal seems in the
opinion of the reviewer to be both substantial
and attractive. The type is well chosen, the
paper of good quality and the photographic
reproductions contained give evidence that
the illustrative features will be well handled.
The front of its gray-green cover presents as
decoration a pen drawing by Ernest Thomp-
son Seton of the prong-horn antelope—symbol
of something distinctively American. Below
this is the table of contents and a glance at
the list of contributors reveals the names of
many well-known authorities in the field of
mammalogy.
The first number consists of 51 pages, of
which about 37 are devoted to major articles,
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
5 to general notes and about the same number
to recent literature and 2 pages to editorial
comment. On the closing pages are found the
by-laws and rules of the society adopted at the
time of its founding. The second number,
which appeared promptly, includes pages 53
to 110.
An idea of the contents of the journal may
best be conveyed by mention of a few repre
sentative titles. Among the major articles, of
technical character are “Criteria for the rec-
ognition of species and genera,” “ Preliminary
notes on African Carnivora,” “Notes on the
fox squirrels of the southeastern United
States,” “Names of some South American
mammals,” “A new fossil rodent from the
Oligocene of South Dakota,” “Identity of the
bean mouse of Lewis and Clark.” Among
articles dealing with distribution, habits and
other phases of life-history may be mentioned
“Bats from Mt. Whitney, California,” “The
mammals of Southeastern Washington,” “ Mi-
grations of the gray-squirrel,” “An apparent
effect of winter inactivity upon the distri-
bution of mammals,” “For a methodic study
of life-histories.”
Under General Notes, a department of the
journal which promises to be one of unusual
interest, are found among others, “An easy
method of cleaning skulls,” “Red bat and
spotted porpoise off the Carolinas,” “The
Florida spotted skunk as an acrobat,” “ Rodent
mountaineers,” “Does the cuterebra ever
emasculate its host?” “The coyote not afraid
of water,” “The flying squirrel as a bird
killer,” “Technical names of two Colobus
monkeys.”
In addition to reviews of recent literature
each number contains a long list of titles of
recent mammalogical publications, domestic
and foreign, while in the correspondence and
editorial departments appear some very read-
able letters and comments on topics of cur-
rent interest to mammalogists.
In a magazine of the scope of the Journal
of Mammalogy it seems inevitable that
articles of certain types will at times pre-
dominate over other kinds and it is perhaps
too much to expect that every number shall
JUNE 4, 1920]
have equal interest for all of its readers. It
is a matter beyond the control of the manage-
ment but one of which it is fully mindful and
the editor very properly points out that if the
magazine is to be a well-balanced one those
members who are particularly interested in
certain special phases of mammalian life must
be largely responsible for furnishing the mate-
rials relating to their respective fields. In the
opinion of the reviewer the management is
to be congratulated upon the manner in which
the journal has been launched. That the
magazine will be indispensable to the active
worker in the domain of mammalogy is a
matter of course, but it seems also eminently
worthy of a place in the libraries of all our
schools and colleges where biological subjects
are taught, for a sufficient number of articles
of non-technical nature are assured to furnish
highly profitable reading of a kind that can
not help but be an incentive to a wider and
more intelligent interest in mammalian life.
CuHartes E. JoHNSON
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
SPECIAL ARTICLES
FLUORESCENCE, DISSOCIATION AND IONIZA-
TION IN IODINE VAPOR
I, FLUORESCENCE AND IONIZATION
Earzy attempts to account for fluorescence
as due to radiation produced by the return to
the parent molecules of electrons which were
photoelectrically emitted by the exciting light
have been unsuccessful, since the fluorescence
of gases and vapors is not generally accom-
panied by ionization. Consequently, the recent
viewpoint is that the primary effect of the ex-
citing light is to cause one or more electrons
of a molecule to take positions or conditions of
abnormally large potential energy, without be-
ing necessarily removed from the parent mole-
cule. This additional energy is absorbed from
the exciting light, and is reemitted as radia-
tion when the electrons return to their initial
stable configurations. This fluorescent radia-
tion may be of the same, of longer, or of shorter
wave-length than the exciting light according
as the return is accomplished in a single step,
SCIENCE
571
in several steps, or in a single step following
the absorption of additional radiant energy.
We have obtained experimental evidence of
the correctness of this viewpoint from measure-
ments of the minimum energy required to
ionize an iodine molecule in the normal state
as compared with that required to ionize a
fluorescing molecule. This energy is expressed,
as usual, in terms of the minimum ionizing po-
tential, which is found to be close to 10 volts
for the normal molecule and 7.5 volts for the
fluorescing molecule, excited by the green mer-
cury line (whose wave-length is the same as
that of the green absorption band of iodine,
and which excites strong fluorescence). The
difference, 2.5 volts, corresponds to the quan-
tum of energy of the frequency of the exciting
light by the quantum relation eV =h’. This
offers direct evidence, therefore, of the exist-
ence of molecules whose electrons possess ab-
normal potential energy as a result of the ex-
citing light. The existence of such unstable,
and therefore active, molecules has particular
bearing on the explanation of photochemical
reactions, and suggests the process of chemical
action recently proposed by Perrin.
II. DISSOCIATION AND IONIZATION
Two types of ionization were discovered in
iodine vapour, a very weak ionization at 8.5
volts, attributed to the ionization of atoms
present because of the hot filament which
served as the source of the bombarding elec-
trons, and a very intense ionization at 10 volts,
attributed to the ionization of the molecules.
This was tested by carrying out ionization ex-
periments in a pyrex glass tube which could be
highly heated in an electric furnace so that
various degrees of dissociation of the iodine
vapor could be obtained. The results thus ob-
tained were consistent with the above assump-
tions that the ionizing potential of the iodine
atom is 8.5 volts and that of the iodine mole-
cule is 10 volts.
The interesting feature of this result is that
the difference, 1.5 volts, corresponds exactly to
V in the relation eV =W, where W is the
heat of dissociation of iodine reckoned for a
single molecule. In other words, the ioniza-
572
tion of an iodine molecule may consist in its
dissociation and the ionization of one of the
parts by the same electron impact.
This kind of a process has been suggested to
estimate the heat of dissociation of hydrogen
from ionization data, but the present work is
the first, as far as we are aware, to give direct
evidence as to which ionization effect is due
to the atom and which to the molecule. It is
probable that this method may be of value in
determining heats of dissociation which are
too high to be found by ordinary methods.
K. T. Compton,
H. D. SmytH
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY,
May 18, 1920
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY
Atv the 1920 general meeting of the American
Philosophical Society, held on April 22, 23 and
24, in Philadelphia, the following comprehensive
program was followed.
April 22, 2 o’clock
Wi1am B. Scort, D.Sc., LL.D., president, in the
chair
Beach protection works: LEw1s M. Haupt, Phil-
adelphia.
Geographic aspects of the Adriatic problem:
DovucLias W. JOHNSON, professor of physiography
at Columbia University. (Introduced by Professor
W. M. Davis.)
The reefs of Tutuila, Samoa, in their relation to
coral reef theories: ALFRED G, Mayor, director of
the department of marine biology, Carnegie Insti-
tution of Washington.
A distribution of land and water on the earth:
Harry Frievpine Rep, C.H., Ph.D., professor of
dynamie geology and geography, Johns Hopkins
University. The conception of the land of the
earth as being a deeply dissected and loosely
joined together mass, with its center about half
way between the equator and the poles, explains
nearly all the characteristics of the distribution of
land and water, such as: the antipodal relation, the
concentration of land about the north pole and of
water about the south pole, ete.
Thyroxin: E. C. Kenpauu, Ph.D., of the Mayo
Clinic, assistant professor of chemistry of the
University of Minnesota. (Introduced by Dr.
Philip B. Hawk.)
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1327
The dualistic conception of the processes of life:
Samuet J. Mevrzer, M.D., LL.D., head of depart-
ment of physiology, Rockefeller Institute for Med-
ical Research, New York. Animal life manifests
itself by an uninterrupted stream of various forms
of activities. But each of the activities is discon-
tinuous, it is interrupted by a longer or shorter
resting phase. Most physiologists look at life proc-
esses from a monistie point of view. In their
opinion only action needs a cause; the reduction in
action or the resting phase needs no special inter-
pretation; they are simply due to a reduction in
the extent of the cause or to its entire absence.
However, seventy-five years ago, it was discovered
by the brothers Weber that stimulation of the
peripheral end of a vagus nerve stops the beating
of the heart which remains resting in an increased
state of diastole: Here a special cause, a stimu-
lation of a nerve going to a muscle, causes a rest-
ing phase in the heart muscle. This action was
termed inhibition. In the three quarters of a cen-
tury since this discovery was made, numerous in-
stances of inhibition in the various processes of
animal life were discovered. From all the facts as
they are known now, it must be assumed that there
is in the animal life probably not a single function
in which the phenomenon of inhibition is not an
important factor. The part played by inhibition
is on one hand to remove obstacles to an efficient
action, and on the other hand to permit the living
tissues to perform in the resting phase anabolic
‘processes, that is, to build up the tissues or to re-
plenish the material expended during the action
phase. The dualistic conception of the life proc-
esses may be presented as follows. Irritability is
a characteristic property of all living tissues.
Irritability means the property of the tissues to
react with a change in each state to a proper stim-
ulus. The change may consist in an excitation, an
inerease of activity, or an inhibition, a decrease
in activity. Each and every state of life of the
plain tissues or of the complex functions is a re-
sultant from the combination of the two antagon-
istic factors, excitation and inhibition. In a state
of utmost rest the factor of inhibition prevails
greatly; but there is still a remnant of the factor
of the excitation which permits the tissues or the
functions to remain in a state of tonus, of dor-
mant life. On the other hand, in a state of ex-
treme excitation there is still a remnant of the
factor of inhibition which prevents the excitation
from completely destroying the life of the involved
tissues.
JUNE 4, 1920]
The relation of the bacillus influenza: FRANCIS
G. Buaxz, M.D., associate in medicine, Hospital of
the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,
New York. (Introduced by Dr. A. C. Abbot.)
Following Pfeiffer’s discovery of Bacillus influenze
in 1892 this organism was rather generally ac-
cepted as the probable cause of influenza, and of
a characteristic type of bronchopneumonia which
complicates influenza. Pfeiffer and others failed
to support this possible etiological relationship by
animal inoculation experiments. During the recent
pandemic the causal relationship of B. influenze
to the primary influenza has been seriously ques-
tioned and in general the organism has been rele-
gated to the position of a secondary invader re-
sponsible for a variable proportion of broncho-
pneumonias complicating influenza. Because B.
influenze is constantly present in the respiratory
tract in uncomplicated influenza and in a charac-
teristic type of bronchopneumonia following in-
fluenza, it seemed desirable to determine by ani-
mal experiments whether influenza and this type
of bronchopneumonia could be produced by inocu-
lation with pure cultures of Bacillus influenze.
Twelve monkeys were inoculated on the mucous
membranes of the nose and mouth with the suc-
cessful production of an acute self limited respira-
tory disease closely resembling influenza. This
disease was complicated in five cases by sinusitis,
in three by bronchopneumonia. The pathology of
the pneumonia was identical with the pathology of
the pneumonia ascribed to pure infection of the
lungs with B. influenze in man. Ten monkeys were
inoculated in the trachea with pure cultures of B.
anfluenze in man. Ten monkeys were inoculated in
the trachea with pure cultures of B. influenze
with the production of the same type of broncho-
pneumonia in seven cases. These experiments es-
tablish the etiological relationship of Bacillus in-
fluenze to the type of bronchopneumonia with
which the organism thas been found constantly as-
sociated in man. They also prove that Bacillus
influenze can initiate an infection of the upper
respiratory tract and produce a disease that closely
resembles influenza, and that is complicated by the
same complications as influenza. They do not
prove that Bacillus influenze is the primary cause,
however, since it is impossible to determine whether
the disease produced in monkeys with B. influenze
was actually identical with pandemic influenza.
X-rays of the brain after injection of air into the
, ventricles of the brain and into the spinal canal:
W. HE. Danpy, M.D., associate in surgery, Johns
Hopkins Hospital. (Introduced by Dr. Keen.)
SCIENCE
573
Celt and Slav: J. DyNrLEY Princes, Ph.D., pro-
fessor of Slavonic languages, Columbia University.
Slavs and Celts are strikingly similar to each other
in habits of mind and expression although far re-
moved geographically. The Russians, Poles, Czecho-
Slovaks, Serbo-Croatians and Bulgarians all speak-
ing Slavonic idioms, although racially very various
have certain marked traits in common which they
all share with the Celts; viz., the Irish, Scottish
and Manks Gaels and the Armorican Bretons of
France, and the Welsh still Celtic speaking, and
the Cornish, whose Celtic language is now extinct.
The similarity between Slavs and Celts is twofold,
viz., temperamental discontent and morbid joy in
sorrow. As a concomitant of this discontent goes
the spirit of quest after the unattainable, which is
manifest in both Slavonic and Celtic trends of
thought. Success plays almost no part as an ele-
ment of heroism in Slavonic literature and com-
paratively a small rdle in Celtic. Both Celt and
Slav are not satisfied with the present world, and
eare more for sympathy than for accomplishment.
In Russia, especially, the public sympathy has been
with the unsuccessful rather than with the success-
ful hero. Morbid pleasure in failure, delight in
a ‘‘lost cause,’’ love of the appurtenances of death
are all common and underlying Slavonic and Celtic
traits. These characteristics are instructive as ac-
counting for the ‘‘political impossibility’’ of the
easternmost and westernmost branches of Indo-
European language-influence. The sun of com-
mon sense has never risen on either the Slay or the
Celt and it is doubtful whether the Slavs can exist
very long without the guiding hand of strangers.
The charm of the Celt and Slav is great and dur-
able, but it is charm and not character, feeling and
sentiment rather than thought and reasoning,
which dominate the east and west of Europe alike.
A new theory of Polynesian origins: RoLAND B.
Drxon, Ph.D., professor of anthropology, Harvard
University. (Introduced by Dr. W. C. Farabee.)
The question of the racial origins of the Polynes-
ian peoples has long attracted the attention of
anthropologists. Previous studies have dealt
mainly with small portions of the area, and have
not satisfactorily correlated the various factors
characterizing physical types, nor the Polynesian
types with those of the rest of Oceanica. The pres-
ent study seeks to secure more satisfactory results
by ineluding the whole of Oceanica and eastern
Asia in its scope. Following a method differing
from those previously employed, a number of
fundamental physical types are defined, and their
distribution and that of their derivatives traced.
574
One of these fundamental types unexpectedly
proves to be Negrito; the other two most impor-
tant ones being Negroid and Malayoid. The
Negrito and Negroid types being marginal in their
distribution, are probably the older.
The Zoroastrian doctrine of the freedom of the
will: A. V. WinLIAMS Jackson, professor of Indo-
Iranian languages, Columbia University. The pur-
pose of this paper was to show the signficance of
the doctrine of the freedom of the will in the
dualistic ereed of Zoroaster more than two thou-
sand five hundred years ago. The warring king-
doms of good and evil, light and darkness, per-
sonified as Ormazd and Ahriman, the ancient Per-
sian god and devil, are in perpetual conflict, ac-
cording to Zoroaster’s philosophic teachings.
While these two antagonistic principles, which
struggle for the soul of man, are primeval and
coeval, they are not coeternal, because Ormazd will
triumph in tthe end and Ahriman will be annihi-
lated. Man will help in bringing about the vic-
tory. Man is Ormazd’s creature and belongs by
birthright to the kingdom of good. He is created,
however, a free agent, with the power of will to
choose right or wrong. By the universal choice of
right he will contribute his share towards the ulti-
mate triumph of the hosts of heaven over the le-
gions of hell at the final judgment day, and will
win salvation for his soul. It was Zoroaster’s mis-
sion in the world to guide man to make the right
choice. Passages from the ancient Avestan and
Pahlavi texts relating to the subject were trans-
lated, and emphasis was laid upon the interest
which this old Zoroastrian doctrine in regard to
the freedom of the will has for students of philos-
ophy and religion.
The Hittite civilization: Morris JASTROw, JR.,
Ph.D., LL.D., professor of Semitic languages,
University of Pennsylvania. During the last four
decades the discoveries and excavations in northern
Asia Minor have brought the Hittite problem into
the foreground of Oriental archeology. The no-
tices about the Hittite groups found in the Old
Testament and in the inscriptions of Egypt and
Assyria have been supplemented by an abundance
of material now at the disposal of scholars, though
this can not be fully utilized until the large quan-
tity of inscriptions in the Hittite characters have
been satisfactorily deciphered. Even without this
decipherment the monuments themselves tell us
much of the important part played by the Hittites
during the second millenium ‘before this era in the
ancient East. They seem to have been composed of
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1327
a conglomeration of various ethnic elements and
about 1500 B.c. a strong Hittite empire was lo-
cated in northern Asia Minor which was powerful
enough to threaten both Egypt, on the one side,
and Babylonia and Assyria, on the other. These
Hittites moving along the historical highway across
Asia Minor left their rock monuments and their
fortresses as traces of the power and civilization
which they developed. Their contact with Assyria
appears to have been particularly close and it is
not impossible that the earliest rulers were actually
Hittites. We find that at one time they extended
far into Palestine. The ‘‘sons of Heth’’ associ-
ated in tradition with Abraham are Hittites and
there were Hittite generals in the army of the
Jewish kings. The introduction of cuneiform
writing among the Hittites to replace their more
cumbersome script is in itself an important indi-
eation of the close contact with Babylonian-Assy-
rian civilization as it also furnishes a definite basis
upon which the decipherment of the Hittite lan-
guage becomes a definite possibility.
_ The decipherment of the Hittite languages:
Maurice Bioomrienp, L.H.D., LL.D., professor of
Sanskrit and comparative philology, Johns Hop-
kins University.
: The beginning of the fourth gospel: PAuL
Haver, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of Semitic lan-
guages, Johns Hopkins University. John i. 1,
should be translated: In the beginning was Reason.
Greek ‘‘logos’’ denotes both ‘‘word’’ and ‘‘rea-
son.’’ Logie is the science of reasoning. Accord-
ing to the Stoiecs, Reason (Greek Logos) was the
active principle in the formation of the universe.
We find stoic phraseology not only in the New
Testament, but also in the Old Testament. The
most valuable lessons of Stoicism were preserved
in Christianity. ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED
(To be continued)
SCIENCE
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ners, army and navy medical officers, analysts in food laboratories—federal,
state, municipal and private. It also covers the need of colleges, universities,
etc., for a text and laboratory guide.
By ALBERT SCHNEIDER, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacognosy,
University of Nebraska; Formerly Microanalyst in the U. S. Bureau
of Chemistry, etc.
SCHNEIDER JUST PUBLISHED
Pharmaceutical Bacteriology
2d Edition, Revised, Enlarged. 97 Illustrations. Cloth, $4.00
Several new chapters have been presented in this volume bringing the subject
abreast of recent progress in bacteriological science. The volume adheres to
the usual textbook requirements but is not encumbered with unnecessary tech-
nical terms, being made thoroughly readable and intelligible to the student of
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By ALBERT SCHNEIDER, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacognosy,
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SCIENCE
Fripay, JuNE 11, 1920
CONTENTS
The Future of the State Academy of Science:
Proressor Pavun P. Boyd ................ 575
Preliminary Results of Analysis of Light De-
flections observed during the Solar Eclipse
of May 29: Dr. L. A. BAUER ............ 581
The Fourth Year of the Neotropical Research
Station: Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OsBoRN ... 585
Scientific Events :—
Collections of the National Museum; Appro-
priations from the Henry Draper Fund of
the National Academy of Sciences; Associa-
tion of Scientific Apparatus Makers of the
United States of America; The Graduate
School of Medicine of the University of
Pennsylvania; Officers of the National Re-
SAUKAe OOM sosagcccccccgwocugcobou‘DD 587
Scientific Notes-and News ...........+0++. 599
University and Educational News .......... 992
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Modern Interpretation of Differentials
again: PROFESSOR EDwarD V. HUNTINGTON.
Popular Scientific Literature: JosEpH L.
WHEELER. Rules of the International Com-
mission of Zoological Nomenclature: Dr. C.
AWG HSHMIIS OR tee aone ean iced 6 mac ao Bo 593
Special Articles :—
Echinoderms in Birds’ Stomachs: Dr.
Hupert LYMAN CLARK ................-- 594
The American Philosophical Society: Pro-
FESSOR ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED ........... 595
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
THE FUTURE OF THE STATE
ACADEMY OF SCIENCE?!
In Scrence of December 5, 1919, Mr. D. D.
Whitney presents certain data and conclu-
sions on State Academies of Science. Omit-
ting mention of a number of large academies
centering in cities his figures show that mem-
bership varies from 25 to 850; that annual
dues run from 50 cents to $10; that annual
receipts from state or private sources vary
from none to $1,500, 9 out of the 18 enjoying
such receipts; that 4 out of 18 pay their
officers salaries, from $75 to $1,000; and that
the annual publications by 12 out of the 18
academies contain 50 to 600 pages.
In these academies Mr. Whitney finds great
variation as to interest and vitality, com-
ments from the officers being “dead” in three
cases, “apathetic” in others, and “very
lively” in a few. Assigning grades to in-
dicate the various degrees of health and
vitality, we may say that of the eighteen
academies considered, two would be graded
A or “superior”; one B, or “good”; eight O,
“passing”; four D, “poor but passing”; and
three E, “failure”? This result seems to
follow the probability curve fairly well, and
should perhaps cause us to look upon the
situation with some complaisance. It might
be unreasonable to expect all of the group to
come up to the highest standard of excellence.
Our own academy is reported as having 96
members, no annual state appropriation, no
salaries for officers, no annual publication,
and as manifesting an interest “ fairly lively.”
This ranks us as of about C grade, passing
but without distinction. Our growth, however
from 46 charter members in 1914 to 110 mem-
bers in 1920, indicates a persistent vitality,
and the classification of our membership, 25
per cent. of our resident members being un-
1 President ’s address before the Kentucky Acad-
emy of Science, Lexington, May 8, 1920.
576
connected with educational institutions, shows
that we are to a small extent at least “ uni-
fying the scientific interests of the State.”
Mr. Whitney takes a somewhat somber view
of the future of the state academies. He
points out the fact that only a small per-
centage of the scientific men and women of
the states are affiliated with the academies, ex-
plaining the fact by the existence of larger
societies for specialists which appeal more
strongly than the local academies with this
lack of differentiation. However, he mentions
two advantages of the state academy; the op-
portunities for social intercourse and good
fellowship which tend to encourage scientific
effort in smaller colleges and normal schools;
and the provisions for the publication of
articles that would not be accepted by the
larger and more important periodicals. To
these we should add the practise of bringing
to the annual meeting some outstanding sci-
entist who otherwise might not come before
our membership.
This article suggested to the writer that it
might be well to ask the secretaries of these
academies certain questions with a view to
determining if possible a little more definitely
whether there is a field and a future for the
state academy, and in particular for the Ken-
tucky Academy. Accordingly a series of
questions was proposed, the first of which was
whether, in view of the large number of na-
tional and regional scientific societies there is
any need for a state academy. Mentioning
the replies from state academies only the vote
stood: Yes, 9; No, 2. These two negative
votes were, curiously, one from a very active
academy centering in a large city, and one
from a state academy reported by Mr. Whit-
ney as showing lively interest at the annual
meeting but apathetic the remainder of the
year. We may say however that most of
those reporting, whether lively or moribund,
wish still to live and claim for themselves a
raison d’etre.
The second question asked was “‘ What are
your reasons?” First let us notice the rea-
sons of those who vote against the state
academy. We are told that the academies are
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1328
not needed because a state does not seem to.
be a convenient unit for scientific organiza-
tion; because the interest in the academies is
very small; because the publications are
mediocre, no one being willing to publish
their good articles in the Proceedings for fear
that they will never be seen; because the
social value is the only real value and that is
not sufficient justification for the work en-
tailed; and because the professional men and
every one else have their own societies in
which they are much more interested.
But the affirmative argues that the acad-
emies have a field and are needed, because
their meetings are so near home that scien-
tists of the state can get together; because a
large number of the members are young
people who are not yet, and in many ceases
never will be, ripe for membership in the na-
tional societies, but who can be greatly stim-
ulated by the academy activities; because the
society brings together scientists of varied
interests, there being too much subdivision
and segregation in the scientific field at
present; because they bring men not con-
nected with educational institutions in touch
with scientific matters; because they give
opportunity for papers of local interest which
would not find place on the programs of na-
tional societies; because they foster state
pride and interest in state welfare; because
they bring to bear a certain amount of in-
fluence for the betterment of the state; be-
cause, except in the field of chemistry, they
are about the only local scientific societies
that emphasize research rather than educa-
tion; because they exercise a tonic effect in
the life of the state and foster a proper ap-
preciation of the value of science; and he-
cause they supply a needed element of organ-
ization in the scientific field which the na-
tional societies do not afford.
With the feeling that, valuable as is the an-
nual meeting of the academy, there should be
some larger service possible in the interests of
science and the state, a third question was asked
for information regarding other activities.
Of the eleven academies being quoted, four
did nothing beyond the annual meeting, ex-
JUNE 11, 1920]
cepting in some instances, the publication of
the annual proceedings. Other answers were
that the secretary sends out letters to find
out what is going on in the way of science
advancement; that an annual expenditure of
$250 is made in grants for the encouragement
of research on the part of members; that a
library and exchanges are kept up; that
various sections hold meetings throughout the
year; that a second meeting of the academy
is held; that an out-door “excursion meet-
ing” is held, usually for two days, when mem-
bers ride, tramp, camp, do field-work and get
better acquainted; and that a number of com-
mittees are working on various problems of
value to the state. This last comes from
Illinois, where the academy has a committee
on the Ecological Survey of the State, organ-
ized now for ten years; a Committee on Sci-
ence Education; a Committee on Legislation
as affecting Scientific Interests; and a Com-
mittee on Conservation of Wild Life in the
State.
Omitting other questions asked of the acad-
emies the last should be mentioned, namely,
“What new forms of scientific service might
the Academy undertake?” Here we run
against the very general handicap of lack of
funds. Many things might be done if only
the necessary money were available. The
need is felt of more money for publication,
more money for research funds, more money
for surveys. But a number of other sug-
gestions are made. The academy might be-
come more influential as an adviser in con-
nection with legislation affecting the natural
resources of the state. The work of science
should be more closely correlated with the
industries of the state. More effort should be
spent on the problems of development of the
natural resources of the state on a firm scien-
tifie basis. The members should be stimu-
lated to study and report on many subjects of
state or local interest. Local chapters should
be formed. State surveys in botany and
zoology and geology should be organized and
allotted to various members. High-school
teachers should be brought in to the academy
for the sake of better science in the high
SCIENCE
577
schools. Science clubs should be organized
in the high schools, these clubs to be aftiliated
with the State Academy.
These ideas should prove exceedingly sug-
gestive to us in Kentucky. No state in the
union offers a richer opportunity for the
efforts of an energetic and progressive
Academy of Science. It would be a reflection
upon your intelligence to argue the point
that the war just closed has proved the value
and the need of science. Scientific achieve-
ments threatened civilization with destruc-
tion, and science was an essential in the sal-
vation of the world from barbarism. No
civilized nation will henceforth be so criminal
as to neglect the deliberate, systematic, organ-
ized effort to develop science in the interests
of national defense and domestic welfare.
This essential importance of science was rec-
ognized by scientists long before the war, if
it was not by the general public. But scien-
tists themselves apparently had not realized
the necessity for organization and cooperation
in scientific effort as well as in government
and in industry. This perhaps is the out-
standing fact before our minds to-day. We
saw the forces of science hurriedly and
effectively classified and grouped and directed
under the leadership of the National Research
Council during the war. In peace we are now
seeing the same idea carried out in the organ-
ization of International Associations, in the
present-day program of the National Research
Council, which contemplates the permanent
coordination of the scientific work of the
nation, and in the enlarged program of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Seience. Both the Council and the Asso-
ciation propose to reach down and touch local
scientific interests through the state ac¢demies.
In this fact we find an immediate and con-
elusive reason for the continuance of our
State Academy. No organization can be com-
plete without its subordinate units, nor can
the scientific interests of the nation be com-
pletely fostered and directed without state
and local groups. In the army must be
brigades and regiments and battalions and
companies and squads. The state academy
578
furnishes the necessary subdivision for the
effective marshalling of the nation’s scientists.
This being agreed to, it follows logically
that the state academy should proceed to
organize local chapters for the completion of
the system. The greatest need now is not
more national societies but a more thorough-
going organization of state and local scientific
forces. We have already seen that in Illinois
an effort is being made to stimulate the
formation of science clubs in the high schools
and to interest high school teachers in the
work of the academy. Our Academy has a
goodly percentage of its members among
scientists not connected with educational in-
stitutions. What is needed is that this mem-
bership be greatly extended and organized into
chapters so that every large industry and
even the smaller establishments will be
brought into touch with the academy and
through it coordinated with the national
organizations. The academy will thus include
in its fold both those who love science for
its own sake and for the extension of knowl-
edge and also those who are using science
for the furtherance of industry and the mate-
rial advancement of man.
But the academy finds justification apart
from its usefulness as a subdivision in the
great national organization in that it can
serve its own state in many distinct direc-
tions. Many lines of possible service have
already been suggested in the summaries of
the questionnaires, but it will be worth our
while to think a little farther concerning
some of them. Isolation is one of the most
serious handicaps to research, although it can
doubtless be shown by examples how certain
great constructive geniuses have lived their
lives in ‘seclusion and by the sheer power of
intellect brought to light important additions
to human knowledge. Many have found the
needed contact in correspondence and pub-
lications. But for the average scientist whose
number is legion and whose aggregate contri-
bribution to progress is large, the stimulus
of human association, and the spur of close
contact with kindred minds are indispensable.
We can not depend entirely upon the large
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1328
universities nor upon the large industrial
establishments for our scientific life. There
will always be able men in the smaller col-
leges and schools and in the smaller establish-
ments who must have opportunity for contact
and mutual inspiration and suggestion to
enable them to produce their maximum effort
and stand as missionaries in the cause at
home. The academy must supply to all sci-
entific workers in the state this desirable con-
tact and mutual helpfulness.
Selfishness and secretiveness and suspicion
in research, individualism must now give way
to coperation for the sake of the advancement
of knowledge and of social and industrial
progress in the state. Scientists have much
to learn in this respect from statesmen and
business men. Men do not greatly increase
their wealth by hoarding; they do not make
most in small private businesses; they do not
win wars by “sniping,” they do not destroy
threatening social iniquities by individual
blamelessness. Efficient machinery directs
and multiplies power, increases speed.
The academy should come to be a source
from which any man in the state who needs
help along scientific lines may draw what he
needs. If for instance a worker in some
small or large industry of the state feels the
need of consultation or advice he should
come to look upon the academy as the proper
organization to which to apply. The academy
through its officers or special committees
should be in a position to answer his questions
or to direct him to those of its members best
fitted to render aid. An instance to the point
is that of a research chemist in a large drug
manufactory who was enabled to complete a
three year research which had failed of reach-
ing a definite result, by means of a hint from
a university worker. In our own state many
such eases of helpfulness will arise if we can
bring our academy to the point where it will
be regarded as the natural place to which to
come for information as to facts and men.
The organizers of the academy six years
ago had in mind the possible usefulness of
the academy as an adviser in legislative
matters affecting scientific interests when pro-
JunE 11, 1920]
vision was made in the constitution for a
standing legislative committee. This com-
mittee was appointed for a number of years,
but gradually sank into “innocuous des-
uetude” through lack of effort or of oppor-
tunity for rendering service. The question
now arises whether the present, when all
things are being made over, when all institu-
tions and societies are feeling the new im-
pulses furnished by the war, is not the proper
time for a rejuvenation of this committee.
It is safe to say that the academy in the past
has not at all impressed itself upon the
attention of our legislatures nor our citizen-
ship and that outstanding usefulness will
come to such a committee only after years
of steady growth in the size and activity of
the academy. The time to begin however is
now, and the way to gather to itself influence
and ‘authority as an expert adviser is to begin
first with a thorough study of local scientific
problems and to put before the public in
speech and print definite facts and recom-
mendations. No other opportunity for ex-
tension of academy activity and service seems
more fertile in possible good than this. Not
even the State University, which stands be-
fore the public in a peculiar sense as the
guardian of state scientific and industrial in-
terests, can appeal to all elements in the
state as a disinterested and representative
source of expert advice as can the Kentucky
Academy. There is distinct need for such a
force in the life of the state and the academy
must not prove false to her mission nor
neglect her manifest opportunity by failure
to assume the responsibility of leadership.
Many problems face us in Kentucky that
will need the keen interest and intelligent
cooperation of the especially qualified mem-
bership of the academy. In this last legis-
lature there arose a rather minor question the
handing of which well illustrates how valu-
able can be the man who knows. A bill was
proposed which placed a bounty on hawks and
owls, the idea being that without exception
all such birds are pests, killing quail and
chickens with ruthlessness and dispatch. The
SCIENCE
579
bad science back of such a bill was discussed
in one of our societies at the university and
word was sent to the committee considering
the bill that the bill threatened injustice to a
large class of desirable bird citizens. As a
consequence two members of the Legislature
paid a visit to one of our professors for the
purpose of getting information, and were
quickly convinced that only the Cooper’s
hawk is depraved while all the others are use-
ful in that they kill rats and other undesir-
ables. This incident calls attention both to
the value of expert testimony and to the pre-
vailing lack of scientfic treatment of problems
affecting many people and widespread social
and industrial interests. In our hap-hazard,
hasty, self-confident, irresponsible law-making,
certainly some organization should stand out
before the public as a source of sane reliable
and unbiased scientific information.
There is great need for scientific direction
and propaganda for the preservation of bird
life, for the proper appreciation of their eco-
nomic importance. Only last Tuesday one of
our professors stated before the Audubon
Society that the bird population of the state
and nation had been reduced approximately
50 per cent. in the last 15 years; and that the
causes were, next to cats, the destruction of
our woods and forests. And yet, he said,
birds are the greatest weapon of the farmers
against crop-ravaging insects.
There is pressing need that wise research
and public education be devoted to the prob-
lems of forestry. Many problems of forestry
must be solved if the forests are to continue
adequate and the supply of lumber be on hand
for succeeding generations The
mineral resources of the state present prob-
lems that must be the concern of all properly
qualified scientists of the state. The preser-
vation and development of our water-power
resources demand intelligent survey-work, per-
sistent public education and authoritative
advice to our legislatures. The growing of
tobacco has reached such proportions in the
state as to affect the well-being of large
numbers of citizens. It is not the part of
of men.
580
wisdom to banish all study of the growing
and marketing of tobacco because of a dis-
like for the weed and disapproval of its use;
but rather for all so qualified to unite in a
program of research and education that will
conduce to the improvement of the human
elements involved. The preservation and
promotion of human health is a matter of
“vital? concern to every citizen, and there is
abundant need and opportunity for a repre-
sentative state scientific society to exert its
strength toward the conservation of vital
resources.
It is not being urged that the academy
should attempt to take over the work of the
experiment station or of the private lab-
oratory. That of course would be ridiculous.
Rather, the academy should be a medium
through which men in various parts of the
state and in various educational and in-
dustrial plants may be associated in the fur-
therance of needed scientific endeavor. Such
a medium will bring all men in touch with
problems of research in which they may be
fitted by training and location to take a part
in problems too large and complex and re-
quiring too many phases of scientific treat-
ment for one man to handle. We may well
imagine for instance that officials of the
National Research Council, wishing to find
qualified men in certain parts of Kentucky
to carry on locally a certain part of some
large piece of research will come to the
Kentucky Academy for information and ad-
vice as to men. Such an organization should
be in a position through its officers and com-
mittees to speak with authority and convic-
tion upon all matters of scientific importance
in the state, bringing to bear upon public
opinion the weight of disinterested scientific
unity. Certainly such an active and influen-
tial academy would stimuate research in Ken-
tucky and the whole South, render valuable
aid in assignment of problems and the placing
of men, and guide public opinion into the
proper understanding of local scientific
matters.
Our study has led us to feel a firmer faith
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1328
in the mission of our Kentucky Academy.
From her modest past she may yet arise to
grand proportions of influence and useful-
ness. To that end let us adopt a program
commensurate with the spirit of the times.
First, let us cooperate heartily with the
national bodies seeking to organize the scien-
tifie forces of the country.
Second, let us actively seek to extend our
membership to every educational and in-
dustrial plant in the state, and to every scien-
tist, and exert a scientific leadership through-
out the state.
Third, let us promote the organization of
science clubs in our secondary schools and of
research clubs in various centers.
Fourth, let us bring our influence to bear
upon the problem of better science teaching
in the high schools.
Fifth, let us appeal to the next Legislature
for liberal publication funds, and to the pub-
lie for research funds to be used in support.of
local scientists.
Sixth, let us through appropriate com-
mittees undertake the study of definite scien-
tific problems of importance to the state, and
promote the scientific surveys very much
needed.
Seventh, fortified by our especial studies,
let us plan to recommend to the next Legisla-
ture legislation needed for the scientific inter-
ests of the state.
Eighth, let us with faith in our mission and
with devotion to the cause make the Ken-
tucky Academy of Science the most in-
fluential for good, the livest thing, in
Kentucky.
The needs of the day call for such an ex-
pansion and such an increase in aggressive
effort. We can not live in this good new day
and be content with the past achievement.
General Foch has said that no battle was ever
won by an army on the defensive. To win
we must be aggressive.
Pau P. Boyrp
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
June 11, 1920]
PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF ANALYSIS
OF LIGHT DEFLECTIONS OB-
SERVED DURING SOLAR
ECLIPSE OF MAY 209, 19191
1. TaBLe 1 summarizes the available obser-
vational data for deriving the amount of
defiection of a light ray grazing the sun’s
SCIENCE
o81
tion. If on the other hand the observational
results are weighted inversely as the squares
of the probable errors, than the weighted
mean results, especially IV. (1”.76), are found
to be in close agreement with Einstein’s value,
though the probable error (0.2) is still
somewhat large.
limb as observed on the earth. The sources of 2. The weighted mean value IV. depends
TABLE I
Summary of All Observations Concerning Deflection of Light at Sun’s Limb
No. Eclipse Station Observers petection at Frobable Ee
1 June 8, 1918 Goldendale. U. S. A. Campbell-Curtis 0"58 — 1
2) May 29, 1919 Sobral, Brazil Davidson 0.93 +03 1
3 May 29, 1919 Sobral, Brazil Crommelin 1.98 =+0.12 6
4 May 29, 1919 fle of Principe Eddington 1.61 +0.3 1
I. Indiscriminate mean of all 1.28 ==) 574
G 1 It II. Indiscriminate mean without No. 2 1.39 +£0.28
enera® rest"'S ) TII. Weighted mean of all 1.67 +0.20
IV. Weighted mean without No. 2 1.76 +0 .22
Remarks: No. 1 was derived from Dr. Campbell’s statement (see ScieNcz, March 26, 1920, page 310)
that the mean of their results ‘‘came out at 0’.08 or 0.15, according to which of Hinstein’s hypotheses
was adopted’’; the probable error of one star position is given as 0/’.5, but the probable error of the
mean result is not stated. Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are given in Monthly Notices, R.A.S., Vol. LXX., p. 415, Feb-
ruary, 1920.
the data are given in the remarks below the
table. No. 2 has been rejected by the British
astronomers because of the diffuseness of the
star-images on the photographic plates ob-
tained with the astrographic object glass of
the Greenwich Observatory used in conjunc-
tion with a 16-inch celostat, the figure of
which apparently changed appreciably during
the plate-exposures. It will be observed that
the indiscriminate mean results, I. and II.,
would indicate a value about midway between
that (0”.87) computed on the basis of the
Newtonian Mechanics and that (1”.74) com-
puted according to Hinstein’s law of gravita-
1 Résumé of papers presented before the Ameri-
ean Philosophical Society at Philadelphia (Feb-
ruary 6 and April 24), the American Physical So-
ciety (February 28 and April 24), and Bureau of
Standards at Washington (May 7, 1920). For a
general account of observations concerning the solar
eclipse of May 29, 1919, and the Hinstein effect, the
reader may be referred to the author’s ‘‘Résumé,’’
_ published in ScrENcE, March 26, 1920, pp. 301-312.
(See Sorencs, March 26, 1920, p. 308.)
chiefly upon Crommelin’s result (No. 3), ob-
tained at Sobral, Brazil, during the solar
eclipse of May 29, 1919, from 7 photographic
plates, using a 4-inch lens of 19-foot focus
and an §&-inch ecelostat, and from similar
check-plates obtained at the same station be-
fore sunrise between July 12 to 18, 1919.
These observations appear to be the best ones
for undertaking a critical analysis of the
results with the view to ascertaining, if pos-
sible, whether any other effect has been
measured than that accredited to the sun’s
gravitational action. The following results of
a preliminary analysis, as made by the De-
partment of Terrestrial Magnetism at Wash-
ington, are based partly upon data already
published in the British journals and partly
upon those very courteously supplied by the
Astronomer Royal, Sir Frank Dyson, to whom
we desire to return our appreciative thanks.
The chief purpose of our investigation was to
ascertain the possible bearing of the geo-
physical observations, made by the two chief
582
nf $6 TAURI (No.1)
Fie. 1.
to direction and a relative scale of magnitude.
(Full line is observed vector; broken line is the Einstein vector.
SCIENCE
(sun's Axis
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1328
SCALE
Osserveo DEFLECTION
Einstein ” sect te
4% Tauri (Nos),
6 TAURI (Nad)
\
VU TAYRI OG
\N \
\ ip ZTAUAY(NG.0)
<
GEO-Axis
Dr. Crommelin’s observed light deflections at Sobral, Brazil, plotted for each star according
It will be observed that, in general
the observed vector departs from the Hinstein vector in a direction away from a diameter of the sun
passing through the zenith for Sobral as projected on the photographic plate; about this diameter, fur-
thermore, the angular departures, or non-radical effects, are found to be symmetrical.)
expeditions of the Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism during the solar eclipse of May 29,
1919, at Sobral (D. M. Wise, in charge) and
at Cape Palmas, Liberia (lL. A. Bauer, in
charge) upon the complete interpretation of
results of the astronomical observations. We
also received from Dr. H. Morize, director of
the Rio de Janeiro Observatory, meteorolog-
ical data pertaining to his eclipse station,
which was likewise Sobral, and desire to ac-
knowledge our indebtedness to him. It may
be recalled that the rays of light whose
deflections were measured during the solar
eclipse were subject chiefly: a to a gravita-
tional action from the sun, b to optical re-
fraction in the sun’s atmosphere, and c¢ to
optical refraction in the earth’s atmosphere.
The bearing of the geophysical observations
will be chiefly in relation to c.
3. Let a, be the gravitational deflection of
a light ray grazing the sun’s limb, a,, the
gravitational deflection of the ray at the dis-
tance p from the center of the sun expressed
in units of the sun’s radius; then, according
to the Einstein law of gravitation, we have
JUNE 11, 1920]
The deflection by this law should every-
where be the same on a circle concentric with
the sun, 2. e., condition (1) the deflection
should vary alone with the inverse distance,
not also, for example, with heliographic lati-
tude; furthermore, the deflection should be
strictly radial, 2. e., condition (2) the deflec-
tion should coincide in direction with a line
drawn to the center of the sun. Plotting
Crommelin’s actually observed deflections, for
each of the 7 stars, in magnitude and direc-
tion, as was done in Fig. 1 by the Department
of Terrestrial Magnetism, a careful examina-
tion shows that there are systematic depar-
tures from both conditions (1) and (2) which
apparently can not be explained wholly by
errors of observation.2 In addition we have
the fact that the resulting value of q,, No. 3
in Table I., is 1”.98 instead of 17.74, or about
SCIENCE
583
axis; the north end of this axis for Sobral at
mid-totality was about 16°.8 east of the north
end of the sun’s axis of rotation. The two
columns giving the probable errors, as deduced
by us from the individual data derived from
Crommelin’s 7 plates, show that the average
probable error for both the radial and non-
radial components is about +-0”.04. The
angular departure, 8, it will be observed,
varies from —28° to + 37°; a plus value
means an angular departure in the positive
direction of the angle A, 2. e., in the direction
N., E., S., W. The sign of a, corresponds
with that of 8. How many of the 7 plates
gave a plus or a minus @ is shown in the last
two columns. It will be seen that for stars
6 and 10, the minus sign greatly predominates,
and for stars 2 and 11, the plus sign greatly,
predominates.
TABLE II
Eadial and Non-Radial Component s of Observed Light Deflections at Sobral, Brazil, May 29, and Angu-
lar Departures for Radiality
Based on results from 7 photographic plates obtained by Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin with a 4-inch lens
of 19-foot focus and using an 8-inch ecelostat.
Pos. Angle | Dist. Einstein | Observed Deflection | Probable Errors Angular Departure
No. Star Defiec- =)
A p tion Radial |Non-Radial| Rad. N. R. B + =
3 ke Tauri 351°8 1.99 0788 1702 —0"05 | 0702 | 0”02 — 2°9, 3 4
2 Pi. TV. 82 96.0 2.04 0.85 0.97 +0.16 | 0.04 0.05 | + 9.6 6 1
4 ki Tauri 352.0 2.35 0.75 0.84 +0.01 0.03 0.03 | + 0.8 2 5
5 Pi. IV. 61 215.6 3.27 0.53 0.54 —0502) 0205 0.04 —= 2,') 3 4
6 v Tauri 6.3 4.34 0.40 9.56 —0.16 | 0.04 0.04 —16.0 1 6
10 72 Tauri 15.0 5.19 0.34 0.32 — OR OLO5: 0.04 =27.9 0 0
11 56 Tauri 273.6 5.38 0.32 0.20 +0.15 | 0.06 0.02 | +37.2 it 0
14 per cent. larger than the theoretical value. 5. Table II. shows the following facts:
What was the chief cause of the superposed (a) The observed radial component is
effects ?
4. Table 2 contains our resolved components
of the observed light deflections, namely, the
strictly radial component, q,, and a,, the com-
ponent perpendicular to the radius, represent-
ing the non-radial effects or angular depar-
tures, 8, from radiality, exhibited in Fig. 1.
A is the positon angle of the star counted
continuously in the direction N, E., S., W.,
from the north end of the declination or geo-
2Dr. Silberstein has also directed attention to
the existence of the non-radial effects. Monthly
Notices, R. A. S., Vol. 80, pp. 111-112.
greater than the Hinstein theoretical value
for the first five stars (Nos. 3, 2, 4, 5 and 6)
and less for the two most distant stars (Nos.
10 and 11). (The observed radial deflections
for the two stars, Nos. 6? and 11, which depart
most from the Hinstein values, correspond,
respectively, to deflections at the sun’s limb of
3 Curiously, Eddington’s observed deflection for
star 6, according to data kindly supplied recently,
also departs most markedly from the Einstein law;
in his case, however, the deflection reduced to the
sun’s limb is about 55 per cent. too low for that
star.
584
9” 43 and 1”.11, thus exhibiting a range of 75
per cent.)
(b) The observed non-radial component,
which according to the Einstein law (1)
should be zero, varies from —0’.17 to
-+-0”.16; it amounts at times to one tenth of
the Einstein radial deflection at the sun’s
limb and is from 3 to 7 times the probable
error.
(c) The value of the deflection at the sun’s
limb as deduced from stars Nos. 3, 4, 6 and
10, near the sun’s axis, is 2”.02, and from
stars Nos. 2, 5 and 11, near the sun’s equator,
1”.88; the two values differ 0”.14 or 8 per
cent. (The observed deflection therefore is a
function not simply of distance alone, as re-
quired by the Einstein law, but also appar-
ently of the position angle.)
6. After various trials the following pre-
liminary formule were found to represent the
observed quantities with good approximation :+
1e7/ if
a, = i + 0:29 sin? (A — 239°), (2)
p p
ap = 0"0323p sin 2 (A — 233°). (3)
The close agreement in the independently-
derived phase angles, 239° and 233°, led to
the impression that some common cause pro-
duced the superposed radial effect, represented
by the second term in (2), and the non-radial
effects represented by (3). Now the position
angle of the zenith for Sobral at mid-totality
of the eclipse, projected on the plate, is 241°.6,
which value could be substituted with fair
approximation in place of the phase angles
for (2) and (3). Thus the second term of
(2) and the single term of (3) were found to
4 The sum of the residuals squared on the basis of
formula (1) was 0.093, whereas on the basis of
(2) the sum was reduced to 0.037. Were the non-
radial effects regarded solely as errors of observa-
tion, then the sum of the squares amounts to 0.106;
however, the sum of the squares of the residuals
resulting by applying formula (3) is but 0.016.
Other formule were also established giving a still
closer representation of the observed quantities
than do (2) and (3), however, they did not admit
of physical interpretation as readily as those given.
This matter will be discussed more fully in the
complete paper.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1328
be related in some manner to the local zenith.
The effect of terrestrial atmospheric refrac-
tion on the sun and the stars is to shift them
apparently all towards the zenith, those
farthest from the zenith being shifted most.
The question accordingly arises whether the
superposed effects with which we are con-
cerned may not have resulted from incom-
plete elimination of differential refraction
effects in the earth’s atmosphere. It may be
observed also that by the introduction of our
second term in (2), the value of the deflection
at the sun’s limb was reduced from 17.98 to
1”.77, which agrees closely with the Einstein
value.
4. With the effective aid of my colleague,
Mr. W. J. Peters, in charge of the reduction
of the atmospheric-refraction observations
made aboard the Carnegie, the possible out-
standing effects resulting from incomplete
elimination of differential refraction effects
in the earth’s atmosphere have been investi-
gated. The differential terrestrial refraction
effects between the sun and each of the 7
stars were rigorously computed by two differ-
ent methods for the time of exposure of the
eclipse plates and the prevalent meteorological
conditions. Lacking complete details regard-
ing the precise times of exposures of the
check-plates obtained before sunrise between
July 12 and 18, our computed differential-
refraction effects for the check-plates are for
the present only tentative ones. The exami-
nation as far as it can be made at present
indicates that outstanding effects in the
differences between the differential terres-
trial refraction effects for the eclipse-plates
and the check-plates, may largely, if not com-
pletely, account for the non-radial effects in
the observed light deflections, as also decrease
the value (1”.98) of the radial deflection at
the sun’s limb. This is a matter that can
be more definitely determined when the
original data and complete details regarding
the reductions of the measures are available.
The present indications are that precise allow-
ance for differential terrestrial refraction
effects may bring Crommelin’s results into
closer accord with the Einstein law of gravi-
JUNE 11, 1920]
tation. Possibly also when reductions of the
photographie measures have been made with
every possible refinement, some outstanding
effect may be disclosed to be referred to
optical refraction in the sun’s atmosphere,
especially for stars in the polar regions like
Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 10, where the length of the
light path through the solar atmosphere
would be considerably less than for stars 2, 5
and 11, in the equatorial regions (cf. § 5c).
A future communication will give further
consideration to this matter.
8. In the foregoing paragraph nothing has
been said as to the possibility of irregularities
in the differential refraction effects in the
earth’s atmosphere such as have been dis-
closed by various investigators and which
may not have affected every ray alike over a
star field embracing about two degrees of are.
In brief, the actual differential terrestrial
refraction effects, because of atmospheric
conditions during totality of the eclipse or
during the times when the check-plates were
exposed, or because of the manner of mount-
ing of the instrumental appliances, may have
been appreciably different from those derived
from mathematical formule and standard re-
fraction tables. It would seem that in future
tests of the Einstein effect, atmospheric-re-
fraction observations and allied meteorolog-
ical observations should be included as a nec-
essary part of the program of work.
L. A. Bauer
DEPARTMENT OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM,
WasuHinerTon, D. C.,
May 11, 1920
FOURTH YEAR OF THE NEOTROPICAL
RESEARCH STATION
THe work of the New York Zoological
Society Station in British Guiana began in
1916. Owing to the difficulty of transporta-
tion at the time of the war, there was a lapse
during 1917, but work was resumed in 1918
and 1919. The station is now entering its
fourth year. It has been directed with great
ability by Mr. William Beebe, Honorary
Curator of Birds at the Zoological Park, and
SCIENCE
585
has been supported by personal contributions
of the trustees of the Zoological Society.
The distinctive research feature of this
station is intensive biologic observation in
one region, in fact, in one locality, as dis-
tinguished from the observations of Darwin,
Bates, Waterton, Chapman, and many other
explorers in the great biologic field of South
America. The area chosen by Director Beebe
is the eastern edge of the tropical rain-forest
of South America, which extends unbroken
across the greater part of the continent. The
fauna and flora are uniform with those of the
entire Amazonian region. The locality in
Bartiea District, British Guiana, at Kartabo,
the point of junction of the Mazaruni and
Cuyuni rivers, has proved ideal in every way
as a permanent site for this station. Within
ten minutes walk are sandy and rocky beaches,
mangroves, grassland, swamp, and high jungle,
each with a growth of life peculiar to itself.
Free exposure to the trade winds, the absence
of flies and mosquitos, invariably cool nights,
excellent buildings assigned by the govern-
ment—all these features contribute to the
wide range of life and the unbroken health
of the scientific staff.
This region affords a vast opportunity for
studying the faunal and floral complex, in-
dependent and interrelated adaptations in all
grades of life in vertical as well as horizontal
life zones. The vertical division of the fauna
and flora in distinctive zones, extending from
the tree summits to the subsoil, is a biologic
contribution of importance. The observations
of the station extend from color changes and
adaptations to anatomical and functional
characters of the archaic as well as of the
highly modernized forms of life.
All together seventy-five papers have been
published on the scientific observations of this
station, parts of which have already been re-
viewed in the volume “ Tropical Wild Life”
issued by the society in 1917. Three papers
appeared in the first volume of Zoologica
(1907-1915), and it has been decided to re-
serve the third volume of Zoologica exclusively
to scientific papers on the station.
During the year 1919 Director Beebe’s
586
work dealt chiefly with environmental prob-
lems and evanescent characters such as color,
pattern, tissue form, developmental change
and habits of the higher vertebrates. Elab-
orate studies were made of the eyes of reptiles
and amphibians, also of the tongue, tarsus,
and hyoid apparatus of three families of birds,
the Formicariide, Cotingide, and Tyrannidz,
and the syringes of one hundred and twenty-
two species of birds. The general notes on
life histories of amphibians, reptiles, and
birds were greatly increased and will shortly
be ready for publication. Among the lower
forms, six specimens of Peripatus were
studied, one of which gave birth to eight
young.
Without in any way interfering with the
scientific work of the station it was found
possible to collect and preserve for the Amer-
ican Museum a collection of two hundred and
seven mammals, skins, skulls and skeletons,
with full data, comprising about forty-three
species. Among these was a series of thirteen
red howling monkeys of various ages, part
of which has been introduced in one of the
groups in the Primates Hall of the American
Museum. Every reptile and amphibian, ex-
cepting those involved in research problems,
was preserved, a collection of two hundred
being brought north to the American Museum.
To aid current research on the Crocodilia, a
series of crocodile skulls was sent north.
Similarly a number of large electric eels was
collected for Professor Ulric Dahlgren, of
Princeton, and embryos of the red howling
monkey were sent to Dr. Adolph H. Schultz,
of Johns Hopkins University.
Mr. John Tee-Van, of the New York
Zoological Park, in addition to the economic
administration of the station, made five hun-
dred pen and ink drawings of the syringes
and tongues of birds, considered to be of
great importance in classification. Mr. Alfred
Emerson, of Cornell University, chose the
Termites as his object of research and com-
pleted his biologie studies on fifty-six species.
Professor Albert M. Reese, of the University
of West Virginia, began a microscopic study
of the swamp and river fauna, and an in-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No, 1328
tensive environmental investigation of a hun-
dred yards of sandy beach in front of the lab-
oratory. His chief research was on the em-
bryology of the crocodile, obtaining embryos
of all stages. Mr. Clifford Pope, of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, worked on the fish life
near the station and obtained valuable data
on thirty-five species. Miss Isabel Cooper, of
Bryn Mawr, made two hundred and forty-five
paintings and drawings, in full color, of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates, most
of them known heretofore only from colorless
alcoholic specimens. Among the most inter-
esting paintings are those of the living eye of
amphibians and reptiles.
In the year 1919 the station was open from
March first until October. Director Beebe
and six associates and assistants are leaving
New York May 8, 1920, for the fourth
season’s work.
SEASON OF 1920
The party leaving New York on May 8 for
the fourth season includes William Beebe,
director; John Tee-Van, scientific assistant
and preparator; George Inness Hartley and
Alfred Emerson, research associates; Clifford
Pope, research assistant; Isabel Cooper and
Anna Taylor, artists.
In addition to the continuation of the
regular research work of the station of pre-
vious years, as outlined in the above report,
there will be special studies on the habits of
the hoactzins and the army ants, with the new
Akeley moving picture camera. Attempts
will be made to secure living giant armadillos
and hoactizins for the Zoological Park of New
York.
Professor Ulric Dahlgren, of Princeton,
will visit the Neotropical Station in August
to begin his researches on the electric eel Gym-
notus. Professor William Morton Wheeler,
of the Bussey Institution, with his son Mr.
Ralph Wheeler, accompanied by Professor
J. C. Bailey, will visit the station in July to
study the ant fauna. Dr. Casey Wood, one
of the leading authorities on the fundus oculi
of the sauropsids and amphibians, expects to
visit the station later in the year accompanied
JUNE 11, 1920]
by Dr. Harold Gifford. Four artists will be
at the station during the present year and
will devote especial attention to recording the
coloring of creatures too delicate to bear
transportation alive to a temperate zone.
Among the incidental results of the work
of the station is a rich and continuous supply
of living animals to the New York Zoological
Park, including such animals as the jaguar,
ocelot, capybara, agouti, anaconda, and jabiru.
This season a very much larger collection of
living animals will be made and sent north.
Henry FarrietpD Ossorn
PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
May 6, 1920
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
THE annual report of the director of the
U. S. National Museum states that the total
number of specimens acquired by the museum
during the year was approximately 526,845.
Received in 1,198 separate accessions, they
were classified and assigned as follows: De-
partment of anthropology, 12,333; zoology,
449,383; botany, 40,357; geology and mineral-
ogy, 4,750; paleontology, 26,050; textiles,
woods, medicines, foods, and other miscella-
neous animal and vegetable products, 884;
‘mineral technology, 62; and National Gallery
of Art, 26. As loans for exhibition, 3,096
articles were also obtained, mainly for the
divisions of history and American archeology
and the Gallery of Art.
Material to the extent of 539 lots was re-
ceived for special examination and report.
The distribution of duplicates, mainly to
schools and colleges for educational purposes,
aggregated 3,441 specimens, of which 1,378
were contained in seven regular sets of fossil
invertebrates averaging 47 specimens each
and six regular sets of mollusks of 174 speci-
mens each. The balance comprised 19 special
lots, consisting of marine invertebrates, rep-
tiles, fishes, fossils, minerals and ores, stone
implements, and basketry specimens.
In making exchanges for additions to the
SCIENCE
587
collections, a total of 5,227 duplicate speci-
mens were distributed. These consisted
largely of plants.
Material sent out to specialists for study
on behalf of the Museum amounted to 19,851
specimens, mainly biological.
In furtherance of its extensive historical
exhibits, the Museum, early in the year,
through cooperation with the War and Navy
Departments, undertook the assembling and
installation of a collection of materials con-
nected with the World War, which may ulti-
mately, require a separate building.
APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE HENRY DRAPER
FUND OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES
Av its recent meeting the National Academy
of Sciences made the following appropriations
on the recommendation of the committee on
the Henry Draper Fund:
$400 to S. A. Mitchell, of the University of Vir-
ginia, to complete the purchase of a measuring
microscope for use in the photographie determina-
tion of stellar parallaxes, on the basis of observa-
tions made with the 27-inch refracting telescope.
The academy awarded the sum of $250 from the
Draper Fund to apply on the purchase of this in-
strument and the proposed grant of $400 will com-
plete the purchase. The microscope, costing $650,
becomes in effect the property of the academy.
Professor Mitchell will devote an equivalent sum,
$400, to other needs of his parallax research.
$300 to Joel Stebbins, professor of astronomy in
the University of Illinois, to assist in the further
development of the photo-electric-cell photometer.
$400 to Frank Schlesinger, director of the Alle-
gheny Observatory, to enable him to test an auto-
matic zenith camera for the determination of ter-
restrial latitude, with the expectation that the
results will be more aceurate than any hitherto
obtained by other means. It is proposed that this
instrument be mounted temporarily at the Inter-
national Latitude Observatory at Ukiah, California,
where the astronomer in charge will operate it for
a year or two as a labor of love. The grant is
needed to install the instrument at Ukiah and to
make certain auxiliary apparatus required in its
operation. The Allegheny Observatory is loaning
the objective and the photographic plates obtained
will be measured by Dr. Schlesinger himself or
under his immediate direction.
588
$175 to H. B. Frost, director of Yerkes Observa-
tory, for the purchase of a Hess-Ives tint photom-
eter for use in the Yerkes Observatory, to supple-
ment the Hartmann micrometer in the measure-
ment of various illuminants, of the transmission of
filters for various wave-lengths, of the absorption
of photometric gratings, and of other phenomena
and subjects.
$500 to Dr. Antonio Abetti, director of the Ar-
cetri Observatory, Florence, Italy, to apply on the
cost of a combined spectrograph and spectro-
heliograph for use in combination with a 60-foot
tower telescope now under construction. It is
planned that this instrument shall be used by the
son of the director, Dr. Giorgio Abetti, well known
to many American astronomers, recently trans-
ferred from the Observatory in Rome to the Ar-
cetri Observatory.
$200 to Major William Bowie, chief of the Di-
vision of Geodesy, U. S. Coast and Geodetie Sur-
vey, in temporary support of the International
Latitude Observatory at Ukiah, California, to as-
sist in meeting an emergency due to the failure of
the Observatory’s regular source of funds.
ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS MA-
KERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA
THE second annual meeting of the Associa-
tion of Scientific Apparatus Makers of the
United States as reported in the Jowrnal of
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, was
held at Washington, D. C., Thursday and Fri-
day, April 22 and 23, 1920, and was attended
by thirty of the leading manufacturers of sci-
entific instruments, analytical balances, chem-
ical glassware, optical instruments and pyrom-
eters.
The purpose of this association is to im-
prove the construction and design of the sci-
entific apparatus of this country and to stand-
ardize the same so as to get uniform quality
and sizes; also, the most important object is to
build up in the United States a precision in-
strument industry that will be of aid to the
national government in time of emergency.
Prior to 1914, practically all instruments of
precision were imported and when our govern-
ment declared war in 1917, it was found that
there were not enough instrument makers and
manufacturers to provide adequate supplies of
precision instruments for the laboratory con-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1328
trol of essential factories and to build fire con-
trol instruments for the Army and Navy. The
association is now working to perpetuate this
industry and to make the nation independent
of any foreign country. In carrying out their
program they are working in conjunction with
the National Research Council, the American
Chemical Society, Bureau of Standards and
the various scientific bureaus of the National
government.
One of the most important addresses of the
occasion was given by Dr. S. W. Stratton, di-
rector of the Bureau of Standards, in which
he set forth the various activities of the Bu-
reau and stated how it would be possible to co-
operate with this association. On Friday
afternoon, at the invitation of Dr. Stratton,
the association was shown through the various
departments of the Bureau of Standards.
Committees were appointed on standard-
ization in the various departments to work
in conjunction with the above-mentioned
agencies and also, if possible to correlate
their work with the committee of the So-
ciety of Chemical Industry of Great Brit-
ain, which is working along similar lines.
There was also a committee appointed on pub-
lication which will report later. The officers
for the coming year are as follows: President,
M. E. Leeds, of the Leeds & Northrup Com-
pany; Vice-president, H. N. Ott, of the Spencer
Lens Company; Secretary-treasurer, J. M.~
Roberts, of the Central Scientifie Company.
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
At the last meeting of the board of trustees
steps were taken to further equip and advance
the work of the university’s graduate school
of medicine. A budget of $158,079.37 was
approved to meet such expenses as are not
provided in the regular income of the school.
Provost Smith appointed John CO. Bell chair-
man of the joint committee on the graduate
school of medicine.
A committee from the graduate school, con-
sisting of Dean George H. Meeker, Dr. George
E. de Schweinitz, Dr. Alfred Stengel and Dr.
P. S. Stout, attended the meeting and ex-
JUNE 11, 1920]
plained the new plans of the school. What
these men said concerning the work of the
school is now doing and its recognition
throughout the medical world greatly im-
pressed the trustees. The following resolu-
tions concerning the school were unanimously
adopted :
Resolved, That in the judgment of the board of
trustees the maintenance and development of the
graduate school of medicine is essential alike to the
cause of medical education in this commonwealth
and to the leadership of the university in this
field.
Resolved, That the budget of the graduate school
of medicine for the year 1920-21, involving an es-
timated deficit of $158,079.37, be approved.
Resolved, That a committee consisting of all the
members of this board and such others as may be
appointed by the provost be empowered ‘to cooper-
ate with the managers of the hospitals of the
graduate school of medicine in raising the neces-
sary funds for the support of that school.
Resolved, That pending the receipt of the neces-
sary contributions for the support of the graduate
school of medicine the credit of the university be
pledged and the treasurer be authorized to pay out
of unrestricted funds not otherwise appropriated
such sums as may be necessary, not exceeding the
amount of the estimated deficit, $157,079.37.
OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH
COUNCIL
THE National Research Council has elected
the following officers for the year beginning
July 1, 1920: Chairman, H. A. Bumstead,
professor of physics and director of the Sloane
physical laboratory, Yale University; First
Viee-Chairman, C. D. Walcott, president of
the National Academy of Sciences and Sec-
retary of the Smithsonian Institution; Second
Vice-Chairman, Gano Dunn, president of the
J. G. White Engineering Corporation, New
York; Third Vice-Chairman, R. A. Millikan,
professor of physics, University of Chicago;
Permanent Secretary, Vernon Kellogg, pro-
fessor of entomology, Stanford University;
Treasurer, F. L. Ransome, treasurer of the
National Academy of Sciences. The chair-
man of the various Divisions of the Council
have not yet been all selected but will be
announced later. As the general officers and
SCIENCE
589
the division chairmen of the council are
elected annually, with the consequent possi-
bility of an almost complete change of ad-
ministrative officers at the end of any annual
period, the council instituted the office of per-
manent secretary for the sake of effecting
some degree of administrative continuity.
Professor Kellogg, who has for the past year
been serving as secretary of the council and
chairman of its division of educational rela-
tions, will fill this office, and will resign from
Stanford University on July 1 of this year.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
On the recommendation of the National
Academy of Sciences the Barnard medal for
meritorious service to science has been con-
ferred by Columbia University on Professor
Albert Einstein, of Berlin, in recognition “ of
his highly original and fruitful development
of the fundamental concepts of physics
through application of mathematics.”
Dr. Ernest Sonvay, Belgium, has been
elected to honorary membership in the Ameri-
ean Chemical Society.
Tue honorary degree of doctor of science
was conferred on Edward William Nelson,
ehief of the U. S. Biological Survey, at the re-
cent commencement exercises of George Wash-
ington University.
On the evening of May 22, a dinner was
given at New Haven to Professor Russell H.
Chittenden in honor of the fortieth anniver-
sary of his receiving the degree of doctor of
philosophy from Yale University. Sixty-five
former graduate students and friends were
present. The dinner followed the one hun-
dred and eighth meeting of the Society for
Experimental Biology and Medicine.
Dr. Epcar Faus SmMiru, retiring provost of
the University of Pennsylvania, was a guest
of honor at a dinner given by nearly 500 mem-
bers of the faculty of the University of Penn-
sylvania at Weightman Hall, May 26.
Dr. Simon Fuexner, of the Rockefeller In-
stitute for Medical Research, has been ap-
pointed to represent the United States at the
first formal meeting of the Medical Advisory
590
Board of the League of Red Cross Societies
that will open at Geneva on July 5. The rep-
resentatives of other nations at the conference
will be Professor Brodet, Belgium; Professor
Madsen, Denmark; Professors Roux, Albert
and Calmette, France; General Lyle Cummins,
Sir Walter Fletcher and Sir George Newman,
Great Britain; Professor Bastianello and Dr.
Castellani, Italy; Dr. Kinnostke Miura, Ja-
pan, and Dr. Chagas, South America.
Dr. Greorce B. FRANKFORTER, who has been
during the war examiner of explosives, chem-
icals and loading in the Ordnance Claims
Board and later technical adviser to the board,
has returned to the University of Minnesota
as professor of organic and industrial organic
chemistry.
Dr. Austin H. Cxiark, assistant curator in
the division of marine invertebrates of the Na-
tion Museum, has been appointed curator of
the division of echinoderms.
Dr. Frank E. Lutz, of the American
Museum of Natural History, is in Wyoming
continuing the museum’s work on the eco-
logical distribution of western insects.
Tue California Academy of Sciences has
granted temporary leave of absence to Dr.
G. Dallas Hanna, curator of invertebrate
paleontology to enable him to comply with a
request from the United States Bureau of
Fisheries to take the annual census of fur
seals on the Pribilof Islands, Alaska in 1920.
Departure will be taken from Seattle about
June first on the U. S. S. Saturn. Dr. Hanna
was formerly attached to the staff of the
Bureau and besides being associated with the
census work since 1913 has made large col-
lections of natural history material. It is
expected these will be considerably augmented
during the coming summer.
Dr. L. E. Grirrin, professor of zoology at
the University of Pittsburgh, formerly pro-
fessor of zoology and dean of the arts college
in the University of the Philippines, lectured
before the West Virginia Scientific Society
on May 27 upon “The Development of Sci-
ence in the Philippines.”
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1328
Dr. Cart O. JoHns, of the Color Inyesti-
gation Laboratory, Washington, D. C., re
cently lectured before the graduate students
in chemistry of Yale University on “‘ The ap-
plication of organic chemistry in government
work.”
M. Prrrre Janet, professor of psychology
in the Collége de France gave recently three
lectures at the University of London on “La
tension psychologique, ses degrés et ses oscil-
lations.”
CuaRENCE EHNIE BroEKkeER, who, in collab-
oration with Dr. W. D. Harkins at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, according to their pre-
liminary results, had successfully fractionated
hydrogen chloride into what appear to be
acids of isotopic forms of chlorine (ScmENCE,
LI., 289, 1920), died on May 9, after a brief
illness. In recognition of his skillful work
and ability Mr. Broeker had been appointed
to the Swift fellowship in chemistry, the
highest honor in the gift of the chemistry
department of the University of Chicago.
Tue Civil Service Commission announces
examinations on July 6, for the positions of
radio engineer (aeronautics) at $3,600 to
$5,000 a year and of assistant radio engineer
(aeronautics) at $2,500 to $3,600 a year. On
July 15 an examination is announced for a
position in metallurgical engineering at the
Naval Ordnance Plant, South Charleston, W.
Va., at $5,000 a year.
Dr. BENJAMIN WHITE has been appointed di-
rector of the division of biologic laboratories
of the Massachusetts State Department of
Public Health to succeed Dr. Milton J.
Rosenau, resigned. Dr. White has also been
appointed lecturer on immunology in the
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and as-
sistant in the department of preventive medi-
cine and hygiene of the Harvard Medical
School.
Mr. A. M. Muckenruss, professor of organic
and industrial chemistry and director of that
subdepartment, Emory University, Atlanta,
Ga., has resigned to accept the position of re-
search chemist with the Roessler & Hasslacher
Chemical Co., Perth Amboy, N. J.
JUNE 11, 1920]
Dr. Cyrit §. Taytor has resigned from the
Bureau of Standards to accept a position in
the research bureau of the Aluminum- Com-
pany of America at New Kensington, Penn-
sylvania.
Dr. JouHn S. Boyce has been placed in
charge of a branch of the office of Forest
Pathology of the Bureau of Plant Industry,
cooperating with District 6 of the Forest Serv-
ice, which has been established at Portland,
Oregon.
Tue California Fruit Growers Exchange,
an organization of 10,000 growers of citrus
fruits, has established a research laboratory
in Corona, California, in charge of Mr. C. P.
Wilson, who was for thirteen years with the
Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture.
_ Ar the annual meeting of the Boston Society
of Natural History, the following officers were
elected: President, W. Cameron Forbes; Vice-
presidents, Nathaniel T. Kidder, William F.
Whitney, Theodore Lyman; Secretary, Glover
M. Allen; Yreasurer, William A. Jeffries,
Councillors for eight years, Thomas Barbour,
Henry B. Bigelow, Gorham Brooks, S. Pres-
cott Fay, Robert T. Jackson, John L. Salton-
stall, John E. Thayer, Charles W. Townsend.
The following were elected honorary members
of the society: G. A. Boulenger, Sidney F.
Harmer, Aubrey Strahan, of London; Em-
manuel de Margerie, of Paris; John Macoun,
of Ottawa; Elmer D. Merrill, of Manila.
_ Mr. Gerarp Fowke, a collaborator of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, left St. Louis
on April 1 for Honolulu. He will make an
archeological reconnaissance of the Hawaiian
Islands with a view to future intensive work
by the bureau.
Tuer tenth annual summer field course in
geology of the University of Missouri will be
conducted by Professor HE. B. Branson and
Mr. R. B. Rutledge during July and August.
About one week will be spent in the Black
Hills and the rest of the time in the Big
Horn Mountains of Wyoming. The party
will be limited to sixteen students. Messrs.
Branson and Rutledge, who are now on leave
SCIENCE
591
of absence from the University of Missouri
engaged in geological investigations in Costa
Rica, will return to the United States late in
June.
AT a recent meeting of the Iota (Kansas)
Chapter of the Society of Sigma Xi a resolu-
tion of commendation and congratulation was
ordered to be transmitted, over the signatures
of the president and secretary of the society,
to Dr. Solomon Lefschetz for his memoir en-
titled “ Sur Certains Nombres Invariants des
Variétés Algébriques avec Application aux
Variétés Abéliennes,” for which the Bordin
prize of 3,000 franes was awarded in 1919. The
following is the resolution: “ The Iota Chapter
of the Society of Sigma Xi (University of
Kansas) congratulates Dr. Solomon Lefschetz
on the receipt of the Bordin Prize of the Paris
Academy of Sciences as an appropriate ac-
knowledgment of his mathematical ability and
productive scholarship. It furthermore com-
mends Dr. Lefschetz in the highest terms for
his indefatigable industry in scientific re-
search, and will await with interest his future
contributions to mathematical science.”
AT the annual general meeting of the Royal
Astronomical Society on February 138, the
president, Professor A. Fowler, gave an ad-
dress on the foundation of the society just a
century before. According to an abstract in
Nature he said that the four men who were
most influential in its formation were the Rev-
erend William Pearson, Mr. Francis Baily, Sir
John F. Herschel and Mr. Charles Babbage.
The two latter both lived until 1871, and there
are no fewer than fifteen surviving fellows
whose fellowships overlapped with theirs. One
of these, Mr. Inwards, said that he remembered
speaking to Sir John Herschel at a meeting of
the society. There was at first a good deal of
opposition to the new society on the part of the
Royal Society, and the Duke of Somerset, who
was elected the first president, quickly resigned
this office owing to the pressure brought to
bear upon him. He was succeeded after an
interval by Sir William Herschel, who was
then eighty-two years of age, and died in 1822.
Mr. Stephen Groombridge, well known for his
092
Star Catalogue, was another of the original
members. They were not called fellows until
1830, when the royal charter was granted, giv-
ing the society its present title; it was previ-
ously called the London Astronomical Society.
The earliest publications of the society were in
the form of memoirs; the Monthly Notices did
not commence until several years later, and
were at first only small pamphlets containing
ephemerides of comets and other matters of
transient interest.
The British Medical Journal writes:
Owing to the war the zoological station at
Naples has suffered in many ways, and it is highly
necessary that this very important international
scientific institution should receive the support nee-
essary to enable it to carry on its work without re-
striction. But, although its importance for zo-
ological and morphological research has always
been recognized, its advantages for physiological
and biochemical studies are by no means as widely
known as they ought to be. The station is fully
equipped with all necessary apparatus and mate-
rials, and the section for physiology and biochemis-
try, being under the very capable direction of Pro-
fessor Bottazzi, the professor of physiology in the
University of Naples, students are assured not only
of the opportunities of carrying out independent
and untrammelled research, but of the best advice
and direction from the staff. There is an admir-
able library, with very complete sets of periodical
publications. The rent of a table is 2,500 francs a
year (payable in gold), and the director of the
station will furnish all details to students who pro-
pose to carry out any research there. The study
of comparative physiology has bearings upon im-
munology, upon the question of functional activi-
ties, upon biochemistry and physiology in general,
the importance of which in their relation to medi-
cine needs no emphasis. The effect on interna-
tional relations of a free use of these scientific fa-
cilities being made by British students and of their
intercourse with Italian men of science is but little
less important.
Tur American Fisheries Society will hold
its fiftieth anniversary meeting at Ottawa,
Canada, on September 20, 21 and 22, 1920.
For this meeting the society will offer prizes
of $100 for papers in competition in each of
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No, 1328
the following classes. (1) For the contribu-
tion showing the greatest advance in prac-
tical fish cultural work; (2) For the best
contribution to biological work connected with
fish problems in general; (8) For that which
offers the greatest promise of the solution of
problems affecting commercial fisheries work.
The papers should be in the hands of the
secretary not later than August 20. Further
information ean be obtained from the ex-
ecutive secretary, Professor Raymond C. Os-
burn, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Yate University has received $1,000,000
from the General Education Board for the
development of the New Haven General Hos-
pital through the medical school of the uni-
versity. The hospital will be made a full-
time institution, the staff many of whom are
members of the Yale Medical School faculty,
giving all their time to the hospital and fore-
going outside practise. When the Yale Med-
ical School became affiliated with the New
Haven hospital a few years ago, a gift of
$500,000 from the General Education Board
was received.
Tur General Education Board has made @
gift of $500,000 each to the endowment funds
of Smith College and Mount Holyoke College
and $400,000 to that of Wesleyan University.
It has also made an appropriation of $250,000
to Middlebury College on condition that an
additional $750,000 be raised by subscription.
Mr. EpwarD WHITLEY has offered to Oxford
University the sum of £10,000 towards the
endowment of a professorship of biochemistry,
and the British Dye-Stuffs Corporation has
made a donation of £5,000 towards the cost
of extending the laboratory of organic chem-
istry.
Tue Convocation of Oxford University has
passed without opposition the statute provid-
ing for the matriculation and admission of
JUNE 11, 1920]
women for degrees in the university. The
Cambridge University Syndicate appointed
to consider the question is divided in opinion;
half have reported in favor of admission to
full membership, and half im favor of a
separate university at Cambridge.
Dr. Davin Kintey, professor of economics
and dean of the graduate school of the Uni-
versity of Illinois, has been elected president
to succeed Dr. Edmund Janes James.
Dr. Lauper W. Jones, dean of the School
of Chemistry and also of the College of
Engineering and Architecture of the Univer-
sity of Minnesota, has accepted an appoint-
ment as professor of organic chemistry at
Princeton University.
Auice M. Borne, of the Peking Union
Medical College, China, has been appointed
assistant professor of zoology at Wellesley
College, beginning with the academic year
1920-21.
Dr. ExuswortH D. Ensron, of Cornell Uni-
versity, has been appointed assistant professor
_of geology at Dartmouth College.
Associate Proressor J. Wemyss ANDERSON,
has been appointed to the recently established
John William Hughes Chair of Engineering
Refrigeration at Liverpool University.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
MODERN INTERPRETATION OF DIFFER-
ENTIALS AGAIN
To THE Eprtor or Science: I regret that in
my criticism (Scmnce, March 26) of Pro-
fessor Hathaway’s exposition of differentials
(Science, February 13) I was led by an un-
wise desire for brevity into making a state
ment which, in its unqualified form, will not
stand analysis. The statement that “lim NAy
is inevitably zero” is certainly not true un-
less V remains finite, and Professor Hathaway
is quite justified (Scmmnce, May 7) in chiding
me for this error, since his WN is not restricted
to finite values.
At the same time I can not feel that I was
essentially mistaken in contending that his
presentation of differentials “would prove
highly misleading to the modern student.”
SCIENCE
593
It is true that when he defines the differ-
ential dy as the limit of NAy for lim Ay=—0,
he does allow the multiplier N to vary (as
I should have stated); but it is also true that
he gives no indication whatever as to the
manner in which N is to vary; and without
some such indication his limit of NAy, and
hence his differential, dy, remain wholly
undefined!
On page 167 (I quote verbatim this time,
to avoid the danger of renewed injustice), his
formal interpretation of. differentials is given
as follows: they are “ordinary arithmetical
increments, but in a variation defined as in
the first ratio, or as the variables begin to
increase, or. in the instantaneous state, which
are all one.”
I maintain that such vague statements are
not likely to convey to any student’s mind “a
rigorous theory, neglecting no quantity, how-
ever small, leaving no unexplained symbol.”
They are much more likely to leave him with
the traditional impression that differentials
are really as Bishop Berkeley called them, the
“chosts of departed quantities,’ or, in Pro-
fessor Osgood’s phrase, abominable “little
zeroes,” unworthy of a place in mathematical
discussion.
The object of my brief letter was, as stated,
not to discuss historical questions (the im-
portance and value of which no one can
deny) but merely to contrast the obscurity of
Professor Hathaway’s presentation with the
clearness and simplicity of the modern treat-
ment—the treatment which has been the com-
monplace of every treatise of recognized
standing since the middle of the nineteenth
eentury.
Epwarp V. Huntinctron
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
To THE Eprror or Science: In the issues of
Science for February 20 and 27 Mr. F. L.
Ransome, of the U. S. Geological Survey,
published a most interesting article on the
“Functions and Ideals of a National Geo-
logical Survey.”
In this article, attention was given to the
O94
educational work which such a survey might
carry on. To a librarian, his statements are
of more than casual interest. He called at-
tention to the dearth of popular literature on
certain scientific subjects, especially geology.
While other branches of nature study, includ-
ing plant and animal life, appeal to a wider
circle, and have been considered in a large
number of interesting and attractive books,
the same is not true of geology or of some of
the smaller forms of animal life, as, for
example, insect and fresh water life.
May I venture to call the attention of some
scientists who read your journal to the
desirability of some small, well-illustrated
and attractively written books on geology, both
descriptive and historical; on some of the
mineral products, such as iron and steel; on
pond life; on microscopy; and on the lives of
American scientists and scientific explorers.
A book is now in preparation for publica-
tion by Seribner’s, “The strange adventures
of a pebble.” From the announcement, this
is doubtless the sort of book which has been
needed for some time. In the quarterly book-
list of the Pratt Institute Library (which
library has made a speciality of literature in
this field) for January, there is a carefully
selected “List of technical and_ scientific
books for boys.” Astronomy is pretty well
covered. A fairly good boys’ book on chem-
istry was published in 1918. The two titles
on geology are those by MHeilprin and
Shaler, both rather old; and on physics,
nothing better than a reprinted edition of
Hopkins, “ Experimental science,” which could
very well be entirely revised or even broken
up into two less expensive volumes. Certainly
there is need for more books of this sort.
In the same line, may I eall attention to
the need of having books lists, to be dis-
tributed through schools and libraries and
printed in an attractive style with an illus-
trated cover, and giving descriptions of the
books? The attention of many young people
could be called to science as a life career if
means like these were adopted. Another de-
vice to this same end would be a series of
posters or printed reproductions of exhibits,
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No, 1328
showing some of the interesting phases of
nature study or science. These could be
printed by such a central bureau or by some
national scientific society and distributed to
be shown in schools and libraries and at Boy
Scout and Camp Fire Girls headquarters.
JosEPH L. WHEELER
THE YOUNGSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY
RULES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE
In reference to the applications made to
the International Commission on Zoological
Nomenclature for copies of the rules, the
secretary desires to state that the commission
has no supply of reprints for distribution.
Several years ago, at request of the secretary,
Mr. John Smallwood, 524 Tenth St., N. W.,
Washington, D. C., prepared several hundred
mimeographed copies and he still has about
100 on hand. These are sold at a nominal
price to cover expense of mimeographing and
postage and zoologists desiring copies can
obtain them, as long as the supply lasts, by
applying directly to Mr. Smallwood.
C. W. Stites,
Secretary
SPECIAL ARTICLES
ECHINODERMS IN BIRDS’ STOMACHS
TuroucH the courtesy of Mr. E. W. Nelson,
chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey,
Washington, four vials containing echino-
derms taken from birds’ stomachs have been
sent to me for examination. As I think
there are no published records of birds’ using
echinoderms for food, Mr. Nelson has kindly
consented to my stating in Scmmnce the facts
revealed by this trivial investigation and
certain important inferences which may be
made.
Two of the vials contained holothurian-like
objects taken from the stomachs of gulls.
The appearance and condition of these speci-
mens indicate that they were picked up on the
beach dead and more or less damaged. As
they are now quite decalcified, they are hope-
lessly unidentifiable, and it is probable that
one at least is not a holothurian.
June 11, 1920]
The contents of the other two vials are of
much greater interest. In each ease, the
material was taken from the stomach of a
duck collected at Bayou Labatre, Alabama.
One vial contains two small brown _holo-
thurians, somewhat damaged but with the cal-
careous particles in the skin not at all cor-
roded or injured in any way. The condition
of these specimens leaves no doubt in my
mind that they were swallowed alive by the
duck and that they had been in the stomach
of the bird but a short time when the duck
was taken. These holothurians are unques-
tionably some species of Thyone, and are very
near, if not identical with, Thyone scabra
Verrill, of the southern New England coast
But Thyone scabra is not known from south
of Delaware or from water less than ten
fathoms deep. No holothurians of any sort
are recorded from the Alabama coast. This
duck’s stomach therefore reveals the interest-
ing fact that a species of Thyone, possibly
scabra but probably distinct, lives in shallow
water on the Alabama coast and serves as a
part of the diet for bottom-feeding ducks.
The contents of the fourth vial confirms
this conclusion and reveals further the notable
fact that brittle-stars also serve as food for
ducks. The material in this case is in very
bad condition and is more or less digested,
but the calcareous particles in the fragments
of a holothurian indicate it is the same
Thyone as in the other vial, though it has
quite lost its pigmentation. Besides these
Thyone fragments there are numerous arm-
plates of a brittle-star. These are however,
beyond identification and one can not even
guess the genus, which they represent. The
brittle star was however an individual of
moderate size and was certainly not the small
and well-nigh ubiquitous Amphipholis squa-
mata. No brittle-star is as yet recorded from
the Alabama coast. It is to be hoped that the
publication of the results of the collecting
done by these two ducks may lead to equally
effective efforts by some zoologist on the
Gulf Coast.
Husert Lyman Crark
MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY,
CAMBRIDGE, MASs.,
SCIENCE
595
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SO-
CIETY. II
Morning Session—10 o’clock
ArtHur A. Noyes, Se.D., LL.D., Vice-president,
in the chair
The components and colloidal behavior of proto-
plasm: D. T. MacDoueaL, Ph.D., LL.D., director
of the Desert Laboratory, Carnegie Institution,
Tueson, Arizona, and H. A. Sporur. The living
matter of plants is composed chiefly of mucilages
and albuminous compounds in varying proportions
mixed in the form of an emulsion or as a jelly.
The molecules of solid matter are aggregated into
groups which also include a number of molecules
of water. Growth consists of the absorption of
additional water to these groups, with more solid
material being added at the same time, the process
being termed hydration. The resultant increase
may be detected by determination of increased dry
weight, or measured-as increase in length, thick-
ness or volume. More exact studies in growth
have become possible by the establishment of the
fact that mixtures of 25 to 50 per cent. mucilage
and 50 to 75 per cent. albumin show the hydration
reactions of cell-masses of-plants. It is also found
that certain amino-compounds, such as histidine,
glycocoll, alanin, and phenyl-alanin which are
known to promote growth also increase the hydra-
tion of the biocolloids as the above mixtures are
called. Following these empirical tests which have
defined the character and field of research upon
growth, measurements are now being made of the
action of various ions or substances upon the com-
ponents of protoplasm. Thus the strong metallic
bases, potassium, sodium and lithium, exert a lim-
iting action on hydration of carbohydrate (agar)
in hundredth normal solution according to their
position in the electromotive series, potassium be-
ing the strongest and reducing swelling most.
Rubidium, however, did not take its place at the
head of the list in the single series of tests made,
for reasons we are not able to describe. At dilute
concentrations (0.000, 1N) all these bases promote
hydration, an effect also produced by amino-com-
pounds. The inclusion of substances in a liquefied
colloid, afterwards dried, produces a hydration effect
different from that which results from placing the
substance in the water in which the biocolloid may
be placed. This fact has wide significance in the
physiological action of cell-masses. Renewal or
replacement of hydrating solutions may result in
pulsations or rapid swellings followed by slow
shrinkages or retractions. Gels similar to those
entering into living matter may take on structure
by which small masses or sections may display
596
highly differentiated action, increases in size and
changes in forms after a manner which presents
important possibilities in the behavior of cell-or-
gans.
Respiration: W. J. V. OSTERHOUT, professor of
botany, Harvard University. A simple method of
measuring respiration has been developed whereby
determinations can be made at frequent intervals
(as often as once every three minutes). The ap-
plication of this method to the study of anesthesia
shows the incorrectness of the theory of Verworn,
according to which anesthesia is a kind of asphyxia,
due to the inhibition of respiration by the anes-
thetic. In the study of antagonism it is found
that the antagonistic substances may increase or
decrease respiration, but when properly combined
they show little or no interference with normal
respiration. The study of the action of acids and
alkalies shows that these substances may increase
or decrease respiration and that the effect varies
greatly with different organisms.
_ The behavior of the sulfurea character in crosses
with Ginothera biennis and with Ginothera fran-
ciscana: BrapLey M. Davis, professor of botany,
University of Michigan. *
Gnothera funifolia, a peculiar new mutant from
@nothera lamarckiana.
A third duplication of generic factors in Shep-
herd’s purse: Grorce H. SHutu, Ph.D., professor
of botany and genetics, Princeton University. In
the third generation of a cross between a wild
biotype of the common shepherd’s-purse (Bursa
bursa-pastoris) from Wales and Heeger’s shep-
herd’s-purse (B. Heegeri) there appeared a small
number of plants of unique type, having a more
coriaceous texture than in the plants of either of
the two original strains involved in the cross. This
new type has been designated coriacea, It differs
from the common form, not only in texture, but
the lobing of the leaf is reduced and simplified and
the angles of the lobes are almost spinescent. The
proportion of coriacea to the typical sibs in this
F, family was 12: 187 or almost exactly a 1:15
ratio. This suggested at once the presence of two
independently inherited factors for the normal
texture, the coriacea type being produced only when
these two factors K and L were absent. Subse-
quent breeding has shown that coriacea breeds
true when selfed, and has also confirmed the inter-
pretation of this as a third ease of duplication of
factors in this species. The two characters previ-
ously shown to be thus constituted are the tri-
angular form of capsule, and the division of the
leaf to the midrib which brings to light the char-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1328
acteristic lobing found in the form designated
rhomboidea. The duplication of the capsule de-
terminers is practically universal while that of the
leaf-lobe factor is less frequently found. Studies
on the coriacea character are still too limited in
extent to justify a statement as to the prevalence
of duplication of the factor for the usual texture
of the leaves.
Some effects of double fertilization in maize:
EpwarpD M. Hast, Ph.D., professor of experimental
plant morphology, Harvard University.
The chemistry of the cell: THOMAS B. OSBORNE,
Ph.D., Se.D., research chemist, Connecticut Agri-
cultural Experiment Station. (Introduced by Dr.
Harry F. Keller.)
The relation of oxygen to charcoal: Grorce A.
Huuett, Ph.D., professor of physical chemistry,
Princeton University.
_ Products of detonation of TNT: Cuaruzs E.
Munroz, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of chemistry,
George Washington University, and S. P. HOWELL.
TNT has not only proved a most efficient explosive
for war purposes but, following the advice of the
Bureau of Mines, the surplus has been now used in
large quantities on various publie projects with
remarkable success, thus completely disproving the
opinions given in various quarters following the
armistice that it was unfit for industrial use, dan-
gerous to store, and should be thrown away. Not-
withstanding the success attained it is believed
that with a more complete knowledge of its be-
havior even better results in its use both for mili-
tary and industrial purposes could be attained.
It is particularly desired to know the kind and
quantities of products it yields on explosions.
These are known broadly but it is also now known
that they vary with the different conditions under
which the TNT is exploded and this study has
been made to gain more precise information re-
garding these conditions. It is already known that
among the products are considerable quantities of
carbon monoxide, hydrogen and some hydrocarbons,
such as methane, together with free carbon in a
soot-like form. Hence TNT is not suitable for use
in underground work or close places because the gas
evolved is poisonous and inflammable and can form
explosive mixtures with the atmosphere in these
close places.
A new map of the vegetation of North America:
JoHN W. HarsHBERGER, Ph.D., professor of bot-
any, University of Pennsylvania.
On the vibrations of rifle barrels: ARTHUR GoR-
poN WEessTER, Sc.D., LL.D., professor of physics,
Clark University.
June 11, 1920]
FRIDAY, APRIL 23
Afternoon Session—2 o’clock
Hampton L. Carson, M.A., LL.D., vice-president,
in the chair
Symposium on Psychology in War and Education
Introduction: LigHTNER WITMER, Ph.D., director
of the Psychological Laboratory and Clinic, Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania.
Methods: J. McKren CaTText, editor of ScIENCE,
The speaker reviewed the development of experi-
mental and quantitative methods in psychology,
and especially the transfer of its main concern
from introspection to the study of individual dif-
ferences in behavior. This has made possible the
applied psychology which was of such service to
the nation in time of war and will prove of increas-
jng value in education and in industry. Efforts
to alter conduct by a direct appeal to consciousness,
as undertaken, for example, by the churches, the
schools and the law courts, have yielded small re-
sults. But individuals can be selected for the work
for which they are fit and can be placed in the hu-
man and physical environment in which their re-
actions are what we want. By cooperation with
other sciences, it is also possible for psychology to
change the environment, and behavior can be con-
trolled more effectively by a change in the envir-
onment than by a change in the constitution of the
individual. The older psychology must be put in
its proper place; it can not be altogether dis-
carded. As far as production goes, consciousness
may be only a spectator; but it is the ultimate
consumer.
Psychological examining and classification im the
United States army: Rosert M. YurKes, Ph.D.,
chairman of Division of Research Information, Na-
tional Research Council, Washington. (By invi-
tation.) Psychological examining in the United
States army was made possible by the prompt ac-
tion of American psychologists, who individually
and collectively, in committees and conferences,
formulated plans, prepared methods and induced
the army and the navy to utilize psychological
service. The methods of examining which were
finally adopted are based upon principles previ-
ously used but they exhibit also new and important
features which constitute significant contributions
to the technique of practical mental measurement.
The personnel for psychological examining was
carefully selected in accordance with qualifications
and the men were especially trained at the Camp
Greenleaf School for Military Psychology. This
intensive training in the rudiments of military sci-
SCIENCE
597
ence and military psychology ranks next in im-
portance in its relations to the final success of the
service to the superior quality of the army’s psy-
chological personnel. The initial purpose of ex-
amining was the discovery and prompt segregation
or elimination of men of markedly inferior intelli-
gence. The uses which were actually made of re-
sults of psychological examinations were extremely
varied and covered the classification of men to fa-
cilitate military training, the selection of men of
superior ability for training as officers or for spe-
cial tasks, the segregation and special assignment
of men whose intelligence was inadequate to the
demands of regular military training, and finally
the elimination of the low-grade mental defective.
It was the demonstration of values in these and
several other directions that converted military
skepticism concerning the serviceability of psy-
chology into belief and active support. After the
official trial of methods approximately 75 per cent.
of the officers concerned believed that they should
be used further. On the signing of the armistice
90 per cent. of the officers of the army, if we may
judge iby the opinions of the commanding officers
of camps and divisions, were highly favorable to
the psychological service.
The relation of psychology to special problems of
the army and navy: RAYMOND Dopcz, Ph.D., pro-
fessor of psychology, Wesleyan University. (By
invitation.) To help mobilize the human factors
that were needed by the army and navy to win the
war, that was the task for which the psychologists
of the country were organized under the leadership
of the National Research Council. Two great
achievements stand to their credit; first the sorting
of the conglomerate of the draft army with respect
to general intelligence under Major Yerkes; and
second ‘the discovery, indexing and assignment of
trade experience, special skill and presumptive
ability to perform the tasks needed by a modern
army, under Colonel Scott. These achievements are
regarded by experts as an important factor in the
supposedly impossible undertaking of building a
great fighting organization in a few months time.
New demands were made on human nature during
the late war, many of which were only imperfectly -
understood. The task of flying is a good illus-
tration. Psychologists cooperated with the Air
Service in studying the effects of high altitudes
and in discovering test indicators of the ability to
stand them. They were responsible for the mental
tests in picking those who could learn to fly with
a minimum expense and risk. Gas warfare and
adaptation to the wearing of gas masks, the de-
598
velopment and maintenance of morale, the develop-
ment of the less fit recruits, the acceleration of
training and the reeducation of the wounded, the
detection of promising candidates for special
schools, finding human material for the best and
quickest development of submarine listeners, of
lookouts, and of gunpointers, all these were pri-
marily psychological problems and the psycholo-
gists cooperated in their military solution. We
had no military system developed to provide for
these details. The enemy military authorities con-
fidently regarded our lack of it as prohibiting ef-
fective participation in the war. The rapid de-
velopment of a great fighting machine needed all
our knowledge of human capacity and individual
differences, and all our relevant laboratory tech-
niques. Psychology took an honorable and not in-
eonspicuous part in ‘the democratic triumph of
meeting a national crisis by the mobilization of
the experience of non-military experts. To some
of us it seems that we are again facing a national
crisis in which the major symptoms are psycholog-
jeal. Again the enemy counts on our lack of or-
ganization. Our salvation depends on the re-mobili-
zation of 'the expert experience of citizens.
Relation of psychology to the National Research
Council: James R, AneeLL, A.M., Litt.D., chair-
man of the National Research Council, Washington
(by invitation). The National Research Council is
based upon forty or more scientific societies repre-
senting physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineer-
jing in all its branches, chemistry and chemical tech-
nology, geology and geography, medicine, biology
and agriculture, anthropology and psychology. The
council is organized to promote the interests of pure
and applied science (both inside and outside the in-
dustries) in every practicable way throughout the
United States. Its relation to psychology is pre-
cisely similar to its relation to the other sciences
mentioned. In each instance, the supporting scien-
tifie societies elect representatives who compose the
several divisions of the council, and these in turn,
comprising as a rule about twenty men, selected
for their eminence in their particular branch of
work, come together and determine the special
needs and opportunities for the improvement of re-
search in their own fields. Special attention is
paid to the possibilities of bringing about effective
cooperation among research men and research
agencies. Scientific investigation has hitherto been
largely individualistic, and the most pressing need
at the present moment is not so much the expansion
of research agencies, although this is desirable, as
the more effective employment of those already in
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1328
existence. The Division of Psychology and Anthro-
pology has formulated a number of cooperative
projects, of which two may serve as illustrations.
One of these has to do with the examination of the
mental and physical characteristics of four im-
portant alien groups, i. €., Mexicans, Scandina-
vians, Sicilians and Japanese. Some two thousand
of each group are to be scientifically examined by
the best modern methods. The result of this study
ought, as regards these special races, to give us
far more accurate and useful knowledge than we
now haye of the problem which confronts us in
our present attempt to assimilate these racial stocks
into our native American people. The other project
contemplates an expedition to Central Africa in
the upper regions of the Congo for a study of the
same scientific sort upon the aboriginal natives
who are still to be found there largely untouched
by the influences of civilization. The expedition
will be sent out under a psychologist who com-
mands the languages of tthe regions, and with the
methods at present available, scientific results may
be expected of a character hitherto wholly impos-
sible.
_ Psychological methods in business and industry :
BEARDSLEY RuML, Ph.D., Philadelphia. (By in-
vitation. )
_ The individual in education: ArtHuR J. JONES,
Ph.D., professor of education, University of Penn-
sylvania. (By invitation.)
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 23
Reception from 8 ito 11 o’clock in the hall of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
_ Robert Williams Wood, LL.D., professor of ex-
perimental physics, Johns Hopkins University,
spoke on ‘‘Invisible light in war and peace’’ (with
experimental illustrations).
ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED
(To be continued)
SCIENCE
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THE SCIENCE PRESS
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CONTENTS
The Survival of the Unlike: PRorrssor WIL-
TTA SRRETBAS Bilroteieyaleie clayey eccveliniels eyes sues, eieiie 599
The Structure of the Helium Atom: Dr. Ir-
VIN GHDVAINGRUIR {seis siete dss eis alstsatdais ei etolnerets 605
MAUR CU AIVCR TCT IE Slava rete ciete « sles le velatecsiers, eens 607
Scientific Events :—
The United States Coast an. Geodetic Sur-
wey and Recent Congressional Legislation ;
The Kockefeller Foundation’s Endowment-
of University College, London; Gifts to Uni-
versities and Colleges; Endowment of the
Medical School of the University of
TROCKESLET Vote aoe She Oe aa 608
Scientific Notes and News ................ 611
University and Educational News .......... 613
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Scientific Work in the Hawaiian Islands:
Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OsBorn. The Energy
of Small Oscillations: DR. WARREN WEAVER.
Carbon Dioxide and Increased Crop Produc-
tion: M. W. Senstius. Vacancies in the
Grade of Assistant Civil Engineer, U. S.
ANCE CSN fe LENSING sano dedhauros saan 613
Aristotle and Galileo on Falling Bodies: Pro-
FESSOR FLORIAN CAJORI .............-..- 615
Special Articles :—
An Accurately Controllable Micropipette:
IDI Oh. Wo Meio annus raarormouos dade ohaos 617
The American Philosophical Society: Pro-
FESSOR ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED ............ 618
MSS. intended for ‘publication and books, etc.,intended for
Teview should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
SCIENC]
THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE?
SoME years ago, studying the agayes or
century plants of the West Indies, I found
that they represent not only many species but
numerous rather distinct groups, and that the
aggregates of individuals that we call species,
and of species in these larger groups, resemble
and differ from one another in a sort of pro-
portion to the depth of water between the
islands on which they are found, which was
translated into differences somewhat propor-
tionate to the length of time that their
habitats have been separated by water bar-
riers.
Those of near-by and apparently rather
recently separated islands were not found to
differ progressively and adaptatively in @
single character such as flower-shape or size
of seed-vessels nor was there a correlated
difference in these respects, but sometimes one
and sometimes another such character was
different, while no indication was evident that
the plants were not living under essentially
identical conditions so far as pollination and
dissemination are concerned.
When the idea of organic evolution was
presented before the Linnean Society in 1858
im a convincing way, by Darwin and Wallace,
the latter spoke of the process as a survival of
the fittest, and the former, as the result of
natural selection, in the struggle for existence
which effects kinds or species as well as
individuals of living things.
The dissociation of parts of the ancestral
stock of these West Indian agaves without
any marked climatic difference in their homes
appeared to me to have left each final island
with a stock essentially in harmony with its
environment and capable of deviating con-
siderably in flower and fruit proportions from
1 Address of the president before the Illinois
Chapter of the Society of the Sigma Xi, May 19,
1920,
600
the parent type without derangement of this
harmony. I was unable to see that either
flower or fruit change within the observable
limits rendered its possessor either better or
less fitted to survive. Deviation from the
type appeared to have followed some innate
tendency and to have been possible in quite
different directions within rather wide limits
without rendering its possessor either more or
less fit to survive. Within such limits, the
changes of form seemed to have been free to
wander at will along a number of differen-
tiating paths.
These plants apparently illustrate the sur-
vival of the equally fit, though unlike, rather
than of the fittest whether alike or dissimilar,
under the operation of Darwin’s selective
process which would weed out promptly those
not really fit to meet the general conditions of
life, while permitting secondary differences to
appear and persist for a very long time.
This is a rather self-evident presentation
of one of the physiologist?s exasperating
troubles, the controlling existence of a har-
monious optimum as he ealls it, in conform-
ity with which his cultures sueceed best under
conditions that sometimes differ annoyingly
from those that he has reason to believe are
the optima for the individual functions that
he wishes to investigate experimentally one by
one. It recalls forcibly, though not parallel-
ing, the dominance of certain features in un-
_ skilfully made composite photographs. It
parallels the transformation of that peculiar
function, productive investigation, to the pro-
motion of which the society of the Sigma Xi
devotes its efforts. Conditions being collec-
tively favorable, many differences that appear,
whether fluctuating or mutant, represent vari-
ation rather than real evolution.
Apt in aphorisms, Bailey once hit on the
expression survival of the unlike for that out-
come of natural selection or the survival of
the fittest to which the name evolution usually
is applied. It calls up the picture of a
changing or changed environment which elim-
inates the harmoniously fit of the past and
allows their successors of the present to fight
it out among themselves for the final per-
SCIENCE
LN. S. Vou. LI. No. 1329
petuation or disappearance of individual idio-
synerasies that they may have inherited or
acquired.
The organie change may or may not be
abrupt because the change in environment
may or may not have been sudden: very com-
monly it appears to have been gradual. Its
product may or may not please us. Except
through the artificial selection that we apply
in the broad field of agriculture, we have not
intentionally changed the controlling condi-
tions. The great response of organic nature
is not conformed to our wishes or ideals but
to that innate law of living matter that com-
pels it to perpetuate itself and the forms
through which it may best do this. The
product is as varied in effectiveness as in
form, but it tends to efficiency in peopling the
earth and in making use of by-products and
waste as well as of the raw materials offered
by inorganic nature.
The lesson of organic evolution is at once
discouraging and hopeful: discouraging as
showing that the individual or the kind that
can not keep to the gait must fall out of the
procession; encouraging as showing that keep-
ing the pace is not necessarily keeping in
step; and hopeful in that as the world of dead
matter changes, the world of living matter
effectively shifts its life processes and vital
machinery toward ultimate conformity to the
great opportunity that is its own for the
moment—a conformity which if perfect would
eliminate finally disharmonies, and realize a
perfect teleology of self-contained adaptation.
Even inert matter is coming more and more
to evolutionary recognition, as its heavier
elements are found to be older and more com-
plex, their unaided combinations to tend into
an instable complexity that approaches the
surpassingly labile living matter, and their
dissociated particles to gather through un-
measured space into solar systems perhaps all
at some time as capable of supporting life
as our own is known to be at present. The
greatest law of nature seems to be that of
spontaneous aggregation of matter into com-
plex forms and of the shaping of these into
efficient forms.
Juve 18, 1920]
We are given now to naming our chosen
activity—whether in science, literature, his-
tory or art—research, and the dictionaries
permit each of us who cultivates it produc-
tively, to be spoken of as a researcher. I do
not like the words: the second is not euphon-
ious to my ear; and the first is too suggestive
of the eyaniding of the tailings of an aban-
doned mine or of the sifting of what may be
ealled variously a dust-bin or an ashpile. Un-
fortunately it is true that neither mining
nor furnace management nor refuse collection
is exhaustive, and re-search of their refuse
must be made over and over again as values
change or methods are improved. But I like
to think of our profession as that of investi-
gation and of our colleagues as investigators
—trailing the truth wherever it must be
sought—through the débris left by our pre-
decessors when necessary, but by preference
in the virgin field of nature.
This profession in its history parallels in
many ways that of a phylum of plants or of
animals. It has had its days of fruitless aim-
lessness; some of its products appear grotesque
to us of to-day; some of its branchlets, like
those of a cottonwood or an elm in autumn,
have been cast off, perhaps to the benefit of
the whole, when they- did not continue to pro-
duce in proportion to their early promise or
in comparison with others more favorably en-
vironed. Some, too favorably cireumstanced,
may even have been pruned out as unfruitful
or destructive of a collectively effective bal-
anced symmetry because of their rank vege-
tation. Natural and artificial selection have
worked on it since its beginning, and there
is little reason to suppose that they will not
continue operative until its end.
The parallel may be carried somewhat fur-
ther than one would carry it at first thought.
Long before man began to find the products
of organic nature profitable—indeed long be-
fore his appearance on the scene—plants had
developed the power of making food and of
applying it to their needs; and animals had
acquired the habit of carrying its use into a
much more dynamic field. The greatest tilth
of this field is by man, the present culmina-
SCIENCE
601
tion of the family tree of our living world;
and what the struggle for existence among his
more lowly relatives had produced, that he
could use, he has selected and favored and
modified to his greater benefit.
The strife between purposeful intelligence
and productive capability, in which within
limits the former is fore-ordained to dominate
the latter, is not peculiar to human civiliza-
tion and to the dominance of man over man:
it reaches far into his relations with his
’ fellow-creatures of lesser endowment. He has ©
shaped them to his needs or fancies, very
often in opposition to the selective law of
nature; he has multiplied, at the expense of
others, those that he fancied, and thereby has
increased the power of the earth to support
human life and human activity far beyond its
unaided capacity; he has become a potent
factor in natural selection, and will continue
operative as long as he does not kill the goose
that lays the golden egg. It is significant
that what he does not use, directly or indi-
rectly, he commonly permits to exist through
indolence or impotence rather than tolerance.
He knows that what he calls vermin are
troublesome if not injurious. He protects
himself and what he considers his property
against them more or less consistently and
completely; but in proportion to their power
to evolve helpfully in harmony with condi-
tions of life in the chinks and crannies of
the world into which he can not or does not
follow them, they escape and thrive not only
despite him but at his expense and literally
on him. The rat is his uninvited guest the
world over, and the gray rat, if he were
worshipful and learned, would render daily
thanks to the patron who has made him the
rat of rats, transporting, housing and feed-
ing him to an almost unbelievable extent.
Rust, smut, mildew, and fermentative germ
thrive under his régime; the world population
of codling moth and chinch bug has enlarged
a myriadfold through the ability of these self-
seeking creatures to get forward as riders on
man’s own self-seeking progress.
Perhaps in this survival and increase of
parasites and other vermin lies the token that
602
the earth and the fulness thereof are not to
man; for if the Nature whose product he is
permits his enemies to thrive and multiply
notwithstanding his effort to protect himself,
she gives in this permission a strong sug-
gestion that his power is only an expression
of her own power, and that while he sleeps
and relaxes effort her activity continues un-
abated along the line of peopling the earth
toward its full capacity with a million forms
of creatures to each one of which she offers
the same fundamental problem as his own—
perpetuation of the individual and of its kind,
or restriction and disappearance, according to
its fitness and adaptability under the condi-
tions of the moment.
We owe the privilege of wearing the key
of the Sigma Xi to the fact that at some time
or other each one of us has been recognized
by investigators as something of a zealot in
their own field, giving promise or bearing the
first fruits of his own investigation. In our
turn, we welcome to companionship the
brothers of a newer day.
Most of us enter this fellowship from the
novitiate of university life under guidance
and supervision. The founders of the society,
themselves, had achieved in college or pro-
fessional school the qualifications that they
prescribe for membership. Their forerunners
in investigation through the centuries, for the
most part had traveled the same route. Our
organization is represented in laboratories
rather than in the halls of classic learning.
Those of us who have been connected with
the society very long have no difficulty in
ealling to mind a number of men of our own
or an earlier or a later generation, whose lot
has not been cast in with the university or
the college, but who in purposeful prying into
science have shown the zeal that our society
stimulates and who in productive and stimu-
lating accomplishments may have surpassed
us of seemingly greater opportunity. Those
who initiated the inquiry into nature out of
which such enormous knowledge and utility
have poured into the lives of men within the
last few generations, trained themselves or
founded the schools in which others have been
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No, 1329
trained. Their zeal and industry and wis-
dom were the attributes of the highest
human mentality: often, but unfortunately
not always, infectious; exceptionally, and this
happily, of such quality as to confer im-
munization on those who came into closest
contact with them.
Like other forms of human social develop-
ment, the specialization of investigators offers
many parallels to the specialization of organs
and of organisms in nature. Its beginnings
were very individualistic and sporadic. Its
spread was limited by the natural barriers of
sea and mountain, and the quite human
obstacles of differing race and language. In-
vestigation usually has meant not a road lead-
ing to a successful career—as the animal suc-
cess of man is measured, but a bypath more
often leading to poverty and misunderstand-
ing, and usually at best a way that could not
be traveled safely very far from the beaten
path of approved and utilized learning. My
own university mentor, Farlow, like his great
leader, Asa Gray, studied in the practical
field of medicine so that he might be assured
of the privilege of wandering—nobody could
tell how far—into investigation apart from its
immediate application in a necessary art.
No doubt it is true that to some investi-
gators the thought that no practical applica-
tion could be made of their discoveries has
lent added fascination to their work. No
doubt to others an investigation undertaken
with the purpose of securing the answer to
an economic question still lacks in attractive-
ness. The greatest incentive to such work
has been an innate thirst for knowledge for
its own sake and a love of its pursuit.
Even with the multiplication and broaden-
ing and deepening of universities that the last
generation has witnessed, the privilege of add-
ing to knowledge, of shaping something up
by one’s own effort, has resided very largely
in the opportunity offered by a university
chair for stealing a little time and a little
effort from the first and paramount duty of
the professor, teaching what is known already
and training adaptable minds to meet life’s
needs.
June 18, 1920]
Eyen to-day and among our own friends
are to be found men who fail to see that the
university that we know not only watches
with some care over teaching schedules so
that the man who wishes to follow productive
lines in his scholarship may not find that he
has no time left for this after completing his
prescribed task as a teacher, and who fail to
comprehend that one is misplaced in a true
university if he can merely retail what others
have made known.
As yet, most of us who have been judged
worthy of membership in the society of the
Sigma Xi have acquired our status as in-
vestigators as a byproduct of our opportunity
as teachers; for what are called research pro-
fessors are few and far between, and organi-
zations for investigation only are none too
common. We find encouragement in the
stimulating fraternal association. We touch
at a tangent the productive activities of
colleagues in our own department or in re-
lated departments. We lay our little offer-
ings before local or state or national gather-
ing of our confreres, and come home with
suggestions for bettering and amplifying our
own activities. We get what we may out of
an undigested and heterogeneous program,
and give little thought to the assimilability in
it of what we contribute to it.
We are individualistic to a surprisingly
large degree. As a rule we are generous to
a fault with what we have to offer to others
and as a rule we are not greedy in seizing
on such help as they offer to give to us;
above all we are not markedly seekers after
advice or direction. We enjoy the preroga-
tives of the present, but cling to the methods
of the past.
From the time when learning awoke after
the world’s long sleep, when civilization began
really to have meaning outside of very re-
stricted circles, the occupation that has be-
come our profession has resembled my Antil-
lean century plants in following its inherent
bent. The conditions of its environment have
presented an increasingly harmonious opti-
mum for its simple existence, with neither
serious competition nor any great obstacle
SCIENCE
603
interposed anywhere to its drift along the
lines of least resistance—or in this case of
greatest attractiveness. That conditions have
changed is evident enough, but they have
changed gradually and the changes have been
in favoring directions.
The aggregate utility of what is called
research had led, even, to its sedulous culti-
vation in a limited way: but even under culti-
vation it has shown few mutations unfitting
it for continued existence if once more
thrown over to the unrestricted action of
natural selection. It has scarcely become
domesticated. Its survival and increase have
been of the fit rather than of the fittest, where
change about us has been gradual and of de-
gree rather than of kind, and where neglect
rather than encouragement have favored it.
It has resembled the wayside weed doing too
little harm to be worth repression, and more
or less useful for fodder or bedding-down
when the trouble was taken to harvest its
produce.
Almost suddenly we are confronted with
totally different environing conditions. The
last decade has seen an interest in scientific
investigation that was unknown before. The
period of the war has brought its real value
to recognition. The harmless weed has been
seized on as most promising for intensive
cultivation. Its natural attributes are being
selected and blended with a skill such as the
agriculturist uses in bettering his crops and
his stock. Its maximum development is
favored by a more or less serious effort to
remove or reduce disturbing competitors.
The stigma that science, the organizer of
knowledge, has not organized itself seems
about to be removed.
“Tempora mutantur, et nos, in illis.” The
almost catastrophic changes that the last few
years ‘have brought into the human world is
placing scientific research on a business basis.
It is not too much to expect great things
from its effective organization as a means to
an end: or to expect it to yield quickly in
orderly controlled team play results that
individual fatuous effort could bring about
slowly and disconnectedly if at all.
604
Is science capable of transplantation and
cultivation under artificial conditions? If so,
the product will differ from the original in
kind as well as in degree quite as much as
the highly specialized animals and plants of
the farm do from their undomesticated proto-
types. If so, its nature will have shown a
plasticity to be looked for in nature hardly
elsewhere than in the outgrowth of human
intelligence.
Transplantation is actually at work. The
investigating manpower of the world is being
registered with startling rapidity, preliminary
to preferred enrollment or selective conserip-
tion. There is scarcely a person here present
who will not feel its force within a few years
if the signs of the times are to be trusted.
To the organizer, it promises new and en-
larged opportunity for leadership. To the
drudge it holds opportunity for the kind of
shoulder-to-shoulder effort before which moun-
tains crumble and the bowels of the earth
yield up their secrets; but the drudge by birth
_ is a rara avis among men moved by the real
spirit of investigation, and the drudge from
necessity is neither a happy nor always a
profitable artefact.
That the new order will survive is almost
certain. That its survival will be through
artificial rather than natural selection is
probable. That it will be a survival of the
unlike is self-evident.
That waifs and escapes from it will be
found outside the cultivated fields is to be
expected. Whether these shall profit the
gleaner like strays of wheat, or foul the
fleece like the carrots of the roadside, or
prove all but baneful like the reverting pars-
nip, remains to be proved. In any event, if
not destroyed, they may be counted on
through the centuries to furnish vestiges of
the old and primitive stock as rudiments for
a new start when, if ever, the cultivation of
research is abandoned—provided that the
present cultivation is not so intensive as to
destroy them utterly.
In the primitive desultory gratification of
human interest in human environment lies
the essence of investigation for investigation’s
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1329
own sake. The amateur in science has en-
tered, occupied uncontested the center, and is
passing from the scene.
The largest creel of fish may be secured by
seining or dynamiting or drugging the pool;
and the largest bag of birds, by the skilful
use of a net on a drizzly day. The market,
unless glutted, will pay for the haul. But the
sportsman does not wish to become a pot-
hunter, and the naturalist knows that game
must be protected to a reasonable extent if
fishing and hunting are to continue and if
sportsmanship is to endure. Forest and mine
are most attractively exploited by organized
onslaughts that take what it pays to take and
sometimes leave a wake of destruction behind.
The profit of the day is great, the rapid
material progress to which it contributes is
held to justify the attack: but what of the
future ? ;
Organization of attacks on the secrets of
nature differ from organization of attacks on
the material products of nature in this very
essential respect, that the former do not
destroy but rather bring the world’s material
resources to more effective and economic
utilization. But is such purposeful organi-
zation likely to hamper or put an end to un-
organized though purposeful and intelligent
investigation? Is the seiner likely to foul the
pool or barricade it against the sportsman ?
Organization backed by a probable profit
and loss sheet and a program for each enter-
prise—once called a proposition, and now a
project—enlists capital in business. Such
organization and reinforcement are enlisting
already, for research, capital looking to ulti-
mate return, and also impersonal endowment
because of the established repute of science as
conducing to the general welfare of man.
To the investigator, investigation may be-
come a renumerative profession when he
bears his alloted share in cooperative effort.
For the most part, up to the present he has
paid amply for the privilege of doing such
work; and to enjoy the privilege of doing it
even on these terms he has rather gratefully
if sometimes complainingly sold his services
June 18, 1920]
as a teacher at a ridiculously low figure when
measured by his training and talent.
He has done and is doing this under the
spur of that most intangible but most essen-
tial trait of man that we call character, and
because of those chimeras of the mind of
man that we call ideals. Is he sanely enough
balanced to conform his ideals to the trend
of the times, to the chance for subordinating
them to the broader plans of leadership; or
are ideals never ideals when his own mind
does not shape them, when from sport—which
one pays for, they become work—for which
one is paid? And if the zealot who can not
modify his view still continues in our midst,
as he must, is he to be weeded out; or allowed
on sufferance to occupy the waste places of
research; or to be kept purposefully trom ex-
termination, against a day when the nourish-
ing hand of society may be withdrawn, and
zeal in research again becomes synonymous
with its primal meaning—devotion with all
one’s character to one’s inborn ideal ?
As we, the professionals in science who
follow the amateur on to the stage, find our-
selves marshalled in the ranks or leading the
artisans of science, it may be well to remem-
ber that a Galileo, a Newton, a Berzelius and
a Darwin lived and worked—not in vain—
before the day of organization and intensive
team work had dawned!
WiuuiAM TRELEASE
THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE STRUCTURE OF THE HELIUM
ATOM
Acccorpinc to the model which Bohr pro-
posed in 1913, the helium atom consists of
two electrons moving in a single circular
orbit having the nucleus at its center. The
electrons remain at the opposite ends of a
diameter and thus rotate in the same direc-
tion about the nucleus. The angular momen-
tum of each electron is assumed to be h/27,
where h is the quantum constant. The ion-
izing potential of helium calculated by this
theory is 28.8 volts. Recent experimental
determinations by Franck and Knipping have
given 25.4+0.25 volts. Bohr’s theory is
SCIENCE
605
approximately right but does not give the
true structure.
For the hydrogen atom and helium ion,
atoms containing but a single electron, Bohr’s
theory seems to be rigorously correct. For
atoms containing more than one electron there
are many facts which indicate that modifica-
tions or extensions are needed.
The chemical properties of the elements,
particularly the periodic relationships and
the phenomena of valence, have shown defi-
nitely that the electrons are not in general
arranged in coplanar orbits. According to
the theory which I advanced last year, the
electrons in their most stable arrangements
move only within certain limited regions
about the nucleus, each of these cells con-
taining not more than two electrons. The
atoms of the inert gases were found to have
their cells arranged symmetrically with re-
spect to an equatorial plane, no electrons how-
ever ever lying in this plane. According to
this view, the two electrons in the helium
atom should not move in the same orbit but
in separate orbits symmetrically located with -
respect to the equatorial plane. The two
electrons in the hydrogen molecule (and in
every pair of electrons which acts as a chem-
ical bond between atoms) must be related to
one another in the same way as those of the
helium atom.
The most obvious model of this type is one
in which the two electrons move in two cir-
cular orbits in parallel planes equidistant
from the nucleus. By properly choosing the
diameters of the orbits, the force of repul-
sion between the electrons is compensated by
the component of the attractive force of the
nucleus perpendicular to the plane. This
model however proves impossible as it gives a
negative value (—5.8 volts) for the ionizing
potential.
A. Landé! has recently proposed a model
for the eight electrons of an octet In which
each electron occupies a cell bounded by
octants of a spherical surface. The eight
electrons move in such a way that their
positions are symmetrically placed with re
1Verh. d. phys. Ges., 21, 653, October, 1919.
606
spect to three mutually perpendicular planes
which pass through the nucleus. When one
electron approaches one of these planes it is
retarded by the repulsion of the electron on
the other side of the plane and is thus pre-
vented from passing through the plane. Al-
though each electron remains within a given
octant of the spherical region about the
nucleus, yet the momentum of the electron is
transferred to the electrons in adjacent cells
across the cell boundaries. In this model the
momentum travels continuously around the
atom in a circular path, being relayed from
electron to electron. Thus even though the
electrons do not leave their respective cells,
the mathematical equations for their motion
are very closely related to those which apply
to the motions of electrons in circular orbits
about the nucleus. Landé’s calculations lead
to the conclusions that this type of motion is
less stable than one in which all eight elec-
trons move in a single plane orbit. This ob-
jection can be overcome if we assume that
the angular momentum of each electron is
h/2™ instead of the double value which is
usually assumed for the electrons in the
second shell. In fact, this conception gives
grounds for believing that all electrons in
their most stable positions in atoms, have
orbits corresponding to single quanta and it
is only because we have assumed coplanar
orbits that we have been led to the conclusion
that the outer orbits correspond to increasing
numbers of quanta.
This model of Landé’s has suggested to me
that there should be a similar interrelation-
ship between the two electrons of the helium
atom, and also of the hydrogen molecule, and
of the pair of electrons constituting the chem-
ical bond.
I assume that the two electrons have no
velocity components perpendicular to the
plane which passes through the nucieus and
the two electrons. The motion is thus con-
fined to a single plane. The two electrons,
however, are assumed to rotate about the
nucleus in opposite directions, and in such a
way. they are always located symmetrically
with respect to a line passing through the
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1329
nucleus. Consider for example that this line
of symmetry is horizontal and that one
electron is located directly above the nucleus
at a unit distance, and is moving horizontally
to the right. Then the other electron will be
located at an equal distance below the nucleus
and will move in the same direction and with
the same velocity. If there were no forces
of repulsion between the two electrons, and
if we choose the proper velocities, it is clear
that the two electrons might move in a
single circular orbit about the nucleus, but in
opposite directions of rotation. This would
require, however, that the electrons should
pass through each other twice in each com-
plete revolution. When we take into account
the mutual repulsion of the electrons, we see
that their initial velocities will suffice to
carry them only within a certain distance of
each other, and they will then tend to return
in the general direction from which they
came. With properly chosen initial condi-
tions the electrons will return back exactly
on the paths in which they advanced and
will then pass over (towards the left) to the
other side of the nucleus and complete the
second half of an oscillation. Each electron
has its own orbit which never crosses the line
of symmetry. The orbit however does not
consist of a closed curve, but a curved line
of finite length along which the electron
oscillates.
Unfortunately the equations of motion for
this three-body problem are difficult to handle
and I have only been able to determine the
motion by laborious numerical calculations
involving a series of approximations. These
however, can be carried to any desired degree
of accuracy. By four approximations I have
been able to calculate the path and the
velocities, ete., to within about one tenth
per cent. It is to be hoped that a general
solution of this special type of three-body
problem may be worked out, if indeed one is
not already known to those more familar with
this type of problem.
The results of this calculation show that
the path of each electron is very nearly an are
of an eccentric circle, extending 77° 58’ each
JouneE 18, 1920]
way from the mid-point (as measured from the
nucleus). If we take the radius vector at the
mid-point to be unity then the radius at the
end of the are is 1.138. The angular velocity
of the electron at the mid-point of the path is
such that if it continued with this velocity it
would travel through 105° 23’ during the time
that it actually takes to move to the end of
its orbit (7. e., through 77° 58’).
By imposing the quantum condition that
the angular momentum of each electron at
the mid-point of its path shall be h/27™, it
becomes possible to calculate the radius vector
and the velocity in absolute units. The
radius vector for the electron at its mid-
point is 0.2534 108 em. which is 0.8359 of
the radius of the orbit of Bohr’s model
(0.3031 & 10°§ em.). Even at the end of the
orbit the radius (0.2882 <108 em.) is less
than that of the Bohr model. The angular
velocity at the mid-point is 1.481 times that
of electrons of the Bohr atom. The num-
ber of complete oscillations per second is
24.63 10%, which is 1.222 times as great
as the number of revolutions in the Bohr
atom (20.16 <101® per second). The total
energy (kinetic plus potential) of the oscilla-
ting atom is 0.9615 of that of the Bohr atom.
The ionizing potential of helium according
to the new model should be 25.59 volts which
agrees with Franck and Knipping’s experi-
mental determination within the limits of
error given by them, but differs from the 28.8
volts given by Bohr’s theory by nearly ten
times the experimental error.
The oscillating model is thus not only
satisfactory from a chemical point of view
but is in quantitative agreement with the
properties of helium. The fact that there
ean be no corresponding structure with three
electrons is in accord with the fact that
lithium (which has three electrons) is an ele-
ment having totally different properties from
helium.
The calculation for the hydrogen molecule
involves greater difficulties. Bohr’s model
with the two electrons moving in a single
circular orbit gives a heat of dissociation
of about 63,000 calories, whereas experiment
SCIENCE
607
gives about 90,000. The ealculations for
helium have shown that the radius of the
oscillating atom is considerably smaller than
that of the Bohr atom, so that the force of
attraction between the electrons and the
nucleus is much (20 per cent. or more)
greater. In the hydrogen molecule this in-
creased force may result in drawing the two
nuclei closer together thus increasing the
stability of the molecule. Calculations of the
orbits of the electrons in the hydrogen mole-
cule aré in progress.
The final results with a description of the
methods of calculation will be published prob-
ably in the Physical Review and the Journal
of the American Chemical Society.
Irving LaNGMuIR
RESEARCH LABORATORY OF THE
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY,
ScHENEcTADY, N. Y.,
June 5, 1920
ALFRED WERNER?
ALFRED WERNER, professor of chemistry in
the University of Zurich, died on November
15, 1919, at Zurich, Switzerland.
Professor Werner was elected an honorary
member of the American Chemical Society at
the general meeting held in New Orleans, La.,
April 1, 1915. It is now desired to leave upon
the permanent records of this society a tribute
to his genius and indomitable energy, and to
the wealth of the contributions which he
made to our science.
Born at Mulhausen in Alsace on December
12, 1866, he was educated at the technical
schools of Mulhausen, Karlsruhe, and Zurich.
Later he studied with Berthelot at Paris.
His first published work of note was upon
the stereoisomerism of organic compounds
containing nitrogen. Applying these theories
to the unclassified mass of complex inorganic
ammonia compounds, he realized the inade-
quacy of accepted ideas of valence to explain
their constitution. Largely from a study of
isomers among these complexes, whose consti-
1 Tribute prepared by a committee of the Ameri-
can Chemical Society consisting of C. H. Herty,
H. L, Wells and Arthur B. Lamb.
608
tution could be explained only on a basis of
stereoisomerism, he developed an extension of
the valence hypothesis and introduced the con-
cept “coordination number” of elements.
This conception was the stimulating cause
of a great mass of researches which embodied
the discovery of many new compounds, many
new examples of isomerism, brought rational
classification into the whole field of complex
inorganic compounds and led by logical devel-
opment of theoretical views to the discovery
of optically active inorganic compounds.
None realized more clearly than he that in
his.extension of the valence hypothesis he had
not reached any ultimate truth but had merely
added one definite stepping stone.
To the little laboratory in Zurich, with its
all too limited equipment, he attracted stu-
dents from every part of the world. Eventu-
ally adequate funds were placed at his dis-
posal, with which was constructed one of the
model laboratories of Europe. His fear at the
time was that he might not be able to carry
into the commodious new quarters the spirit
which had permeated the old laboratory. This
fear was groundless, as the character of the
researches from the new. laboratory abun-
dantly proved.
In 1912 Professor Werner was LeBlanc
Medallist of the Société Chemique de France.
In 1915 he was elected an honorary member of
the Chemical Society (London) and in the
same year was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry.
An indefatigable seeker after truth has
gone to his rest. The example of his life re-
mains a constant inspiration.
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC
SURVEY AND RECENT CONGRESSIONAL
LEGISLATION
Durine the past session of Congress, the
U. 8S. Coast and Geodetic Survey was bene-
fited by provisions in three bills.
In the act making appropriations for the
naval service for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1921, it is provided “ That the superintend-
ent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1329
have the relative rank, pay and emoluments
of a captain in the navy, and that hereafter
he shall be appointed by the president, by and
with the consent of the senate, from the list of
commissioned officers of the Coast and Geo-
detic Survey not below the relative rank of
commander for a term of four years, and he
may be reappointed for further periods of four
years each.
In the act making appropriations for the
sundry civil expenses of the government for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, it is pro-
vided “That the title of ‘superintendent’ of
the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
is hereby changed to ‘director,’ but this
change shall not affect the status of the pres-
ent incumbent or require his reappointment,
provided further that the secretary of com-
merce may designate one of the hydrographic
and geodetic engineers to act as assistant
director.”
The third act which contains legislation
affecting the commissioned personnel of the
Coast and Geodetic Survey is one entitled,
“An act to increase the efficiency of the com-
missioned and enlisted personnel of the Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Coast and
Geodetic Survey, and the Public Health
Service, through the temporary provision of
bonuses or increased compensation.” This
act provides for certain increases in salary
for all commissioned officers varying in
amount from $480 to $840 per annum. It
contains the following provision affecting the
commissioned force of the Coast and Geodetic
Survey:
That in lieu of compensation now prescribed by
law, commissioned officers of the Coast and Geo-
detie Survey shall receive the same pay and allow-
ances as now are or hereafter may be prescribed
for officers of the Navy with whom they hold rela-
tive rank as prescribed in the act of May 22, 1917,
entitled, ‘‘ An act to temporarily increase the com-
missioned and warrant and enlisted strength of
the Navy and Marine Corps, and for other pur-
poses,’’ including longevity; and all laws relating
to the retirement of commissioned officers of the
Navy shall hereafter apply to commissioned officers
of the Coast and Geodetic Survey; Provided, That
hereafter longevity pay for officers in the Army,
June 18, 1920]
Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Public Health
Service and Coast and Geodetie Survey shall be
based on the total of all service in any or all of
said services.
This law makes a substantial increase in
the pay and allowances of the commissioned
personnel of the Coast and Geodetic Survey
who hold relative rank from second lieu-
tenant to colonel in the army and from ensign
to captain in the navy. The commissioned
personnnel of the Surveys will also be greatly
benefited by the retirement clause of this act.
The salary scale for the commissioned per-
sonnel of the survey had previously been so
inadequate that it was impossible to secure
applicants for the vacant positions. This is
shown by the fact that there are to-day about
40 vacancies in the commissioned force of 140.
This has been increased to 50 by the retire-
ment of ten officers who have reached the
retirement age. In the future the pay and
allowances of the lowest commissioned grade
will be about $2,500 per annum. Appoint-
ments to this grade will be made from the
grades of junior engineer and deck officer, the
entrance positions. Six months’ experience
in the lowest grade is necessary before pro-
motion to the commissioned personnel.
The U. S. Civil Service Commission will
shortly announce an examination to be held
about the middle of July from which to secure
eligibles to fill the entering positions.
THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATIONS ENDOW-
MENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON
Tue Rockefeller Foundation has offered to
give about $6,000,000 to University College,
London, and its hospital. Dr. George E.
Vincent has issued a statement in which he
says:
Since the Rockefeller Foundation is cooperating
with governments in many parts of the British
Empire it recognizes the importance of aiding med-
jeal education in London, where the training of
personnel and the setting of standards for health
work throughout the empire are so largely cen-
tered.
The University College and Hospital School have
been selected because of the physical unity of the
SCIENCE
609
hospital and medical school ‘buildings and the close
relationships existing between the University Col-
lege, which provides the laboratory courses, and the
University College Hospital and Medical School,
which furnishes clinical teaching.
The college and school are fortunate in having
assembled a group of able men who are deeply in-
terested in teaching and research. EH. H. Starling
and William M. Bayliss, physiologists, and G. El-
liot Smith, anatomist, are scientists of distinction,
while T. R. Elliott, G. Blanker Thomas Lewis, Sir
John Bradford, C. C. Choyce, H. R. Kenwood, H.
Betty Shaw and Sydney Martin are clinicians of
recognized standing.
The authorities of the schools, supported heartily
by the faculty, have organized full-time clinical
‘‘units’’ in such a way as to combine the care of
patients and research with the teaching of students,
This feature of the work especially influenced the
foundation to decide to assist in furthering a plan
which it is believed will have an important effect
upon the development of British medicine.
The building program for which £590,000 have
been appropriated will include an institute of anat-
omy comparable with any in the United States. A
new home for nurses, new quarters for resident
physicians, a biochemical building, laboratory fa-
cilities in close connection with hospital wards, the
remodeling of a hospital with the addition of
twenty beds, and a new obstetrical unit with a ca-
pacity of sixty patients. These additions will
provide a total of 500 beds.
It is proposed to increase the annual expendi-
tures by the approximately £50,000, of which the
foundation will provide endowment to produce an
income of £30,000. This additional maintenance
will be expended upon a new staff in anatomy, an
inerease in the staff of physiology, the provision of
a full-time unit in obstetrics and various items of
increased laboratory and clinical service through-
out the institutions concerned. It is believed that
the obstetrical unit plan offers prospects of a suc-
cess which will be of value to the entire world.
The subject now in England, as elsewhere, is
poorly taught and needs reorganization under im-
proved conditions.
The foundation has a special interest in the pro-
posed Institute of Anatomy because thus far under
British auspices a true university department which
combines both teachings and research in the fields
of anatomy, histology and embryology has not been
developed. It is believed that such an institute,
by unified efforts in these three branches of anat-
610
omy, is of prime importance not only to the
teaching of the medical student but also for the
progress of anatomy, particularly on its research
side,
GIFTS TO UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
Trustrrs of the General Education Board
and of the Rockefeller Foundation announce
appropriations of $20,251,900 for various pur-
poses of general education and for the develop-
ment of medical schools. The statement of the
trustees is as follows:
For appropriations from the fund of $50,000,000
which Mr, Rockefeller gave last December nearly
250 institutions have made application to the Gen-
eral Education Board. <A careful statistical in-
quiry shows that in order to raise the level of sal-
aries in a sufficiently large number of these insti-
tutions, to a degree somewhat commensurate with
inereased cost of living, their endowment funds
would have to be increased by from $150,000,000
to $200,000,000.
It is evident that to accomplish this result the
$50,000,000 in the hands of the board will have to
be supplemented by funds from other sources in
the ratio of two or three to one. This has been
kept in mind in making appropriations which have
been made contingent upon the raising of addi-
tional amounts.
At the recent meeting appropriations were made
to ninety-eight colleges and universities out of
those which are under consideration. To this
group of institutions the General Education Board
appropriated for endowment to increase salaries
the sum of $12,851,666 on condition that they
would themselves reach the goal they had set and
secure for the same purpose supplementary sums
aggregating $30,613,334. Thus, these colleges and
universities if successful will increase their en-
dowments available for teachers’ salaries to the
extent of $43,465,000.
In a few cases institutions are not asking for
endowment funds but only for temporary contri-
butions toward a certain total annual subscription
which it is hoped later to fund permanently. The
board has made a number of such appropriations
on a two- or three-year basis.
For these purposes an additional sum of $2,184,-
384 was appropriated covering a period of one to
three years, making a total appropriation by the
general education board from Mr, Rockefeller’s
special gift of $15,036,050.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1329
In the following list appropriations to med-
ical schools in the United States were made by
the General Education Board, while those to
institutions in Brussels and Halifax were voted
by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Washington University Medical School, St. Louis
—For endowment, $1,250,000; for additional lab-
oratory facilities and equipment, $70,000.
Yale Medical School—For endowment (toward
a total of $3,000,000), $1,000,000.
Harvard Medical School—For improved facili-
ties in obstetrics, $300,000; for the development of
teaching in psychiatry, $350,000.
Johns Hopkins Medical School—For develop-
ment of a new department of pathology (toward a
total of $600,000) $40,000.
Dalhousie University Medical School, Halifax—
For buildings and equipment, $400,000. For en-
dowments, $100,000. :
Medical Research Foundation of Elizabeth,
Queen of the Belgians, Brussels—For general pur-
poses of medical research, 1,000,000 franes.
ENDOWMENT OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
Mr. Grorcr Eastman and the General Edu-
cation Board have given the University of
Rochester $9,000,000 for a school of medicine,
surgery and dentistry. In connection with it
the Rochester Dental Dispensary, an institu-
tion recently built and endowed by Mr. Hast-
man, will furnish the clinic for the study of
dentistry, at the same time continuing its
present work in caring for the teeth of chil-
dren. The details of the endowment were
announced at Rochester on June 12, by Dr.
Rush Rhees, president of the university; Dr.
Abraham Flexner, secretary of the General
Education Board, and Mr. Eastman, head of
the Kodak industry, at a meeting of the
trustees of the university, dispensary and
local hospitals and other persons directly
interested. Of the $9,000,000 the General
Education Board gives $5,000,000 and Mr.
Eastman $4,000,000. This is in addition to
the dispensary which with its endowment is
valued at $1,500,000. The most modern lab-
oratories for anatomy, physiology and pathol-
ogy and a 250-bed teaching hospital are to be
constructed.
JUNE 18, 1920]
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
New York University has conferred the
doctorate of laws on Dr. William H. Nichols,
president of the General Chemical Company of
New York, and recently president of the Amer-
ican Chemical Society.
THE University of Maine has conferred the
Ph.D. on Dr. Lamson Scribner, of the United
States Department of Agriculture.
Tur University of Arizona has conferred
the degree of doctor of laws on Thomas Henry
Kearney, of the U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture, in recognition of his work in the breed-
ing of Egyptian long-staple cotton at the Saca-
ton Station in Arizona. Here he and his co-
laborers isolated the first plant of the Pima
variety of cotton, so well adapted to the south-
western region, propagated it to the extent
necessary to make commercial plantings, and
are still occupied in producing a large amount
of absolutely pure seed each year. The Pima
cotton crop of Arizona was worth approxi-
mately $20,000,000 in 1919.
Tue honorary degree of doctor of science was
conferred upon George N. Hoffer, of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, by Lebanon Valley
College, at their fifty-fourth annual com-
mencement exercises, in recognition of his con-
tribution to our knowledge of cereal diseases.
Dr. Hoffer graduated from Lebanon Valley in
1909 and is at present working at the experi-
ment station at Purdue University.
Durine a visit to Millbank Hospital on June
8, King George bestowed on Major General
William ©. Gorgas, former surgeon general
of the United States army, the insignia of
Knight Commander of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George. General Gorgas was
a patient in Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Home
for Officers.
THE president of the French republic has
conferred the honor of Officer of the Legion
of Honor on Dr. Aldo Castellani, of the Lon-
don School of Tropical Medicine, for his
method of combined typhoid-paratyphoid and
enteric-cholera vaccination.
Ar the end of the present academic year
Professor Frederic S. Lee retires, at his own
SCIENCE
611
request, from the directorship of the depart-
ment of physiology of Columbia University,
and hereafter he will occupy a research pro-
fessorship. He sails for Europe early in July
and expects to spend the coming year abroad.
Mr. G. W. Morey, of the Geophysical Lab-
oratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington,
who has been on leave of absence and in charge
of the optical glass plant of the Spencer Lens
Company of Buffalo, New York, since No-
vember, 1918, has returned to resume his re-
search work at the laboratory.
Proressor CHARLES BASKERVILLE, in recog-
nition of his investigations on inhalation
anesthetics, has been elected a member of the
research committee of the National Anesthesia
Research Society.
At the-St. Louis meeting of the American
Chemical Society a communication was pre-
sented from Dr. W. F. Hillebrand regarding
the apparently organized thefts of platinum
ware that are taking place throughout the
United States, with the suggestion that a com-
mittee be appointed to consider whether or not
legislation might not be recommended to Con-
gress which would assist in controlling the
matter. The council voted that such a com-
mittee be appointed, and the president ap-
pointed R. B. Moore, of the Bureau of Mines,
Washington, D. C., Chas. H. Kerk, of J. F.
Bishop & Company, Malvern, Pa., and Geo. F.
Kunz, of Tiffany & Company.
Sir Humeurey D. Routieston, Royal College
of Physicians of London; Colonel H. J. War-
ing, Royal College of Surgeons of London;
Dr. Norman Walker, Royal College of Physi-
cians and Royal College of Surgeons of Edin-
burg and the Royal Faculty of Medicine and
Surgery of Glasgow, and Professors Gustave
Roussy and E. E. Desmarest, of the Univer-
sity of Paris, were present at the meeting of
the American Medical Association at New Or-
leans and have been visiting the leading med-
ical centers of the country. They are the
guests of the National Board of Medical Ex-
aminers of the United States.
Dr. W. C. PHALEN, formerly geologist in the
U. S. Geological Survey and mineral technol-
612
ogist in the Bureau of Mines, has been engaged
as geologist by the Solvay Process Company
with headquarters at Syracuse, N. Y.
A MEETING of the New York Section of the
Société de Chimie Industrielle was held at
Rumford Hall, on the evening of May 14. The
following officers were elected: President,
Marston T. Bogert; Vice-president, J. Enrique
Zanetti; Treasurer, J. V. N. Dorr; Secretary,
Charles A. Doremus; Council, Jerome Alex-
ander, L. H. Baekeland, Charles Baskerville,
Henri Blum, Charles F. Chandler, René
. Engel, Georges de Geofroy, Ellwood Hendrick,
Charles H. Herty, George F. Kunz, W. H.
Nichols, G. E. Valabrégue. The meeting was
addressed by M. Maurice Casenave, minister
plenipotentiary, director-general of French
Services in the United States on “ Commer-
cial relations between France and the United
States,” and by Mr. Joseph H. Choate, general
counsel of the Chemical Foundation, Inc., on
“Conditions of the chemical industry in the
United States before the war.”
Dr. L. Hextorn, of the John McCormick
Institute for Infectious Diseases, Chicago,
delivered the Noble Wiley Jones lectures of
the University of Oregon, on May 31 and
June 2, the subject of the first lecture being
“Old and new knowledge of humidity” and
of the second “Phases of streptococcus in-
fection.”
Dr. W. Van BeEMMELEN, director of the
Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory of
Batavia, delivered an address on “The vol-
canoes of Java,” before the Washington Acad-
emy of Sciences on June 15.
On May 24, 1920, a statue of Edward Van
Beneden was unveiled at Liége, Belgium, with
appropriate exercises. Dr. Robert W. Hegner,
of the school of hygiene and public health of
the Johns Hopkins University, acted as the
American representative on this occasion.
In the issue of Scmence of April 23 it was
stated that the family of Mr. Henry Phipps
had given $500,000 to the Henry Phipps In-
stitute of the University of Pennsylvania for
the study of tuberculosis. We are requested
to state that this sum is given contingent on
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1329
the raising of a total of $3,000,000 for the
endowment of the institute.
Dr. J. Lunewt, physician and botanist at
Leeds, N. D., since 1894, has died. Dr.
Lunell was an enthusiastic botanist and pub-
lished a number of articles on North Dakota
plants, the most extensive of these is the Cata-
logue of the Vascular Plants which was noted
in this journal for November 1, 1918.
THE tenth season of the Marine Laboratory
of Pomona College will begin June 24, at
Laguna Beach, Orange county, California. |
There will be several courses in general biol-
ogy and general zoology. There are oppor-
tunities for special work, and eight private
laboratories are reserved for investigators.
THE publication committee of the Zoological
Society, London, has issued a notice calling
the attention of those who propose to offer
papers to the great increase in the cost of
paper and printing. This, it is stated, will
render it necessary for the present that papers
should be condensed, and be limited so far as
possible to the description of new results.
Dr. Cornetius Berren, for the past five
years secretary of the New York State Col-
lege of Agriculture, has just been made vice-
dean of resident instruction, the appointment
to take effect July 1, 1920. Dr. Betten.is a
graduate of Cornell, of the class of 1906,
where he was fellow in entomology. After
graduation he went to Lake Forest College at
Lake Forest, Illinois, where he was professor of
biology and head of the department. In 1915,
he returned to his alma mater as secretary of
the college of agriculture. Under authoriza-
tion of recent legislation for the college of
agriculture, provision is made for three vice
deans or directors; a vice-dean of the college,
a vice-director of extension, and a vice
director of the experiment station. The fac-
ulty of the college was asked to make nomina-
tions, and Dr. Betten was practically selected
by his associates, the actual appointment by
the trustees of the university being a ratifica-
tion of the faculty’s choice. Professor M. C.
Burritt has been for some time vice-director
of extension. The vice-director of experiment
stations still remains to be chosen. Under
June 18, 1920]
the present plan, Dean A. R. Mann has the
aid of three vice-officers as executives in the
three main branches of the work of the col-
lege; resident instruction, extension, and
research.
THE geological department of the New York
State Museum will send into the field this year
a considerable corps of workers for the purpose
of collecting the fossil terrestrial plants of the
Devonian Period. The collections of the mu-
seum are already very rich in such plant ma-
terial, but it has all been acquired incidentally
to the study of the fossil faunas of tthe state,
and the reports of the museum have given
inadequate attention to this important field.
The physical conditions under which the Late
Devonian deposits were laid down in New
York were distinctly favorable to the accumu-
lation of terrestrial plants in the shallow water
offshore sands and shales, and it was said by
Sir William Dawson that the state museum
possessed a more extensive representation of
this early land flora than was to be found
elsewhere. The standing tree ferns found
many years ago in the sands of Schoharie
county and which are exhibited in the mu-
seum, are the oldest representatives of a ter-
restrial forest growing in. place; the unique
Archeosigillaria, 18 feet in length, is another
extraordinary plant from this flora and these
striking objects, supplemented by much un-
studied material, give promise that the field
may be opened to a more adequate knowledge
of the first great land flora of the earth.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS
Dr. Freperick CuHartes Hicks, Sinton pro-
fessor of economics, has been elected presi-
dent of the University of Cincinnati, succeed-
ing Dr. Charles W. Dabney, who retires on
reaching the age of sixty-five. Dr. Hicks
went to the University of Cincinnati in 1900
as head of the department of economics,
having previously taught in the University of
Michigan and the University of Missouri.
Mr. Homer P. Latimer, professor of anat-
omy at the University of Nebraska, has been
SCIENCE
613
granted leave of absence for the year 1920-21.
He will spend this summer and next year in
study at the Institute of Anatomy of the Uni-
versity of Minnesota. Mr. D. S. Brazda has
been appointed instructor in anatomy to take
charge of some of the classes during Professor
Latimer’s absence.
Proressor 8S. EnizapetH Von Duyne, M.D.,
resident physician and professor of physiology
and hygiene at Converse College, has resigned
to accept a similar position at Goucher Col-
lege, her alma mater.
Dr. Linus W. Kune, formerly professor of
psychology and education in the Duluth
Normal School, who has been engaged in
research at the Johns Hopkins University
during the past year, has been appointed pro-
fessor of psychology and education in Skid-
more College.
Dr. P. W. Wuirtne, in charge of biology at
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster,
Pa., has resigned to accept a position at St.
Stephens’ College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New
York.
Dr. Ricuarp J. Harpine, McGill University,
has been appointed professor of chemical
pathology in the University of Toronto by the
board of governors of the university.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
SCIENTIFIC WORK IN THE HAWAIIAN
ISLANDS
Havine recently returned from a tour of
the Hawaiian Islands, and haying familiar-
ized myself with the scientific work that is
being done-there and which remains to be
done in the Islands to the south, I am par-
ticularly interested in the success of the Con-
gress so ably planned by Professor Herbert
E. Gregory, of Yale University, who is now
resident in Honolulu as director of the
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.
While the problems presented by the
Islands are chiefly in geology, voleanology,
and anthropology, there is also a great deal
of interest in various fields of zoology and
* oceanography.
The cooperation planned by Professor
614
Gregory is designed to extend to the scientific
men of New Zealand and Australia, and to
take into consideration the larger work of the
future, particularly as suggested by the van-
ishing anthropology of Polynesia. Unless this
work is begun immediately and _ carried
through with great energy and system, it will
not be done at all. The material in physical
anthropology is disappearing with almost in-
credible rapidity. The ravages of influenza
during the past two years have swept away
a large part of the members of the Polynesian
race. The survivors on certain of the Islands
constitute a very small percentage of the
original population.
Scientific cooperation has begun through
the special research in physical anthropology
of the Hawaiian group established between
the Bishop Museum and the American Mu-
seum of Natural History. Dr. Louis R.
Sullivan of the American Museum staff has
already left for the Islands and will make as
complete a survey as possible of the pure and
mixed Hawaiian races among the remnants.
These results will be published in the Memoirs
of the Bishop Museum. It is expected also
that Curator Clark Wissler will represent the
American Museum at the Pan-Pacifie Sci-
entific Congress in August.
Henry Farrimetp OsBorn
THE ENERGY OF SMALL OSCILLATIONS
To tHe Eprror or Science: The well-known
theorem that in any linear harmonic oscilla-
tion the total energy is, on the average, half
kinetic and half potential is so important in
many fields that perhaps the following very
simple and elementary proof will be of gen-
eral interest. It can hardly be new, it is so
simple and obvious, but at any rate it is not
common, for it does not appear in any of
the best known treatments which have been
consulted.
Consider a particle of mass m which is
displaced from its equilibrium position a dis-
tance «x, and is vibrating in a circle. Then,
as is well known, the kinetic energy is equal
to the potential energy. For let the elastic
restoring force be given by kx. We must
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1329
then have kx—= mv?/x for steady motion.
The potential energy of the particle when at
a distance x from the equilibrium position is
equal to the work done in displacing it this
distance, which equals the distance times the
average force, which equals 1/2(kax)-x. Sub-
stituting the above value of ka we have for
the potential energy 1/2mv?, and the proposi-
tion as stated is established. But any such
circular vibration may be thought of as com-
posed of two exactly similar linear harmonic
oscillations. (When considering energy the
phase difference and direction of oscillation ~
is obviously irrelevant.) Therefore we must
associate, on the average, half of the total
kinetic and half of the total potential energy
of the cireular vibration with each of the
linear vibrations. Since these are equal in
the case of the circular vibration they must
also be equal in the case of the linear
vibration. The result is obviously perfectly
general for any linear harmonic oscillation.
WarREN WEAVER
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CARBON DIOXIDE AND INCREASED CROP
PRODUCTION
To tHE Eprror or Scmnce: Should one
infer from Mr. Harrow’s note in the latest
issue of Scmmncr (May 7, 1920) that the ques-
fion of “fertilizing” with carbon dioxide
were not known to plant-physiologists and
agricultural chemists in this country?
If so, it might be worth while to mention
that for a number of years, at least for the
last ten years, this topic has been the subject
of many experiments in Europe, especially in
Germany.
The botanists, Hugo Fischer and Adolf
Hansen among others, have contributed much
to its study. It has even found its place in
modern German text-books of plant physiology
—for instance in Molisch’s “ Pflanzenphysio-
logie”—and no doubt, also in those of agri-
cultural chemistry, such as Schneidewind’s
“Ernihrung der landwirtschaftlichen Kultur-
pilanzen.”’
M. W. Senstius
JuNE 18, 1920]
VACANCIES IN THE GRADE OF ASSISTANT
CIVIL ENGINEER, U. Ss. NAVY
APPICATIONS are being received at the
Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Depart-
ment, Washington, D. C., to fill 30 vacancies,
more or less, in the commissioned grade of
assistant civil engineer, U. S. Navy, with the
rank of lieutenant (junior grade). The pay
and allowances at entrance are approximately
$3,200 per annum, with increases up to $9,000,
depending upon length of service and pro-
motions.
The candidate must be an American citi-
zen, between the ages of 21 and 34 years on
August 1, 1920; must have received a degree
in engineering from a college or university of
recognized standing; must have had not less
than 12 months’ practical professional experi-
ence since graduation, and must be of good
moral character and repute.
The preliminary examination to determine
general fitness will be based on papers sub-
mitted by the candidates, reaching the Board
on or before August 23, 1920, covering college
record, testimonials, references and profes-
sional experience. The candidate is not re-
quired to report in person for the preliminary
examination. Physical examination by a
board of medical examiners will be made of
those candidates who qualify in the prelim-
inary examination.
Those who qualify in the preliminary and
physical examinations will take the final oral
and written examinations to be held in Wash-
ington, D. C., as soon as possible after the
preliminary examination papers have been
passed on by the Board.
Officers of the Corps of Civil Engineers are
detailed principally to the various navy yards
and naval stations to supervise the work
under the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy
Department, Washington, D. C., consisting of
the design and construction of all the public
works of the naval establishment on shore as
well as the maintenance and repair of existing
structures. The work is exceptionally varied
and offers an attractive field for able and am-
bitious young engineers. OC. W. Parks,
Chief of Bureau
SCIENCE
615
ARISTOTLE AND GALILEO ON FALL-
ING BODIES
A DRAMATIC event in the history of physics
is Galileo’s dropping a one pound shot and a
hundred pound shot together from the lean-
ing tower of Pisa, to disprove Aristotle’s law
of falling bodies. In 1913 Professor H. H.
Turner of Oxford, in a lecture at the Royal
Institution, quoted Galileo’s version of Aris-
totle’s law:
Aristotle said that a weight of ten pounds, for
example, fell ten times as fast as a weight of one
pound.1
To this J. H. Hardeastle replied? “ Aris-
totle never said this at all”; he refers any
one who “wishes to find out for himself” to
Aristotle’s “ Physica,” Book IV., cap. 8. He
does not quote from Aristotle, but quotes
from Thomas Aquinas’s commentary on the
passage in Aristotle to which this reference
points. Accepting Hardcastle’s statement, G.
Greenhill, William Ramsay and Oliver Lodge
arrive at the conclusion® that Aristotle has
been misunderstood. Greenhill interprets
Aristotle as teaching “that the terminal
velocity of a body in a medium is propor-
tional to the /weight,” a law “justified by
Newton in his experiments in St. Paul’s”4
and exemplified in the motion of “a raindrop
or hailstone falling vertically in the air, or
of a smoke particle up the chimney”; Galileo
discussed an altogether different question, viz.,
“the start of such a body from rest.”” Ramsay
refers to Ostwald as pointing out that “ Aris-
totle was much more impressed with the re-
tarding effect on the velocity of the mass of
the medium through which the falling mass
fell, than with the laws of ‘free fall.’” Lodge
emphasizes “the fact that ‘terminal velocity’
is the best instance of Newton’s first law of
motion in actual operation.”
1Galileo, ‘‘Dialogues concerning two New Sci-
ences’’ (Ed. Crew and De Salvio), New York,
1914, p. 62.
2 Nature [London], Vol. 92, 1914, p. 584.
3 Nature, Vol. 92, pp. 584, 585, 606.
4‘‘Principia,’?’ Book II., Prop. 40.
616
These remarks are interesting, but not alto-
gether to the point. Those modern apologists
do not actually quote Aristotle, nor do they
base their reasoning on what Aristotle actu-
ally said.
Aristotle discusses falling bodies in six or
more different parts of his “Physica” and
“De Celo.”
1. He considers’ a body falling through
media of different densities—air, water and
media indefinitely rare. Then he considers
also bodies of different weights falling through
the same medium. Endeavoring to disprove
the existence of a vacuum, Aristotle says:
That which is heavier ..., other things being
equal, moves faster through the same space, and
indeed faster according to the ratio of the magni-
tudes of the things, so that this must happen also
through a vacuum. But this is impossible; for
why should it move faster? In a plenum this is
necessarily true, because the larger moves more
rapidly by its power of greater penetration.
Thus, according to this Aristotelian passage,
not only do the larger bodies move faster
through a medium, but they would move
faster even through a vacuum, if such existed.
2. Aristotle asserts® that each of the bodies
constituting the universe was originally at
rest (as taught by Anaxagoras), that each
was heavy or light and had power to move.
For suppose A without weight, but B possessing
weight; and let A pass over a space CD, but B in
the same time passes over a space CH—for that
which has weight will be carried through the larger
space. If now the heavy body be divided in the
proportion that space CH bears to CD, ... and
if the whole is carried through ithe whole space CE,
then it must be that a part in the same time would
be earried through CD. Consequently the body
without weight and the one possessing weight pass
over the same distance, which is impossible.
Here Aristotle’s law is applied to bodies
initially at rest.
5 “*Physica,’’? Book IV., eap. 8. We are using
Carl Prantl’s ‘‘ Aristoteles’ Werke. Griechisch und
Deutsch,’’ Bd. I., Leipzig, 1854, pp. 187-191.
6““De Celo,’’ Book III., eap. 2; Prantl, Vol. 2,
pp. 203-205,
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1329
3. Aristotle argues? that “if there were an
unlimited increase in the weight, there would
be also an unlimited increase in velocity.”
The volume of a falling body is specially con-
sidered in “De Ceelo,” Book IV., cap. 1:8
4. In “De Celo,” Book I., cap 6,9 we find:
If such and such a weight is moved so and so
far in such and such a time, then some larger
weight will be moved through the same distance
in still shorter time, shorter in the inverse ratio
of the weights. ... A limited weight can pass over
any limited line in a limited time.
5. In “De Ceelo,” Book IV., cap. 2,1° Aris-
totle argues, likewise, that the more fire will
proportionally move upward with greater
speed and the less fire with less speed, and
similarly for the downward motion of more
gold or more lead. Here, as in most other
passages, the shapes of the moving bodies are
not considered.
The above shows that Aristotle considered
his law applicable when the motion took place
from rest as in (2), when there was no upper
limit to the weight that the moving body may
have as in (3), when the time of motion may
be reduced or increased as in (4), and when
the moving bodies are different weights of
any metal, like gold or lead, as in (5). No
restriction is placed by Aristotle to the com-
bination of some or all of these four condi-
tions in one and the same motion. To our
surprise, he was willing to apply his law even
to motion in a vacuum (were a vacuum
possible) as is seen in (1). It appears there-
fore that Aristotle allowed his law a general-
ity of application which certainly did include
the special conditions under which Galileo
performed his experiment of dropping a One-
pound shot and a hundred-pound shot through
the air from the leaning tower.
Fortran Casori
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
T““De Celo,’’ Book I., cap. 8; Prantl, Vol. 2,
p. 65.
That body is heavier than another which, in an
equal bulk, moves downward quicker.
8 Prantl, Vol. 2, p. 243.
® Prantl, Vol. 2, p. 47.
10 Prantl, Vol. 2, p. 249.
JUNE 18, 1920]
SPECIAL ARTICLES
AN ACCURATELY CONTROLLABLE MICRO-
PIPETTE
A nuMBER of pipette devices have been em-
ployed for the injection or extraction of minute
quantities, which have served their purpose
quite satisfactorily. Among these may be
mentioned the several methods described by
Toldt,1 Barber? and Chambers. However, in
certain recent work I was unable to use with
the necessary accuracy any of these methods
‘and so undertook to construct a micropipette
which could be very reliably and precisely con-
trolled.
The simple apparatus now being used serves
my needs so surprisingly well that I offer this
description of it hopeful that the method will
SCIENCE
617
quantities of various solutions into the cyto-
plasm and macronucleus and have induced the
formation of vacuoles near the contractile
vacuole in such manner as to obtain signifi-
cant data on the behavior and fwnction of the
latter structure. An account of these results
will be published in later papers; I shall here
only describe the method employed. I am in-
debted to Professor S. O. Mast for several im-
portant suggestions in the construction of the
apparatus.
The general principle involved in the opera-
tion of this mechanism is the inducement at
will either of large or of very delicate changes
in a given volume of mercury by means of a
small steel needle attached to a finely threaded
thumb-serew.
r
Fig. 1.
bt., brass tube; c.g.t., capillary tube;i.b.c., ‘‘inner’’ brass cap; m.p., micropipette; 0.D.c.,
‘¢outer’’ brass cap; r.c., rubber cylinder; r.t., rubber tube; s.d., steel disk; s.n., steel needle; t.s.,
thumb-serew.
be of service to others. By its use I have suc-
ceeded in extracting the micronucleus from the
ciliate Huplotes, have injected very minute
1Toldt, ‘‘Die Injection unter messbarem
Drucke,’’? Archiv. f. Mikr. Anat., 1869, 5, 167,
Taf. XI.
2Barber, M. A., ‘‘The Pipette Method in the
Isolation of Single Microorganisms and in the In-
oculation of Substances into Living Cells,’’ The
Philippine Jour. Sci., See. B, Trop. Med., 9, 307.
8 Chambers, R., ‘‘ The Microvivisection Method,’’
Biol, Bull., 1918, 34, 121.
, The mercury is contained in a capillary glass
tube 7 cm. in length and 6 mm. in diameter
with a bore of about 1 mm. Into one end of
the tube is sealed the micropipette (m.p.) and
over the other end an “inner” brass cap
(i.b.c.), as shown in Fig. 1.
The end of this “inner” cap is covered and
sealed by a thin steel disk (s.d.) having a cen-
tral projection which inserts a short distance
into an enlargement of the capillary bore.
Through the center of the disk is a hole of
618
size just convenient to accommodate the en-
trance of the steel needle into the capillary
tube. The needle, 3 em. long and about 2/5
mm. in diameter, is soldered on to a finely-
threaded thumb-screw (¢.s.) which operates in
a brass tube (b.t.). This tube is screwed
firmly into the base of an “outer” brass cap
(0.b.c.). In the inner end of the brass tube,
the needle passes through a hole having a diam-
eter the same as that in the steel disk. Into
the “ outer” cap is fit very closely a soft rubber
cylinder (r.c.), in length one half that of the
eap, through the center of which passes the
needle. Inserting the needle into the hole in
the steel disk, the “ outer” cap is now screwed
tightly on to the “inner” cap.
The device is supported and adjusted on the
microscope stage by means of the Barber
pipette-holder.
After the capillary tube and pipette are
filled from a column of mercury contained in
the rubber tubing (rt.), the system is then
closed by the stopcock and is ready for opera-
tion. This is accomplished by regulating the
thumb-screw which is threaded 60 turns to the
inch. Very slight movements of it induce
gradual changes of the meniscus of mercury in
either direction in the tip of the micropipette
(having a lumen of about five microns) ; these
changes may be so delicate as to be almost in-
perceptible under a magnification of 400
diameters.
, Two precautions are here worthy of note,
viz., the use of glass tubing and mercury which
are thoroughly clean, and the avoidance of air-
bubbles anywhere within the system. To clean
glass tubing, I have found the following
method very effective: after sealing one end of
the tube, put into it a few drops of 95 per
cent. aleohol and a like amount of concentrated
HNO,. Upon adding a drop or two of H,SO,
an explosive reaction occurs which apparently
oxidizes thoroughly any substances adhering
to the surface of the glass. (The tube, of
course, should be turned away from one’s face
before adding the H,SO,.) Break off the sealed
end and wash the tubing well with distilled
water.
To hasten the filling of the system with mer-
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1329
cury and to remove air that may appear, it is
advisable to fill nearly full the capillary tube
(and add a drop of dust-free, distilled water
which can be forced through the pipette point
more easily than mercury) just before sealing
in the pipette.
It is advantageous, also, to have the shank
of the pipette fit fairly well the bore of the
tube; air-bubbles are then less likely to appear
in the sealing-wax between the shank and the
surface of the bore.
The needle-pipette operates inside a moist
chamber similar in design to that described by
Chambers (loc. cit.). Distilled water or solu-
tions of any sort for injection purposes may be
drawn into the pipette after the mercury has
been forced to the tip by turning the thumb-
screw, then dipping the tip into a hanging
drop of the solution and drawing a desired
quantity of this into the pipette by reversing
the movement of the screw. Obviously, clean-
sing with distilled water, which is sometimes
essential, may be done in a similar way.
To extract cytoplasm or to remove a nu-
cleus, a small amount of distilled water is
drawn into the pipette, the tip then inserted
into the organism and the operation completed
by carefully manipulating the thumb-screw.
| CO. V. Taytor
Tur JOHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SO-
CIETY. III
SATURDAY, APRIL 24
Executive Session—9 :80 o’clock
Stated Business—Candidates for membership
ballotted for. Appropriations for the ensuing year
passed. Annual address of the president.
Morning Session—10 o’clock
Grorce Every Hatz, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., vice-
president, in the chair
The problem of the evolution of the solar sys-
stem: ERNEST W. Brown, Sce.D., professor of
mathematics, Yale University.
Certain aspects of recent spectroscopic observa-
tions of the gaseous nebule which appear to estab-
lish the relationship between them and the stars:
W. H. Waricut, astronomer, Lick Observatory.
June 18, 1920]
(Introduced by Professor Robert G. Aitken.) The
paper Summarizes in non-technical terms the evi-
dence afforded by a study of the stellar condensa-
tions in the planetary or small gaseous nebule,
which are shown to be spectroscopically identical
with stars of the Wolf-Rayet group (Pickering’s
Glass O). A brief account is given of some of the
present day conceptions of stellar evolution, for
the purpose of indicating the somewhat critical
nature, with respect to these ideas, of the relation-
ship indicated. A complete account of the investi-
gation, of which the paper summarizes a part, is
given in Volume XIII, part 6, of the Publications
of the Lick Observatory.
The Einstein theory: EDWIN PLIMPTON ADAMS,
Ph.D., professor of physics, Princeton University.
Following Newton’s statement of the law of uni-
versal gravitation, the goal of all physical explana-
tions of natural phenomena was to reduce them to
actions at a distance between elements. After
Maxwell showed that electric and magnetic phe-
nomena could be accounted for by a system of
pressures and tensions in a universal medium—the
ether—the goal changed, and the attempt was made
to explain physical phenomena by direct action
through a medium. Attempts to account for gravi-
tational forces, however, in this way met with little
success. The extension, by Hinstein, of the prin-
ciple of relativity and the resulting revision of
the concepts of space and time, led to Hinstein’s
interpretation of gravitation as a property of space
itself when modified by the presence of matter.
| The results of geophysical observations during
the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, and their bear-
‘ing upon the Hinstein deflection of light. (Illus-
trated): Louis A. Baurr, Ph.D., Se.D., director of
the department of terrestrial magnetism, Carnegie
Institution of Washington. This paper is a con-
tinuation of the one presented at a stated meeting
of the society on February 6, 1920. In that paper1
a résumé was given of the geophysical and astro-
nomical observations concerning the solar eclipse
‘of May 29, 1919, and the Hinstein effect made by
the various expeditions sent out by the Depart-
ment of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie In-
stitution of Washington and the various astronom-
ieal expeditions sent out by Great Britain, the Rio
Janeiro Observatory, and the Smithsonian Insti-
tution. It was shown how the results of the geo-
physical observations may have an important bear-
; 1/Qpbservations in Liberia and Elsewhere of the
Total Solar Eclipse of May 29, 1919, and Their
Bearing on the Einstein Theory.’’
SCIENCE
619
ing upon the complete interpretation of the astro-
nomical observations showing the deflections of
light during the eclipse. A brief analysis of the
light deflections was given and it was pointed out
that there were non-radial effects of such a syste-
matic nature that they could not be accounted for
by errors of observation. The present paper gives
the results of a special study of the cause of the
non-radial effects of the light deflections observed
by the British expedition at Sobral, Brazil. It is
shown that these non-radial effects may be com-
pletely accounted for by incomplete elimination of
differential refraction effects in the earth’s atmos-
phere. The same cause may apparently also ex-
plain why the observed radial deflections of light
exceeded, on the average, by about 14 per cent. the
amounts predicted on the basis of the Hinstein law
of gravitation.
The high voltage corona in air: J. B. WHITE-
HEAD, professor of applied electricity, Johns Hop-
kins University. (Introduced by Dr. Pender.)
The paper describes the nature of the corona and
recent studies of the laws governing its appearance
in high voltage circuits. Its influence as a limiting
factor in long distance transmission oceurs through
deterioration of insulation and a leakage loss of
power between the high voltage lines. The appear-
ance of corona on a clean round wire is very
sharply marked and may be used for the measure-
ment of high alternating voltages to a degree of
aceuracy not heretofore possible. Experiments and
observations on the corona voltmeter, an instrument
devised for this purpose, are recorded; and an ex-
ample of the instrument, suitable for voltages up
to 300,000 volts, is described.
The velocity of explosive sounds: Dayton C.
Miter, D.Se., professor of physics, Case School
of Applied Science, Cleveland. In 1918-1919 the
writer had the privilege of making an extended
series of experiments on the pressure waves from
large guns in action, at Sandy Hook Proving
Ground. One series of experiments was for the
purpose of determining the variation in the veloc-
ity of the sound of the gun explosion as measured
from the muzzle outward, and for the determina-
tion of the velocity of sound in free air. Most of
the experiments were made in connection with 10-
inch and 12-inch rifles, though a few were made
with 6-inch and 8-inch guns. The amount of
powder charge and the value of the internal pres-
sure developed in the gun are taken into account.
The sounds were received by means especially con-
structed carbon-granule microphones, while others
620
were of a very sensitive type. The records were
made {by an especially constructed moving-film
camera in connection with a string-galvanometer
capable of recording from six stations simultane-
ously, of the type used by our army for sound-
ranging. Stations were located at the muzzle of
the gun, and at points in front of the guns at dis-
tances of about 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 1,000,
2,000, 7,300 and 21,000 feet, six of these stations
being used at one time. The locations were de-
termined with precision. Meteorological observa-
tions were made by special observers in the distant
stations and on the field near the guns, at ‘the time
of the experiments and continuous records were
made at the Proving Ground Headquarters and
at the United States Weather Bureau Station.
These observations covered temperature, barometric
height, humidity, wind velocity and wind direc-
tion. Measurements were also made of the velocity
of the sound at a series of stations located on a
line at right angles to the line of fire, and on a
line at 45° to one side of the line of fire. In all,
seventy-two sets of velocity determinations were
made, eleven sets extending to the most distant
stations at 21,000 feet from the gun, while the other
sets relate to various groups of stations within
2,000 feet of the gun. Heretofore there has been
a general impression that explosive sounds travel
much farther than do ordinary sounds, the velocity
being perhaps several times the normal velocity.
These experiments show conclusively that the veloc-
ity at a distance of one hundred feet from a 10-
inch gun is about 1,240 feet per second, or 22 per
cent. above normal; at two hundred feet from the
gun the velocity is only about 5 per cent. above
normal. For all distances above five hundred feet
from the gun the velocity of the explosive sound
from the largest sized gun is practically normal.
The value of the velocity of sound over the long
range of 21,000 feet has not yet been calculated
with all corrections applied, the preliminary value
is in entire agreement with other determinations,
and is about 1,089 feet per second at the freezing
temperature. It is expected that the final value
will be of a precision equalling the best heretofore
obtained.
The U. S. navy MV -type of hydrophone as an aid
and safeguard to navigation: Harvey C. Hayss,
Ph.D., U. S. Naval Engineering Experiment Sta-
tion, Annapolis. (Introduced by Professor John
A, Miller.)
The transient process of establishing a steady
alternating electric current on a long line from
_ SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1329
laboratory measurements on an artificial line: A.
E. KEenneLLy, A.M., Se.D., director, Research Di-
vision, Electrical Engineering Department, Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, and U. Nasr-
sHIMA. When a power-transmission electric con-
ducting line is switched on to the generator at the
power house, the alternating-current on that line
settles down to a final state, under steady load, in
a time which is theoretically indefinitely long, but
which is usually practically covered in a small
fraction of a second. The paper discusses the
transient phenomena which occur along the line
during this process of upbuilding the final current
and voltage. The subject has been studied theo-
retically by a number of writers; but very few
practical observations have been published con-
cerning this transient state. It is known that the
current and voltage do not build up steadily and
continuously, but advance by little jumps which
occur at regular short intervals of time, accom-
panying successive reflections of electromagnetic
waves from one end of the line to the other. The
authors present in the paper a number of observa-
tions which have been secured photographically, of
the rise of voltage and current on a long artificial
electric power-transmission line in the laboratory,
and have compared the observed rates of growth
with those which are indicated by theory, with a
fairly satisfactory agreement. The observed re-
sults indicate the manner and mechanism iby which
electric power may be conceived of as being trans-
mitted along such a line.
The strephoscope: N. W. AKIMOFF.
by Professor Erie Doolittle.)
New features in the eclipsing variable U Cephei:
R. S. Dugan, professor of astronomy, Princeton
University. (Introduced by Professor H. N.
Russell.) ArtTHUR W. GOODSPEED
(To be concluded)
SCIENCE
A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement of
Science, publishing the official notices and pro-
ceedings of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
Published every Friday by
THE SCIENCE PRESS
LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y,
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Entered in the post-office at Lancaster, Pa., as second class mattes
(Introduced
SCIENC
NEw SERIES SINGLE CopiEs, 15 Crs.
Vou. LI, No. 1330 Fripay, JUNE 25, 1920 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $6.00
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il SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
OUGHTRED’S
Mathematical Symbols
By FLORIAN CAJORI
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
A List of Oughtred’s Mathematical Symbols
with Historical Notes. By Florian Cajori .25
On the History of Gunter’s Scale and the
Slide Rule during the Seventeenth Cen-
tury. By Florian Cajori....-.-... 35
Treatment of Harmonics in Alternating Cur-
rent Theory by means of a Harmonic Al-
gebra. By Abraham Press. .....- .-
A New Morphological Interpretation of the
Structure of /Voctiluca, and its bearing on
the Status of the Cystoflagellata (Haekel ).
By Charles A. Kofoid ......... 25
Classification of Involutory Cubic Space
Transformations. By F.M. Morris... .25
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SCIENC:
OE rey.
Fripay, JUNE 25, 1920
CONTENTS
Irreversible Differentiation and Orthogenesis:
PROFESSOR C. JUDSON HERRICK .......... 621
Educational Institutions represented in the
Mellon Institute: W. A. HAmor ......... 625
Scientific Events :—
The Cardiff Meeting of the British Asso-
ciation; The English Deep-sea Fisheries ; The
Siath Exposition of Chemical Industries;
The Work of the National Committee on
Mathematical Requirements; The Elliot
Medal in Zoology and Paleontology ...... 627
Scientific Notes and News ................ 630
University and Educational News .......... 633
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Use of the Term Fossil: PROFESSOR
Ricuarp M. Fieup. The Fixation of At-
mospheric Nitrogen: Dr. CHarLes A.
ORE MUS): oy itegy sie isp aise si teate re pewelenees Sensis 634
Current Research and Publication in the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History: Dr.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN ............... 636
Notes on Meteorology and Climatology :—
The Effect of Snow upon the Growth of
Winter Wheat: OC. LERoy MEISINGER ..... 639
Special Articles :—
Transference of Nematodes from Place to
Place for Economic Purposes: Dr. N. A.
Coss. The Interaction of Ethylene and
Sulphuryl Chloride: WiLL1aM Foster .... 640
The American Philosophical Society: Pro-
FESSOR ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED ........... 642
MES. intended for publication and books, etc.,intended for
Yeview should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on-
Hudson, N. Y.
IRREVERSIBLE DIFFERENTIATION
AND ORTHOGENESIS
TueE publication in 1919 of the three noble
volumes of posthumous works of the late
Professor Whitman! redirects our attention
to the problem of orthogenetic evolution.
The evidence here presented may be regarded
as demonstrative that in pigeons variations
do not occur in all cases at random around
fixed modes as unit characters in accordance
with the laws of probability, but that they
tend to appear in the course of phylogeny in
an irreversible series.
Numerous other students of evolution have
formulated similar conceptions under the
names, orthogenesis, orthoplasy, directive evo-
lution, ete., some of which are referred to by
Whitman, and others are cited at length by
Baldwin in his book on “Development and
Evolution” (New York, 1902). Most of
these statements leave much to be desired
from the scientific standpoint and they fre-
quently lead to the expressed or implied
postulation of metaphysical factors? Nageli’s
principle of perfection is of this sort and has
not been especially fruitful. Others, like
Eimer,? though basing their conclusions on
extensive critical observation, have allowed
themselves to be swept along by controversial
1‘‘Orthogenetic Evolution in Pigeons.’’ Post-
humous Works of Charles Otis Whitman. Edited
by Oscar Riddle. Published by the Carnegie In-
stitution of Washington, 1919.
2The term orthogenesis has been applied in a
great variety of senses, some of them decidedly
mystical. These are summarized by Vernon L.
Kellogg in ‘‘ Darwinism To-day,’’ New York, 1907,
pp. 274-288.
3 Himer’s Leyden address published by The
Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1898, under
the title, ‘‘On Orthogenesis and the Impotence of
Natural Selection in Species-Formation,’’ gives a
summary of his views with citation of the original
sources of his data.
622
currents beyond the safe haven of calm and
well-considered evaluation of all factors in
the problem.
Competent naturalists of wide experience in
many scientific fields are, however, continually
bringing forth new confirmatory evidence
that the direction of the evolutionary process
is to some extent and in some way determined
from within and that the course of differ-
entiation of organic forms is not in its en-
tirety directly and passively shaped by the
environmental mold. That these internal
factors are ultimately to be referred to the
reaction between the living substance and its
environment was clearly recognized by Eimer,
as is shown by the following quotation :*
In my view development can take place in only
a few directions because the constitution, the ma-
terial composition of the body, necessarily deter-
mines such directions and prevents indiscriminate
modification. But through the agency of outward
influences the constitution must gradually get
changed. The organisms will thus acquire more
and more physiological individuality and respond to
outward influences more and more in a manner
harmonizing with their specific individuality—and
so new directions of development will be produced.
Eimer’s further contention that this con-
ception implies the unqualified acceptance of
the inheritance of acquired characters has
doubtless been an obstacle to the more general
approval of his views. To this point we shall
return.
As the currents of thought regarding the
truth of evolution in general drifted more or
less impotently in a sea of speculation until
Lamarck, Darwin, DeVries and others con-
fined it within scientifically definable banks
by presenting plausible explanations of the
possible mechanism of the process, so ortho-
genesis has remained an ill-defined and at
times quasi-mystical hypothesis as long as
we had no comprehensible account of the
causative factors which may direct the course
of future differentiation. It may be regarded
as established that orthogenesis in some form
5‘‘Senescence and Rejuvenescence,’’ Chicago,
1915.
4 Loc, cit., p. 22
SCIENCE
LN. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
is an evolutionary factor. But what of the
method ?
Child® has laid down some general prin-
ciples which point the way in this inquiry.
Undifferentiated tissues with active metabo-
lism (termed tissues of the “young” type by
Child) contrast sharply with the more stable
and mature tissues whose protoplasm has as-
sumed characteristic structural patterns in
adaptation to specific functions (muscle,
gland, ete.). The tissue patterns of the latter
group not only maintain their individuality
during the life of the organism, but their
stability extends deeper into the hereditary
organization of the species and their char-
acteristic forms run true in successive gener-
ations. There is accordingly, as Child ex-
presses it, a secular change in the character
of protoplasmic organization in the direction
of a fixation or stabilization of the more
labile and metabolically active tissues of the
embryonic or generalized type into more
highly specialized and stable patterns. This
process of evolution of form is, of course,
concomitant with a differentiation and fix-
ation of heritable behavior patterns.
The general physiological processes involved
here have been analyzed by Child and the
underlying physico-chemical apparatus has
been experimentally studied in an illumi-
nating series of researches on bio-electric
phenomena and their inorganic analogies by
R. S. Lillie.®
This process of progressive maturing of
tissue in the course of evolution is not differ-
ent in fundamental biological character from
that seen in the course of ontogenetic develop- .
ment, and both are expressions of more effi-
cient adjustment of the living substance to
6 ‘¢ Transmission of Activation in Passive Metals
as a Model of the Protoplasmie or Nervous Type
of Transmission,’’? Science, N. S., Vol. 48, 1918,
pp. 51-60. ‘‘Heredity from the Physico-chemical
Point of View,’’ Biol. Bul., Vol. 34, 1918, pp.
65-90. ‘‘Nervous and Other Forms of Proto-
plasmic Transmission,’’ Sci. Mo., Vol. 8, 1919, pp.
456-474, 552-567. ‘‘ Precipitation Structures Sim-
ulating Organic Growth. II. A Contribution to the
Physico-chemical Analysis of Growth and Hered-
ity,’? Biol. Bul., Vol. 36, 1919, pp. 225-273.
JUNE 25, 1920]
the manifold diversities of the environment,
that is, in the wide view they are adaptive.
Natural selection may (or may not) act upon
the products of this differentiation as they
are formed. Inheritance of acquired char-
acters in the ordinary sense of this expression
is not implied here, though some recasting of
eurrent ideas of the individuality of the germ
plasm and the nature of the mechanism of
heredity is a necessary consequence of the
recent studies in general protoplasmic phys-
iology to which reference has been made.
Now this process of senescence of tissue is
to a large extent reversible; that is, a special-
ized tissue may dedifferentiate and return to
the embryonic type, as happens in the ordi-
nary processes of reproduction, regeneration
and the like. But this capacity for dediffer-
entiation is not universal, nor where it occurs
is it always accomplished with equal facility.
In general, specialized tissues return to the
undifferentiated condition with greater diffi-
eulty than do the simpler and more general-
ized kinds and the capacity for form regula-
tion diminishes part passu with the increase
in complexity of bodily organization. In
higher organisms groups of general body cells
are incapable of reproducing the whole body
as in lower forms; in a salamander an entire
limb can be regenerated, but in a man this is
impossible; and differentiated nerve cells are
incapable even of cell division. To this ex-
tent, tissue differentiation is irreversible.
This progressive stabilization of heritable
patterns of organization is an essential factor
in evolution, and to the extent that these
patterns are irreversible the future course of
evolution is predetermined. For, given a
particular inherited structural pattern, varia-
tions will be distributed around this as a
mode is accordance with a different frequency
curve than would be shown if the inherited
pattern were different; and the same applies
to mutations..7
An aquatic species which has acquired
adaptation to life on land has established new
7 Metealf, M. M., ‘‘ Adaptation through Natural
Selection and Orthogenesis,’’ Am. Nat., Vol. 47,
1913, pp. 65-71.
SCIENCE
623
modes around which its variations and muta-
tions are distributed. True, it may in time
return to the water, though never in a higher
animal by the process of dedifferentiation to
the original aquatie form but only along lines
of further differentiation derived from and
congruous with its established terrestrial
patterns.
Again, with the establishment of the ladder
type of central nervous system as seen in
annelid worms, a stable pattern was laid down
with certain functional capacities. On the
other hand, with the establishment of the
tubular type of central neryous systems in
early vertebrate ancestors, a different pattern
was fabricated with its own characteristic
correlated behavior. On the basis of each of
these matured and stabilized tissue differen-
tiations a wide variety of central nervous
systems has been derived—from the annelid
type the whole series of arthropods and from
the protochordate type the whole series of
vertebrates. But throughout each of these
phyla the fundamental pattern has not been
changed, nor have we any adequate evidence
that one has ever been transformed into the
other.
In other words, from the time when these
two structural patterns were first established
and stabilized, the process was irreversible;
the tissues concerned have in this respect and
to this extent passed from the “young” or
labile state to the “mature” or rigidly deter-
mined form. The undifferentiated type ante-
cedent to both of these phyla was labile in the
sense that under appropriate conditions it
could differentiate in either direction; but
having passed over to either one of the differ-
entiated forms, it has apparently lost its
capacity to transform to the other type, either
by dedifferentiation and remodelling of its
pattern or by any other method. At any rate
we have no convincing evidence that this has
been done. In short, the whole future course
of evolution of the vertebrate phylum was set
in a different direction from that of the
arthropods from the first appearance of a
neural tube.
624
The insects comprise the highest inverte-
brates and as a group they are remarkably
efficient animals; but their extremely diverse
specialization is spread out on a rather low
plane and the behavior of each individual
member of the group is tolerably rigidly
limited to a narrow range of instinctive acts
with small capacity for individual modifi-
ability. The extreme plasticity of the group
of ants as a whole, so graphically portrayed
by Wheeler,® has been biologically determined
through natural selection or otherwise by the
adaptation of each of the diverse species and
castes for a very special mode of life which
must be followed through, with no consider-
able deviation. This is in sharp contrast
with the plasticity of the higher mammals
which rests rather on capacity for modifi-
ability, docility and intelligent adaptation to
new conditions of each individual animal.
Similarly, within the vertebrate phylum we
find divergent modifications of the primary
tubular pattern of the central ‘nervous system,
each of which, as soon as matured and
stabilized in the inherited organization, favors
subsequent differentiation in certain direc-
tions and precludes it in others, for this
differentiation is irreversible.
The teleostean type of forebrain is quite
unlike anything else in nature. It probably
was early forecast in primitive ganoids with
brains like those of the modern sturgeons,
where there is no evagination of the cerebral
hemispheres but instead local thickenings in
the unevaginated walls of the rostral portion
of the neural tube. Once this method of
differentiation was established, there is no
evidence that it ever gave rise to the type
represented by Amphibia and all Amniota
with hollow hemispheres. The teleosts, like
the insects, are very efficient organisms and
in the aggregate they adjust to a wide variety
of conditions, but they are differentiated on a
relatively low plane, the structural and be
havior patterns of each species are rigid and
narrowly circumscribed, and the group has
given rise to none of the higher types.
In the primitive reptilian stock there was
8‘ Ants,’’ New York, 1913.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1330
another divergence in pattern of forebrain
evolution. One type developed masive basal
nuclei in the cerebral hemispheres, as in
modern saurians. This line of differentia-
tion advanced to culminate in modern birds
with basal nuclei (striatum complex) more
massive than in any other animals and with
very insignificant cerebral cortex. In corre-
lation with this, the birds on the behavior
side present the culmination of instinct,
with intelligence of low order. A second
reptilian type, starting with brain forms more
like those of the modern turtles, followed a
different line of differentiation and led up to
the mammalian type with wide lateral ven-
tricles and extensive superficial cerebral
cortex. This type seems better adapted to
develop into an adequate organ of intelligent
behavior, and in this direction it appears not
yet to have reached its limit.
In speaking of the influence of the arboreal
habitat upon the evolutionary history of
Primates, F. Wood Jones,®° draws an interest-
ing contrast between this phylum and the
arboreal marsupials (Metatheria), in the fol-
lowing passage:
These arboreal Metatherians have had all the
educational advantages of a thoroughly arboreal
life; nothing that we have pictured has failed to
exert its influences upon them, and yet it is ob-
vious that the advantage that they have taken of
it has been slight. There are metatherian conver-
gent mimics of Carnivora, Rodentia, Insectivora,
and of most other Eutherian orders, but there is
no metatherian convergent mimic of the eutherian
Primates. It would not be unnatural, therefore, to
assume that the full advantage could not be
grasped by the metatherian animals, since the
ground-plan of their brain would not permit it.
The argument continues that the absence
of the corpus callosum in Metatheria gives
the clew to this orthogenetic limitation.
From these and innumerable similar in-
stances familiar to every comparative anato-
mist it may be argued that the process of
differentiation, so far as this represents an
irreversible process, is itself a natural cause
of limitation of the future course of evolution
9‘ Arboreal Man,’’ London, 1916.
JUNE 25, 1920]
within the boundaries set by the efficient
working of the established pattern.
Looking at the animal kingdom from the
behavioristic side, most animal activities are
compounded of two factors: (1) innate and
heritable factors (reflexes, instincts, and the
like), and (2) acquired modifications of the
inherited patterns (culminating in docility
and intelligence). In some animal phyla the
first component is dominant, in others the
second. And the differentiation of an appa-
ratus adequate for a highly refined and very
elaborate instinctive behavior complex may
preclude the development of the more labile
modifiable types, as appears to be the case in
insects, higher fishes, and to a less extent
birds. The structural patterns serving the
higher intelligent types of behavior have not
been evolved from those lower brains exhibit-
ing highly differentiated and stabilized in-
herited patterns correlated with complex in-
stincts, but rather from more generalized
forms which have remained more plastic
(from the evolutionary standpoint) because
less of their material has passed on into the
mature form of tissue.
The higher forms retain their dominant
position and continue advance in this
direction because parallel with the elabora-
tion of their stable, heritable nervous and
instinctive patterns they retain sufficient
labile nervous tissues of the “young” and
plastic type to enable each individual to make
his own adaptations to a great variety of
environmental conditions and to profit by
this experience.
C. Jupson Herrick
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS REPRE-
SENTED IN THE MELLON INSTITUTE
“¢Tt is not so much to know how to direet
research men as it is to know where to find
them.’’—Old chemical proverb.
AN inquiry which is received frequently by
the administration of the Mellon Institute is,
“Where do you obtain your research chem-
SCIENCE
625
ists?” It is a familiar truth that there is a
serious scarcity of men of demonstrated re-
search ability; and since, ceteris paribus, the
institute adheres to the policy of starting new
investigational work only as competent men
are available, the question is, therefore, of
scientific interest. It can not, however, be
answered except with certain conditional stip-
ulations. In the first place, there is a diver-
sity of opinion as to the basic qualifications
for research, and particularly for industrial
research. Then, there is the requisite of con-
sidering the exact nature of the investigation
and the definite type of researcher needed
therefore. And, finally, there must be borne
in mind the fact that the finding of every
research man is attended with difficulty
because it frequently involves the gift of
prophecy on the part of the searcher—or, at
least, the application of a proleptic study
which is at present in an inchoate condition.
The supply of men capable of working at
high efficiency as scientific investigators has
been, and probably always will be, well below
the demand; and scientists having the
requisites and spirit of the researcher are,
indeed, difficult to find even by ones widely
experienced in the direction of research.
Perhaps the most effective instrument for the
recognition of investigational keenness is the
comparative method, but the study of its use
is still in its infancy.
On account of the extraordinary importance
of new ideas, particular emphasis should al-
ways be laid upon locating and supporting
brilliant investigators. Such individuals can
best be found in the universities, although
it should be the ambition of every research
director to attract, rather than to seek, quali-
fied scientific investigators. The function of
the university is to operate with the benefi-
cent idea of increasing the sum of human
knowledge, and among its most valuable
products are those young men of initiative
who will work for the exercise of the investi-
gative instinct and the pleasure of over-
coming difficulties. Dr. Robert Kennedy
Dunean once said:
626
That ‘‘good men’’ are scarce is, of course, a
truism; but it is terribly apposite in these days.
The modern manufacturer advisedly economizes in
everything but salaries, and the very considerable
salaries paid to ‘‘good men’’ are ample evidence
of their rarity. Now, the purlieus of adolescent
““go0d men’? are the laboratories of the university.
There it is that men are ‘‘tried out,’’ and there it
is, too, that men are known better than they know
themselves.
Supporters of scientific and industrial re-
search must aid in helping to establish a
condition which will ensure a greater number
of scientific teachers who are also trained
as productive scientists. It can not be gain-
said that it is a highly desirable plan to
arrange curricula so that every teacher whose
favorite pursuit is research may develop it
by the assistance of his students. The most
important problem in industrial research to-
day is not, how shall use be made of trained
scientific investigators? It is, rather, how
may there be produced annually active young
students of science at a greater rate and of
higher quality? And in this connection,
thought must be expressed in terms of thou-
sands per year of the type of trained men
represented, say, by the doctor’s degree or by
two or more years of individual experimental
work following the completion of appropriate
undergraduate training.
The following list presents the institutional
source of the incumbents of the Industrial
Fellowships of the Mellon Institute from the
time of its foundation in 1912 to the present
day. It is the experience of the administra-
tion of the institute that a knowledge of the
domestic history of the important research-
schools facilitates the prognosis of the in-
vestigational possibilities of applicants there-
from. This information also renders less
difficult the occasional quests for experts or
research men possessing specific qualifications
of a high order. Every large industrial re-
search laboratory whose operation discloses
telesis has received innumerable benefits from
the establishment of cordial relations of
cooperation with the various researchful uni-
versity laboratories.
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 1330
INSTITUTIONS REPRESENTED IN THE MELLON INSTI-
TUTE, 1912-20
Names of Institutions
Alfred University............
Allegheny College...........
Amherst College.............
Augustana College...........
Beloit College...............
Carnegie Institute of Tech-
nology. . mS
Clark Uninersitnae
Clarkson College Of ciecne
nology. .
College on “ho icin Gf “Nea
Qo eae SL ACTOR a es eg
Columbia University.........
Cornell College..............
Cornell University...........
Dakota Wesleyan University .
Dalhousie University........
Delaware College............
DePauw University..........
Dickinson College...........
Emporia College............
Fairmount College...........
Franklin & Marshall College. .
George Woe Univer-
sity.. 3 c
Hascardl Universite ey
Haverford College...........
Hiram Collegeserereee eon
Towa State College..........
Johns Hopkins University. .
Kansas State aaaares Col-
lege.. mee ;
Lafayette College, years
Leland Stanford, Jr., Univer-
BLEV GRE es ieee teres cere
McGill University. .
Marietta College. .
Massachusetts New’ ‘College...
Massachusetts Institute of
Mechnolopyre -ieeececek ee
Monmouth College..........
Muhlenberg College.........
Nebraska Wesleyan University
New Hampshire College......
New York University........
Northwestern University.....
Ohio State University........
Ohio University. .
Oklahoma A. & M. College...
Oregon Agricultural College .
Pennsylvania State College...
Purdue University...........
Richmond College...........
Ripon College. . ee
Rose Polytechnic! TSaRS ae
Southwestern College........
Syracuse University.........
TuftisiCollege ns sce eee
Tulane University...........
a os a we)
i
HPepp WH © Hee
NOH eee
RPrPWNRRNNRrWNW Oo
Degrees
Nr
Ne
JUNE 25, 1920]
INSTITUTIONS REPRESENTED IN THE MELLON INSTI-
TUTE, 1912-20 (Concluded)
SCIENCE
Degrees
Names of Institutions B.S. M.S. Ph.D.
and and and
A.B M.A. | Sc.D.
University of California...... 1
University of Chicago........ 1 1 9
University of Colorado....... 1
University of Gottingen. ..... 2
University of Halle.......... 1 1
University of Heidelberg..... 1 1
University of Illinois......... 6 5 il
2E.E
University of Kansas........ 28 10 2
University of Kentucky...... 1
University of Leipzig........ 2
University of London........ 2
University of Missouri....... 2, 1
University of Nebraska...... 3 4
University of North Carolina . 1 1 i
University of Oklahoma...... 1 1
University of Paris. Shieh 1
University of Reames, 3
University of Pittsburgh... .. 14 14 13
University of Southern Califor-
Mp gab EN chal ARE rere es UREA ADL 1 1
University of Tennessee...... 1
University of Toronto........ 3 2
University of Washington. ... 2 2
University of Wisconsin. .... . 3 6 2
Victoria University.......... il 1 1
Roo ics bene 4 2
Wake Forest College. . 2
Washburn College. . 1
Washington & itiason “Col-
lege.. ‘ 2 il
Wesleyan’ University 1
Westminster College.. $ 1
\iiewstion Glia... oosecoonse 2
Yale University............. 2 1 6
W. A. Hamor
MELLON INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH,
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH,
April 1, 1920
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
THE CARDIFF MEETING OF THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION
Accorping to an article in the London
Times the arrangements for the 1920 meet-
ing of the British Association, which opens at
Cardiff on August 24, are well advanced.
The imaugural meeting will be held in the
Park Hall on the evening of the opening day,
when Professor W. A. Herdman, ex-general
secretary, will assume the presidency in suc-
cession to Sir Charles Parsons.
627
Professor Herdman in his presidential ad-
dress will give a general survey of the subject
of oceanography, dealing in detail with cer-
tain special problems and recent investiga-
tions with particular reference to sea fisheries.
On Thursday evening, August 26, an address
will be delivered by Sir Richard T. Glaze
brook, who recently retired from the post of
Director of the National Physical Laboratory.
The subject has not yet been fixed. The
second evening discourse is to be delivered by
Sir Daniel Hall, permanent secretary of the
Board of Agriculture since 1917, whose sub-
ject will be “A grain of wheat from the field
to the table.”
The president of the mathematical and
physical science section will be Professor A.
S. Eddington, who recently came prominently
before the public as a leading protagonist in
the discussion on the Einstein theory of rela-
tivity. Dr. F. A. Bather is to be the presi-
dent of the geological section, and his address
will discuss the general problems of paleon-
tology, especially in their relation to zoology.
The presidents of the other sections, the sub-
jects of whose addresses are not yet fixed are:
Zoology, Professor J. S. Gardiner; geography,
Mr. J. McFarlane; economics, Dr. J. H. Clap-
ham; engineering, Professor C. F. Jenkin;
anthropology, Professor Karl Pearson; phys-
iology, Mr. J. Bareroft; botany, Miss E. R.
Saunders; education, Sir Robert Blair; and
agriculture, Professor F. W. Keeble.
The citizens’ lectures, which developed out
of the single lecture which used to be given
to the operative classes of the towns visited by
the association, are now arranged in collab-
oration with the local branch of the Workers’
Educational Association. The lecturers this
year will be Professor Boulton, of Birming-
ham, Professor Lloyd Williams, of Aberyst-
wyth, Professor A. W. Kirkaldy, of Notting-
ham, and Dr. Vaughn Cornish. The presi-
dent of the Conference of Delegates of Corre-
sponding Societies will be Mr. T. Sheppard,
curator of the Municipal Museums at Hull.
THE ENGLISH DEEP-SEA FISHERIES
A SPECIAL correspondent of the London
Times who has visited some of the chief fish-
628
ing ports of the country has shown in a series
of articles that trawler owners are losing
money owing to the low prices realized for the
catches of their boats.
The difficulties of the industry appear to be
due to the greatly increased cost of labor, coal,
gear and repairs, to the very large quantities
of fish recently landed, and to the lack of fa-
cilities for transporting fish from the ports to
the inland markets. Working costs can not
easily be reduced under existing conditions,
and the only remedy for the situation would
seem to lie in better distribution and an in-
crease in the consumption of fish. The help of
the government is sought to improve the means
of distribution, but the trawler owners com-
plain that the government takes no interest in
deep-sea fishing as an industry.
The view taken by the National Sea Fish-
eries Association is that more would be done
for the fisheries if the ministry of agriculture
and fisheries were organized in two divisions,
each with its own secretariat and each with its
own vote. The association suggests that a
fisheries division of the ministry should be de-
veloped, with three branches, dealing respec-
tively, with administrative, executive and
research affairs, and that the functions to be
distributed among these branches should in-
clude the administration of the fisheries vote,
the promotion of fisheries legislation, matters
relating to international fishery conventions
or agreements, executive work bearing on the
eatching, preparation, marketing, and distri-
bution of fish, and researches into the natural
history of fish and their treatment as food after
capture.
_ A further proposal is that England and
Wales should be divided into seven fishery
areas, and that each area should be in charge
of a commissioner of fisheries with a staff of
inspectors and fishery officers sufficient to en-
able him to deal with all problems of catching
and the distribution of fish in his jurisdiction.
Each commissioner would act ‘as the connect-
ing link between the government and the in-
dustry, between capital and labor within the
industry, and between the producer and the
distributor. The staff, it is proposed, should
SCIENCE
[N. S. Von. LI. No. 3330
give assistance in matters affecting the safe
dispatch, transport, and delivery of fish from
port to market at reasonable rates, in improv-
ing conditions at existing markets and inaugu-
rating new markets, in the daily telegraphic
publication of wholesale prices at port and
market, and in the improvement of fast lateral
railway traffic for the carriage of fish from the
coasts to the main centers of population.
THE SIXTH NATIONAL EXPOSITION OF CHEM-
ICAL INDUSTRIES
Tue National Exposition of Chemical In-
dustries returns to the Grand Central Palace
in New York, where it will be given during
the week of September 20 to 25, 1920, inclu-
sive. The Journal of Industrial Chemistry
states that this year’s exposition will be the
largest distinctly industrial exposition ever
held. In 1915 the first exposition was com-
posed of 83 exhibitors, the second increased to
188, the third to 288, the fourth to 334, and the
fifth, in which the available space was much re-
stricted and exhibitors were held to a mini-
mum, admitted 351 exhibitors. The present
number of 358 can not be much increased be-
cause of the limited amount of space remain-
ing. Another floor has been added, giving four
floors of the Grand Central Palace, each of
which covers a city block. To the first exposi-
tion there came 63,000 visitors, to the second
80,000, and this has steadily increased till at
the last the attendance exceeded 111,000.
_ This year there will be three special sections:
the Electric Furnace, the Fuel Economy and
the Materials Handling Section. The two
latter are new sections. The first will, as its
mame implies, be one of electric furnace ex-
hibits; the Fuel Economy Section will consist
of exhibits of machinery and apparatus, fur-
naces, producers, stokers and all devices for
the economic utilization or more efficient com-
bustion of fuel. The possible exhaustion of
our fuel reserves in the not far distant future
and the present high cost of fuel make this sec-
tion one of much interest to all industrial
plants. The Materials Handling Section will
be a series of exhibits of machinery and equip-
ment for the handling of material, such as
JUNE 25, 1920]
4
conveying, transporting, elevating, and in-
cluded in this will be weighing, measuring and
power transmission equipment. So important
have these mechanical features become for all
industrial plants due to the shortage and high
wage for man power that an unusual interest
is expected in this new section.
The program for the exposition will have
session on subjects the phases of which will be
developed in the exhibits of these latter two
sections. There will be sessions on chemical
engineering for which an elaborate program is
planned. Motion pictures which will have an
interest for mechanical men will form part of
the program, and there will be popular public
addresses as well.
THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE
ON MATHEMATICAL REQUIREMENTS
THE National Committee on Mathematical
Requirements held a meeting in Chicago on
April 23 and 24. The principal topic dis-
cussed at this meeting was the preliminary
report on “Junior High School Mathe-
matics” prepared for the committee by Mr.
J. A. Foberg. After detailed discussion and
some amendment and revision, the report was
adopted by the committee and its publication
as a preliminary report authorized. It has
been submitted to the U. S. Bureau of Edu-
eation for publication as one of its secondary
school circulars.
Reports of progress were made by sub-
committees on the training of teachers, ex-
perimental schools and courses, disciplinary
values and transfer of training, elective
courses in mathematics for high schools, and
mental tests. It is expected that preliminary
reports on all of these topics will be ready
for consideration by the committee at its next
meeting on September 2, 3 and 4. The at-
tention of experimental schools throughout
the country-is called to the report on this
Subject being prepared for the committee by
Mr. Raleigh Schorling of the Lincoln School,
New York City. Any experimental school or
schools giving experimental courses in mathe-
matics who desire to be represented in this
report should communicate with Mr. Schorling
SCIENCE
629
without delay, if they have not already done
so. A subcommittee on the standardization
of terminology and symbolism, with Professor
D. E. Smith as chairman, and a subcom-
mittee on junior college mathematics, with
Mr. A. C. Olney as chairman, were appointed.
J. W. Young, Raleigh Schorling and W. F.
Downey were authorized to take steps to
initiate investigations into the mathematical
elements entering into various industries, pro-
fessions, vocations, ete.
A budget for the coming year based on the
recent appropriation of the General Hduca-
tion Board of $25,000 for the use of the com-
mittee in completing its work was adopted.
It is hoped that the increase in the item
allowed for traveling expenses in this budget:
will make it possible for representatives of
the committee to reach educational meetings
in all sections of the country where such
representatives are desired to discuss the
various reports of the committee. Nearly 70
organizations are at present actively cooper-
ating with the committee and it is hoped that
many others will communicate with the chair-
man in the interest of furthering the nation-
wide study and discussion which is already
underway. J. W. Young, 24 Musgrove Build- -
ing, Hanover, N. H., and J. A. Forbeg, 3829
North Tripp Avenue, Chicago, IIl., were re-
elected chairman and vice-chairman, respect-
ively, of the committee for the ensuing year.
J. W. Younc,
Chairman
THE ELLIOT MEDAL IN ZOOLOGY AND
PALEONTOLOGY
TrerMS of the award of the Daniel Giraud
Elliot Medal for zoology are written in the
deed of gift to the National Academy of Sci-
ences as follows:
One such medal and diploma shall be given in
each year and they, with any unexpected balance
of income for the year, shall be awarded by the
said National Academy of Sciences to the author
of such paper, essay or other work upon some
branch of zoology or paleontology published dur-
ing the year as in the opinion of the persons, or a
majority of the persons, hereinafter appointed to
be the judges in that regard, shall be the most
630
meritorious and worthy of honor. The medal and
diploma and surplus income shall not, however,
for more than two years successively, be awarded
for treatises upon any one branch of either of the
sciences above mentioned. Professor Henry Fair-
field Osborn, of New York, the scientific director
of the American Museum of Natural History in
New York City and the secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution at Washington for the time
being, are appointed as such judges. Vacancies at
any time occurring in the number of the judges
shall be filled by the Council of the said National
Academy of Sciences, and in each case of a vacancy
it is the wish of the said Margaret Henderson
Elliot that the council will, if practicable, appoint
to the position an American naturalist eminent in
zoology or paleontology.
As science is not national the medal and di-
ploma and surplus income may be conferred upon
naturalists of any country, and as men eminent in
their respective lines of scientific research will act
as judges, it is the wish of the said Margaret
Henderson Elliot that no person acting as such
judge shall be deemed on that account ineligible
to receive this annual gift, and the medal, diploma
and surplus income may in any year be awarded to
any one of the judges, if, in the opinion of his
associates, he shall, by reason of the excellence of
any treatise published by him during the year, be
entitled to receive them.
The committee of the award includes Secre-
tary Charles D. Walcott, of the Smithsonian
Institution; Director F. A. Lucas, of the
American Museum, and President Henry Fair- ,
field Osborn, of the American Museum. The
committee invites nominations from the works
of the year 1919. The award for 1917 was to
Frank M. Chapman’s “Birds of Colombia.”
The award for 1918 was to Beebe’s “Monograph
of the Pheasants.”
Henry FamrreLtD OsBorn
AMERICAN MusEuUM oF NATURAL HISTORY,
New York
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
Princeton University has conferred its
doctorate of laws on Dr. Raphael Pumpelly,
the geologist, and its doctorate of science on
Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute
for Medical Research. Dr. Carrel has also
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
received the same degree from Brown Uni-
versity.
Tue degree of doctor of science was con-
ferred upon Dr. Frank Schlesinger, director
of the Yale Observatory, by the University of
Pittsburgh at its commencement on June 9.
Tue degree of doctor of science was con-
ferred on Professor Lewis William Fetzer, of
the department of physiology and pharmacol-
ogy in the Baylor University College of Med-
icine, at the recent commencement exercises
of the University of Dallas.
Tue degree of doctor of laws has been con-
ferred by the University of Pennsylvania on
Professor John M. Macfarlane, who is this
year retiring from the chair of botany after a
service of twenty-eight years.
Tue degree of doctor of science has been
conferred by the University of Liverpool on
Professor F. G. Donnan, formerly professor
of physical chemistry in the university, and
now professor of chemistry in University Col-
lege, London, and on Professor W. A. Herd-
man, formerly Derby professor of natural his-
tory, and now professor of oceanography, in
the university.
Tue honorary degree of doctor of letters
has been conferred by the University of Oxford
on Dr. Temistocle Zammit, professor of
chemistry in the University of Malta and
curator of the Valetta Museum.
Dr. B. L. Rosryson, Asa Gray professor of
systematic botany in Harvard University, has
been elected a corresponding member of the
Czecho-Slovakian Botanical Society.
Tue Stewart prize of the British Medical
Association has been awarded to Dr. Harriette
Chick, an assistant in the department of ex-
perimental pathology of the Lister Institute.
Sm Wim J. Pore has been elected pres-
ident of the Society of Chemical Industry.
Proressor Aucustus TRowBRIDGE, of the
department of physics of Princeton Uni-
versity, has been granted a leave of absence
for the coming academic year in order to
become chairman of the Committee on Mathe-
matics, Physics and Astronomy of the Na-
tional Research Council.
JUNE 25, 1920]
Henry L. Warp, for the past eighteen years
director of the Public Museum of the city
of Milwaukee, has tendered his resignation
to become effective on or before January 1,
1921.
ALEXANDER L. Prinoz, M.D., assistant pro-
fessor of physiology in Yale University
Medical School, has resigned in order to
accept a position in the industrial research
department of the A‘tna Life Insurance Com-
pany at Hartford.
Dr. Atrrep N. Cook, for sixteen years pro-
fessor of chemistry at the State University of
South Dakota and for thirty-nine years a
teacher of chemistry, has resigned to take
effect at the close of the present academic
year. He will make his future home in
southern California.
Dr. A. Netva, chief of the public health
service of the state of S. Paulo, Brazil, has
been commissioned by the authorities to study
the organization of the public health service
in Japan and in the United States, and the
prophylaxis of leprosy in Norway, the Philip-
pines and Hawaii.
Proressor Epmunp Harvey, of Princeton
University, has received leave for the first
term of next year, during which he will join
a scientific mission to the East Indies for the
Carnegie Institution to study animal lu-
minescence. ;
Dr. Frank EH. Lutz, of the American
Museum of Natural History, of New York
City, has started on the third of a series of
expeditions planned to trace the distribu-
tion of insect life in the western part of the
United States. The first of these expeditions
collected in the Santa Catalina Mountains
and the deserts of Southern Arizona; the
second—made last year—worked in the Colo-
rado Rockies. This year special attention
will be paid to regions north and west of
Colorado.
Mr. E. P. Van Duzee, curator of entomol-
ogy in the California Academy of Sciences,
and Dr. E. C. Van Dyke, of the University of
California, who attended the annual meeting
of the Pacifie Division of the American Asso-
SCIENCE
631
ciation for the Advancement of Science in
Seattle, will remain for a month in the state
of Washington for field work. Mr. Van Duzee,
who specializes in the Hemiptera, has in his
collection and that of the California Academy
of Sciences probably the most representative
collection of Hemiptera in America. Dr. Van
Dyke will collect Coleoptera in which he is a
specialist.
Director Homer R. Dit, of the Vertebrate
Museum, State University of Iowa, is to ac-
company Mr. Ernest W. Brown on a fish col-
lecting expedition to the Hawaiian Islands
during the months of July and August. The
specimens collected will be divided between
Mr. Brown’s private collection and the Iowa
Museum. The first of September an expedi-
tiom headed by Professor Dill will be sent to
the Cascade Mountains in northeastern Wash-
ington and British Columbia for the purpose
of studying the mountain goats in their native
haunts and collecting specimens for museum
exhibits. The State Museum of Washington
will be represented by Curator C. J. Albrecht.
Other members of the party are Mr. Robert
Brown, Mr. Russell Hendee and Mr. B. E.
Manville. Mr. Ernest Brown, of Des Moines,
is assisting the undertaking by meeting a con-
siderable part of the expense.
Dr. Liserty Hype Bamey, of Ithaca, now
president of the American Pomological So-
ciety, is reorganizing the society throughout
the country, and is establishing junior branches
in a number of agricultural colleges in the
United States and Canada. The American
Pomological Society, organized in 1847, is the
oldest of our national agricultural societies.
The society proposes under its new plan to
consider national affairs which touch upon the
growing of fruits, such as legislation, quaran-
tine, export, transportation and standardizing
of methods.
THE Imperial Entomological Conference .
was opened in London on Tuesday, June 1,
by Lord Harcourt. We learn from Nature
that the official delegates to the conference are:
Canada and South Africa, Mr. C. P. Louns-
bury; Australia, Professor R. D. Watt; New
632
Zealand, Dr. R. J. Tillyard; India, Mr. C. F.
C. Beeson; Queensland, Mr. F. Balfour
Browne; British Guiana, Mr. G. E. Bodkin;
Ceylon, Mr. F. A. Stockdale; East Africa Pro-
tectorate, Mr. T. J. Anderson; Federated
Malay States, Mr. P. B. Richards; Gold Coast,
Mr. W. H. Patterson; Imperial Department of
Agriculture for the West Indies and Leeward
Islands, Mr. H. A. Ballou; Mauritius, Mr. G.
G. Auchinleck; Northern Rhodesia, Dr. Ayl-
mer May; Southern Rhodesia, Mr. R. W.
Jack; Seychelles, Dr. J. B. Addison; Sierra
Leone, Mr. H. Waterland; Straits Settlements,
Mr. P. B. Richards; Sudan, Mr. H. H. Kine;
Trinidad, Mr. F. W. Urich, and Uganda, Mr.
C. C. Gowdey.
Proressor C. E. McCuune, head of the de-
partment of zoology in the University of
Pennsylvania, national president of the Sigma
Xi, and chairman of the section of biology and
agriculture of the National Research Council,
addressed the Michigan Chapter of the Sigma
Xi at the annual initiation and banquet on
June 3 on tthe “ Relation of the Sigma Xi to
the National Research Council.’ Professor
E. C. Case, of the University of Michigan,
gave a brief memorial of Samuel Wendell
Williston.
Frenat#, the Entomological Club of the
University of Minnesota, holds regular meet-
ings every Tuesday throughout the year, at
4:30 P.M. in the entomological laboratories,
University Farm, St. Paul. During the sum-
mer special field trips will be arranged. Ento-
mologists visiting the Twin cities are invited
to attend and to take part in these meetings.
Among the visitors and speakers of the past
year have been: H. E. Ewing, of the National
Museum; W. E. Dove, Bureau of Entomology ;
T. B. McGath, of the Mayo Institution; H. E.
Strickland, of the Canadian Entomological
Service; Professor H. L. Osborn, of Hamline
University, and Professor Sadao Yoshida, of
Osaka, Japan.
_ Tuer death is announced of Mr. Henry
Lindenkohl, cartographer of the U. S. Coast
and Geodetic Survey, in his eighty-second
year, after fifty-nine years of service with the
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
Survey. Mr. Lindenkohl was born in Hesse-
Cassell, Germany, and became an American
citizem in 1861.
Dr. JAMES Hervey Hystop, secretary of the
American Institute for Psychical Research,
formerly professor of philosophy in Columbia
University, died on June 17, in the sixty-sixth
year of his age.
Dr. Frank SHIPLEY COoLLins, who for many
years has been recognized as one of the fore-
most American authorities upon the Alga,
died suddenly of heart disease at New Haven,
Conn., on May 25, in his seventy-third year.
Born on February 6, 1848, he was for the
greater part of his life a resident of Malden,
Mass., where he became an expert accountant
in the employ of a large rubber manufacturing
company. He early developed an interest in
botany and was a leading spirit in the Middle-
sex Institute, a local scientific organization
which did much ereditable work, including the
preparation of the Flora of Middlesex county,
Mass., of which Mr. Collins was co-editor with
the late Lorin L. Dame. In 1895 Mr. Collins
was one of the founders of the New England
Botanical Club, of which he was president from
1902 to 1905. In 1899 he became one of the
associate editors of Rhodora, the journal of the
club, a position that he held with distinguished
ability until his death more than twenty-one
years later.” The greater part of his contri-
butions to science relates to the marine alge,
on which group he published many papers. In
association with Professor W. A. Setchell and
the late Isaac Holden, he edited an extensive
and highly valued series of algal exsiccat@, the
Phycotheca Boreali-Americana. In recognition
of his excellent scientific work he was ap-
pointed associate of the Harvard University
Museum, was elected a fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received
the honorary degree of D.Sc. from Tufts Col-
lege.
Tue following quotation is taken from the
Bulletin of Wheaton College under the head-
ing “ Our new professors”:
Our former biology teacher ‘because of a change
jn view or for some other reason was teaching the
June 25, 1920]
doctrine that human beings have descended from
animals. This not being the belief of the college,
which accepts the Bible account of creation in all
its details, she resigned her position and her resig-
nation was accepted. God sent to us in a very
definite manner Professor S. J. Bole, an A.B, from
the University of Illinois, who was for nine years
an instructor in the Illinois State University, but
whose religious views were positive and clear and
made him desirous of a change. He has entered
upon his work with enthusiasm and is very highly
esteemed by his fellow teachers and students. In
view of the general situation among university men,
we consider his coming to us distinctly providential.
THE Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ra-
manujan, F.R.S., fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, has died at the age of thirty-two
years.
THE death is announced at the age of
seventy-seven years of Clement Arkadievitch
Timiriazeff, emeritus professor of botany in
the University of Moscow, recently elected to
the Moscow soviet. Professor Timiriazeff
was known for his work on the participation
of the different rays of the visible spectrum
in the photosynthetic activity of the green
leaf. He was the author of a number of
books on botany and agriculture, his earliest
being a work on “ Darwin and his Theory ”
published in 1863.
Tue Biological Station of the University
of Michigan will hold its twelfth session on
the shores of Douglas Lake near Pellston in
northern Michigan, June 28 to August 20,
under the directorship of Professor George R.
La Rue. The instructors are: Professor
Frank Smith, University of Illinois; Assist-
ant Professor Paul S. Welch, University of
Michigan; Dr. Dayton Stoner, State Univer-
sity of Iowa; Assistant Professor Frank C.
Gates, Kansas State Agricultural College;
Assistant Professor George E. Nichols, Yale
University; and Dr. John H. Ehlers, Uni-
versity of Michigan. Special and research
courses in zoology and botany and facilities
for research are also offered to qualified
students.
THE summer courses in biology at the Hop-
kins Marine Station, Pacific Grove, Cali-
SCIENCE
633
fornia, began on June 22 and will end on
September 3. Instruction is offered in gen-
eral zoology, the classification and ecology of
marine invertebrates, comparative anatomy of
vertebrates; the fishes of California, ele-
mentary physiology, general physiology, the
algee and special work in zoology, physiology
and botany. ‘The faculty will consist of Pro-
fessors W. K. Fisher, Edwin C. Starks, and
Gertrude Van Wagenen in zoology; Professors
E. G. Martin, J. P. Baumberger, and J. M. D.
Olmsted in physiology and J. I. W. Mc-
Murphy in botany. Dr. Frank R. Lillie, of
the University of Chicago, spent the winter
quarter at the station and Dr. H. H. Newman
is there during the spring quarter.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
TuE will of Richard M. Colgate gives $100,-
000 to Yale University and to Colgate Univer-
Sity.
Drury CoLLece has completed the raising
of $400,000 in order to secure an additional
sum of $200,000 from the General Educational
Board. The net productive endowment of the
college is now over one million dollars. As a
consequence of the success of this endowment,
salaries of professors and teachers have been
increased from 25 to 60 per cent.
At its last meeting the Yale corporation
elected Dr. Milton Charles Winternitz dean
of the Yale School of Medicine to succeed Dr.
George Blumer. Dr. Winternitz joined the
Yale faculty in the fall of 1917 as professor of
pathology.
_ Ar Washington and Lee University, L. J.
Desha, Ph.D., formerly professor of chemistry
in the Medical College of Tennessee, has been
elected professor of chemistry; W. D. Hoyt,
Ph.D., associate professor of biology, has been
promoted to professor of biology and head of
the department. i
At Oberlin College Associate Professor W.
D. Cairns has been promoted to be professor
of mathematics and head of the department,
professor F. Anderege having retired after
thirty-three years of teaching in Oberlin.
634
Av Princeton University, William Lauder
Jones has been appointed professor of organic
chemistry. Charles Rogers, of the Museum of
Natural History, has been appointed curator of
the (biological museum. Charles Jones
Browne, head of the department of hygiene
and physical education at the University of
North Carolina, has been appointed to be an
~ assistant professor in that department. Jiames
Alexander, on leave of absence for war service,
has been made an assistant professor of mathe-
matics. Professor Raymond Smith Dugan
was promoted to a professorship of astronomy.
Dr. Carl C. Brigham was appointed assistant
professor of psychology, and Benjamin F.
Howell was raised to the rank of assistant
professor of geology.
Ar the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Henry L. Moore, assistant professor of physics
at the Mississippi Agricultural College, will
be assistant professor of physics, Ruth E.
Canfield, instructor of ceramics at Alfred
University, instructor of ceramics and weay-
ing. James R. Everett, assistant professor of
mathematics at Baker University, and George
W. Hess, professor of mathematics at Bethany
College, will become instructors in mathe
matics.
Proressor J. T. WILSON, professor of anat-
omy in the University of Sydney, has been
elected to the chair of anatomy at Cambridge,
rendered vacant by the death of Professor
Alexander Macalister.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE USE OF THE TERM FOSSIL
THERE is probably no word more widely
and loosely used by geologists than fosszl.
Paleontology, the study of ancient life, is
literally the study of fossils; and stratigraphy,
or the correlation of formations, is prin-
cipally dependent upon fossils as horizon
markers. The broad subject of historical
geology, or the evolution of the earth and
its organisms, is also largely a study of
fossils. All workers in the above mentioned
divisions of earth science would define a
fossil as the evidence of former life, no mat-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
ter how much they might disagree as to the
full and exact definition of the term. Un-
fortunately, however, the term is often used
by geologists in general as an adjective to
denote age of geologic magnitude; hence:
“fossil voleano,” “fossil river channel,”
“fossil sand dunes,” ete.; all of which objects
are obviously of inorganic origin.
Foss is derived from the Latin, fossilis,
“dug up or dug out.” The latest edition of
the Century Dictionary defines the term as
follows:
Any rock or mineral, or any mineral substance,
whether of an organic or inorganic nature, dug
out of the ground. Specifically, in later geolog-
ical and mineralogical use, anything that has been
buried by natural causes, or geologic agencies, and
bears in its form or chemical composition the evi-
dence that it is of organic origin.
In spite of the above, there are literary
persons who use the adjective form of the
word in the sense of ancient or out-of-date;
z. e., “fossil poetry,” “fossil statesman.”
Sometimes the “bad use” of the word is
merely ludicrous, as in the case of a paleo-
botanist who frequently refers in the text to
the student of fossil plants as a “fossil
botanist.”
In the latest text-book of paleontology! a
fossil is defined thus: “A fossil is the re-
mains of a plant or animal, or the record of
its presence, preserved in the rocks of the
earth.”
A definition more exact than any to be
found in the modern text books is proposed
as follows: A fossil is an object which indi-
cates former existence of an organism which
has been buried and preserved by geological
causes, previous to historic time. According
to this definition the mastodon preserved in
the arctic ice is a fossil; the leaf buried in
the gutter is not. The remains of an organ-
ism may be a true petrifaction and yet not
be a fossil. Fossil and petrification are not
synonymous. Simply because a species has
become extinct does not make it a fossil, even
if its remains are petrified, or the knowledge
1‘‘An Introduction to the Study of Fossils,’’
H. W. Shimer, Macmillan Co., 1914.
Junz 25, 1920]
of its former existence is preserved to us by
means of impressions, molds or casts. On the
other hand, certain shells preserved in the
Pre-Pleistocene formations and which are not
only practically unaltered but also have living
representatives, are true fossils. The element
of time as here applied to the definition may
seem to certain biologists and geologists to be
unessential. It is necessary, however, to have
some term which may be applied to the
“medals of creation” to set them apart from
the realm of organisms which are living, or
have lived within historic time.
Fossils may be briefly classified as follows:
A. Direct evidence.
1. Actual remains (spore cases; Oligocene
ants, ete.).
(a) Hard and soft parts preserved.
(6) Hard parts only preserved.
(c) Hard parts minus organic matter.
(d) Hard parts plus mineral salts
grading into:
2. Minute replacements (coal balls; lab-
yrinthodont, teeth, etc.).
Replacement molecule by molecule of
the original organic matter by min-
eral salts, resulting in petrifaction
which may or may not show struc-
ture. Results of metasomatic proc-
esses.
3. Coarse replacements (bulk of Palezoic
fossils).
(a) Molds of the exterior and in-
terior.
(6) Casts of the exterior and inter-
mediate structures.
4, Prints (leaves; jelly fish, etc.). Plus
or minus organic matter in the case
of plants.
B. Indirect evidence.
1. Coprolites.
(a) Whole or part of original sub-
stance.
(b) Casts of original substance (cop-
rolites of dinosaurs).
2. Artifacts (ant hills; prehistoric flints,
ete.).
3. Tracks, trails or burrows (Arthro-
phycus; dinosaur tracks, etc.).
SCIENCE
635
We may smile when the novelist uses the
adjective, fossil, in a broad way; we may
even argue with the petrologist, or physiogra-
pher when he uses the term to describe in-
organic phenomena, but what are we to do
when the paleontologist speaks of “ fossil
ripple-mark”? Clearly the word is rapidly
becoming so used that it will soon be useless
in a scientific sense. Since the paleontologist
is more interested in fossils than the petrog-
rapher, geographer or even the “general”
geologist, and since he alone has defined what
fossils are, is it too much for him to ask his
brother geologists to either adopt his defi-
nition or else to coin a new term which will
better express the antiquity of inorganic
structures. Perhaps it would be well for the
paleontologists to set an example in the
“good use” of the term, by using it correctly
themselves. As they are also vitally inter-
ested in the geologic time-table, perhaps it
would not be out of place for them to sug-
gest that Paleozoic, Mesozoic, or Tertiary pre-
fixed to “ripple-mark” or voleanoes would be
much more descriptive and accurate than the
adjective fossil.
RicHarp M. Firip
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY,
Brown UNIVERSITY
THE FIXATION OF ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN
To tHe Eprror or Scmnce: Allow me
through the columns of Scmnce to give pub-
licity to a most unique experiment related to
me by the late Dr. Paul Heroult, the in-
ventor of the electric steel furnace, and
simultaneously with Hall of the electrolytic
process for the isolation of aluminum.
It serves to show in a simple but striking
way the “ fixation of atmospheric nitrogen” of
which we have heard so much in the past
four years.
Although described and shown to many sci-
entific friends it was new to them all, and as
it lends itself to lecture demonstration de-
serves to be better known.
The experiment consists in thoroughly mix-
ing 90 grams of fine aluminum powder with
10 grams of lamp-black. This mixture is
636
poured on a tile or an iron plate making a
cone. A piece of magnesium tape, about 5
centimeters long, has one end thrust into the
top of the cone, the other end being bent down
so that it is easily lighted by the flame of a
match.
Contrary to expectation there is no violent
puff or explosion, as with magnesium powder,
but a steady progressive combustion, vivid
and brilliant, emitting little smoke. When
the whole has burned down there remains the
most beautiful mass of crystals of aluminium
nitride, Al,N,, mixed with some erystals of
aluminium oxide.
The greater part of the air which took part
in the combustion is thus solidified, only the
small amount supporting the combustion of
the carbon going off as gases.
When this nitride is heated with a solution
of sodium hydrate ammonia gas is evolved.
When the ammonia is mixed with oxygen
or air and passed through heated platinum
gauze, nitric acid is produced.
When the ammonia and nitric acid are
made to react on each other the valuable
fertilizer ammonium nitrate results. When
this ammonium nitrate is mixed with alumi-
nium powder a very safe but powerful ex-
plosive, “ Ammonal” is produced.
Thus we learn how intimately these chem-
ical reactions are related in peace to fertili-
zation, and in war to destruction. The ex-
periment illustrates: Combustion in which
the nitrogen of the air, as well as the oxygen
acts as a supporter of combustion; the pro-
duction of a crystalline nitride, AI,N,;
synthesis of ammonia; synthesis of nitric
acid; fixation of nitrogen to serve as fer-
tilizer; fixation of nitrogen to serve as ex-
plosive. It would be unwise for us to con-
clude that explosives serve only in war. Far
from it. Man’s best and most serviceable
feats in engineering have been made with the
aid of these powerful agents. We should not
forget how seven acres of rock under Hell
Gate were blown to bits by one blast, and
our harbor opened up to vessels of greater
size.
CuartEs A. DorEMUS
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. LI. No. 1330
CURRENT RESEARCH AND PUBLICA-
TION IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM}?
In cooperation with the United States Na-
tional Museum and other museums, North
America from the Arctic to the Isthmus is
now well covered by American Museum
activities. Its work includes explorations,
publications and photographic collections,
relating to historic and prehistoric races of
men, to the insects, fishes, amphibians, rep-
tiles, birds and mammals, as well as to the ex-
tinct ancestors of these living groups.
Especially noteworthy serial publications on
recent explorations, completed or well ad-
vanced, are papers on the “Anthropology of
the Southwest” with the Archer M. Hunting-
ton Fund, the “Bibliography of Fishes”
with the Jesup Fund, continued by Professors
Dean and Gudger, and six volumes on “ Fossil
Vertebrates” with the Jesup Fund. Aided
by the Jesup Fund, Professor Osborn, as a
member of the staff of the United States Geo-
logical Survey, has just completed his mono-
graph, “ Titanotheres of Western America,”
on which he has been engaged for nineteen
and a half years.
About $75,000 has been expended since
1910 on South American exploration and pub-
lication through successive expeditions led by
Chapman, Roosevelt, Cherrie, Miller and
Richardson. The senior curator, Dr. J. A.
Allen, has produced a series of standard
papers on South American mammals. Ex-
peditions into the interior bear the name of
Theodore Roosevelt. Dr. Chapman’s “ Dis-
tribution of Bird-Life in Columbia,” recently
awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal by
the National Academy of Sciences, is a
classic and leads to similar volumes on the
birds of Ecuador, of Peru and of Chile.
The Museum has thus far expended $190,-
000 on African exploration, research and
publication. Unrivaled collections of reptiles,
birds and mammals are in storage awaiting
the construction of the African Hall, as the
result of the untiring field work of a suc-
1 Modified from the fifty-first annual report of
the president, Henry Fairfield Osborn, May, 1920.
JuNE 25, 1920]
cession of explorers, namely, Roosevelt,
Tjader, Akeley, Rainsford, Barnes, Rainey,
Lang and Chapin. The two last named have
rendered monumental service to African
natural history in bringing out the most
complete and the most perfectly preserved
collection which has ever come from Africa,
with precise field notes and 9,500 photographs.
The results are being issued in a series of
twelve volumes entitled “The Zoology of the
Belgian Congo.” To these volumes many
other specialists of the country are con-
tributing, notably Director W. J. Holland, of
the Carnegie Museum, Professor William
Morton Wheeler, of Harvard University, and
Dr. Henry A. Pilsbry, of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The first
two Congo volumes were recently presented to
the King of the Belgians following his visit
to the Museum. A duplicate collection of
Congo types is being sent to the great Congo
Museum at Tervuren, Belgium, according to
the agreement of the Museum with the Bel-
gian government.
Through the successive journeys of Mr.
Roy C. Andrews in Japan, Korea, the Prov-
inces of Yunnan, Fukien, Shansi, and in
Mongolia, aided by the Rev. Harry R. Cald-
well, the Museum has made a notable begin-
ning in the collections representing the east-
ern mountain, plain and desert life in Asia.
Examples of the life of tropical Asia and
Indo-Malaya are still required. All together
there has been expended $35,000 in Asiatic
exploration and publication up to the present
time.
Popular scientific works are carrying the
work of the Museum to readers all over the
world. The series of popular volumes by
Peary, Stefansson, MacMillan, Roosevelt,
Chapman, Miller, Wissler, Andrews and Lutz
constitutes a library of standard reference on
Arctic exploration, on African, Asiatic and
South American travel, and on the ancient
and recent history of the primitive races of
Europe and of North America. Among these
volumes are the following:
Peary, Robert E.
Northward Over the Great Ice, 1898.
SCIENCE
637
The North Pole, 1910.
Secrets of Polar Travel, 1917.
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur
My Life with the Eskimo, 1913.
MacMillan, Donald B.
Four Years in the White North, 1918.
Roosevelt, Theodore
Through the Brazilian Wilderness, 1914.
Chapman, Frank M.
Bird Studies with a Camera, 1898.
Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist, 1908.
Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America,
1912,
The Travels of Birds, 1916.
Our Winter Birds, 1918.
Miller, Leo F.
In the Wilds of South America, 1918.
Wissler, Clark
North American Indians of the Plains, 1912.
The American Indian, 1917.
Andrews, Roy C.
Whale Hunting with Gun and Camera, 1916.
Camps and Trails in China, 1918.
Lutz, Frank HE.
Field Book of Insects, 1918,
Osborn, Henry Fairfield
The Age of Mammals, 1910.
The Origin and Evolution of Life, 1917.
For publication as well as for the enrich-
ment of the collections and the preparation of
exhibitions, the total sum of $1,412,839.32 has
been expended, since Mr. Jesup’s decease in
1908, from the income from the Morris K.
Jesup Fund, which by the terms of the will is
devoted to purely scientific purposes. The
research product of the Museum has grown
accordingly; the volume of publications has
increased several fold; the popular publica-
tions, based on the pure researches of their
authors, have spread the educational in-
fluence of the Museum all over the world.
It is interesting to observe that certain
branches of science relinquished by many of
our universities are taken up by our museums.
The sales of popular publications have re-
flected the character of the publie attendance
and interest, being greater than ever, partic-
ularly of the Guide, which was exhausted
much sooner than expected and “out of
print” for four months. All together there
were sold at the attendants’ desks 3,005
638
Guides, 1,886 Handbooks, 3,087 Leaflets and
1,044 Reprints, a total of 9,022 copies.
The publications of The American Museum
of Natural History for the current year in-
clude the Annual Report; the Bulletin; the
Anthropological Papers; Natural History, the
Journal of The American Museum of Natural
History; the Guide Leaflets, and the Hand-
books. During 1919 Volume XLI. of the
Bulletin was published, which contained three
articles on mammalogy, one on ichthyology,
nine on invertebrate zoology, three on verte-
brate paleontology, two on herpetology, one
on ornithology and one on _ invertebrate
paleontology. Also two volumes relating to
the Belgian Congo were published: Volume
XXXIX., containing a monograph by Bequaert
on “ A Revision of the Vespide of the Belgian
Congo” and a monograph by Schmidt on
“Contributions to the Herpetology of the
Belgian Congo”; and Volume XI., which is
devoted entirely to Pilsbry’s paper on “A
Review of the Land Mollusks of the Belgian
Congo.” The collection of papers on the
Belgian Congo has steadily increased; a “ List
of Reports on the Results of The American
Museum Congo Expediton” published this
year contains a short description of fifteen
such papers.
For the most part the members of the an-
thropological staff gave their time to the data
obtained on former field expeditions. Prob-
lems of racial distinction and origins were
developed by Assistant Curator Sullivan and
Dr. Bruno Oetteking. Mr. Sullivan, with the
cooperation of the department of physiology,
made a series of microphotographs of racial
hair cuttings for study and exhibition. His
main investigation, however, concerned itself
with a series of measurements upon full and
mixed-blood Indians made some years ago
under the direction of Professor Franz Boas.
These data have been thoroughly compiled and
correlated to show the results of race mixture.
Among some of the significant conclusions
are the constancy of degrees of correlation
between bodily proportions even in mixed-
bloods and the apparent inheritance of specific
correlations between face width and breadth
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
of head. Dr. Oetteking completed the meas-
urement and description of the skulls for
northeastern America and eastern Siberia, for
a report upon the physical anthropology of
the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.
Facilities for promoting research in human
biology have been greatly improved during
the year. A room adjoining the physiological
laboratory has been equipped as an anthro-
pometrie laboratory and office for Assistant
Curator Sullivan. By special arrangement
the equipment of the physiological laboratory
is now available for the work of this depart-
ment. The Galton Society has organized a
special laboratory for the study of racial char-
acters, which, for the present, is housed in
this department, the curator being the chair-
man of its governing committee and Assistant
Curator Sullivan its director.
Assistant Curator Spinden discovered a
correlation between the calendars of the Aztec
and Maya that promises to give an unbroken
historical record for the New World from the
beginning of the Christian era. Mr. Leslie
Spier has completed an exhaustive study of
the sun dance of the Plains Indians, revealing
some interesting culture movements among
these tribes. Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons has
nearly completed a detailed analysis of the
social organization of the Rio Grande Pueblo
Indians.
The Anthropological Papers deal entirely
with the work of the department of anthro-
pology. These papers are now in their
twenty-ninth volume. The nine parts which
appeared during 1919 include articles on va-
rious phases of the history of the Crow, Aztec,
White Mountain Apache, Eskimo and Philip-
pine tribes, and make a total of 713 pages,
125 text-figures and 3 maps. Among these
articles are “Kinship in the Philippines,” by
A. L. Kroeber, Vol. XITX., Part III.; “ Myths
and Tales from the White Mountain Apache,”
by P. E. Goddard, Vol. XXIV., Part II.; and
“The Aztec Ruin,” by Earl H. Morris, Vol.
XXVI., Part I. An important Guide Leaflet
on “Indian Beadwork” was prepared by Dr.
Wissler. The Handbook on the “ Peoples of
the Philippines,” by A. L. Kroeber, has just
JUNE 25, 1920]
appeared. It gives an interesting account of
the ethnology and culture of the peoples of
these islands.
Henry Farririp Osporn
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND
CLIMATOLOGY
THE EFFECT OF SNOW UPON THE GROWTH
; OF WINTER WHEAT
It has long been believed that a snow cover
is a beneficial factor in the growth of winter
wheat; but some doubt has recently been cast
upon this view, at least with respect to Ohio
and Tllinois, for which the question has
been studied. Two short papers, one by Mr.
Clarence J. Root! and the other by Professor
J. Warren Smith? have served as intro-
duectory to a longer discussion by Mr. T. A.
Blair. Professor Smith draws a clear dis-
tinetion between the quantity of snowfall
with its subsequent effect and the effect of a
snow covering, for it may well be that a very
heavy snow will melt quickly and leave the
ground bare for a considerable time, or that
a very light snow will remain for a long time
unmelted on the ground. Thus, the question
of the relation of snow and winter wheat is
divided into two distinct aspects.
The first aspect has been discussed by Mr.
Blair. His method of treating the problem is
two-fold: first, by the well-known method of
partial correlation, and second, by expressing
the yield in linear regression equations of the
form Y=a-+}b,x,+6,7,+6,7,+ .. ., in
which Y is the yield; 2x,, x,, r,, . . . are the
various weather elements, such as mean tem-
perature, total precipitation, sunshine, etc.;
and 6,, b,, bz, . . . are constants for a given
equation depending upon the data. In ex-
pressing such relationships, the author has
had to assume that there is a linear relation
1‘‘The Relation of Snowfall to the Yield of
Winter Wheat,’’ Mo. Weather Rev., October, 1919,
Vol. 47: 700, 4 figs.
2‘¢The Effect of Snow on Winter Wheat in
Ohio,’’ ibid., pp. 701-702, fig.
3‘¢A Statistical Study of Weather Factors Af-
fecting the Yield of Winter Wheat in Ohio,’’ 2bid.,
December, 1919, Vol. 47: 841-847, 2 figs.
SCIENCE
639
between the weather and yield, which, as he
says, “is doubtful in cases of extreme weather
conditions,” and also that the most important
weather influences have been included in his
equations. Of the latter, perhaps the most
important are temperature and precipitation,
although there are many other factors which
are not considered owing to lack of data, but
which are more or less directly related to the
weather, namely, hessian fly and other insects,
severe storms, hail, and loss of crop by storm
after it is cut.
Taking the state of Ohio as a whole, Mr.
Blair finds that there is little evidence that
there are monthly values of weather elements
which exert a profound influence upon the
yield of wheat. After obtaining this negative
result, he proceeds to treat smaller areas of
the state and shorter periods than the month.
First, confining his area to Fulton county,
and his period to 10 days, he finds that there
are certain conditions of temperature and
precipitation—the former more than the latter
—operative over short periods, and these are
the dominant factors in determining the
final yield.
His conclusions, which seem to east doubt
upon the validity of the practise of the Bu-
reau of Crop Estimates in publishing crop
estimates as early as December 1, show that
for the state as a whole, a warm March and
June and a cool, dry May are favorable for
a high yield. There are certain critical stages
in the development of the plant, in which the
conditions during certain 10-day periods may
exert an important influence, especially in
northern Ohio. It is found that the weather
should be cool during the jointing stage, dry
during the development of the boot, warm
while the head is filling, and warm during the
last ten days of stooling. As to the quantity
of snowfall, it appears that a heavy fall of
snow in March is detrimental. Forecasts of
yield, earlier than May or June, believes Mr.
Blair, can be of little value, because of the
great influence of temperature during those
months.
The second aspect of the distinction drawn
by Professor Smith, was investigated by Mr.
640
Root in Illinois. He attempted to correlate
the number of days with snow on the ground
between December and March inclusive, or
the number of days in March with freezing
weather while the ground was bare, or even
the number of days throughout the whole
winter when the temperature was below 20° F.
with the ground bare, with the yield of wheat
in central Illinois, and in every case, he ob-
tained a correlation coefficient so small as to
east great doubt upon the importance of the
snow cover in determining the yield of wheat.
More specifically, he found that there is
reason to believe that wheat has a better
prospect when the ground is not covered in
January. The best years have been those
with less than normal snowfall and with the
temperature above normal for the winter.
The years of poorest yield were those in
which the winters had heavy snow and the
temperatures were below normal. The com-
panionship of warm winters and subnormal
snowfall, and of cold winters and above-
normal snowfall, is doubtless attributable to
the fact that in a warm winter much of the
precipitation falls as rain and that a snow
cover tends to lower surface temperatures.
Studies of this type are important. It is
true, however, that they are, through the com-
plexity of weather factors and the pitfalls of
the correlation coefficient, not always final in
their result. Nevertheless, each serves a use-
ful purpose in drawing the attention of agri-
culturists and others to the possibilities of
relations or aspects of a subject which are
either new or are opposed, as in this case,
by a less scientific belief.
CO. LeRoy MEitsincEr
SPECIAL ARTICLES
TRANSFERENCE OF NEMATODES (MONONCHS)
FROM PLACE TO PLACE FOR ECONOMIC
PURPOSES
SPEAKING generally, it is now beyond ques-
tion that many soil-inhabiting mononchs feed
more particularly on other nemas. However,
they never follow these latter into plant roots,
except in the case of open root cavities fairly
readily accessible. They do not enter living
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. LI. No. 1330
plant tissues in pursuit of their prey. It
follows that the good they do is in devouring
the larve and young of injurious nemas at
such times as the latter are accessible either
in the soil or in open cavaties in the roots of
plants.
In transferring mononchs from place to
place with a view to making use of them in
combating injurious nemas, the first requisite
is a supply of mononchs. Such a suppiy may
be obtained from soils in which the mononchs
are numerous, and although we have com-
paratively little experience to guide us, yet
it is now demonstrated that supplies of
mononehs existing under these conditions are
available. Thus far these supplies have been
discovered more or less by accident; the eases,
however, are numerous enough to establish
the belief that special search will lead to the
discovery of a sufticient number of these
original sources of mononchs to furnish an
adequate supply for trial.
The methods of collecting the mononchs,
and transferring them, once they have been
found, have been sufficiently elaborated for
practical purposes, and published.
In transferring the mononchs to new situ-
ations, it is of course best to pay careful
attention to the relative physical and biolog-
ical conditions of the two habitats—the soil
from which they are transferred and that to
which they are transferred. The physical
and biological conditions of the two habitats
should be such as to insure the persistence of
the mononchs after they have been trans-
ferred from the old to the new habitat. If
the climatic and soil conditions of the new
habitat closely resemble those of the old
habitat, there is every reason to suppose that
the mononchs will survive and flourish if
there is a supply of suitable food.
The practical details may be illustrated by
a hypothetical example. Suppose a region in
Holland having a sandy soil has distributed
in it as a plant pest the devastating nema,
Tylenchus dipsact, which, though more or less
prevalent, is not doing very serious damage
because held in check by mononchs. Suppose
the existence of another region, like that in
JUNE 25, 1920]
the vicinity of Bellingham, State of Wash-
ington, U. S. A., having a soil and climate
similar to that of the district in Holland
just mentioned, and suffering more or less
severely from the ravages of Tylenchus dipsact
because this nema is not sufficiently held in
check by any natural force. We may suppose
that in this latter case dipsact has been intro-
duced at Bellingham without the enemies and
parasites that hold it in check in the first-
mentioned place. The mononchs found in the
soil of the Holland district feeding upon
Tylenchus dipsaci are collected and trans-
ported to Bellingham and introduced into the
soil. There is good reason to suppose that
under the new conditions, finding their food
abundant, including the larve and young of
Tylenchus dipsaci, the mononchs will flourish
Tylenchus dipsacit in check.
If it be asked why injurious nemas are
transferred from place to place without their
enemies being transferred at the same time,
the answer is that nemas injurious to plants
are often transferred in the interior parts of
plants imported in a living condition, and,
as already indicated, the mononchs and other
predatory nemas are less common in these
situations than they are in the adjacent soil,
which latter in the course of commerce often
is removed from the roots and not shipped.
One need only instance the case of bulbs and
similar importations to see how much better
chance the injurious parasitic nemas have of
being imported than have those nemas which
feed upon them. There is also reason to
believe that sometimes the parasitic nemas
infesting crops are more resistant to unto-
ward conditions, e. g., dryness, than are the
predaceous nemas.
We have at the present time arrived at a
stage where logically the next step is to try
out the introduction of promising species of
mononchs. Efforts of this kind will neces-
sarily be somewhat expensive, probably more
expensive than the corresponding early efforts
to introduce beneficial insects. There can be
no doubt, however, that the enormous losses
due to plant-infesting nemas fully justify
the expenditure of even large sums of money
SCIENCE
641
in an effort to apply this remedy, more partic-
ularly because the remedy, when successful,
bids fair to be permanent and self-sustaining.
After long-continued and intensive studies
I am thoroughly convinced that many of the
practises evolved in the transfer of beneficial
insects can, with appropriate modification, be
applied to the nemas. At the present time
the greatest drawback in the case of the nemas
is the small number of people who are tech-
nically competent to make the necessary bio-
logical examinations. Jt is in this respect
principally that their introduction will differ
from that of the introduction of useful in-
sects, for the nema problem is essentially a
microscopic one. Though the collection of
the nemas from the soil differs entirely from
the collection of beneficial insects, the meth-
ods have already been brought to such a state
that there are no insuperable obstacles.
The percentage of mononehs in miscella-
neous collections of soil-inhabiting nemas
taken from various situations is roughly in-
dicated by the following figures based on the
writer’s examinations—in each case of from
one thousand to several thousand specimens:
1. Miscellaneous collection from very small
quantity of soil taken from the roots of
14 species of plants imported from Brazil,
6.5 per cent. mononchs.
2. Sandy soil about the roots of astilbe and
peony, Holland, 11.6 per cent. mononchs.
8. Soil from cornfield in New Jersey in
autumn, the prevailing genus was Mon-
onchus.
4. Sand from Washington filter beds, 96 per
cent. mononchs.
N. A. Coss
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
THE INTERACTION OF ETHYLENE AND
SULPHURYL CHLORIDE
Some time ago, while treating suphuryl
chloride (SO,Cl,) with ethylene gas (C,H,)
at room temperature, the writer discovered a
reaction quite different from any other which
has come under his observation. It was
noted that when a fairly strong, steady stream
1 First observed on February 28, 1918.
642
of ethylene is passed into sulphuryl chloride
at room temperature no apparent change oc-
curs until the gas has bubbled through for
quite a long while. Under certain conditions,
however, the colorless liquid suddenly turns
greenish-yellow, accompanied by rather a
sharp rise in temperature, which during the
first two or three hours of the run amounts
on the average to approximately 10° C. As
the temperature rises, the liquid loses its
color, soon to be followed by a gradual fall
in temperature, which in the course of a few
minutes reaches approximately that of the
room. When the gas is passed steadily
through the liquid, this remarkable cycle re-
turns again and again uniformly and con-
tinually in the same order. At the minimum
temperature the liquid invariably turns green-
ish-yellow (about the color of chlorine), which
is a sure signal that the temperature will rise.
At the maximum temperature, which is
usually in the neighborhood of 35° to 40°, the
liquid is colorless. A complete cycle ordi-
narily requires from 10 to 20 minutes, de-
pending upon conditions, and these cycles
may be observed for several hours. In the
course of time, however, the cycles become
longer and the differences in temperature less
pronounced. This is what one would expect.
A number of different runs has been made,
with the same general results. The accom-
panying diagram shows very clearly some of
the cycles observed when one of the experi-
ments was carried out. An explanation of
this interesting phenomenon has not been fully
worked out, but the mechanism of the reaction
is under investigation. It appears that sulphur
dioxide and ethylene chloride (Dutch liquid)
are among the products of the reaction. It
may be that ethylene and sulphuryl chloride
first unite to form an unstable compound
which then dissociates into ethylene chloride
and sulphur dioxide, or it may be that these
products are formed by the interaction of the
factors as represented by the following chem-
ical equation:
SO.Cl, + C,H, > C,H,Cl, + SO,
WitiiaM Foster
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ‘
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1330
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SO-
CIETY. IV
SATURDAY, APRIL 24
Afternoon Session—2 o’clock
Witt B. Scort, D.Se., LL.D., president, in the
chair
Presentation of a portrait of the late Edward C.
Pickering, LL.D., vice-president of the society,
1909-1917, by Vice-president Hale.
Animal luminescence and stimulation: E. New-
TON Harvey, Ph.D., professor of physiology,
Princeton University. (Introduced by Dr. H. H.
Donaldson.) The production of light by animals
is due to the burning or oxidation of a substance
called luciferin in the presence of an enzyme or
catalyst called luciferase. It resembles the ordi-
nary artificial methods of illumination by burning
in that oxygen is as necessary for animal lumines-
cence as it is for the light of a lamp or tallow
candle. It differs in that water is absolutely es-
sential for the light production and no carbon di-
oxide or heat is produced—at least no carbon di-
oxide or heat is produced at all comparable to
that formed during the burning of such substances —
as tallow, either in the form of a candle or as food,
to supply heat and energy for the body. Light
production by animals differs also from light pro-
duced by combustion in that the oxidation product
of luciferin, oxyluciferin, can be easily reduced to
luciferin, which will again oxidize with light pro-
duction. The reaction is reversible and appears to
be of this nature—luciferin + 0 — oxyluciferin +-
H,O. ‘The difference between luciferin and oxy-
luciferin lies probably in this, that the luciferin
possesses two atoms of hydrogen which is removed
to form H.O when the luciferin is oxidized. The
H, must be added to reform luciferin. Whether
the reaction goes in one direction or to the other
depends, among other things, on the concentration
of oxygen and the presence of a reducing agent.
In a mixture of luciferin, luciferase, reducing
agent and an abundant supply of oxygen, the re-
action ‘goes from left to right (with production of
light) to an equilibrium. On removal of oxygen
the reaction goes in the right to left direction with
reformation of luciferin. Thus, while a firefly is
flashing, oxyluciferin is produced and between the
flashes oxyluciferin is reduced and is now ready to
be again oxidized with light production. We may
figuratively describe the firefly as a most extra-
ordinary kind of lamp which is able to make its oil
from the products of its own combustion. Not only
JUNE 25, 1920]
is it most efficient so far as the radiation (being all
light) it produces is concerned but also most eco-
nomical so far as its chemical processes are con-
cerned. The above reactions can be demonstrated
in a test tube with a mixture of oxyluciferin, luci-
ferase and ammonium sulphide. The ammonium
sulphide is probably represented in living cells by
reducing enzymes or reductases. If such a test-
tube is allowed to stand, oxyluciferin is reduced
to luciferin which will luminesce only at the sur-
face of the fluid in the test-tube in contact with
air. When the tube is agitated so as to dissolve
more oxygen of the air the liquid glows through-
out. Even a gentle knock or ‘‘stimulus’’’ to the
tube is sufficient to cause enough oxygen to dis-
solve to give a momentary flash of light which is
strikingly similar to the flash of light given by
luminous animals themselves on stimulation. This
suggests that when we agitate a luminous animal
or when the luminous gland cells of a firefly are
stimulated through nerves with ‘the resultant flash
of light, in each case the stimulus acts by increas-
ing the permeability of the surface layer of the
cells to oxygen. This then upsets an equilibrium
involving the luciferin, luciferase, oxyluciferin,
oxygen and reductase within the cell, with the pro-
duction of light and formation of more oxyluci-
ferin. So long as the luminous cell is resting and
unstimulated the tendency is for reduction proc-
esses to occur and luciferin to be formed. It must
be pointed out that not all sorts of stimulation can
be explained in this way, as the stimulation of
muscles or nerve fibers may take place in the com-
plete absence of oxygen.
The phosphorescence of Renilla: Grorce H.
Parke, S.D., professor of zoology, Harvard Uni-
versity. The common sea-pansy, Renilla, is found
jn most southern waters and has long been noted
for its phosphorescence. It is a dice-shaped colony
of polyps whose upper surface is covered with
numerous small whitish patches, the phosphorescent
organs. During the day Renilla can not be excited
to phosphoresce, but at night on stimulation it can
be made to glow with a beautiful golden green
light. The light is produced in wavelike ripples
that spread out from the spot stimulated and run
over the upper surface of the animal. They
travel at a relatively slow rate that agrees with
that at which the nervous impulses of the animal
travel. Hence it is concluded that the phosphores-
eence of Renilla is under the control of the nerve-
net of the animal which apparently pervades the
whole colony.
SCIENCE
643
Feeding habits of pseudomyrmine ants: W. M.
WHEELER, Ph.D., Se.D., professor of economic ento-
mology, Bussey Institution, Harvard University,
and Irvine W. BaILey, assistant professor of for-
estry, Harvard University. In 1918 the senior
author described and figured various stages of the
larve of Pachysima and Viticola, two genera of
Pseudomyrmine ants from the Congo. Except in
their earliest stages these larve have the ventral
portion of the first abdominal segment much
swollen and hollowed out as a peculiar pocket,
opening just behind the head. The pocket was
ealled the trophothylax (Wheeler, 1920), because
the food, in the form of a subspherical or lenticular,
usually dark-colored pellet is placed in it by the
worker nurses, so that it is within easy reach of
the larva’s mouth-parts. As early as 1918 the
pellet was known to consist of triturated pieces of
insects, but subsequent careful analysis shows that
the pellet not only in Pachysima and Viticicola
but also in the two other genera of the subfamily,
Tetraponera and Pseudomyrma, is merely the small
pellet (‘‘corpuscle enroulé’’ or ‘‘corpuscle de net-
toyage’’ of Janet), which the worker ant first
moulds in its own infrabuecal pocket and which
consists of the solid food-particles collected by the
ant with the strigils of the fore tibize from the
surfaces of the antenne and other parts of the
body and carried into the infrabuceal pocket after
being wiped off by the tongue and maxille. Other
ants eventually spit out the pellet, which is com-
monly a moulded, subspherical conglomerate of
diverse particles, such as small pieces of insects,
fragments of plant-tissue, fungus spores and
hyphr, pollen grains, ete., and cast it away as
refuse, but the worker nurses of the Pseudomyr-
ming place it as food in the trophothylax of the
larva. Even this, however, is not the whole story.
Examination of the mouth of the larva reveals a
singular, hitherto undescribed organ, evidently used
for reducing the food-pellet to such a finely divided
state that it can, when acted on by the digestive
juices of the stomach, yield a certain amount of
nutriment which the worker ant could not extract
from it while it was in the infrabuccal pocket.
This larval organ, which may ‘be called the tro-
phorhinium, consists of two flat, opposable plates,
corresponding to the dorsal and ventral walls of
the buccal eavity, each furnished with very fine,
parallel, transverse welts or ridges, which, under a
high magnification, are seen to be beset with very
delicate chitinous projections or spinules. The
ventral usually has more numerous rows of these
structures than the dorsal surface. The two sur-
644
faces are evidently rubbed on one another and thus
triturate the substance of the food pellet, only
small portions of which are ingested at a time from
the trophothylax. In all Pseudomyrmine larva
and in many larve of the other subfamilies, except
the Doryline and Cerapachyine, the trophorhinium
is beautifully developed, although in many ants
(Ponerine) it must be used for comminuting parts
of insects given directly to the larve by the work-
ers. In its development the trophorhinium bears a
strange resemblance to the stridulatory organs of
the petiole and postpetiole of many adult ants.
It may, in fact, function also as a stridulatory
organ, when the food supply is exhausted, and thus
apprise the worker nurses of the larva’s hunger.
Many ant-larve, notably those of the Ectatommiine
Ponerine and of most genera of Formicinm, also
have elaborate but coarser stridulatory surfaces on
the mandibles, so that the larva may be able to
produce a variety of sounds and therefore com-
municate to the nurses more than one need or
craving.
, On correlation of shape and station in fresh
water mussels: A. E, ORTMANN, Ph.D., Se.D., cu-
zator of invertebrate zoology, Carnegie Museum,
Pittsburgh. Various observers have noticed that
freshwater mussels differ in shape according to the
localities from which they come, and that, gener-
ally speaking, flat or compressed shells are found
in the smaller streams, more swollen shells in the
jarger ones. But these observations have been
rather vague and indefinite. The present paper is
devoted to the demonstration of this fact by ecare-
ful measurements and their tabulation on the hand
of abundant material from a great number of lo-
ealities, and it has been found, indeed, that for
certain species, such a law does exist, according to
which more swollen specimens are found down-
stream, in the larger rivers, more compressed speci-
mens more upstream, and that in the intermediate
stretches of a river, these extremes are connected
by gradual transitions.
, Evolution principles deduced from a study of
the even-toed Ungulates, known as Titanotheres:
HENRY FAIRFIELD OszorN, Se.D., LL.D., research
professor of zoology, Columbia University.
_ The Astropotheria: Wm.1AM B. Scort, Se.D.,
LL.D., professor of geology, Princeton University.
, The middle Cambrian beds at Manuels, New-
foundland, and their relations: B. F. HowELL, Jk.,
B.S., instructor in geology, Princeton University.
(Introduced by Professor W. B. Scott.) The beds
of Middle Cambrian age at Manuels, near St.
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Vou. LI. No. 1330
Johns, southeastern Newfoundland, are part of a
once widespread sheet of marine sediments, de-
posited millions of years ago off the shore of an
ancient continent, which probably stretched across
what is now the North Atlantic Ocean and for
hundreds of thousands of years formed a land
bridge between such parts of North America and
Europe as were then above the sea. These beds are
of special scientific interest because they contain
large numbers of unusually well-preserved fossils,
which prove that the creatures that swarmed in the
waters then covering much of what is now New
England, southeastern Canada and southeastern
Newfoundland were of practically the same sort
as those living in the seas which at the same period
washed over many parts of Scandinavia and the
British Isles. North America has probably been
joined to Europe in this way several times in the
geologic past, so that the animals living in the
coastal waters could spread from the one hemi-
sphere to the other; but it is seldom that geologists
discover such clear evidence of one of these old
connections as that which is presented by the
Manuels fossils,
The Michigan meteor of November 26, 1919.
Also the glacial anticyclone and the blizzard in re-
lation to the domed surface of continental glaciers:
Witu1amM H. Hosss, D.Sc., Ph.D., professor of
geology, University of Michigan.
On Saturday evening the annual dinner of the
society was held at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel
and was largely attended, the following toasts be-
ing responded to:
The memory of Franklin: Hon. Oscar 8. STRAUS.
. Our unwersities: Dr. JOHN M. CLARKE.
Our sister societies: Dr. HARVEY W. WILEY.
_ Ihe American Philosophical Society: PROFESSOR
LESLIE W. MILLER.
ArTHUR W. GOODSPEED
SCIENCE
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1st Avenue and 28th Street
NEW YORK, N. Y.
ADMISSION to the first year class will be limited
to seventy-five students in the New York and Ithaca
Divisions combined. Subsequent admissions to any
class will be made only if the number falls below sixty,
when students from other institutions may be accepted,
provided they fill all of our requirements.
The number of students in this College having been
limited, that its adyantages may be equalized to all
parts of the State and country, not more than ¢five
‘students from any one college will be admitted to the
first year class. Graduates °f approved colleges are
eligible.
INSTRUCTION begins on September 27th, 1920.
Laboratory methods are emphasized throughout the
course and small sections facilitate personal contact
between the students and instructor. Clinical instruc-
tion is given in the Bellevue, New York Nursery and
Child’s, Memorial, Manhattan State and Willard Parker
Hospitals.
The tuition fee is $250.00 per annum,
Applications for admission to the first year should
be received not later than July first. A catalogue and
application blanks may be obtained by addressing the
Dean.
Address
THE DEAN, 477 1st Ave., New York, N. Y.
Washington University
School of Medicine
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION
Candidates for entrance are required to have completed at
least two full years of college work which must inelude English,
French or German, and istruction with luboratory work in
Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
INSTRUCTION
Instruction begins on the last Thursday in September and
ends on the second Thursday in June. Clinical instruction is
given in the Barnes Hospital and the St. Louis Children’s Hos-
pital, affiliated with the medical scheol, the St. Louis City Hes-
pital, and in the Washington University Dispensary.
COURSES LEADING TO ACADEMIC
DEGREES
Students who have taken their premedical work in Wash-
ington University, are eligible for the degree of B.S. upon the
completion of the first two years of medical work.
Students in Washington University may pursue study in
the fondarental medical sciences leading to the degree of A.ML
and Ph.D.
TUITION
The tuition fee for undergraduate medical students is $200
perannum. Women are admitted.
The catalogue of the Medical School and other information
may be obtained by application to the Dean.
Euclid Avenue and Kingshighway St. Louis
Johns Hopkins University
Medical School
The Medical School is an Integral Part of the University and
is in close Affiliation with the Johns Hopkins Hospital
ADMISSION
Gondigetes for admission must be graduates of approved
colleges or scientific schools with at least one year’s instruction,
including laboratory work, in physics, chemistry, and biology
an with evidence of a reading knowledge of French an
rman.
Each class is limited to 90 students, menand women being
admitted on the same terms. Except in unusual circumstances,
applications for admission will not be considered after July 1at.
vacancies occur, students from other institutions desiring
advanced standing may beadmitted to the second orthird year
provided they fulfill all of our requirements and present ex-
eeptional qualifications,
INSTRUCTION
The academic year begins the Tuesday nearest October 1 and
closes the third Tuesday in June. The course of instructon,
occupies four years and especial emphasis is laid upon prac-
tical work in the laboratories, in the wards of the Hospital and
in the Dispensary.
TUITION
The charge for tuition is $250 per annum, payable in three
instalments. Thereare no extra fees except for rental of micro-
scope, eertain expensive supplies, and laboratory breakage.
The annual announcement and application blanks may be
obtained by addressing the
Dean of the Johns Hopkins Medical Sckool
Washington and Monument Sts. BALTIMORE, MD.
SUMMER WORK FOR GRADUATES
IN MEDICINE
Beginning Tuesday, June ist, and ending Thursday, July 15th
2 course in medical diagnosis, including laboratory exercises in
clinical pathology and demonstrations in pathological anatomy,
: comapying: the greater part of each day will be offered. The
course be limited to twenty students, fee $100. Applica-
tions should be made to the Dean’s Office.
Tulane University of
Louisiana
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
(Established in 1834)
ADMISSION: Allstudents entering the Freshman
Class will be required to present credits for two
years of college work, which must include
Chemistry (General and Organic), Physics and
Biology, with their laboratories, and at least
one year in English and one year in a modern
foreign language.
COMBINED COURSES: Premedical course of two
yearsis offered in the College of Arts and
Sciences, which provides for systematic work
leading to the B.S. degree at the end of the
second year in the medical course.
School of Pharmacy, School of Dentistry and
Graduate School of Medicine also.
Women admitted to all Schools of the
College of Medicine
For bulletins and all other information, addreas
Tulane College of Medicine
P. O. Box 770
New Orleans, La.
x SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
ONLY MEDICAL SCHOOL IN
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
@ Admits only college degree students and seniors
in absentia.
@ Excellent laboratories and facilities for research
and adyanced work.
@ Large clinical material. Sole medical control of
Lakeside, City Charity, and Maternity Hospitals,
and Babies’ Dispensary, Clinical Clerk Services
and individual instruction.
@ Wide choice of hospital appointments for all
graduates.
q Fifth optional year leading to A.M. in Medicine.
g Vacation courses facilitating transfer of adyanced
students.
q Session opens September 30, 1920; closes June 16,
1921. Tuition, $200.00.
For eatalogue, information and application
blanks, address
THE REGISTRAR, 1353 East 9th St., Cleveland
Rush Medical College
IN AFFILIATION WITH
The University of Chicago
Curriculum.—The fundamental branches (Anatomy, Physiol-
ogy, Bacteriology, etc.) are taught in the Departments of
Science at the Hull Biological and the Ricketts Labora-
tories, University of Chicago. The courses of the three
clinical years are given in Rush Medical College and in the
Presbyterian, the Cook County, the Children’s Memorial,
The Hospital for Destitute Crippled Children, and other
hospitals.
Classes Limited.—The number of students admitted to each
class is limited, selection of those to be admitted is made on
the basis of merit.
Hospital Year.—The Fifth Year, consisting of service as an
interne under superyision in an approved hospital, or of
advanced work in one of the departments is prereauisite
for graduation.
Summer Quarter.—The college year is divided into four
quarters, three of which constitute an annual session. The
summer quarter, in the climate of Chicago is advantageous
for work. Students are admitted to begin the medical
courses only in the Autumn and Spring quarters.
Elective System.—A considerable freedom of choice of courses
and instructors is open to the student.
Graduate Courses. — Advanced and research courses are
offered in all departments. Students by attending summer
quarters and prolonging their residence at the University
of Chicago in advanced work may secure the degree of
M., S.M., or Ph.D. from the University. 2
Prize Scholarship.—Six prize scholarships—three in the first
two years and three in the last two (clinical) years—are
awarded to college graduates for theses embodying original
research.
The Summer quarter commences June 21, 1920
TUITION—$75.00 per quarter, no laboratory fees.
Complete and detailed information may be secured by addressing
THE MEDICAL DEAN
The University of Chicago CHICAGO, ILL.
Syracuse University College of Medicine
Two years of a recognized course in arts
Entrance or im seiemce in a registered college or
Requirements School of Science, wich must ineiode
Physics, Obeniistéy, Biology, and Freneb
or German. Six and seven years’ combii-
nation courses are offered.
i are spent in mastering by laboratory
The First Two methods the sciences € roxiiennental to
Years clinical medicine.
j is systematic and clinical and is devoted to
The Third Year aS at ke oa br
Course to diagnosis and to therapeutics. In this
rear the systematie courses in Medicine,
irgery and Obstetrics are completed.
Q is clinical, Students spend the entire fore-
The Fourth noon throughout the year as clinical clerks
Year Course ip hospitals under careful supervision. ‘Bhe
ia clerk takes the history, makes the
physical examination and the k
examinations, arrives at a diagnosis
he must defend, outlines the treatment
under his instructor and observes and
identifies its gical nature,
eral hospitals, one of which is owned and
the mnicipal emi
municip hospitals
Summer School—A summer course in coverige
& period of six weeks duxing June antl Pane
case there is a sufficient nurtibe rc of priced a
Address the Secretary of the College,
307 Orange Street SYRACUSE, N. v,
University of Georgia
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
Augusta, Georgia
ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS.
The successful completion of at least two years of work
including English, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in
an approved college. This in addition to four years of
high school.
INSTRUCTION
The course of instruction occupies four years, begine
ning the second week in September and ending the first
week in June. The first two years are devoted to the
fundamental sciences, and the third and fourth to
practical clinic instruction in medicine and surgery.
All the organised medical and surgical charities of the
city of Augusta and Richmond County, including the
hospitals, are under the entire control of the Board of
Trustees of the University. This agreement affords a
large number and variety of patients which are used in
the clinical teaching. Especial emphasis is laid upon
practical work both in the laboratory and clinical de-
partments
TUITION
The charge for tuition is $150.00 a year except for
residents of the State of Georgia, to whom tuition is
free. For further information and catalogue addzess
The Medical Department, University of Georgia
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA
SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS xi
School of Hygiene and
Public Health
The Johns Hopkins University
The third session opens September 28, 1920. ‘Opportunities
for instruction and ayes eauicn will be offered in Public
Health Administration, Epidemiology, Bacteriology, Immun-
ology and Serology, Medical Zoology, Biometry and Vital Sta-
tistics, Sanitary Engineering, Physiology as applied to hygiene,
including the principles of industrial and educational hygiene,
Chemistry as applied to hygiene, including the analysis of
foods and the principles of nutrition, Social and Mental Hy-
giene, etc. The courses in these subjects are organized upon a
trimestral basis, and students may enter the School as candi-
dates for a degree, or as special students, at the beginning of
any trimester. Men and women students are admitted on the
same terms,
Courses are arranged leading to the degree of Doctor of
Public Health, Doctor of Science in Hygiene and Bachelor of
Sciencein Hygiene. The detailsin regard to the requirements
for matriculation in these courses are described in the catalogue
of the School, which will be forwarded upon application.
A Certificate in Public Health may be awarded to qualified
persons after one year of resident study.
An intensive course, comprising conferences, demonstra-
tions and laboratory work and designed to meet the needs of
Public Health Officers, willbe given from November 1 to De-
cember il, 1920—Fee $50.00.
For further information address the
Director of the School of Hygiene and
Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
310-312 West Monument St. BALTIMORE, MD.
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, Mass.
INVESTIGATION
Eatire Year
Facilities for reseach in Zoology:
Embryology, Physiology and Bot-
any. Seventy-six private labora-
tories, $100 each for not over three
Months. Thirty tables are avail-
able for beginnersin research who
desire to work under the direction
of members of the staff. The fee
for such a table is $50.00.
INSTRUCTION
June 30 to August 10,
1326
Courses of laboratory instruction
with lectures are offered in Inverte-
brate Zoology, pL tctosdalony 3 Em-
bryology, Physiology and Morph-
ology and Taxonomy of the ae.
Each course requires the full time
of the student. Fee, $50. Alecture
course on the Philosophical Aspects
of Biology and Allied Sciences is
also offered.
SUPPLY
DEPARTMENT
Open the Entire Year
Animals and plants, preserved, liv-
ing, andin embryonic stages. Pre-
served material of all types of
animals and of Algae, Fungi, Liver-
worts and Mosses furnished for
classwork, orfor the museum. Liy-
ing material furnished in season as
ordered. Microscopic slidesin Zool-
ogy, Botany, Histology, Bacteriol-
ogy. Price lists of Zoological and
Botanical material and Micioscopic
Slides sent on application. State
whichis desired. For price listsand
allinformation regarding material,
address
GEO. M. GRAY, Curator, Woods Hole, Mass.
The annual announcement will be sent onapplication to The
Director, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.
Lenses
for Naturalists
Cameras
Graflex, Kodak, Foreign Cameras, Zeiss,
Goerz, Cooke, and all other high grade Lenses
and Motion Picture Cameras. Save 25% to 50%.
Get Our Price
Write at once for Com-
plete Catalog and month-
ly Bargain List. Experts on equipping expedi-
tions for still or Motion Picture work. Write
today to Graflex Headquarters of America.
B ASS CAMERA COMPANY
109 E. earborn St. Chicago, Til.
When in the market for anything
in the line of
Chemical Glassware,
Thermometers,
Hydrometers and Laboratory
Supplies
Let us give you our
quotations
Our Catalog gladly sent upon
request
Scientific Utilities Co., Inc.
Manufacturers, Importers, Exporters
Factory: 84 East 10th Street
Office: 18 East 16th Street
U.S. A.
NEW YORK, N. Y.
The University Laboratory
Designers
ALEXANDES SMITH, THOMAS B, FREAS,
President Chief Designer and Treas, ~
W. L, ESTABROOHE, W. A. BORING,
Gen. Manager and Sec’y. Consulting Architect
This firm is prepared to offer consultation,
advice, report and design on chemical lab-
oratories. Complete plans may be offered
or work may be done jointly with institu-
tional architect. Consultation with archi-
tects needing expert advice in laboratory
construction is solicited. Send for booklet.
Office: 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City
xii SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
Constant-Temperature Apparatus
Dependable for Long, Continuous and Unattended Operation
FREAS OVEN TYPE R No. 100
Size of oven inside, 12’’x12’’x12’’. Construction, heavy asbestos tran-
Temperature range, from room to
175°C.
site with castaluminum frames
and insulated lining.
Regulation, Freas Metallic ther- Operation, simply attach to lamp
mo-regulator. socket.
Constant within one degree over Furnished with Special Ther-
long periods. mometer, ranging to 200°C,
SIMPLICITY ox operation, ease of regulation, constancy and
general dependability are the reasons why FREAS Ovens have
been adopted by the most important laboratories of the U. S.
Government, the leading educational, scientific institutions and
the most progressive manufacturing plants in the country.
FREAS Ovens are made in several sizes and types. They are ap-
proved by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. They are
strongly constructed and reliable to the utmost detail. They may
be left in operation, unattended, for months at a time if required.
For Sale by All Dealers in Dependable Laboratory Apparatus
Sole Patentees and Manufacturers
The Thermo Electric Instrument Co., *srr” Newark, N. J., U. S. A.
MAKERS ALSO OF THE THELCO LINE
Langmuir High-Vacuum Pump
Dr. Irving Langmuir (of the
General Electric Co.) has de-
veloped an exceedingly inter-
esting and valuable high-speed
high-vacuum pump, and by
special agreement with the
makers, we are acting as sole
distributors, for laboratory
purposes.
With this pump pressure as
low as 10-5 bar have been ob-
tained ; and there is little
doubt that very much lower
pressures oan be produced, by
cooling the bulb to be ex-
hausted, in liquid air, so as
to decrease the rate at which
gases escape from the walls.
Some type of primary pump
must be used ; capable of de-
veloping a vacuum not less
q ; than 0.1-0.15 mm.of meroury,
The illustration shows a Langmuir pump, connected to a two-stage primary oil pump—which is op-
erated by a 3 HP motor ; all three parts of the outfit being assembled together on one base.
J A M ES G 5 B | D D LE If interested, write for copy of illustrated
1211-13 ARCH STREET Bulletin 881, issued November, 1917 ;
PHILADELPHIA and also copy of paper by Dr. Langmuir.
SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
A Kewaunee Wall Form
Physics Laboratory Desk
The wall form physics desk with drawers and cupboards beneath for
the storage of general supplies and apparatus most frequently used, is a
very serviceable piece of laboratory furniture. When installed adjacent
to the apparatus room, its top affords a temporary place for apparatus.
It gives the laboratory a convenient water supply, and accommodates four
students during the regular laboratory periods.
For all Science Laboratory Furniture, consult the Kewaunee Catalog.
Sent free.
LABORATORY FURNITURE EXPERTS
KEWAUNEE, WIS..
Chicago Office 20 E. Jackson Blvd.
New York Office 70 Fifth Avenue
BRANCH OFFICES:
CoLuMBUS) _ ATLANTA Datias Kansas City SPOKANE
LittLte Rock ALEXANDRIA, LA. EL Paso MINNEAPOLIS
DENVER
San FRANCISCO
Kewaunee Spring Bolt Top Construction is Specially Patented
X1V SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
COMPTON
QUADRANT
ELECTROMETER
PROBABLY THE MOST
SENSITIVE ELECTRO-
STATIC INSTRUMENT
AVAILABLE
Ask for Catalog 16
PYROLECTRIC
INSTRUMENT CO.
PYROMETRIC AND ELECTRICAL
PRECISION INSTRUMENTS
636-640 EAST STATE STREET
TRENTON, N. J.
Central Electrical System of Compton Electrometer
“THALOFIDE CELL”
A NEW LIGHT REACTIVE RESISTANCE
OF GREAT SENSITIVITY
These new cells will lower their electrical resistance 50 per cent.
on exposure to .25 of a foot candle when the source used isa
Tungsten Filament. Special cells are constructed which will do
this in .06 of a foot candle.
Their recovery after exposure is extremely rapid as also is
their response to the light stimulus which
is in marked contrast to the Selenium Cell,
especially on exposure to very low light
intensities.
Write for Particulars
Case Research Laboratory
AUBURN, NEW YORK
SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS XV
Standardized Products
We are regularly supplying to chemical and bacteriological labora-
tories the following special reagents, of the highest quality.
Arabinose
Acid Potassium F nthalate
Decolorizing Carbon
Dextrose
Galactose
Invert Sugar
Lactose |
Levulose (Fructose)
Maltose
Mannite
Mannose
Melezitose
Raffinose
Rhamnose
Saccharose (Sucrose)
Trehalose
Xylose
Prices Upon Request
Carried in Stock by the Principal Dealers in Scientific Supplies
Digestive Ferments Company
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S. A.
Xvi
SCIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS
“Che Rober”
Nephelometer
A precision colorimeter of highest
accuracy, the standard instrument
of more than forty Universities.
Permanently set up on a black
polished board and housed in with
our lighting arrangement it serves
as the most efficient nephelometer
as well as a colorimeter.
Colorimeter as pictured, $69.00.
AMERICAN MADE
Colorimeter
It has:
Adjustable Verniers, Fused Cups
and Plungers, resisting all acids and
alkalies, thus eliminating all cement
troubles.
Screw Threaded Rods over which
the stages travel, reducing to a
minimum lost motion so adherent
to racks and pinions.
Perfect ‘‘ Side by Side” field with
the thinnest dividing line.
Combined nephelometer-colori-
meter complete on board with lamp-
house, $120.00.
ing conditions.
Cc. M. SORENSEN CO., Inc., Dept. K.
177 East 87th Street NEW YORK, N. Y.
Just Published
A NEW EDITION OF
SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED
PHARMACOGNOSY
By HENRY KRAEMER, Ph.B. (in Chemistry), Ph.M. (in Pharmacy), Ph.D. (in Botany), Dean of College
of Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmacognosy in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy
Second Edition, Thoroughly Revised
This book is designed for the use of students in pharmacy, as a handbook for pharmacists, and
as a reference book for food and drug analysts and pharmacologists.
The book is the most complete dealing with Pharmacognosy that has ever been published and
contains the necessary information on nearly all of the drugs, foods, spices and economic products
which are generally used. While originally prepared for the use of the drug analyst, it is extensively
employed by pharmacologists, agricultural chemists, food analysts, spice dealers, manufacturers of
flavoring extracts, mineralogists and botanists.
741 pages, 6x9, 313 plates, comprising over 1000 figures
Cloth, $6.00 net.
JOHN WILEY & SONS, Inc.
432 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.
Manila, P. I.: Phillippine Education Company Montreal, Canada, Renouf Publishing Company
=
Wi, Te i) van
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Noite
wii
3 9088 01301 4659
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