SCIENCE
Fripay, NOVEMBER 17, 1911
CONTENTS
The Réle of Salts in the Preservation of Life:
PROFESSOR JACQUES LOEB ............... 653
Popular Misconceptions concerning Precocity
in Children: PRoressorn M. V. O’SHEA ... 666
The Washington Meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science 674
Scientific Notes and News ..........6..05+ 678
University and Educational News ........ . 681
Discussion and Correspondence :—
A New Toy Motor: Dr. GEorGE F. BECKER.
A Common Error concerning Cecidia: Dr.
Me. T. Cook. The Air-bladder of Clupeoid
Fishes: C. TATE REaGAN. Transference of
the Term ‘‘Genotype’’: Dr. F. A. BaTHER 683
Scientific Books :—
Steinmetz’s Engineering Mathematics: Pro-
FEssoR A. P. Witts. Timmerding’s Geom-
etrie der Krafte: PRoressor E. R. HEDRICK.
Toch on Material for Permanent Painting:
Proressomn A. H. GILL 685
Notes on Meteorology and Climatology: A. H.
Special Articles :—
The Life-history of a Parasitic N ematode—
—Habronema musce: B. H. RANSOM ..... 690
Sccicties and Academies :—
The American Mathematical Society: Pro-
Fessor N. Cote. The American Philo-
sophical Society eer eee 692
MSS, intended for publication and books, etc., intended for
review should be sent to the Editor of Scrence, Garrison-on-
Liudson, N, Y,
THE ROLE OF § IN THE PRESERV A-
TIv OF LIFE
I
Less is known of the réle of the salts in
the animal body than of the rile of the
three other main food-stuffs, namely, carbo-
hydrates, fats and proteins. As far as the
latter are concerned, we know at least that
through oxidation they are capable of
furnishing heat and other forms of energy.
The neutral salts, however, are not oxi-
dizable. Yet it seems to be a fact that no
animal can live on an ash-free diet for any
length of time, although no one can say
why this should be so. We have a point of
attack for the investigation of the réle of
the salts in the fact that the cells of our
body live longest in a liquid which con-
tains the three salts, NaCl, KCl and CaCl,
in a definite proportion, namely, 100 mole-
cules NaCl, 2.2 molecules KCl and 1.5
molecules of CaCl,. This proportion is
identical with the proportion in which
these salts are contained iii sei-w2ter; but
the concentration of the three sa‘ts is not
the same in both eases. It is about three
times as high in the sea-water as in our
blood serum.
Biologists have long been aware of the
fact that the ocean has an incomparably
richer fauna than fresh-water lakes or
streams and it is often assumed that life on
our planet originated in the ocean. The
fact that the salts of Na, Ca and K exist
in the same proportion in our blood serum
as in the ocean has led some authors to the
conclusion that our ancestors were marine
1 Carpenter lecture delivered at the Academy of
Medicine of New York, October 19, 1911.
¥
=
it
5
4
‘
\
~
~
654 SCIENCE
animals, and that, as a kind of inheritance,
we still carry diluted sea-water in our
blood. Statements of this kind have mainly
a metaphorical value, but they serve to
emphasize the two facts, that the three
salts, NaCl, KCl and CaCl,, exist in our
blood in the same relative proportion as in
the ocean and that they seem to play an
important réle in the maintenance of life.
I intend to put before you a series of
experiments which seem to throw some
light on the mechanism by which the solu-
tions surrounding living cells influence
their duration of life.
II
In order to give a picture of the extent
to which the life of many animals depends
upon the cooperation of the three salts I
may mention experiments made on a small
marine crustacean, Gammarus, of the Bay
of San Francisco. If these animals are
suddenly thrown into distilled water, their
respiration stops (at a temperature of
20° C.) in about half an hour. If they are
put back immediately after the cessation
of respiration into sea-water, they can re-
cuperate. If ten minutes or more are al-
lowed to elapse before bringing them back
into the sea-water, no recuperation is pos-
sible. Since in this case death is caused
obviously through the entrance of distilled
water into the tissues of the animals, one
would expect that the deadly effect of dis-
tilled water would be inhibited if enough
cane sugar were added to the distilled
water to make the osmotic pressure of the
solution equal to that of the sea-water. If,
however, the animals are put into cane-
sugar solution, the osmotic pressure of
which is equal to that of sea-water, the
animals die just about as rapidly as in dis-
tilled water. The same is true if the os-
motic pressure of the sugar solution is
higher or lower than that of the sea-water.
[N. 8. Vou. XXXIV. No, 881
The sugar solution is, therefore, about as
toxie for the animals as the distilled water,
although in the latter case water enters
into the tissues of the animal, while in the
former case it does not.
If the sea-water is diluted with an
equal quantity of distilled water in one
ease, and of isotonic cane-sugar solution
in the other case, in both cases the dura-
tion of life is shortened by practically the
same amount.
If the crustaceans are brought into a
pure solution of NaCl, of the same osmotic
pressure as the sea-water, they also die in
about half an hour. If to this solution a
little calcium chloride be added in the
sea-water the animals die as rapidly as
proportion in which it is contained in the
without it. If, however, both CaCl, and
KCl are added to the sodium chloride so-
lution, the animals can live for several
days. The addition of KCl alone to the
NaCl prolongs their life but little.
If KCl and CaCl, are added to a cane
sugar solution isotonic with sea-water, the
animals die as quickly or more so than in
the pure cane-sugar solution.
If other salts be substituted for the three
salts the animals die. The only substitu-
tion possible is that of SrCl, for CaCl,.
We find also that the proportion in which
the three salts of sodium, calcium and
potassium have to exist in the solution
can not be altered to any extent. All this
leads us to the conclusion, that in order to
preserve the life of the crustacean Gam-
marus, the solution must not only have 4
definite concentration or osmotic pressure
but that this ostnotie pressure must be
furnished by definite salts, namely, sodium
chloride, calcium chloride and potassium
chloride in the proportion in which these
three salts exist in the sea-water (and in
the blood) ; this fact could also be demon-
strated for many other marine animals.
i}
i
|
a
36
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
The relative tolerance of various cells and
animals for abnormal salt solutions is,
however, not the same, a point which we
shall discuss later on.
What is the réle of the salts in these
cases? The botanists have always consid-
ered salt solutions as nutritive solutions.
It is a well-known fact that plants require
definite salts, e. g., nitrates and potassium
salts, for their nutrition, and the question
now arises whether the three salts NaCl,
KCl and CaCl,, which are needed for the
preservation of animal life, play the rdle
of nutritive salts. Experiments which I
made on a small marine fish, Fundulus,
proved beyond question that this is not the
ease. If the young, newly hatched fish are
put into a pure solution of sodium chloride
of the concentration in which this salt is
contained in sea-water, the animals very
soon die. If, however, KCl and CaCl, be
added to the solution in the right proportion,
the animals can live indefinitely. These fish,
therefore, behave in this respect like Gam-
marus and the tissues of the higher ani-
mals, but they differ from Gammarus and
the majority of marine animals inasmuch
as the fish can live long, and in some cases,
indefinitely, in distilled and fresh water,
and certainly in a very dilute solution of
sodium chloride. From this fact I drew
the conclusion that KCl and CaCl, do not
act as nutritive substances for these ani-
mals, that they only serve to render NaCl
harmless if the concentration of the latter
salt is too high. I succeed in showing that
as long as the sodium-chloride solution is
very dilute and does not exceed the con-
centration of m./8, the addition of KCl
and CaCl, is not required. Only when the
solution of NaCl has a concentration above
m./8 does it become harmful and does it
require the addition of KCl and CaCl,.
SCIENCE
655
The experiments on Fundulus, therefore,
prove that a mixture of NaCl + KCl +
CaCl, does not act as a nutritive solution,
but as a protective solution. KCl and
CaCl, are only necessary in order to pre-
vent the harmful effects which NaCl pro-
duces if it is alone in solution and if its
concentration is too high. We are dealing,
in other words, with a case of antagonistic
salt action; an antagonism between NaCl
on the one hand and KCl and CaCl, on the
other. The discovery of antagonistic salt
action was made by Ringer, who found that
there is a certain antagonism between K
and Ca in the action of the heart. When
he put the heart of a frog into a mixture
of NaCl + KCl he found that the contrac-
tions of the heart were not normal, but they
were rendered normal by the addition of a
little CaCl, A mixture of NaCl + CaCl,
also caused abnormal contractions of the
heart, but these were rendered normal by
the addition of KCl. Ringer drew the
conclusion that there existed an antagonism
between potassium and calcium, similar to
that which Schmiedeberg had found be-
tween different heart poisons, e. g., atropin
and muscarin. Biedermann had found
that alkaline salt solutions cause twitchings
in the muscle and Ringer found that the
addition of Ca inhibited these twitchings.
Since these experiments were made many
examples of the antagonistic action of salts
have become known.
It had generally been assumed that the
antagonistic action of two salts was based
on the fact that each salt, when applied
singly, acted in the opposite way from that
of its antagonist. We shall see that in cer-
tain cases of antagonistic salt action at
least this view is not supported by fact.
IV
What is the mechanism of antagonistic
salt action? I believe that an answer to
~
A
(Ny
~
at
656
this question lies in the following observa-
tions on the eggs of Fundulus. If these
eggs are put immediately after fertilization
into a pure sodium chloride solution which
is isotonic with sea-water, they usually die
without forming an embryo. If, however,
only a trace of a calcium salt, or of any
other salt with a bivalent metal (with the
exception of Hg, Cu or Ag) is added to
the m./2 NaCl solution, the toxicity of the
solution is diminished or even abolished.
Even salts which are very poisonous,
namely, salts of Ba, Zn, Pb, Ko, Ni, Mn
and other bivalent metals, are able to ren-
der the pure solution of sodium chloride
harmless, at least to the extent that the
eggs can live long enough to form an em-
bryo. The fact that a substance as poison-
ous as Zn or lead can render harmless a
substance as indifferent as sodium chloride
seemed so paradoxical that it demanded an
explanation, and this explanation casts light
on the nature of the protective or antagon-
istic action of salts. For the antagonistic
action of a salt of lead or zine against the
toxic action of sodium chloride can only
consists in the lead salt protecting the em-
bryo against the toxic action of the NaCl.
But how is this protective action possible?
We have mentioned that if we put the
young fish, immediately after hatching, into
a pure m./2 solution of sodium chloride
the animals die very quickly, but that they
live indefinitely in the sodium chloride solu-
tion if we add both CaCl, and KCl. How
does it happen that for the embryo, as long
as it is in the egg shell, the addition of
CaCl, to the NaCl solution suffices, while
if the fish is out of the shell the addition
of CaCl, alone is no longer sufficient and
the addition of KCl also becomes neces-
sary? Moreover, if we try to preserve the
life of the fish after it is taken out of the
egg in an m./2 sodium chloride solution by
adding ZnSOQ,, or lead acetate, to the solu-
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No, 881
tion we find that the fish die even much
more quickly than without the addition.
If we look for the cause of this difference
our attention is called to the fact that the
fish, as long as it is in the egg, is separated
from the surrounding solution by the egg
membrane. This egg membrane possesses
a small opening, the so-called micropyle,
through which the spermatozoon enters into
the egg. I have gained the impression that
this micropyle is not closed as tightly im-
mediately after fertilization as later on,
since the newly fertilized egg is killed more
rapidly by an m./2 solution of NaCl than
it is killed by the same solution one or two
days after fertilization. One can imagine
that the micropyle contains a wad of a col-
loidal substance which is hardened gradu-
ally to a leathery consistency if the egg
remains in the sea-water. With the proc-
ess of hardening, or tanning, it becomes
more impermeable for the NaCl solution.
This process of hardening is brought about
apparently very rapidly if we add to the
m./2 NaCl solution a trace of a salt of a
bivalent metal like Ca, Sr, Ba, Zn, Pb, Mn,
Ko and Ni, ete. It is also possible that
similar changes take place in the whole
membrane. The process of rendering the
m./2 Na solution harmless for the embryo
of the fish, therefore, depends apparently
upon the fact that the addition of the bi-
valent metals render the micropyle or per-
haps the whole membrane of the egg more
impermeable to NaCl than was the case
before.
But these are only one part of the facts
which throw a light upon the protective or
antagonistic action of salts. Further data
are furnished by experiments which I made
together with Professor Gies, also on the
eggs of Fundulus. Gies and I were able to
show that not only are the bivalent metals
able to render the sodium chloride solution
harmless, but that the reverse is also the
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
case, namely, that NaCl is required to
render the solutions of many of the bi-
valent metals, for instance ZnSO,, harm-
less. (That the SO, ion has nothing to do
with the result was shown before by experi-
ments with Na,SQ,.)
If the eggs of Fundulus are put imme-
diately after fertilization into distilled
water, a large percentage of the eggs de-
velop, often as many as one hundred per
eent., and the larve and embryos formed
in the distilled water are able to hatch.
If we add, however, to 100 c.c. of distilled
water that quantity of ZnSO, which is re-
quired to render the NaCl solution harm-
less, all the eggs are killed rapidly and not
a single one is able to form an embryo.
If we add varying amounts of NaCl we find
that, beginning with a certain concentration
of NaCl, this salt inhibits the toxic effects
of ZnSO, and many eggs are able to form
anembryo. This can be illustrated by the
following table.
TABLE I
Percentage of
the Eggs Form-
Nature of the Solution ing an Embryo
100 c.ce. distilled water .............. 49
100 ¢.e. distilled water
+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 0
100 e.c. m./64 NaCl+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 0
100 e.e. m./32 NaCl+-8 m./32 ZnSO, 3
100 ¢.e. m./16 NaCl+8 e¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 8
100 e.e.m./8 NaCl+8 m./32 ZnSO, 44
100 e.c.m./4 NaCl+8 m./32 ZnSO, 38
100 ec. 3/8 NaCl+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 37
100 e.e.m./2 NaCl+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 34
100 ee. 5/8 NaCl+8 e.c. m./32 ZnSO, 29
100 6/8 NaCl+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 8
100 ¢.e. 7/8 NaCl+8 m./32 ZnSO, 6
100¢c. m. NaCl+8 ¢.c. m./32 ZnSO, 1
This table shows that the addition of
NaCl, if its concentration exceeds a certain
limit, namely, m./8, is able to render the
ZnSO, in the solution comparatively harm-
less.
If we now assume that ZnSO, renders
the 5/8 m. NaCl solution harmless by ren-
SCIENCE 657
dering the egg membrane comparatively
impermeable for NaCl we must also draw
the opposite conclusion, namely, that NaCl
renders the egg membrane comparatively
impermeable for ZnSO,. We, therefore,
arrive at a new conception of the mutual
antagonism of two salts, namely, that this
antagonism depends, in this case at least,
upon a common, cooperative action of both
salts on the egg membrane, by which action
this membrane becomes completely or com-
paratively impermeable for both salts.
And from this we must draw the further
conclusion that the fact that each of these
salts, if it is alone in the solution, is toxic,
is due to its comparatively rapid diffusion
through the membrane, so that it comes
into direct contact with the protoplasm of
the germ.
As long as we assumed that each of the
two antagonistic salts acted, if applied
singly, in the opposite way from its antag-
onist, it was impossible to understand these
experiments or find an analogue for them
in colloid chemistry. But if we realize
that NaCl alone is toxic because it is not
able to render the egg membrane imper-
meable; and that ZnSO, if alone in solution
is toxic for the same reason; while both
combined are harmless (since for the ‘‘tan-
ning’’ of the membrane the action of the
two salts is required) these experiments
become clear.
We may, for the sake of completeness,
still mention that salts alone have such
antagonistic effects; glycerine, urea and
aleohol have no such action. On the other
hand, ZnSO, was not only able to render
NaCl harmless, but also LiCl, NH,Cl, CaCl,
and others; and vice versa.
These experiments on the egg of Fun-
dulus are theoretically of importance, since
they leave no doubt that in this case at
least the ‘‘antagonistic’’ action of salts con-
sists in a modification of the egg membrane
i
A}
\~
&
ey
: :
}
is
4
658
by a combined action of two salts, whereby
the membrane becomes less permeable for
both salts.
It is not easy to find examples of experi-
ments in the literature which are equally
unequivocal in regard to the character of
antagonistic salt action; but I think that
some recent experiments by Osterhout sat-
isfy this demand.
It has long been a question whether or
not cells are at all permeable for salts.
Nobody denies that salts diffuse much more
slowly into the cells than water; but some
authors, especially Overton and Hoeber,
deny categorically that salts can diffuse at
all into the cells. Overton’s view is based
partly on experiments on plasmolysis in
the cells of plants. If the cells of plants,
for example, those of Spirogyra, are put
into a solution of NaCl or some other salt
of sufficiently high osmotic pressure, the
volume of the contents of the cell decreases
through loss of water and the protoplasm
retracts, especially from corners of the
rigid cellulose walls. Overton maintains
that this plasmolysis is permanent, and con-
cludes from this that only water but no
salt, can diffuse through the cell-wall; since
otherwise salts should gradually diffuse
from the solution into the cell, and through
this increase in the osmotic pressure of the
cell the water should finally diffuse back
into the cell and restitute the normal vol-
ume of the cell. According to Overton this
does not happen.
Osterhout has recently shown that Over-
ton’s observations were incomplete in a
very essential point and that in reality the
plasmolysis, which occurs in this case when
the cell is put into the hypertonic solution,
disappears again in a time which varies
with the nature of the salt in solution.
This stage of reversion of plasmolysis had
been overlooked by Overton. If the cell,
SCIENCE
[N.S. VoL. XXXIV. No. 881
however, remains permanently in the hy-
pertonic sodium chloride solution, after.
wards again a shrinking of the contents of
the cell takes place, which superficially re-
sembles plasmolysis, but which in reality
has nothing to do with plasmolysis, but is a
phenomenon of death. That this second
**false plasmolysis,’’ as Osterhout calls it,
has nothing to do with the hypertonic char-
acter of the solution was proved by the fact
that hypotonic solutions of toxic substances
may produce the same phenomenon.
In one experiment which Osterhout de-
scribes, ‘‘a portion of a Spirogyra filament
was plasmolyzed in .2 m. CaCl,, but not in
195 m. CaCl,. A .29 m. NaCl solution has
approximately the same osmotic pressure as
a .2 m. CaCl, solution. But on placing
another portion of the same Spirogyra fila-
ment in a .29 m. NaCl solution the expected
plasmolysis does not occur and it is impos-
sible to plasmolyze the cells until they are
placed in .4 m. NaCl.’’ Osterhout explains
this difference in the concentration of the
two salts required for plasmolysis by the
assumption that NaCl diffuses more rapidly
into the cell than CaCl,, a conclusion which
I reached also on the basis of my earlier
experiments on animals.
Osterhout’s experiments also show that
the antagonism of NaCl and CaCl, depends
partly on the facts that the two salts in-
hibit each other from diffusing into the
cells, and this conclusion is based among
others upon the following experiment.
‘‘By dividing a Spirogyra filament into
several portions it was found that it was
plasmolyzed in .2 m. CaCl, and in .38 m.
NaCl, but neither in .195 m. CaCl, nor in
.375 m. NaCl. On mixing 100 ¢.c. .375 m.
NaCl with 10 ¢.c. .195 m. CaCl, and placing
other portions of the same filament in it,
prompt and very marked plasmolysis oc-
curred.”’
The explanation for this observation lies
NoveMBER 17, 1911]
in the fact that in the mixture of NaCl and
CaCl, the two salts render their diffusion
into the cell mutually more difficult. After
a longer period of time the plasmolyzed
cells can expand again in a mixture of
NaCl and CaCl,, but that occurs much later
than if they are in the pure NaCl solution.
These experiments are the analogue of
the observation on the embryo of the eggs
of Fundulus in which a pure solution of
ZnSO, diffused rapidly through the mem-
brane or micropyle, while, if both salts were
present, the diffusion was inhibited or con-
siderably retarded.
While the observations of Osterhout show
that Overton was not justified in using the
experiments on plasmolysis to prove that
the neutral salts can not diffuse into the
cells, yet they do not prove that these salts
diffuse into the cell under normal condi-
tions. In Osterhout’s experiments the cells
are in strongly hypertonic solutions and it
does not follow that such solutions act like
isotonic, perfectly balanced solutions.
VI
Wasteneys and I have recently shown
that the toxic action of acids upon Fun-
dulus can be annihilated by salts. If we
add 0.5 e.e. N/10 butyric acid to 100 e.c. of
distilled water these fish die in 24 hours or
less. In solutions which contain 0.4 ¢.c. or
less acid they ean live for a week or more.
If we add, however, 0.5 ¢.c. of butyric acid
to 100 ¢.e. of solutions of NaCl of various
concentration, we find that above a certain
limit the NaCl ean render the acid harm-
less. It is needless to say that the NaCl
used in these experiments was strictly neu-
tral and that the amount of acid present in
the mixture of acid and salt was measured.
The following experiment may serve as an
example,
If the amount of acid was increased, the
amount of NaCl also had to be increased to
SCIENCE
659
TABLE II
Number of Surviving Fish in 0.5 c.c, V/10
Butyrie Acid
After +0 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 8.0 | 10.0 | 12.0 | 15.0
c.c. m./2 NaCl in 100 c.c. of the Solution
2 hours......... 0 0 0 2 3 3 |.6
4 hours ........ 0 3 2 5
1 1 5
2 days........... 1 0 | 5
1 5
4 days........... 1 5
render the acid harmless. In order to ren-
der 0.5 ¢.e. N/10 butyrie acid pro 100 c.e.
solution harmless, 10 ¢e.c. m./2 NaCl had to
be added; while 0.8 ¢.c. butyrie acid re-
quired 20 ¢.e. and 1.0 ¢.c. butyrie acid re-
quired about 28 ¢.c. m./2 NaCl in 100 e.c.
of the solution.
Not only butyrie acid, but any kind of
acid, could be rendered harmless by neutral
salts, e. g., HCl by NaCl.
It is of great importance that the an-
tagonistie action of CaCl, was found to be
from 8 to 11 times as great or powerful as
the action of NaCl. This harmonizes with
the general observation that the protective
action of CaCl, for the life of cells is
greater than that of any other substance.
Wasteneys and I could show that the rate
of the absorption of acid by the fish is the
same in solutions with and without salt.
This proves that the action of the salts con-
sisted in this case not in preventing the
diffusion or absorption of the acid, but in
modifying the deleterious effect of the ab-
sorbed acid.
We can state a little more definitely the
cause of death by acid. If we put the fish
into a weak acid solution in distilled water
just strong enough to kill the fish in from
1 to 2 hours (e. g., 500 ec. H,O + 2.0 c.c.
N/10 HCl), we notice that the acid very
soon makes the normally transparent epi-
dermis of the fish opaque, and a little later
the epidermis falls off in pieces and shreds.
fot
a)
>,
=
> x:
660
This, however, is probably not the direct
eause of the death, but I am inclined to
assume that the fish die from suffocation
caused by a similar action of the acid upon
the gills.
The action of the acid upon the epidermis
of the body as well as upon the gills is pre-
vented through the addition of neutral
salts.
It is well known that the action of acids
upon proteins can be inhibited by neutral
salts. Thus the internal friction of certain
protein solutions is increased by acids while
the addition of neutral salts inhibits this
effect (Pauli). The swelling of gelatine
caused by acid is inhibited by salts
(Procter).
It is possible that in the experiments
with acid the fish is killed in the following
way. The acid causes certain proteins in
the surface layer of the epithelial cells of
the gills and of the skin to swell, whereby
this surface layer becomes more permeable
for the acid. The acid can now diffuse into
the epithelial cells and act on the proto-
plasm, whereby the cells are killed. If
salts are present in the right concentra-
tion, the combined action of acid and salt
causes a dehydration of the surface film of
these cells, as it does in the experiments on
gelatine or as in the cases of tanning of
hides by the combined action of acids and
salt solutions. This combined dehydrating
or ‘‘tanning’’ action of acid and salts on
the surface of the epithelial cells of the
gills diminishes the permeability of this
layer for the acids and prevents them from
diffusing into the cells and thus destroying
the protoplasm. In this way the gills are
kept intact and the life of the fish is saved.
As long as the amount of acid is small
the amount absorbed is not essentially
diminished by the presence of salts; but
while in the presence of salts the acid is
consumed in the tanning action of the sur-
face layer of the cells, or is absorbed in
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXTV. No, 881
this layer; if no salt is present part of the
acid diffuses into the epithelial cells and
kills the latter.
VII
We have thus far considered the eases of
antagonism between two electrolytes only.
The case of the antagonism between three
electrolytes is a little more complicated.
We choose as an example the antagonism
between NaCl, KCl and CaCl,—the antag-
onism which is most important in life phe-
nomena. If the mechanism of the antag-
onism between NaCl, on the one hand, and
KCl and CaCl.,, on the other, is of the same
nature as that between NaCl and ZnSO, in
the case of the eggs of Fundulus, it must
be possible to show that not only is NaCl
toxic if it is alone in solution, and that it is
rendered harmless by the two other salts,
but that the reverse is true also. This can
be proved in the case of KCl. To demon-
strate it, we have again to experiment on
organisms which are, in wide limits, inde-
pendent of the osmotic pressure of the sur-
rounding solution since the concentration
of the KCl in sea-water is very low. The
experiments were carried out by Mr. Was-
teneys and myself on FPundulus. The
method consisted in putting six fish, after
washing them twice with distilled water,
into 500 ¢.c. of the solution. It was ascer-
tained from day to day how many fish
survived.
When the fish were put into pure solu-
tions of KCl of the concentration in which
this salt is contained in the sea-water
(2.2 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 e¢.c. of the solu-
tion) they died mostly in less than two
days. This is not due to the low concentra-
tion of the KCl solution, which is only 1/50
of that of the sea-water, since the fish can
live indefinitely in a pure NaCl solution of
the same concentration as that in which the
KCl exists in the sea-water.
If we add to the toxie quantities of KCl
increasing quantities of NaCl, we find that
=
ume
2%
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
as soon as the solution contains 17 or more
molecules of NaCl to one molecule of KCl,
the toxic action of KCl is considerably
diminished, if not completely counteracted.
The following table may serve as an ex-
ample.
TABLE III
Number of Surviving Fish in 2.2 c.e. m./2 KCl
After in 100 c.c.
Days
H,O |m./100| m./20/ m./8 | m./4 (3 m./8) m./2 | NaCl
1 2 1 3 4 6 6 6
2 0 0 0 0 6 5 6
3 6 4 6
4 5 3 5
5 5 3 4
6 5 3 1
7 5 3 0
14 4 3
More accurate determinations showed
that already a 3/16 m. NaCl solution ren-
ders the solution of 2.2 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in
100 ¢.c. of the solution harmless.
It was next determined whether different
concentrations of KCl required different
concentrations of NaCl. It was found that
the coefficient of antagonization KCI/NaCl
has an approximately constant value,
namely, about 1/17, as the following table
shows.
TABLE IV
Coefficient of
Antagonization
0.6 c.c. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 3/64m. NaCl ......... 1/16
0.7 c.ec. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 4/64 m. NaCl ......... 1/18
0.9 e.c. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 c.c. 5/64 m. NaCl ......... 1/17
1.0 e.e. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 5/64-6/64 m. NaCl ....1/16-1/19
1.1 ec. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 c.c. 6/64 m. NaCl ......... 1/17
1.65 ¢.e. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 c.c. 5/32 m. NaCl ......... 1/19
2.2 e.e, m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 6/32 m. NaCl ......... 1/17
2.75 ¢.c. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 7/32 m. NaCl ......... 1/16
3.3 ¢.c. m./2 KCl rendered harmless in
100 ¢.c. 9/32 m. NaCl] ......... 1/17
SCIENCE
661
What happens if we vary this ratio? If
we add too little NaCl to the KCl solution,
namely, only 1 to 10 molecules NaCl to
1 molecule of KCl, the solution becomes
more harmful than if KC) is alone in solu-
tion; if we add considerably more than 17
molecules NaCl, e. g., 50 molecules to one
molecule of KCl, the solution becomes toxie
again; and the more so the higher the con-
centration of NaCl. This indicates that
the antagonistic effect requires a rather
definite ratio of the two salts. This fur-
nishes the reason why an m./2 solution can,
as a rule, not be rendered completely harm-
less by the mere addition of KCl, but that
in addition CaCl, is needed.
If we add to 100 ¢.c. m./2 NaCl enough
KCl to make the ratio KCl: NaCl 1/17
we find that the antagonization of KCl:
NaCl becomes incomplete. If the amount
of KCl in 100 ee. of the solution exceeds
2.2 e.c. m./2 KCl, antagonization is still to
some extent possible, but it becomes more
incomplete the higher the concentration of
KCl. For this reason it is not possible to
render an m./2 solution of NaCl harmless
by the mere addition of KCl.
CaCl, acts upon KCl similarly as does
NaCl, but it acts more powerfully; 1. e., the
coefficient of antagonization, KCl/CaCl,,
is several hundred or a thousand times as
great as that of KCl/NaCl, as the follow-
ing table shows.
TABLE V
Coefficient of Antago-
nization KCl/CaC},
1.1 ¢.e. m./2 KCl in 100 e.e. H,O
require 0.1 m./100 CaCl, .. 550
1.65 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 e.e. H,O
require 0.5 m./100 CaCl, .. 165
2.2 e.c. m./2 KCl in 100 e.e. H,O
require 0.3 m./100 CaCl, .. 366
2.75 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 e.e. H,O
require 1.0 m./100 CaCl, .. 137.5
3.3 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 H,O
103
require 1.6 m./100 CaCl, ..
|
|
\
\~
=
i.
i
a
“™
662
The coefficients are not as regular as in
the case of antagonization of KCl by NaCl.
This is due to the fact that the minimal
value of CaCl, at which it renders the KCl
harmless can not be determined as sharply
as the limit for NaCl. Why is less CaCl,
required than NaCl? We can only answer
with a suggestion first offered by T. B.
Robertson, namely, that CaCl. produces its
protective effect through the formation of
a comparatively insoluble compound (in
this case on the gills or the rest of the sur-
face of the animal) while NaCl acts
through the formation of a compound
which is more soluble. This view is cor-
roborated by the observation which we
made, that Sr is just as effective to antagon-
ize KCl as CaCl,, but that Mg is much less
efficient. This would correspond with the
well-known fact that many strontium salts
are just as insoluble, if not more insoluble,
than the calcium salts, while the magne-
sium salts are often incomparably more
soluble, for instance in the ease of the sul-
phates. BaCl, antagonizes KCl also pow-
erfully, but, probably, in consequence of
the fact that the substances formed at the
surface of the animal or the gills, diffuse
slowly into the cells, the fish do not remain
alive as long if Ba is used as if the more
harmless Ca and Sr are used.
It is very remarkable that CaCl, renders
harmless any given concentration of KCl
below 6.6 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 ¢.c. of the
solution, but not above this limit. This
limit is exactly the same which we found in
the case of antagonization of KC] by NaCl.
Even the combination of NaCl and CaCl,
does not permit us to render harmless more
than 6.6 ¢.c. m./2 KCl in 100 ec. of the
solution.
If we try to render NaCl harmless by
KCl and CaCl, we find that CaCl, ean
antagonize even a 6/8 m. and a 7/8 m. so-
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No. 881
lution of NaCl, while KCl ceases to show
any antagonistic effect if the NaCl solution
exceeds m./2 or 5/8 m.
Experiments with pure CaCl, solutions
give the result that this substance is harm-
less in a solution of that concentration in
which this salt is contained in the sea-
water. Fundulus can live indefinitely in
a solution of 1.5 ¢.c. m./2 CaCl, in 100 ec,
Botanists have also found that weak solu-
tions of CaCl, are comparatively little
toxic. This gives us the impression that
the effect upon the surface film of proto-
plasm produced by CaCl, is especially im-
portant for the protection of the proto-
plasm. This conclusion receives an indirect
support by the well-known experiments of
Herbst, who found that in sea-water de-
prived of calcium the segmentation cells of
a sea-urchin embryo fall apart through the
disintegration or liquefaction of a film
which surrounds the embryo and keeps the
cells together. If such eggs are brought
back into solution containing calcium the
film is restored and the cells come into close
contact again.
It is therefore not impossible that the
mechanism of the antagonism between KCl
and NaCl is similar to that found between
NaCl and ZnSo,. It seems only due to the
high concentration of the NaCl in the sea-
water and in the blood that, in addition to
KCl and NaCl, CaCl, is needed. But the
ease is not so unequivocal as the previously
mentioned eases of antagonism between
only two electrolytes.
vull
It is necessary for our understanding of
the life-preserving action of salts that we
do not depend merely on conclusions drawn
from experiments, but that we must be able
to see directly in which way abnormal salt
solutions cause the death of the cell. Such
%
~
.
>
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
an opportunity is offered us through the
observation of the eggs of the sea-urchin.
If we put the fertilized eggs of the sea-
urchin into an abnormal salt solution, a de-
struction of the cell gradually takes place.
The destruction, as a rule, begins on the
surface of the protoplasm, and consists
very often in the formation and falling off
of small granules or droplets. This process
gradually continues from the periphery
towards the center until the whole egg is
disintegrated. For different salt solutions
the picture of the disintegration is a little
different, but sufficiently characteristic for
a given solution, so that if one become fa-
miliar with these pictures, one is able to
diagnose to some extent the nature of the
solution from the way in which the cell dis-
integrates.
This process of disintegration can be ob-
served if the eggs are put into a pure solu-
tion of sodium chloride or in a mixture of
sodium chloride and calcium chloride, or in
a mixture of sodium chloride and potas-
sium chloride. If, however, all three salts
are used in the proportion in which they
occur in the sea-water no disintegration
takes place and the surface of the egg re-
mains perfectly smooth and normal. One
gains the impression as if the protoplasm
of the egg were held together by a continu-
ous surface film of a definite texture. If
we put the egg into an abnormal solution
this surface film is modified and changed,
and the change of the surface film is often
followed by a gradual process of disinte-
gration of the rest of the cell.
These observations on the sea-urchin
egg, therefore, suggest the possibility that
the combination of the three salts in their
definite proportion and concentration has
the function of forming a surface film of
a definite structure or texture, around the
protoplasm of each cell, by which the proto-
SCIENCE
663
~
plasm is kept together, protected against
and separated from the surrounding media.
The previously mentioned observation of
Herbst again shows the important réle of
calcium in this process.
Ix
The objection might be raised that the
beneficial action of the three salts could
only be proved on marine animals or on
tissues of higher animals, which are said
to be ‘‘adapted’’ to a mixture of NaCl,
KCl and CaCl, in definite proportions.
Experiments on fresh-water organisms,
for which ‘‘adaptation’’ to a mixture of
NaCl, KCl and CaCl, in these definite pro-
portions can not be claimed, show that this
objection is not valid. Ostwald worked
with fresh-water crustaceans which he put
into mixtures of various salts. It was
found that these animals live longer in a
mixture of NaCl + KCl + CaCl, than in a
solution of NaCl, or NaCl+ KCl, or
NaCl + CaCl, of the same osmotic pres-
sure.
Osterhout was able to show that the spores
of a certain variety of Vaucheria die in a
pure 3/32 m. solution of NaCl in 10 to 20
minutes, while they live in 100 ¢.e. 3/32 m.
NaCl+1 ec. 3/32 CaCl, 2 to 4 weeks,
and in 100 e@e. 3/32 m. NaCl+1 ee.
3/32 m. CaCl, + 2.2 ¢.c. 3/32 m. KCl 6 to
8 weeks. The reaction of the solution was
strictly neutral and the NaCl the purest
obtainable. The results remained the same
after the NaCl had been recrystallized six
times. Experiments with Spirogyra gave
a similar result. The solutions were all
3/32 m. In NaCl the Spirogyra died in
18 hours; in NaCl + KCl in two days; in
NaCl + KCl + CaCl, they lived 65 days.
Osterhout caused wheat grains to develop
in such solutions and measured the total
length of the roots formed.
4
oe
-
‘
2
rs
a4
89
5
664
Total Length of }
Nature of the Solution Roots after 40 Days
cc 740 mm.
100 0.0. 59 mm.
100 c.e. 3/25 NaCl+2.0 3/25 CaCl, 254 mm.
100 e.e. 3/25 NaCl+2.0 3/25 CaCl,
+2.2 3/25 m. KCl 324 mm.
These cases, to which many other similar
observations might be added, prove that
the life-preserving effect of the combina-
tion of NaCl+ KCl+ CaCl, in definite
proportions is not due to the fact that or-
ganisms are ‘‘adapted’’ to this mixture but
to a specifie protective effect of the combi-
nation of the three salts upon the cells.
x
It seems, therefore, to be a general fact
that wherever tissues or animals require a
medium of a comparatively high osmotic
pressure—like our tissues—their life lasts
much longer in a mixture of NaCl+ KCl+
CaCl, in the proportion in which these
salts exist in the blood and in the ocean,
than in any other osmotic solution, even a
pure solution of NaCl. But the reader has
noticed that there are considerable differ-
ences in the resistance of various organ-
isms to abnormal solutions. While marine
Gammarus die in half an hour in an iso-
tonic solution of NaCl or cane sugar, red
blood corpuscles or even the muscle of a
frog can be kept for a day or longer in
such a solution (of course even the muscle
of a frog lives longer if the NaCl solution
contains in addition KCl or CaCl,). What
causes this difference?
Six years ago I found that the unfertil-
ized eggs of the sea-urchin (Strongylocen-
trotus purpuratus) can keep alive and re-
main apparently intact in a pure neutral
solution of CaCl, or of NaCl for several
days at a temperature of 15°, while the
fertilized eggs of the same female are
killed in a pure neutral solution of CaCl,
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXTV. No. 881
in a few hours. The same difference igs
found for other salts also. What causes
this difference? Several authors, Lillie,
McClendon and Lyon, have suggested that
it is due to the fact that the fertilized egg
is more permeable to salts than the unfer-
tilized egg. But the recent experiments by.
Warburg, which were confirmed and ampli-
fied by Harvey make it doubtful whether
the salts which are not soluble in fats can
enter the fertilized egg at all. I believe
that the explanation of the difference is
much more simple. The unfertilized egg is
surrounded by a cortical layer and this
layer is destroyed or modified in the proce-
ess of fertilization. One result of this
modification is the formation of the fertili-
zation membrane, for which I have been
able to show that it is readily permeable
for salts. As long as the cortical layer of
the unfertilized egg is intact, it prevents
the surrounding salt solution from coming
in contact with the protoplasm or at least
it retards this process. If, however, the
cortical layer is destroyed by fertilization
the surrounding salt solution comes directly
in contact with the protoplasm and if the
solution is abnormal it can cause the dis-
integration of the surface layer of the
protoplasm.
I am inclined to believe that differences
in the resisting power of various cells or
organisms to abnormal salt solutions are
primarily due to differences in the consti-
tution of the protective envelopes of the
animals or the cells. Microorganisms
which can live in strong organic acids or
salt solutions of a high concentration prob-
ably possess a surface layer which shuts off
their protoplasm from contact with the so-
lution. For the protoplasm of muscle the
rather tough sarcolemma forms not an
absolute but nevertheless an effective wall
against the surrounding solution.
|
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
But aside from differences of this kind
there are other conditions which influence
the degree of resistance of cells to various
solutions. I have found that the fertilized
eggs of the sea-urchin will live longer in
abnormal salt solutions if the oxidations in
the egg are stopped, either by the with-
drawal of oxygen or the addition of KCN
or NaCN. Warburg and Meyerhof have
drawn the conclusion that in a pure NaCl
solution the rate of oxidations of the egg of
Strongylocentrotus is increased and that
it is this increase in the rate of oxidations
which kills the eggs. But this increase of
oxidations can not be observed in the eggs
of Arbacia when they are put into a pure
NaCl solution and, moreover, lack of
oxygen prolongs the life of the fertilized
egg just as well in solutions of NaCl +
CaCl, or of NaCl + BaCl,, for which salts
these authors do not claim that they can
raise the rate of oxidations of the egg. I
am inclined to believe that in the process
during or preceding cell division, besides
phenomena of streaming inside the cell,
changes in the surface film of the proto-
plasm occur, whereby this film is more
easily injured by the salts. If we suppress
the oxidations we suppress also the proc-
esses leading to cell division and thereby
retard the deleterious action of the ab-
normal salt solution upon the surface layer
of the protoplasm of the egg.
XI
If we now raise the question as to why
salts are necessary for the preservation of
the life of the cell we can point to a num-
ber of cases in which this answer seems
clear. Each cell may be considered a chem-
ical factory, in which the work can only
go on in the proper way, if the diffusion
of substances through the cell wall is
restricted. This diffusion depends on the
SCIENCE
665
nature of the surface layer of the cell.
Overton and others assume that this layer
consists of a continuous membrane of fat
or lipoids. This assumption is not com-
patible with two facts, namely that water
diffuses very rapidly into the cell, and
second, that life depends upon an exchange
of water-soluble and not of fat-soluble
substances between the cells and the sur-
rounding liquid. The above mentioned
facts of the antagonism between acids and
salts suggest the idea that the surface film
of cells consists exclusively or essentially
of certain proteins.
The experiments mentioned in this paper
indicate that the réle of salts in the preser-
vation of life consists in the ‘‘tanning’’
effect which they have upon the surface
films of the cells, whereby these films ac-
quire those physical qualities of durability
and comparative impermeability, without
which the cell cannot exist.
On this assumption we can understand
that neutral salts should be necessary for
the preservation of life although they do
not furnish energy.
As far as the dynamical effects of salts
are concerned it is not impossible that
some of them belong also to the type of those
mentioned in this paper. The fact that
the addition of calcium to an NaCl solu-
tion prevents the twitchings of the muscle,
which occur in the pure NaCl solution,
suggests the possibility that the CaCl,
merely prevents or retards the diffusion of
NaCl through the sarcolemma. But other
effects of salts, e. g., the apparent depend-
ence of contractility of the muscle upon
the presence of NaCl; or the rdle of PO, in
the nucleus, do not find their explanation
in the facts discussed in this paper.
JACQUES LOEB
ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE
FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH
~ 4 :
‘
|
|
t
Fe
way
pd
.
ar
4.
ee
a7
“4
2
of
666
POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING
PRECOCITY IN CHILDREN ’*
I
Srupents of the history of education
know that at one time or another since
Plato’s day efforts have been made to
hasten the development of children in re-
spect to the acquisition of the formal
branches of school instruction. Programs
have been worked out with a view to teach-
ing children to read and to write almost
as soon as they should begin to talk. How-
ever, it is significant of our latter-day
theories on this subject that the classical
writers on education esteemed most highly
in our times are distinguished because of
their vigorous opposition to these forcing
systems. Locke, Rousseau, Spencer, and
their numerous disciples have devoted
themselves to exposing the evil, as they
have thought, of introducing children too
early to reading, writing, arithmetic and
the like, maintaining that children who
were put to books too early were thereby
made dull and stupid instead of intelligent
and eapable. These pioneers in the dis-
cussion of a rational educational régime
endeavored to convince the parents and
teachers of their day that the early years
of life should be spent in spontaneous ac-
tivities, in contact with nature, and in
give-and-take relations with playmates.
When Spencer took up the problem, he at-
tempted to give scientific validity to the
common-sense views of Locke and Rous-
seau by pointing out that it is easily pos-
sible to arrest the development of the
child’s brain by crowding him through
subjects of study which are not suited to
his stage of development. According to
the Spencerian view, it is a mistake to
stimulate brain areas before nature in-
* Presented before Section L, American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science, at the Min-
neapolis meeting.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No, 881
tended they should be exercised; which
means, for one thing, that the child should
not be taught the three R’s at two or three
or even four years of age. The followers
of Spencer have been wont to interpret his
views on this question by likening the de-
velopment of the intellect to the develop-
ment of the digestive and assimilative sys-
tems. If a babe be given meat before
nature has prepared the organism for it,
nothing but harm can result therefrom,
which fact may be observed by any one
who is not obsessed by notions to the con-
trary. Spencer brought forward biolog-
ical and psychological evidence showing,
as he believed, and as practically all stu-
dents in this field now think, that there is
a definite order in which the intellectual
activities should be awakened; and if we
try to upset this order in our educational
programs we can hardly fail to disturb the
delicate adjustments of the mind, and so
to leave the individual all the weaker
therefor in the end.
These views expressed by Locke, Rous-
seau, Spencer and many more recent stu-
dents of education, biology, and psychology
have profoundly influenced the thought
and practise of teachers, and to a lesser ex-
tent of parents, in our own country. In
some of the older countries the view is still
popularly entertained that the child is a
small-sized copy of the adult, possessing in
miniature all the powers and faculties of
a grown person. So that whatever is ap-
propriate for the adult is also appropriate
for the child, except that the doses must
be reduced for the latter. It is the usual
practise in certain of the schools of the
Old World, and it was quite the fashion in
our own schools a few decades ago, to in-
troduce a child of four or five years of age
to all the ordinary subjects of instruction
in the elementary school. But the develop-
ment of biological and psychological sci-
j ’
NoveMBER 17, 1911]
ence in America, and its application to the
problems of human life, have caused people
to regard the child as different in most re-
spects from the adult. And in his train-
ing he must receive what is adapted to his
needs at different points in his evolution;
which must be determined by observing
him, rather than by giving him what may
be suited for adults, only less of it,
since he is not so large or strong. Dur-
ing the past few decades we have been
hearing constantly that if the modes of
thinking and the activities proper to an
immature individual be suppressed in the
child in order to rush him through the
period of childhood, then the modes of
thinking and the activities normal to adult
life will be abortive or disordered, or they
may not appear at all.
II
But within the last two or three years,
teachers and parents have been thrown
into a state of doubt and wonder on ac-
count of the reports which have been put
in circulation to the effect that normal
children two years of age or less have
been taught to read readily, not only in the
mother tongue, but in foreign languages;
and at this tender age they have shown
great facility in spelling, in numbers, and
in all branches of elementary education.
Recently an educational magazine pub-
lished the following account of the abilities
of Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr., of Palo
Alto, Cal., who was eight years of age at
the time the report was made. The ac-
count says:
She can carry on a conversation in English,
French, Spanish, Latin, Esperanto, Japanese, Rus-
sian, German, Polish and Italian, while in the first
five she can think as well as talk. Miss Stoner is
a healthy, normal child, as fond of dolls and play
as any other little girl who knows only one lan-
guage. Miss Stoner is also precocious as a writer
of verse, and a volume of her compositions has
SCIENCE
667
been published. This young lady shows not only
remarkably good sense of meter and rhyme, but a
keen sense of humor not often allied with pre-
cocity. This brilliant young woman of eight years
walked when she was six months old, talked when
eight months old, and scanned Virgil at one year
of age. She can take a sheet of music for the first
time, and, after looking it through once, can tell
every note that was on it and its place on the staff.
These are only a few of the wonderful things that
Winifred Sackville Stoner can do off-hand. The
interesting part of it all is that she has no one
unusual natural ability, but all this, from walking
at six months, talking at eight months and scan-
ning Virgil at twelve months, is acquired skill or
art, as you please, the result of the prodigious
activity of her teacher, Mrs. Stoner.
During the past three years accounts of
extraordinary precocity, similar to that of
Winifred Stoner, have been published re-
garding William James Sidis, of Brook-
line, and other children of various ages,
but all under twelve. The news has been
spread abroad very generally that these
children mastered the mother tongue in its
oral and written forms at two or three
years of age; that in a single year, at five
or six, they completed the eight grades of
the elementary school, and that they
pushed through the high school in a year
or two. While they have been accomplish-
ing these feats, they have had leisure to go
far beyond the work of either the elemen-
tary or the high school in special subjects,
as in mathematics in the case of Master W.
J. Sidis, for instance. The accounts of the
achievements of these children have all
laid emphasis on the mastery, in infancy,
of reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic,
grammar and a little later of geometry, as-
tronomy and the principles of physics,
chemistry, mechanics, and even history,
political economy and kindred branches.
These reports have all emphasized the
statement that the precocious children had
not been robbed of their childhood, but
that they spoke and conducted themselves
=
t
at
i
4 4
4
By
<4
i
_t
le
el.
668
as children, even though they thought as
adults, and even beyond most grown per-
sons. One reads that a certain boy of
eleven, on entering college, gave lectures
in higher mathematics to the professors of
the institution, some of whom had grown
gray in the unsuccessful attempt to solve
complicated problems which this child
solved easily. At the same time he would
romp like any ten-year-old; and on the
street or on the playground he could not
be distinguished from other typical boys of
his age, concealing a highly developed
brain behind childish features and actions.
Magazine and newspaper writers have as-
eribed this marvelous intellectual develop-
ment wholly to a rational educational
system, wherein children were taught to
concentrate their attention, and never to
waste their time or energy.
During the last eighteen months, the
writer of this paper has listened to nine
different addresses by educators in various
parts of the country, all of which assumed
that the accounts of the precocity of Sidis
and other children were founded on fact,
and that somewhat similar results could
and ought to be attained in the regular
work of the school. The writer has read
hundreds of newspaper editorials and com-
ments on these childish prodigies; and the
gist of most of them is that our prevailing
methods of teaching in the public schools
are, on the whole, of more harm than good,
for they waste much of the period of
childhood, and develop bad mental habits
in the young. Naturally these criticisms
have raised in many teachers’ minds the
queries whether our present conception of
childhood is not altogether erroneous, and
whether our educational system is not en-
tirely wrong. Already in some localities
the suggestion is being made that chil-
dren should enter school two or three years
earlier than they commonly now do, and
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXTV. No. 881
that they should devote themselves at the
outset wholly to reading, writing, spelling,
grammar and arithmetic; that work with
the hands, stories of all sorts, nature study,
drawing, music and the like should be
eliminated from the curriculum. State-
ments have been made to the effect that
any typical boy can be got ready for col-
lege at ten or eleven by starting him in to
read at two. The chief trouble in our
schools of to-day, say the newspaper
writers and some educational lecturers, is
that children do not learn to think cor-
rectly or effectively, because they are not
trained from the beginning in the subjects
which are of chief value in developing
right modes of thought.
Il
The present writer has attempted to get
from those close to some of the precocious
children referred to precise and detailed
accounts of just what they had accom-
plished in the various branches in which
they have been reported to be proficient,
but nothing but general and unsatisfactory
statements have been secured. So far as
ean be ascertained, there are accessible no
really reliable data of a sufficiently de-
tailed and specific character to enable one
to determine exactly what kind of ability
Miss Stoner, Jr., or Master Sidis, or any of
their class possesses in reading or arith-
metie or caleulus or Hebrew or what not.
So we must take the popular accounts,
such as parents, teachers and editors are
attaching importance to, and see what les-
sons may be drawn from them. Take read-
ing, for instance; some of these children
‘‘can read very readily at the age of two.”’
Now, one may learn to recognize words so
that he can pronounce them, but still not
be able to read in a true sense—that is to
say, his knowledge of a word may not be
anything but merely verbal. 1t may sug-
|
zt
Py
a
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
gest to him but a very slight part and pos-
sibly not any, of the subtle meaning which
it has come to possess through a long process
of development. The writer, to try out this
principle, has conducted some experi-
ments upon school children, with a view
to discovering whether individuals could
correctly pronounce words they did not
understand in any adequate or precise
manner. The method of teaching reading
in the schools in which the experiments
were made leads pupils to endeavor to at-
tach some meaning to all new words in
their lessons; but even so, there was not a
pupil tested beyond the third grade who
could not readily pronounce words which
were utterly unintelligible to him, these
words being chosen from the works of
Shakespeare, Spencer, Emerson § and
Roosevelt. Practically all these pupils
could easily pronounce the words in com-
plete passages which meant nothing to
them. Again, I tried these pupils in read-
ing problems in arithmetic and theorems
in geometry; and most of them could with-
out hesitation pronounce the words in
problems they could not interpret. Other
tests, some of them with university stu-
dents reading a foreign language, simply
impressed the principle that the oral rend-
ering of words and sentences is one thing,
while the correct appreciation of them in
all their significations is an altogether dif-
ferent thing.
It will be readily granted that the least
important part of the process in reading is
simple recognition of words as mere verbal
forms, either visual or auditory. Most of
what is vital in learning to read, and
which is a test of the degree of mental de-
velopment one has reached, has reference
to the gaining of the meaning which words
and phrases have gradually come to de-
note. He who can not bring these mean-
ings before consciousness when he looks
SCIENCE
upon words, even though he can pronounce
them, has not learned to read in a true
sense, as this term should be understood.
He has simply gained a certain degree of
familiarity with a peculiar kind of visual
object—an extremely simple, mechanical
sort of thing, requiring no very high de-
gree of mentality to master.
Perhaps a special phase of the general
matter before us should be impressed at
this point. A child, or even an adult, may
be able to recognize isolated words, so that
he can pronounce them, and an onlooker
may say that he can read them. But read-
ing for the gaining of content does not con-
sist so much in dealing with isolated words,
as in grasping, as a whole, the phrase, the
clause or the sentence. Any good reader
is largely unconscious of particular words
in his reading. These fuse into larger
unities, which alone eonvey real meaning.
But a child may be taught to recognize
and vocalize detached words, while at the
same time he may be utterly unable to com-
bine these into patterns in the way in which
they must be actually utilized in gaining or
expressing thought. One often comes across
children who ean call off the individual
words in a sentence, but they may be
utterly at sea when asked to give the
meaning of this sentence. They fail to
grasp it as a unity, and so it has little, if
any, meaning for them.
It is a simple matter of psychology that
reading for content, instead of simply for
verbal recognition, can not go beyond the
individual’s experience with the meaning
which is denoted. No one would be quite so
foolish as to claim that a child of two who
had had no experience outside of his nur-
sery could read understandingly the Old
Testament, for instance, er Tennyson’s
‘‘In Memoriam,’’ or Milton’s ‘‘ Paradise
Lost.’’ It is possible he might be taught
to pronounce the words; but reading for
&
&
+.
3
)
670 SCIENCE
him would be a process simply of verbal
recognition and vocal execution, and the
really essential element in the reading
would be entirely beyond him.
But when reports are circulated of the
extraordinary reading ability of two- or
three-year-old children, adults are likely
to interpret the statements made from the
standpoint of their own processes in read-
ing, wherein they are concerned almost
wholly with content instead of form, and
they are amazed, because they can not con-
ceive how a child of so tender an age could
amass such a fund of experience as read-
ing Plato and Shakespeare and Darwin re-
quires. The majority of people, in their
off-hand way, consider reading as a unit-
ary process, and they jump to the conclu-
sion that pronouncing words denotes ap-
preciation of meaning; and herein is the
foundation for one popular misconception
regarding precocity as described in the
publie prints.
IV
Reports of the remarkable mathematical
ability of four-year-old American children
have been extensively circulated through-
out our country and abroad. It has been
said that these prodigies have worked
through algebra, geometry, caleulus and
other branches of higher mathematics at
this early age. But as in the case of read-
ing, so here it is necessary to determine
just what kind of mathematical ability is
displayed by these children. The writer
has tested a group of pupils in the second
grade who are able to perform the funda-
mental operations in arithmetic, but who
have no true arithmetical images or con-
cepts. It is a simple matter of psychology
that the figures 4, 5 and 9 may be so fre-
quently seen together in a certain special
relation that when the first two are per-
ceived the last will inevitably arise. This
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No. 881
is nothing but a mere mechanical associa-
tion of impressions—the lowest form of in-
tellectual organization.
Again, any one who will take the trouble
to look for them may find children who are
able to apply the fundamental operations
in a variety of ways following certain mod-
els that have been shown them, but they
do not comprehend the actual situations
which are symbolized by these processes.
They simply manipulate figures according
to a given pattern; they do not construct
mentally any vital content for their sym-
bolic operations. This latter thing is what
the mature individual is constantly doing,
if he has developed properly, and he is apt
to assume that the child too conceives ac-
tual situations in the world of things when
he solves his problems; and this is another
reason for popular error in reacting upon
tales of precocious children.
We might illustrate this latter point by
referring to some common game, as check-
ers. No one will say that if a child should
learn how to jump men on a checker board,
imitating examples of the method given
him by others, that on this account he
would display any knowledge of the world
of people or things about him. He would
simply be required to establish a series of
mechanical associations which may never
be utilized anywhere in the world except
on the checker board. To say that because
a two-year-old child could play checkers
he was therefore highly developed intel-
lectually would be rather absurd. There
are on record cases of persons wholly in-
eompetent, even feeble minded in most
things, who could carry through a game
like checkers very well; and even simpler
and easier is the process of arithmetical
computation, which has in certain cases
been developed to a marvelous extent by
persons who have been imbeciles in most
other respects. For a two-year-old child
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
to be able to play checkers would indicate
simply that he had developed the power of
attending to this sort of thing beyond
what most normal children of this age
spontaneously manifest; though if it were
thought to be worth while the typical child
could easily be trained to do this thing
with a greater or less degree of success.
But while a two-year-old might be able
to attend to the sort of situation presented
on a checker board, he might at the same
time be utterly deficient in attending to
an unfamiliar human face so that he could
recognize it the next time he saw it, and
especially so that he might know whether
to laugh or to ery in the presence of the
stranger, It can scarcely be doubted that
it requires a much higher order of intel-
lectual process to discern the traits of a
stranger in order to discover what to do
with regard to him, than to learn to move
checkers on a board, or to tell that six and
six make twelve, or to solve a problem in
cube root or quadratie equations, or to
speak seven different languages, and so on.
The analysis of a human personality, and
the interpretation of what is observed, is
a more complicated matter than the analy-
sis of any situation presented in mathe-
matics. More factors have to be taken
account of in deciding what sort of atti-
tude to assume toward a person than to
solve any problem in caleulus. And more-
over, these factors are very subtly related
to one another; they are plastic and dy-
namic, and extremely variable as compared
with mathematical phenomena. One can
take his time about a problem in Euclidean
geometry. The relations to be discovered
will not change from one moment to
another; they are static and permanent.
They are not affected by environing con-
ditions, which characteristic makes them
far more simple psychologically than any
living thing, and especially than a human
SCIENCE
671
being, whose expressions, which the child
must apprehend and interpret, vary with
a varying environment, so that they are
likely to be constantly passing from one
variety into another. But even so, every
normal child of two years of age is con-
stantly analyzing living, and particularly
human beings, and drawing more or less
correct inferences from the phenomena ob-
served. A_ typical two-year-old child
knows what sort of an attitude to take
toward his father and mother and brothers
and sisters and servants in many of their
different moods. If he has come in con-
tact with people outside the family, he may
be able to adjust himself fairly well to a
considerable number of people who may
differ from one another in various respects.
The child of this age who has pets knows
how to deal with them appropriately to
their main distinguishing traits; and he
will modify his attitude toward them ac-
cording as their expressions change.
When it comes to inanimate objects, the
young child understands the essential na-
ture of a large number of them, so that he
ean adapt himself to them.
From the standpoint of precocity, all
this vital knowledge of living and inani-
mate things, which the typical two-year-
old possesses, is far more wonderful than a
knowledge of the forms of words, or opera-
tions with numbers, or even applying geo-
metrical formule to particular problems.
It seems reasonable to say that every nor-
mal five-year-old child has performed
much more difficult feats in discovering
the qualities of human beings say, and ad-
justing himself to them, than would be
essential in learning to speak sentences in
Spanish, French, German and Greek.
This statement will doubtless be ques-
tioned by one who has not reflected upon
the matter; but the reason it may seem ex-
treme is because it is more in line with
4
4
te
a
672
custom and with native tendency for a
young child to learn how to adapt himself
to the world of people and things about
him than to memorize verbal combinations.
It is to be expected that people will marvel
at the accomplishments of a boy of ten who
can speak divers tongues, and recite geo-
metrical demonstrations, because such
feats are unusual, not because they are at
all impossible for the typical child, or be-
cause they denote a superior order of
mental development. What such pre-
eocious performances indicate is simply
that the mind of the ‘‘prodigy’’ has been
stimulated in these particular directions,
often, if not always, to the exclusion to a
greater or less extent of stimulation in the
ordinary directions.
The writer has subjected certain so-
ealled precocious children in language and
the like to tests which were designed to
show whether they had learned as much
about nature and human nature, and had
acquired as much skill in manipulating
inanimate objects about them at the age
of nine or ten, as the typical child whose
time and energies from birth onward had
been devoted largely to learning things as
contrasted with words and formule. Ma-
king allowances for rare exceptions, it may
be said that pupils who are precocious in
speaking and reading foreign tongues, and
working text-book problems in arithmetic,
algebra and geometry, are distinctly in-
ferior to the typical children of their age
in their understanding of realities, and
especially in effective reaction upon the
environment in making it over into new
forms or patterns, or directing the forces
of nature into new channels. These pre-
cocious children often memorize the con-
tents of an arithmetic say, without having
any adequate notion of the realities which
arithmetical processes ought to symbolize.
They may learn the table of dry measure,
SCIENCE
[N.S. VoL. XXXIV. No, 88]
for instance, so they can recite it off, and
apply it in text-book problems, but with-
out having any just conception of the size
and relation of the units which are men-
tioned in the table, or any notion of how
they are utilized in every-day life in facili-
tating the relations between human beings.
And what is true of precocity in arith-
metic is true in principle of all the studies
pursued in the schools, especially of such
subjects as algebra, geometry, and other
branches of mathematics, which are so fre-
quently mentioned in all discussions of
precocity. Marked ability in the formal
aspects of these subjects, such aspects as
are emphasized in the schools usually, may
go along with utter incapacity in adjust-
ment to the vital situations of life. Con-
sider which requires the higher degree of
mental development—to look on a group
of algebraic symbols at leisure, change
their positions according to a _pattern-
method which has been presented; or to
discern the characteristics of a new com-
panion who may come into a group, and
to determine with celerity what he can be
used for, and how he must be dealt with.
The fact that the former situation is less
interesting to the child than the latter
should not prevent one from seeing its
relative simplicity. Inasmuch as algebra,
geometry, German and so on lack color,
life and vitality for the young child they
do not appeal to him as do the human face
and many natural objects, which are so
intimately bound up with his welfare.
The mind of the child is unquestionably
constructed on a plan whereby attention
must be given primarily to people and to
things as contrasted with words and sym-
bols, because the former have played the
leading réle in human evolution. If our
forbears had not shown a spontaneous in-
terest in the realities in their environment
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
the race would have been eliminated long
ago.
This fact may warrant the statement at
this point that the study of people and of
natural objects and forces should furnish
the principal material for the young
child’s education. He must get his mental
set in the direction of gaining insight, first
into the qualities and needs of his fellows,
and second into the constitution of nature,
and the operation of her laws. Not books
but realities should constitute the earliest
nourishment of the mind. To give the
child a set in the beginning so that he
would be more interested in the symbols
for realities than in the realities them-
selves would result in arresting his mental
development, and in developing in him a
type of mind capable only of working on
the lower planes of mechanical association.
And it is easily possible to commit this
latter sort of crime. One who will look
about him in the schools will not lack for
evidence showing that children who have
early been nurtured upon symbols have
never gained a true feeling for or interest
in the real world in which they must live
and have their being.
One of the most interesting phases of
present-day discussion of precocity is the
high value which the average person puts
upon the ability of a child to enter college
at an unusually early age. When a boy
passes college entrance examinations at the
age of eleven or twelve, everyone who
hears of it is likely to exclaim at his re-
markable intellectual development. But
one might justly say of the requirements for
entering college that they are mainly ver-
bal, conventional, and symbolic; they con-
cern the tools of knowledge, not true knowl-
edge itself. A pupil might be able to pass
brilliantly in every examination for admis-
sion to many colleges, without possessing the
ability to adjust himself to life efficiently.
SCIENCE
673
A boy might have to sit in a corner when
he was among a group of his own fellows,
but yet he might work out quadratic equa-
tions with success. <A child might be quite
incapable of using his muscles in the per-
formance of any useful motor task, and
still he might be able to demonstrate that
the sum of the interior angles of a triangle
equals two right angles. The college en-
trance examinations, speaxing generally
(it is not so true to-day as it was formerly)
test only a low order of knowledge, mostly
the variety requiring for its mastery mainly
mechanical memory. The colleges them-
selves now appreciate this, and the prob-
lem of changing the examination system
so that it may measure real ability in-
stead of mere verbal learning is receiving
attention throughout the country.
Finally, it may be said that in all times
students of mental development and of
education have recognized that if knowl-
edge be presented to the child in accord-
ance with the laws of apperception, he will
progress far more rapidly in comprehend-
ing the world around him than if he be
left wholly to himself, or if ignorant
teachers present facts to him so that he can
not grasp them and assimilate them. One
who has skill and patience in leading a
child always to understand what he sees
about him, and to discern the laws which
govern things, can in time give him a set
so that he will spontaneously come to
search after the real connections between
the objects and phenomena he observes. —
It seems evident that this has been done to
some extent in the case of certain children
whose intellectual attainments have at-
tracted attention during the past two or
three years; and they may perhaps be
said to be really precocious. However,
there can be no doubt that many children
have attained just as great advancement
in informal education; but knowledge of
~
fe
=:
aS
4
\)
£
as
=
\
674
this latter kind does not attract the atten-
tion of the multitude, partly because it can
not be readily tested in examination, and
secondly because it is more ordinary, more
common. It is the unusual thing always
that arouses the wonder of people, and sets
them to talking.
Vv
These modern instances of intellectual
prodigies, then, give us no new view of hu-
man nature, and no new theory of educa-
tion. They simply indicate what may be
achieved in any particular direction by
persistent, systematic, organized instruc-
tion. The particular intellectual achieve-
ments of these cases serves as no indication
of how the majority of children ought to
be trained; but they do impress the value
of educational principles which are fa-
miliar to all who are in the business.
M. V. O’SHEA
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
THE WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE
Tue sixty-third meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
and the tenth of the “convocation week”
meetings, will be held in Washington, De-
cember 27 to 30, 1911. A meeting of the exec-
utive committee of the council (consisting of
the general secretary, the secretary of the
council, the permanent secretary, and the sec-
retaries of all of the sections) will be held at
the office of the permanent secretary, in the
New Willard Hotel, at noon, on Tuesday, De-
cember 26. The opening general session of
the association will be held at 8 o’clock p.m.,
on Wednesday, December 27, in the main as-
sembly hall, new U. S. National Museum.
The council will meet Wednesday morning,
December 27, in the New Willard Hotel at 9
o’clock. Sections will meet in their respective
halls at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
The program for the entire meeting will be
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No. 881
issued on Wednesday, December 27, and
copies may be obtained at the office of the
permanent secretary in the New Willard
Hotel.
The following events may be announced in
advance:
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26
The register for the Washington meeting will be
open from 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., at the general
office of the association in the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, and on following days from 9:00 A.M. to
5:00 P.M. at hotel headquarters, New Willard
Hotel. The register will be open from 6:30 to
9:00 P.M. at hotel headquarters, New Willard
Hotel.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27
9:00 a.M.—The council will meet in the council
room at the New Willard Hotel. Registration
from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
10:00 a.M.—The sections will meet in their
respective meeting-places for organization, and
where sections have programs the reading of
papers will begin after organization.
2:00 P.M.—Meetings of the sections and affili-
ated societies.
2:30 p.M.—Addresses by retiring vice-presidents
as follows: Vice-president Frankforter, before the
Section of Chemistry, on ‘‘The Resins and their
Chemical Relations to the Terpenes’’; Vice-presi-
dent Reighard, before the Section of Zoology, on
‘* Adaptation’’; Vice-president Harper, before the
Section of Botany, on ‘‘Some Current Conceptions
of the Germ Plasm,’’
8:00 p.M.—First general session of the associa-
tion in the assembly ‘hhall of the new U. S. Na-
tional Museum. The meeting will be called to
order by the retiring president, Dr. A. A. Michel-
son, who will introduce the president of the meet-
ing, Dr. Charles E. Bessey. It is expected that
the address of welcome will be given by the presi-
dent of the United States. Reply by President
Bessey. Announcements by secretaries. Agree-
ment on the hours of meetings. Annual address
by the retiring president, Dr. A. A. Michelson, on
‘‘Recent Progress in Spectroscopic Methods.’’
Adjournment of the general session, to be followed
by an informal reception and inspection of the
exhibits of the new National Museum.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28
9:00 A.m.—The council will meet in the council
room at the New Willard Hotel. Registration
from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
10:00 A.M.—Programs of sections and affiliated
societies.
2:30 p.M—Addresses by retiring vice-presidents
as follows: Vice-president Rosa, before the
Section of Physics, on ‘‘ Work of the Electrical
Division of the Bureau of Standards’’; Vice-
president Rotch, before the Section of Mechanical
Science and Engineering, on ‘‘ Aerial Engineer-
ing’’; Vice-president Hill, before the Section of
Edueation, on ‘‘The Teaching of General Courses
in Science.’’
3:00 to 4:30 p.M.—Exhibition cavalry drill at
Fort Myer, Va.
8:00 p.M.—Informal reception at the Corcoran
Art Gallery, by invitation of the trustees of the
gallery.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29
9:00 aA.M.—The council will meet in the council
room at the New Willard Hotel. Registration
from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
10:00 a.M.—Continuation of programs of sec-
tions and affiliated societies.
2:30 p.M.—Addresses by retiring vice-presidents
as follows: Vice-president Moore, before the Sec-
tion of Mathematics and Astronomy, ‘‘On the
Foundations of the Theory of Linear Integral
Equations’’; Vice-president Dixon, before the Sec-
tion of Anthropology and Psychology, on ‘‘ The
Independence of the Culture of the American In-
dian,’’ Vice-president Novy, before the Section of
Physiology and Experimental Medicine, title to be
announced.
3:00 P.M.—Vice-president Burton, before the
Section of Social and Economic Science, on ‘‘ The
Cause of High Prices.’’
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30
10:00 A.M.—Continuation of programs of sec-
tions and affiliated societies.
There will be a number of joint meetings
and the usual smokers. and dinners and meet-
ings of special societies and groups.
The plan of meeting places is as follows:
Section A—-Mathematics and Astronomy—Car-
negie Institution, corner Sixteenth and P Streets.
Section B—Physies, with American Physical So-
ciety—Bureau of Standards, Connecticut Avenue
extended,
Section C—Chemistry, with American Chemical
Society—MeKinley Manual Training School,
Seventh Street and Rhode Island Avenue.
Section D—Mechanical Science and Engineering
SCIENCE
675
—Georgetown Law School, 506 E Street N. W.
Section E—Geology and Geography, with Geo-
logical Society of America—New National Mu-
seum, Eleventh and B Streets.
Section F—Zoology—New National Museum.
Section G—Botany, with Botanical Society of
America—Business High School, Ninth Street and
Rhode Island Avenue.
Section H—Anthropology and Psychology, with
American Anthropological Association—Public
Library, Seventh and K Streets.
Section I—Social and Economie Science, with
American Economie Association—New Raleigh
Hotel, Twelfth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Section K—Physiology and Experimental Medi-
cine—To be announced in daily program.
Section L—Education—To be announced in
daily program.
A railroad rate of one fare and three fifths
for the round trip, on the certificate plan, has
been granted by the Trunk Line Association,
the Eastern Canadian and the New England
Passenger Associations (not including the
Bangor and Aroostook Railroad and the
Eastern and the Metropolitan Steamship
Companies). The Southwestern Passenger
Association offers no special rate, but advises
members to take advantage of the “ Christmas
Holiday Excursion Rates,” the dates of sale
being December 15, 16, 17 and 21 to 25, inclu-
sive, with final return date of January 8, 1912.
From the states of California, Nevada, Ore-
gon, Washington and west of, and including,
Mission Junction, B. C.; also from what are
known as Kootenay common points, namely,
Nelson, Rossland, Sandon, Kaslo and Grand
Forks, B. C., the Transcontinental Passenger
Association has on sale daily Nine Months
Tourists fares, approximating two cents per
mile in each direction, or about one fare and
one third for the round trip. The nine months
fares apply to the eastern gateways of the
transcontinental territory, and station agents
will cheerfully advise delegates as to the east-
ern points to which it will be most advan-
tageous for them to purchase nine months
tickets in rebuying through to Washington.
The officers for the Washington meeting are:
President—Charles E. Bessey, University of Ne-
braska, Lincoln, Nebr.
af
o
-
676
Vice-presidents—
A—Mathematies and Astronomy, Edwin B.
Frost, Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay,
Wis.
B—Physics—Robert A. Millikan, University of
Chicago, Chicago, Il.
C—Chemistry—Frank K. Cameron, U. 8S. De-
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
D—Mechanical Science and Engineering—
Charles 8S. Howe, Case School of Applied Sci-
ence, Cleveland, Ohio.
E—Geology and Geography—Bohumil Shimek,
State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
F—Zoology—Henry F. Nachtrieb, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
G—Botany—Frederick C. Neweombe, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
H—Anthropology and Psychology—George T.
Ladd, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
I—Social and Economie Science—J. Pease Nor-
ton, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
K—Physiology and Experimental Medicine—
William T. Porter, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, Mass.
L—Education—Edward L. Thorndike, Columbia
University, New York, N. Y.
Permanent Secretary—L. O. Howard, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D. C.
General Secretary—John Zeleny, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.
Secretary of the Council—Theodore 8S. Palmer,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington,
D. C.
Secretaries of the Sections—
A—Mathematics and Astronomy—George A.
Miller, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.
B—Physies—A. D. Cole, Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio.
C—Chemistry—C. H. Herty, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.
D—Mechanical Science and Engineering—G. W.
Bissell, Michigan Agricultural College, East
Lansing, Mich.
E—Geology and Geography—F. P. Gulliver,
Norwich, Conn.
F—Zoology—Maurice A. Bigelow, Columbia
University, New York, N. Y.
G—Botany—Henry C. Cowles, University of
Chieago, Chicago, Il.
H—Anthropology and
Grant MacCurdy, Yale
Haven, Conn.
I—Social and Economie Sciencee—Seymour C.
Loomis, 69 Church Street, New Haven, Conn.
Psychology—George
University, New
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No, 88]
K—Physiology and Experimental Medicine—
George T. Kemp, 8 West 25th Street, Balti-
more, Md.
L—Edueation—C. Riborg Mann, University of
Chicago, Chicago, Il.
Treasurer—R. 8S. Woodward, Carnegie Institution,
Washington, D. C.
Assistant to Permanent Secretary—F. 8. Hazard,
Office of the A. A. A. S., Smithsonian Institu-
tion, Washington, D. C.
The following societies have indicated their
intention to meet in Washington during con-
vocation week in affiliation with the American
Association for the Advancement of Science:
American Anthropological Asscciation.—Meets
on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,
December 27 to 30, in the Public Library. One
afternoon to be devoted to discussion of topie,
‘*Environment and Culture.’’ Joint meeting with
American Folk-Lore Society on Thursday, Decem-
ber 28. Secretary, Dr. George Grant MacCurdy,
Yale University Museum, New Haven, Conn.
Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of
America.—Meets on Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, December 27 to 29, in Carnegie Institu-
tion. Secretary, Professor William J. Hussey,
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Society of American Bacteriologists.—Meets on
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 27
to 29, in the Cosmos Club. Joint meetings with
Section K and American Phytopathological So-
ciety. Secretary, Dr. Charles E. Marshall, East
Lansing, Mich.
American Society of Biological Chemists.—Meets
in Baltimore, Md., from Wednesday morning, De-
cember 27, to Friday noon, December 29. Joint
session to be held in McKinley Manual Training
School, Washington, D. C., with the Biological Sec-
tion, American Chemical Society, on Friday after-
noon, December 29. Secretary, Professor A. N.
Richard, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
Pa.
Botanical Society of America.—Meets on Wednes-
day, Thursday and Friday, December 27 to 29, in
the Business High School. Joint session with Sec-
tion G and American Phytopathological Society on
Friday, December 29. Secretary, Dr. George T.
Moore, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo.
American Chemical Society.—Meets on Wednes-
day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December
27 to 30, in the McKinley Manual Training School.
Biological Section meets in joint session with
American Society of Biological Chemists on Fri-
/
17, 1911]
day afternoon, December 29. Secretary, Professor
Charles L. Parsons, New Hampshire College, Dur-
ham, N. H.
American Civic Alliance.—Meets on Friday, De-
cember 29, in the New Raleigh Hotel. Secretary,
Gerald Van Casteel, 165 Broadway, New York,
N. Y.
American Economic Association—Meets on
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, De-
eember 27 to 30, in the New Raleigh Hotel. Sec-
retary, Professor T. N. Carver, Harvard Univer-
sity, Cambridge, Mass.
American Association of Economic Entomolo-
gists.—Meets on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,
December 27 to 29, in the new National Museum.
Joint session with the Entomological Society of
America on Wednesday, December 27, at 1 P.M.
Secretary, A. F. Burgess, Melrose Highlands, Mass,
Entomological Society of America.—Meets on
Tuesday and Wednesday, December 26 and 27, in
the new National Museum. Secretary, Dr. Alex.
D. MacGillivray, 604 East John St., Champaign,
Ill.
American Fern Society.—Meets in the Business
High School. Dates of meetings not yet an-
nounced. Secretary, Professor L. S. Hopkins,
Lincoln High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.
American Folk-Lore Society.—Meets on Thurs-
day, December 28, in the Public Library. Joint
meeting with American Anthropological Associa-
tion. Secretary, Dr. Charles Peabody, Peabody
Museum, Cambridge, Mass.
Association of American Geographers.—Meets
on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 28
to 30, in Hubbard Memorial Hall. Secretary,
Professor Albert P. Brigham, Colgate University,
Hamilton, N. Y.
Geological Society of America.—Meets on
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, De-
cember 27 to 30, in the new National Museum.
Secretary, Dr. E. O. Hovey, American Museum of
Natural History, New York, N. Y.
American Federation of Teachers of the Mathe-
matical and the Natural Sciences.—Meets on
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 27
to 29, in Georgetown Law School Building, 506
E Street, N. W. Joint sessions will be held with
Section L. Secretary, Professor Eugene R. Smith,
Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.
American Home Economics Association—Meets
on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 28
to 30. Place of meeting to be announced. Secre-
tary, Dr. Benjamin R. Andrews, Teachers College,
Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
SCIENCE
677
Society for Horticultural Science-—Meets on
Friday, December 29, at the Business High School.
Secretary, C. P. Close, College Park, Md.
American Association for Labor Legislation.—
Will meet in the New Raleigh Hotel. Dates to be
announced. Secretary, Dr. John B. Andrews,
Metropolitan Tower, New York, N. Y.
American Microscopical Society.—Will hold
business session only, on date to be announced.
Place of meeting: New Ebbitt House. Secretary,
Dr. T. W. Galloway, James Millikin University,
Decatur, Ill.
American Nature-Study Society.—Meets on
Wednesday and Thursday, December 27 and 28,
in the Business High School. President and Act-
ing Secretary, Dr. Benjamin M. Davis, Miami Uni-
versity, Oxford, Ohio.
Paleontological Society of America.—Meets on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 28 to
30, in the new National Museum. Secretary, R. 8.
Bassler, U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C.
American Physical Society.—Meets with Section
B at the U. S. Bureau of Standards. Dates to be
announced. Secretary, Professor Ernest Merritt,
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.
American Physiological Society.—Meets on Fri-
day, December 29, in the George Washington Med-
ical School. Joint session with Section K. Secre-
tary, Dr. A. J. Carlson, University of Chicago,
Chicago, Il.
American Phytopathological Society.—Meets at
the Business High School on dates to be announced.
Joint sessions with Section G and Botanical So-
ciety of America on Wednesday and Thursday,
December 27 and 28. Secretary, Dr. C. L. Shear,
U. 8S. Department of Agriculture, Washington,
D. C.
American Psychological Association.—Meets on
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 27 to
29, in the George Washington Medical School.
Joint meeting with Sections F and L on dates to
be announced. Secretary, Professor W. V. Bing-
ham, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H.
Sigma Xi.—Annual meeting in affiliation with
A. A. A. S. to be held on Friday afternoon, De-
cember 29. Place to be announced.
American Sociological Association.—Will meet
in the New Raleigh Hotel on dates to be an-
nounced. Secretary, Professor A. A. Tenney, Co-
lumbia University, New York, N. Y.
American Statistical Association —Will meet in
the New Raleigh Hotel on dates to be announced.
Joint meeting with American Economic Associa-
tion on Thursday, December 28, at 8 P.M. Secre-
4
2
=
WS
t
Ng
ons
~"
678
tary, Professor C. W. Doten, Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, Boston, Mass.
Sullivant Moss Society—Meets on Thursday,
December 28, in the Business High School. Secre-
tary, Mrs. Annie Morrill Smith, 78 Orange Street,
Brooklyn, N. Y. Acting Secretary, W. R. Maxon,
U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C.
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
—Meets on Friday and Saturday, December 29
and 30, in the George Washington Medical School.
Joint meeting with American Psychological Asso-
ciation on date to be announced. Secretary, Dr.
R. M. Ogden, University of Tennessee, Knoxville,
Tenn.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS
It is cabled from Stockholm that the Nobel
prize for chemistry has been awarded to Mme.
Curie, of the University of Paris. These pre-
liminary announcements are usually but not
always correct. The Nobel prize in 1903 was
awarded half to Professor Pierre Curie and
Mme. Curie and half to Professor Becquerel.
Tue daily papers state that Dr. J. M. T.
Finney, A.B. (Princeton ’84), M.D. (Har-
vard ’89), of the surgical staff of Johns Hop-
kins Hospital, has been offered the presidency
of Princeton University.
Dr. Eimer E. Brown, late U. S. commis-
sioner of education, was installed as chancellor
of New York University on November 9.
Proressor Ernest W. Brown, of Yale Uni-
versity, has been elected an honorary fellow
of Christ’s College, Cambridge.
At the annual meeting of the Royal So-
ciety of Edinburgh on October 23, Sir Wil-
liam Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., was elected
president, and Professor J. C. Ewart, F.R.S.,
Dr. J. Horne, F.R.S., Dr. J. Burgess, Pro-
fessor T. Hudson Beare, Professor F. O.
Bower, F.R.S. and Sir Thomas R. Fraser,
F.R.S., were elected vice-presidents.
Tue following astronomers have been
elected honorary members of the Astronomical
Society of Mexico: Professor A. Abetti, Flor-
ence; Professor G. Fayet, Nice; Professor R.
H. Baker, University of Missouri; Professor
F, W. Dyson, Astronomer Royal of England;
Professor S. A. Mitchell, of Columbia Univer-
sity, and Professor W. Ebell, Kiel.
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No, 881
Dr. Grorce Biumer, dean of the faculty of
Yale Medical School, was elected president of
the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene,
at the third annual meeting of the society,
held recently in New Haven.
Tue fellowship of the International School
of American Archeology and Ethnology at
Mexico City, has been awarded by Harvard
University to George Plummer Howe, A.B.
1900, M.D. 1910, of Lawrence, Mass.
Dr. Wittis W. Warre has resigned as city
bacteriologist of Syracuse, N. Y., to become
director of Dr. Hugh Crause’s Clinical Lab-
oratory, of El Paso, Texas.
Proressor R. T. Crawrorp, of the Berkeley
astronomical department, University of Calli-
fornia, is absent on leave during the academic
year and is at present in Germany. During
his absence Professor D. W. Morehouse, of
Drake University, has been appointed instruc-
tor in astronomy.
Dr. Osten BercstranD has been appointed
professor of astronomy and director of the
Observatory at Upsala.
Proressor W. J. Hussey, who left Ann
Arbor in June to assume the directorship of
the Observatory of the National University
of La Plata, Argentina, is engaged in the re-
organization of the scientific work of that in-
stitution and is prosecuting his own re-
searches in the field of visual double stars
with gratifying results. Professor Hussey
retains his connection with the Observatory
of the University of Michigan and is develop-
ing the plan of cooperation in astronomical
work between the universities of Michigan
and La Plata, announced in Science earlier
in the year.
Dr. W. A. Cannon, of the Desert Labora-
tory, has returned to this country after travel-
ing sixteen months in Europe and north
Africa. He visited deserts adjacent to the
Nile River in Upper Egypt, and the southern
part of Algeria. In the latter country he
explored the region little known to botanists
between Ghardaia and Ouargla, and visited
Tougourt and the Oued Rirh.
NovEeMBER 17, 1911]
Travis Howarp, M.D., professor
of pathology, pathological anatomy and bacter-
iology, and Hippolyte Gruener, Ph.D., pro-
fessor of chemistry in Western Reserve Uni-
versity, have returned from a year’s leave of
absence spent in Europe. For the year 1911-
12, leave of absence has been granted to Olin
Freeman Tower, Ph.D., Hurlbut professor of
chemistry, who will spend the year abroad.
Dr. Tuomas E. Jones, of the new Univer-
sity of Queensland, Australia, is at present in
this country on a tour of inspection around
the world to study the system of correspond-
ence study at different universities.
Durine the meeting of the American Min-
ing Congress, Chicago, October 24-28, twenty-
eight geologists were in attendance. These in-
cluded five representing the U. S. Geological
Survey, fifteen from various State Surveys
and eight from the Universities of Chicago,
Northwestern, Wisconsin and Illinois. One
evening was made enjoyable by a birthday
dinner tendered to Dr. Eugene A. Smith,
state geologist of Alabama. Dr. Smith is still
vigorous at the age of 70. He has been in his
present official position since 1871 and has
published thirty-five or more volumes pertain-
ing to the geology of Alabama or related sub-
jects. His name will go down with that of
LeCgnte and Hilgard as pioneers in science
in the south. On the recent occasion toasts
were offered by Dr. George Otis Smith on be-
half of the U. S. Geological Survey; by Pro-
fessor A. H. Purdue on behalf of the state
geologists, and by Professor T. C. Chamber-
lin on behalf of the university group.
THe council of the Institution of Civil
Engineers has made the following awards in
respect of papers published in the Proceed-
ings for the session 1910-11: Telford premi-
ums to S. M. Dixon, M.A. (Birmingham), H.
J. F. Gourley, B.Eng. (London), J. Holden
(London), A, Rogers (Horsell), A. E. Griffin
(Hong-Kong), and F. Lea, D.Sc. (Birming-
ham); and a Crampton Prize to Professor W.
E. Dalby, M.A., B.Se. (London). The Indian
premium for 1911 has been awarded to C. E.
Capito (Ahwaz, Persia), and the Webb prize
to F. W. Bach (London).
SCIENCE 679
Ir is stated in Nature that at the conclu-
sion of the Harveian Oration, delivered by Dr.
Theodore Williams at the Royal College of
Physicians, on October 18, the president of
the college, Sir Thomas Barlow, presented the
Baly and the Bisset Hawkins gold medals.
The Baly medal was awarded to Professor W.
D. Halliburton, F.R.S. This medal was insti-
tuted in 1866 “in memoriam Gulielmi Baly,
M.D.,” and is awarded every alternate year to
the person who is deemed to have most dis-
tinguished himself in the science of physiol-
ogy, especially during the two years immedi-
ately preceding the award, and is not restricted
to British subjects. The Bisset Hawkins
medal was given to Dr. Clement Dukes. This
medal was established in 1896 by Captain FE.
Wilmont Williams, at the suggestion of Dr.
Theodore Williams, to perpetuate the memory
of Dr. Bisset Hawkins. It is bestowed tri-
ennially on some duly qualified medical prac-
titioner who is a British subject, and has dur-
ing the preceding ten years done work deserv-
ing special recognition in advancing sanitary
science or in promoting public health.
As Bross lecturer for this year, Professor
Josiah Royce, Ph.D., of Harvard University,
is giving a course of seven lectures on “ The
Sources of Religious Insight,” at Lake Forest
College from November 13 to 19.
At a meeting of the Senn Club, October 31,
plans were extended for a bronze statue to the
memory of Dr. Nicholas Senn, to be placed in
Lincoln Park. The statue is to cost $25,000,
and the funds are to be sought by subscrip-
tions from physicians.
At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences
in Havana, on October 13, Dr. Juan Guiter-
eras delivered an oration on the life and work
of Dr. Carlos Finlay. At the conclusion of
the address Dr. Santos Fernandez spoke
briefly on the same theme and urged the erec-
tion of a monument to Finlay in the Havana
Morro.
Proressor St. Linpeck, of the Reichsan-
stalt and editor of the Zeitschrift fiir Instru-
mentenkunde, died on October 21, aged 47
years. Dr. Lindeck was in America at the
»
the
try:
+s
af
wre
‘
|
|
680
Columbian Exhibition with von Helmholtz,
and was a member of the International Con-
ference on Electrical Units and Standards,
which met in London in 1908.
THe death is announced at the age of sev-
enty-four years of the Rev. Henry C. Mce-
Cook, D.D., a leading Presbyterian clergy-
man of Philadelphia, known also for his
popular scientific publications on entomology.
Dr. Antone Buiatin, former professor of
physiology at the Ecole de médecine de Cler-
mont, has died at the age of seventy-two years.
THe twentieth annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Psychological Association will be held in
Washington on Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday, December 27, 28 and 29. Hotel head-
quarters will be at the Ebbitt House. A
symposium on the demarcation of the distinct
difference between “Instinct and Intelli-
gence ” will be opened by Dr. Marshall. Pro-
fessor Herrick, Professor Yerkes and Pro-
fessor Judd have already completed the prepa-
ration of their contributions to this sym-
posium. Papers on the experimental study
of animal behavior will be read before a joint
session with Section F of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science and
the society will unite with Section L for one
session devoted to reports of research in edu-
cational psychology. The committee on ex-
periments useful in teaching psychology (class
and home experiments) will have some defi-
nite results of their year’s work to present to
the association. Plans are brewing for a
program on psychology in its relations to
medical education. The proposal meets with
the hearty approval of such representative edu-
eators as Drs. Adolf Meyer, Donaldson and
Prince. An exhibit of apparatus is being ar-
ranged.
Tue American Physiological Society will
hold its twenty-fourth annual meeting in
Baltimore and Washington during convoca-
tion week, beginning December 26, 1911. The
society will hold joint sessions in Baltimore
with the American Society of Biological
Chemists and with the American Society for
Pharmacology and Experimental Thera-
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No. 881
peutics, and in Washington with Section K,
of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. In Baltimore the place of
meeting will be the Johns Hopkins Medical
School.
THE tentative program for the sessions of
Section D at the Washington meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science in convocation week is as follows:
Wednesday, December 27.
Miscellaneous papers.
Thursday, December 28.
Morning session. Papers on aeronautics and re-
lated topics.
Afternoon session. Address of Professor A.
Lawrence Rotch, retiring vice-president of the
section. Subject: ‘‘ Aerial Engineering.’’
Friday, December 29.
Morning and afternoon sessions. Papers on
highway engineering.
Saturday, December 30.
Highway inspection trips, in charge of Professor
A. H. Blanchard.
Members of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science expecting to con-
tribute to the program of Section D should
so advise G. W. Bissell, secretary, East Lan-
sing, Mich., as soon as practicable and pre-
ferably not later than December 1. Blanks
for titles and abstracts will be furnished by
the secretary on request.
THe annual meeting of the Association of
American Agricultural Colleges and Experi-
ment Stations, will be held at Columbus, O.,
from November 15 to 17. Societies meeting
in affiliation are the Society for the Promo-
tion of Agricultural Science, American So-
ciety of Agronomy, American Farm Manage-
ment Association and the American Society
of Animal Nutrition on November 13 and 14;
American Association of Farm Institute
Workers, November 13 to 15, and Association
of Feed Control Officials of the U. S., No-
vember 17 and 18.
Mr. AnprEw Carnecie has turned over $25,-
000,000 in first mortgage bonds of the United
States Steel Corporation to the Carnegie Cor-
poration of New York, the body which was
incorporated by the legislature on June 9 of
the present year for the purpose of taking
over Mr. Carnegie’s work in connection with
educational institutions, libraries and hero
funds. The incorporators are Andrew Car-
negie, Elihu Root, William N. Frew, Henry S.
Pritchett, Robert S. Woodward, Charles L.
Taylor, James Bertram and Robert A.
Franks. Mr. Root is head of the Carnegie
Peace Foundation, Mr. Frew is president of
the board of trustees of the Carnegie Institu-
tion of Pittsburgh. Mr. Pritchett is president
of the Carnegie Foundation. Mr. Woodward
is president of the Carnegie Institution at
Washington. Mr. Taylor is president of the
Carnegie Hero Fund. Mr. Franks is president
of the Home Trust Company. Mr. Bertram
is Mr. Carnegie’s secretary. The objects of
the corporation are “receiving and main-
taining a fund or funds and applying the in-
come thereof to promote the advancement and
diffusion of knowledge and understanding
among the people of the United States, by
aiding technical schools, institutions of higher
learning, libraries, scientific research, hero
funds, useful publications and by such other
means as shall from time to time be found
appropriate therefor.” The incorporators have
elected officers as follows: Mr. Carnegie,
president; Senator Root, vice-president; Mr.
Franks, treasurer, and Mr. Bertram, secretary.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS
As a result of the action of the Michigan
Board of Tax Equalization, it is estimated
that the University of Michigan will in the
future receive $208,000 more from the state
for its maintenance than heretofore. The
total valuation of property in the state has
been increased by approximately $555,000,000,
and the three eighths mill tax will yield an an-
nual income for the university of $858,000,
instead of $650,000 as formerly.
Turovucn the death of Joseph Pulitzer the
$1,000,000 which he had given Columbia Uni-
versity to found a School of Journalism has
been automatically released. A meeting of
the advisory board named in the agreement
between the university and Mr. Pulitzer will
be called in a few weeks. It is understood
Novemser 17, 1911] SCIENCE 681
that if the work of the school during the first
three years is regarded as satisfactory by the
board, it will receive a further endowment of
$1,000,000.
At the last session of the legislature of the
state of Minnesota among other appropria-
tions for the university was one which will
net $5,000 for each of the two years before
the next legislature assembles to be voted ex-
clusively to research, not agricultural, since
that is cared for otherwise. When the ques-
tion of the allotment of this sum was to be
met, a research committee drawn from the
faculty of the graduate school was consti-
tuted for the purpose of passing upon the
applications for aid in research and recom-
mend to the president and regents what allot-
ments they should make from this fund, as
well as drawing up regulations under which
the expenditures should be made.
By the will of Miss Phoebe Caroline
Swords, of New York City, $41,000 is be-
queathed to St. Luke’s Hospital and $20,000 to
Columbia University, of which $10,000 is for
a scholarship at the College of Physicians and
Surgeons.
Tue plan of a joint committee of trustees
and faculty to consider the “larger questions
of educational administration” has been
adopted by the trustees of Trinity College.
In an article in the issue of Science for
October 27, on “ The Number of Students to a
Teacher in the State Colleges and Universi-
ties,” by Professor C. H. Handschin, the fig-
ures for the University of Minnesota are given
as 26.1. We are requested to state that Min-
nesota’s enrolment for 1910-11 was 6,037,
which includes 72 correspondence students.
Omitting these, the total is 5,955 students.
The total number in the faculty is 455. This
includes 65 who rank as assistants, 34 of this
number being clinical assistants in the de-
partment of medicine who receive no pay. In
the 455, who are included in the staff of in-
struction, are 89 who do not receive any com-
pensation. These are mainly in the college of
medicine and surgery. Omitting these 89, the
faculty numbers 366. 5,955 divided by 366 is
|
é
,*
%
wer
~
=
pe
x
he
4
682
16.2 which indicates the maximum number of
students per instructor. Using the larger
number, 455, as the number in the faculty, the
number of students to each member is 13.
At a meeting of the Alumni Association of
the University of Texas in June Mr. Will C.
Hogg offered to raise between twenty-five and
fifty thousand dollars annually for the next
five years as a publicity fund. Within the
past four months Mr. Hogg has collected a
sum aggregating $147,625, which he has put
at the disposal of an executive committee con-
sisting of President Sidney E. Mezes, E. B.
Parker, president of the alumni, and the presi-
dent of the board of regents, Clarence Ousley.
As has already been stated in Scrence, the
objects of the movement are to stimulate
higher education; to secure the counsel of dis-
tinguished educational workers in the United
States and Europe; to investigate and advise
the people what the scope of higher educational
institutions should be, and what methods and
means of maintenance should be provided.
Tue University of Washington celebrated
its fiftieth anniversary last week. On “ Uni-
versity and State Day” addresses were deliv-
ered by Dr. Kendrie Charles Babcock, of the
office of the United States Commissioner of
Education; President Campbell, of the Uni-
versity of Oregon; President MacLean, of
the University of Idaho, and Governor Hay,
Superintendent of Public Instruction Dewey
and Judge Chadwick, of the state supreme
court. On the following day Chancellor
Samuel Avery, of the University of Nebraska,
and President James H. Baker, of the Univer-
sity of Colorado, delivered the principal ad-
dresses.
Dr. F. L. Stevens, of the North Carolina
College of Agriculture, has accepted a position
as dean of the College of Agriculture of the
University of Porto Rico located at Mayaguez.
He will take up his residence and begin the
organization of the Agricultural College at
that place on January 1, 1912. It is the in-
tention to establish in connection with the
Agricultural College and under the director-
ship of Dr. Stevens, a Tropical Botanical-
Zoological Laboratory.
SCIENCE
(N.S. Vou. XXXIV. No, 881
Dr. F. R. Puiuurs, formerly dean
of the medical department of George Wash-
ington University, has been elected professor
of anatomy in the School of Medicine, Uni-
versity of Alabama, Mobile, and has moved to
that city.
Mr. Joun E. Boynton, B.S. (Wisconsin),
for several years assistant professor in the
University of Iowa, has been appointed pro-
fessor of mechanical engineering at Lafayette
College.
Mr. Prevost Hupparp, chief of the Division
of Roads and Pavements of the Institute of
Industrial Research, has been appointed lec-
turer in engineering chemistry at Columbia
University. He will conduct the courses in
bituminous materials given in connection with
the graduate courses in highway engineering.
At the West Virginia University appoint-
ments have been made as follows: C. R. Jones,
professor of engineering, to be dean of the
college of engineering; Rollin P. Davis, of the
college of civil engineering, Cornell Univer-
sity, assistant professor of structural engineer-
ing; C. R. Titlow, of the extension department
of the Ohio State University, director of agri-
cultural extension; J. B. Grumbein has been
advanced to assistant professor of mechanical
engineering; Robert H. Chandler, of Sommer-
ville, Mass., has been appointed as instructor
of woodwork and foundry.
Mr. Bruce W. Benepict, for several years
in the motive power department of the Atchi-
son, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, has been
appointed director of the shop laboratories in
the department of mechanical engineering at
the University of Illinois.
Dr. Rate A. Hamitton has been appointed
professor of histology and embryology in the
school of medicine of Georgetown University.
Mr. Georce FrepertcK CHARLES SEARLE,
M.A., F.R.S., has been elected to a fellowship
at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Mr. Searle was
formerly a scholar of the college, and has been
demonstrator of experimental physics at the
Cavendish Laboratory since 1888 and univer-
sity lecturer in experimental physics since
1900.
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE
A NEW TOY MOTOR
I mape of wood a nacelle about two inches
long, pointed at one end and open at the
other, shaped like a skiff without a stern-
board. It was rendered water-repellent by a
slight coating of paraffin. A slice of soap was
fitted into the stern and the boat thus com-
pleted was placed on still water in a bath tub.
As was anticipated, the craft began to move
off as soon as the water came in contact with
the soap. After gathering way it reached a
velocity of a couple of inches per second.
Sometimes the course was nearly straight,
sometimes erratic, as might have been ex-
pected in the absence of steering apparatus.
The power is derived from the potential
energy of the surface water-film set free by the
diminution of surface tension, this reduction
being due to solution of the soap.
If the whole immersed surface of the boat
is allowed to become soapy, converse condi-
tions set in. The boat is then approximately
in stable equilibrium in the center of an area
of low surface tension and, if displaced by a
half an inch or so, may return to its place
almost as if anchored.
It seems a priori improbable that the means
of locomotion illustrated by this little motor-
boat has not been utilized in nature. If, for
example, the ripe seeds of a plant growing in
shallow, still water were boat-saaped and pro-
vided with a store of soluble material at the
blunt ends, they might attain a much wider
dissemination or more varied environment
than that open to similar seeds not fitted to
utilize the potential energy of surface tension.
I am not aware that such seeds have been
described, but my acquaintance with botan-
ical literature is of the slightest. If the facts
are already known this note may assist to dif-
fuse a knowledge of them.
Georce F. Becker
WASHINGTON, D. C.,
October 27, 1911
A COMMON ERROR CONCERNING CECIDIA
Ir is well known that many errors which are
recognized by scientific workers are repeated
SCIENCE
683
in various publications, including text-books,
until they threaten to become as thoroughly
engrafted into our literature as the George
Washington hatchet and cherry-tree story, al-
though not nearly so useful. Among these
errors is the prevailing opinion that vegetable
galls which are due to insects are the result of
an irritating fluid secreted by the female
parent insect at the time of ovipositing.
Many of our scientists cling to this ancient
theory as tenaciously as the young American
clings to the wonderful hatchet story.
The latest outbreak is in the recent edition
of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in which,
under the heading “Galls,” it is said that
“The exciting cause of the hypertrophy, in
the case of typical galls, appear to be a minute
quantity of some irritating fluid or virus,
secreted by the female insect, and deposited
with her egg in the puncture made by her
ovipositor in the cortical or foliaceous parts of
plants. This virus causes the rapid enlarge-
ment and subdivision of the cells affected by
it, so as to form the tissues of the gall. Oval
or larval irritation also, without doubt, play
an important part in the formation of many
galls.”
In consideration of this prevailing idea it
may be worth while to review our knowledge
on this point. This theory was first advanced
by Malpighi in his “ De Gallis” (1686), who
believed that the female parent secreted a
poison when she deposited the egg and that
this caused a fermentation of the plant acid
which stimulated the plant cells and thus
caused the gall. This theory was repeated
almost without question until the latter part
of the last century; Réaumur accepted it but
thought that the egg might have some thermal
effect and that the character of the wound
might also be a factor; Dr. Derham said it
might be “ partly due to the act of the plant,
and partly to some virulency in the juice or
egg, or both, deposited in the vegetable by the
parent animal; and just as this virulency is
various according to the difference of its ani-
mal, so is the form and texture of the gall
excited thereby ”; Darwin expressed the opin-
ion that galls were caused “ by a minute atom
¢ .
R
a
ar
~
:
684
of the poison of the gall insect”; and Sir
James Paget as late as 1880 said that “the
most reasonable, if not the only reasonable
theory, is that each insect infects or inoculates
the leaf or other structure of the chosen plant
with a poison peculiar to itself.” In brief, the
theory of a stimulus due to a chemical sub-
stance injected into the plant by the female at
time of egg laying was the accepted view of
scientists from the publication of Malphighi’s
“De Gallis” in 1686 until about thirty years
ago. However, from about 1877 to 1882 there
appeared a number of important publications
by Dr. Hermann Adler and Dr. M. W. Beyer-
inck which in a great part disproved the pre-
viously almost undisputed theory. From this
time the study of cecidology became a grow-
ing factor in plant physiology and plant
pathology.
Beyerinck’s work indicated that the fluid
injected by mother insect was tasteless and
odorless and not perceptibly irritating when
injected under the skin and that it probably
served only as an antiseptic dressing to the
wound of the host plant. The work of both
authors indicated that there was no cell ac-
tivity on the part of the host plant leading to
gall formation until the larve emerged from
the egg. Adler, as a result of a careful study
of the galls of Neuroterus leviusculus and
Biorhiza aptera, states that immediately fol-
lowing the emerging of the larve from the egg
that there is a rapid division of the cells of
the host plant due to the attacks of the larve.
He was inclined to believe this due to the
influence of salivary excretions. However,
Adler also made a study of the Galls of Nema-
tus vallisnierii on Salix amygdalina, which is
produced immediately following oviposition
and is fully developed before the hatching of
the larve. This is probably the only well
authenticated case of gall formation previous
to the hatching of the larve and is undoubt-
edly the exception rather than the rule for gall
builders.
It is well known that the gall makers be-
longing to the Cecidomyide, Aphidide and
Acarina do not puncture the plant tissues with
SCIENCE
[N.S. VoL. XXXIV. No. 881
the ovipositors and that the young insects are,
strictly speaking, never within the tissues of
the host plant but are surrounded by plant
growths due to an irritation by their own
mouth parts.
At the present time there is no proof, except
in the case of Nematus vallisnierii that the
gall is due to a secretion from the mother
insect. Whether due to a chemical or a
mechanical irritation of the young insect are
questions with as much circumstantial evi-
dence for the one as for the other.
It may be added that the studies of the past
few years on cecidia due to bacteria, myxo-
mycetes, fungi and nematodes indicate certain
striking resemblances to the zoo-cecidia and
we have reason to believe that further re-
searches into the anatomy and physiology of
these various groups of hypertrophied struc-
tures will lead to valuable contributions to our
knowledge of cecidology.
Met. T. Coox
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,
NEWARK, DELAWARE
THE AIR-BLADDER OF THE CLUPEOID FISHES
In a recent letter (Science, October 13)
Dr. E. C. Starks has suggested that the pos-
terior opening of the air-bladder in Clupea
harengus needs further investigation. This
opening was originally described by Weber in
1820, was rediscovered by Bennett in 1880,
and was again described by Dr. Ridewood in
1892 in a paper entitled “ The Air-bladder and
Ear of British Clupeoid Fishes” (Journ.
Anat. Phys., XXVI., pp. 26-42). Dr. Ride-
wood devoted a special section to the posterior
opening to the exterior; he showed that it was
present not only in Clupea harengus, but in
C. pilchardus, C. sprattus, C. alosa and En-
graulis encrasicholus. In Clupea finta, how-
ever, he found that the air-bladder tapered to
a point posteriorly and did not open to the
exterior.
C. Tate Recan
BritisH MusEuM HIsToRY),
Lonpbon, 8. W.,
October 30
NovemBER 17, 1911]
TRANSFERENCE OF THE TERM “ GENOTYPE ”
To tHe Epitor oF Science: Science for Oc-
tober 13 just to hand contains announcement
of Professor Johannsen’s Columbia Lectures.
Permit us to protest again in the strongest
possible manner against this unwarranted
transference of the term “genotype” and
change of its meaning. Professor DeVries
set a bad example by using “ mutation” in a
new sense. Is there to be no limit to this
rough riding over workers in other branches
of biology ?
F. A. Batuer,
W. T. Carman
BriTIsH MUSEUM (NATURAL History),
Lonpon, S. W.,
October 23, 1911
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS
STEINMETZ’S ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS
Tuts book is based upon a lecture course
given for some years by the author to stu-
dents of electrical engineering at Union Col-
lege. The title might well lead one to expect
that here at last is a book by a competent au-
thority presenting the mathematical founda-
tion which in his opinion should constitute a
part of the training of every engineer. But
upon reading the preface expectations and
hopes of this nature are abruptly terminated
when the reader learns from the summary
paragraph:
“Thus the following work is not intended
as a complete course in mathematics, but as
supplementary to the general college course of
mathematics, or to the general knowledge of
mathematics which every engineer and really
every educated man should possess.”
The book is even further limited in its scope
than is indicated by the quoted paragraph.
For it is largely devoted to the particular sort
of mathematics which is of great service to
the electrical engineer only. In spite of this
the mastery of its contents would unquestion-
ably not be a useless accomplishment to the
student in any branch of engineering.
The first chapter is devoted to an elementary
exposition of the properties of the general
number or complex quantity and the chapter
SCIENCE 685
is replete with graphical illustrations. A par-
ticular feature of this chapter showing the
usefulness of the theory developed is the dis-
cussion of the steam path in a turbine.
In the second chapter is given a discussion
of series of the types 1+a2+a7+2°...
and 1— ., designated as po-
tential series. Examples from electrical engi-
neering problems are given to illustrate the
applicability of such series to the develop-
ment of certain functions. The properties of
the exponential function are adequately
treated and the subject of differential equa-
tions is briefly touched upon.
The third chapter treats quite extensively
of trigonometric functions and series. Inter-
esting illustrative problems are discussed.
Chapter IV. deals in an elementary but
sufficiently comprehensive manner for the pur-
poses of the engineer with the subject of max-
ima and minima of functions. Numerous
practical examples in electrical engineering
are worked out numerically. There is also
given a short discussion of the method of
least squares with an illustrative example
from the theory of the induction motor.
Methods of approximation are treated in
Chapter V. This subject, an art in itself, is
one which is rarely discussed explicitly in
books on mathematics or engineering.
Chapter VI. contains an extensive discus-
sion of the subject of empirical curves and the
methods of obtaining analytical equations to
fit them.
The eighth chapter and the final one is de-
voted to methods of numerical calculation. A
thorough knowledge of the subject matter of
this chapter and that of the two preceding
chapters obviously should be a part of: the
equipment of every computing engineer, elec-
trical or otherwise. A striking feature of the
book is the author’s continual insistence
throughout upon the importance to every
engineer of a thorough mastery of the sadly
neglected art of numerical computation.
There are two appendices, one containing
notes on the theory of functions, the other
tables of exponential and hyperbolic func-
tions.
&
{
2
~
oxi,
>
~
686
As is common in a first edition, there are
numerous typographical errors, but usually
they are of such nature as not to cause seri-
ous ambiguity to the reader.
The book is published by the McGraw-Hill
Book Company, of New York.
A. P. Wits
Geometrie der Krafte. By H. E. Trmerprne.
Leipzig, Teubner (Teubners Sammlung).
8vo. Pp. xi+ 381.
This book is an outgrowth of the author’s
article “ Geometrische Grundlegung der Me-
chanik eines starren Kérpers,” in the Enzy-
klopiidie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften
(Band IV., 1, pp. 125-189), which consisted
principally in an account of the Ball theory of
screws. The volume under review goes far
beyond that article in its scope, both in deal-
ing with the mechanics of deformable bodies,
and in giving presentations of the vector
theory and of line geometry. On the other
hand it is limited by the desire to present the
geometry of forces as an independent subject
and to avoid a general treatment of mechan-
ies as such, especially since Webster’s treatise
appeared as a member of the same series of
texts.
The geometry of motion, or kinematics, is
better known as a distinct subject than is the
geometry of forces. In general the two sub-
jects have similar motives and enjoy similar
advantages: both seek to present a purely ab-
stract geometrical analysis of mechanical con-
cepts, and each is suggestive and instructive
to the student of geometry as well as to the
student of mechanics.
The author seeks to unify and complete the
labors of his predecessors—Varignon, Poin-
sot, Chasles, Moebius, W. Thompson, Bail,
Study, and others—to form a symmetrical
whole and to create a finished theory of forces
“disassociated from all physiological, physi-
cal, and metaphysical concepts,” which shall
apply to the kinetics and statics of rigid bod-
ies, and to the statics of deformable bodies.
The first five chapters are devoted to the
theory of vectors, following chiefly Grassman
SCIENCE
[N. 8. Von. XXXIV. No, 88)
and Hamilton. The notation employed dif-
fers from that of each of these writers, and
also from that of Gibbs, thus adding another
to the many existing notations.’ The ideas
developed in these chapters are used to define
the concepts moment of a vector, rotor, dy-
name; but otherwise little use is made of the
vector theory. The author defends this as
against prospective criticism, on the ground
that the results can be reached by methods of
analytic geometry, and that the extensive use
of the vector theory would render the work
less accessible to beginners. Under the cir-
cumstances a complete presentation of the
vector theory might have been dispensed with
altogether.
The following chapters treat of instantane-
ous rotation and of forces and dynames. The
latter term was introduced by Pliicker’ and
has been employed extensively by Study* and
others, to denote the geometrical concept which
corresponds to either a twist or a wrench in
Ball’s theory.
Chapter VIII. is an elementary presenta-
tion of line geometry, which the author, fol-
lowing many others‘ makes his fundamental
link between geometry and mechanics. He
also sets a bound to geometrical developments
as a whole by restricting himself to this topic
and its applications.
After a chapter on equilibrium, the theory
of screws is presented in detail in six chap-
ters, which form the kernel of the entire
book, and indeed constituted the motive for
the original project. The chapter on the
eylindroid is particularly worthy of notice.
Two chapters on deformable bodies extend
the theory beyond the realm of rigid bodies—
an extension on which the author lays great
weight in the preface.
The remainder of the book deals with the
mechanical concepts in distinction to the
*See Wilson, Bulletin of Amer. Math. Soc., Vol.
16 (1910), p. 415.
Philosophical Transactions,
‘*Works,’’ I., p. 548.
**<Geometrie der Dynamen,’’ Leipzig, 1903.
*See, e. g., Klein, Mathematische Annalen,
Vol. 4.
156, 1866;
|
Noveser 17, 1911] SCIENCE 687
purely geometrical work that precedes. Here
again a treatment of deformable bodies and
of elasticity is added to the more usual treat-
ment of the mechanics of rigid bodies.
As a whole the work seems a most satis-
factory compilation, to which the author has
added materially by careful readjusting and
supplementing existing work. The bibliog-
raphy and references are good.
In being late, the present review has the
advantage of referring the readers to a num-
ber of admirable reviews already in print;
among those most readily accessible are: R.
S. Ball, Nature, LXXXI., July, 1909, p. 34;
Longley, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., XVI., 1910,
p. 493; Revue Generale des Sciences, 21,
1910, p. 75. Of these, that by Ball in Na-
ture is of course the most interesting on ac-
count of the close relation he holds to this
theory.
E. R. Heprick
GOTTINGEN, GERMANY,
August, 1911
Material for Permanent Painting. A Manual
for Manufacturers, Art Dealers, Artists and
Collectors. By Maxrmian Tocn. New
York, D. Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 208.
Price, $2.00.
It would seem that Mr. Toch had gotten
into this small compass practically all that an
artist need know about his materials from the
standpoint of permanency. Judging from
the author’s name, one would expect a work
dealing solely with pigments: only about half
of the book is so employed, the remainder
consisting of interesting chapters on the his-
tory of painting, preparation of canvasses and
other foundations, the causes and remedies
for cracking of paintings, their renovation,
and the oils and other media used in their
production. The articles on the photochem-
ical effects of light and the proper use of
madder are especially noteworthy and merit
careful study.
Some slight slips in proof reading or un-
usual spellings are in evidence as, quick. silver
(two words), cinibar, sulphureted, tuscan,
Vanquelin and Guinet; but these will doubt-
less disappear in the next edition. Indian yel-
low is stated to be made from camel dung,
whereas the commonly accepted source is cow
urine.
The work admirably fills a long-felt want
and a good knowledge of its contents should
be part of the equipment of every painter.
A. H.
NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND
CLIMATOLOGY
Tue Savannah-Charleston hurricane of Au-
gust 27-28, 1911, has been made the subject
of a special report by the United States
Weather Bureau. This storm resulted in the
loss of 17 lives, while the damage to property
was estimated at $1,000,000. The synoptic
weather charts which form a part of the bul-
letin show that the storm lingered off the
coast for four days before its approach was
detected on shore. Though no wireless re-
ports concerning the hurricane had been re-
ceived, the weather officials in the two cities
mentioned observed the characteristics which
usually precede such a storm on the morning
of August 27. Acting upon orders from the
Washington office, they immediately sent out
cautionary warnings. The wind continued to
increase, and twelve hours later reached a
velocity of 106 miles per hour in Charleston.
The center of the hurricane reached the coast
near Savannah at 8 a.m. of the 28th, the ba-
rometer at that station reading 29.02 inches.
Moving thence inland, it passed through
eastern Georgia with diminishing intensity,
recurved over North Carolina, on a course
east-northeastward, and passed to sea off the
New Jersey coast. It is a noteworthy fact
that no storm of tropical or semi-tropical
origin has reached the southern or eastern
coasts of the United States without warning
since September, 1893, when a disturbance of
marked intensity devastated the Louisiana
coast. At the present time the Weather
Bureau is looking forward to the establish-
ment of a service whereby observers regularly
employed aboard coast-wise vessels would re-
port weather conditions twice daily to the
central office, and thus to provide early infor-
JN
‘
po
688
\
mation concerning the approach of these de-
structive storms.
Turovcnout the greater part of the United
States and Europe the excessive heat of the
past summer will be long remembered, new
maximum temperatures having been observed
in many widely separated places. Unprece-
dented temperatures of 98° and 99° F. were ob-
served at Blue Hill Observatory (635 feet
above sea-level) on six days during the early
part of July, while the mean temperature for
the month, 74.5° F., was the highest experi-
enced in the vicinity in 63 years, which is the
length of the record. At the Royal Observa-
tory, Greenwich, new records have also been
established. There the mean temperature for
the six months, April to September, inclusive,
was 60.7° F., the highest since 1841. The
mean for the three months June, July and
August was 66.1° F., which is 4.9° in excess of
the average for the past 70 years, and 1.0°
higher than any previous summer on record.
On August 9 a temperature of 100° F. was ob-
served at Greenwich, this being 3.0° higher
than any previous record at the Royal Ob-
servatory since 1841. The mean maximum
temperature for August was 81.1° F., another
new record. On July 22, August 4 and 9, a
black-bulb thermometer exposed to the sun’s
rays showed a temperature exceeding 160° F.
Unper the supervision of its director, Pro-
fessor R. F. Stupart, the Canadian weather
service has recently been carrying on experi-
ments with registering balloons. These ascen-
sions, the first of the kind in Canada, were
made from Toronto and Woodstock. Of the
balloons sent up enough were recovered to
make the experiments successful. Several of
the balloons entered the region of the upper
temperature-inversion, and uniformly good
heights were attained, the balloon sent up Sep-
tember 9 reaching a height of more than 14
miles. On July 5, the day on which new
maximum temperature records were estab-
lished in many places, the meteorograph on
leaving the ground at Woodstock recorded a
temperature of 81° F., while at a height of
9.4 miles it was —93° F. Above the latter
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXTV. No, 881
level the temperature increased slowly with
height.
“Dre Winde in Deutschland,” by Dr. Rich-
ard Assmann, director of the Lindenberg
Aeronautical Observatory, is a volume pre-
pared at the request of a German aeronautical
society. Based upon more than a million
ground and free-air observations of wind
velocity and direction, it was designed to
serve as a meteorological guide book for dirig-
ible balloon transportation in that country.
Tables and diagrams set forth in great detail
the varied wind data of which an aeronaut
must have a knowledge. For Lindenberg,
where a kite flight or a balloon ascension has
been made every day without a single excep-
tion since 1905, the velocities and the frequen-
cies of winds for each of the various directions
at every 500-meter level up to 4,000 meters
are shown by means of wind-roses. From a
meteorological as well as from an aeronautical
point of view the volume is a valuable book of
reference.
“ WEATHER Science,” an “ elementary intro-
duction to meteorology,” by Mr. F. W. Henkel,
has recently appeared. This volume, consist-
ing of 336 pages, is not designed as a text-
book, but as a popular work it is very readable
indeed. The few slight inaccuracies which oc-
cur will doubtless be overlooked by the average
reader. This is the first contribution to
meteorology made by the author, who is an
English astronomer. Dr. Shaw, the head of
the English weather service, has also com-
pleted a book, now in the hands of a publisher,
called “ Forecasting Weather.” This volume,
written primarily for aeronauts, is based upon
the results in dynamic meteorology obtained
by the Meteorological Office during the last
ten years. A second edition of Mr. H. G.
Busk’s “ What will the Weather be?” has also
made its appearance.
Forest Service Bulletin No. 86 contains a
paper, “Windbreaks: their Influence and
Value,” by Mr. Carlos G. Bates, which deals
with a problem that is of interest from the
point of view of meteorology, as well as of
forestry and agriculture. Windbreaks, he
|
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
says, may be profitably employed in much of
the agricultural portion of the United States.
The distance at which the effect of the trees
may be felt averages twenty times their height,
although absolute protection of a crop such as
corn, in a wind with a velocity of 50 miles per
hour, can not be expected beyond a distance of
from six to eight times the height of the wind-
break. Partial protection is given over a dis-
tance of from twelve to fourteen times the
height. In extreme cases the efficiency of a
windbreak in checking evaporation from the
soil may amount to 70 per cent. of the mois-
ture ordinarily lost. Protection in this respect
is appreciable for a distance equal to five times
the height of the trees in the windward direc-
tion, and fifteen or twenty times the height
leeward. The absorption of soil moisture by
the roots of the trees may in the case of an
orchard be appreciable, but need not result in
real damage. There is little basis for the
belief that windbreaks sap the fertility of the
soil. The trees’ absorption of soil moisture
may, however, reduce the activity of the nitri-
fying bacteria and cause temporary sterility in
the zone of root influence. The effect of a
windbreak upon temperature in the region of
its influence is much greater than is commonly
supposed. The diurnal range in temperature
in an area protected by a windbreak is nearly
9° F. greater than where the air circulates
freely. The effect of the superheating of both
air and soil in a protected zone is favorable to
crops which must begin growth at a time when
the heat is barely sufficient for generation.
An abstract of the book prepared by Mr. Find-
ley Burns appears in the Journal of the Wash-
ington Academy of Science, Vol. I., No. 3.
Two recent studies of the rainfall in special
regions are noteworthy. With characteristic
German thoroughness, Dr. Hellmann and G. v.
Elsner have completed an investigation of cer-
tain heavy rains in the valley of the Oder
during the years 1888-1903, inclusive, and
their relation to the summer high water of that
river. The research is published in two vol-
umes, a descriptive text and an atlas, the lat-
ter consisting of 55 large colored plates show-
SCIENCE
689
ing in detail the distribution of these rains in
northern Germany and the meteorological
conditions which accompanied them. “ The
Rains of the Nile Basin” is a report by J. I.
Craig, of the Survey Department, Egypt,
based upon eleven years’ observations. The
Nile flood has been of great moment to the
residents of that valley from remote antiquity.
The author now says “there are hopes that
within a few years the prediction of the main
features of the flood may be embodied in an
algebraic formula such as has already been
obtained for the Indian monsoon by Mr. G. T.
Walker.” It is now well established that “the
rainfall in Abyssinia during the flood months
is due almost entirely to the precipitation
caused by diurnal ascensional movements act-
ing on the southwesterly current which again
is kept at the point of saturation by its ascent
on to the Abyssinian tableland.” The latter
current has been traced backward across the
Sudan plains, and the watershed between the
basins of the Nile and Congo, and thence down
the basin of the latter to the South Atlantic. —
A COMPLETE summary of the free air data
obtained at Mount Weather for the three years
ending June 30, 1910, appears in Vol. IV.,
Part 2, of the Bulletin of the Mount Weather
Observatory. The aeorological work is in
charge of Dr. William R. Blair, who prepared
the summary. On 980 of the 1,096 days of
the period, 1,013 ascensions were made—896
by means of kites and 117 by means of captive
balloons. Air temperature, air pressure and
wind direction aloft were observed, in addition
to noting weather conditions and keeping the
usual continuous meteorological records at the
earth’s surface. The temperatures have been
grouped by months and by seasons, and the
means have been computed for levels 250
meters apart up to 7,250 meters above sea
level. Several other valuable tables summar-
izing the data obtained for the various other
elements are included, and their relation with
reference to the centers of cyclones and anti-
cyclones are also shown. Previously derived
conclusions are verified by means of the new
data. Since the beginning of this period the
j
7
||
ae
‘
690
aerological work has been extended so that it
is now carried on daily, including Sundays.
Another innovation at Mount Weather is that
of obtaining wind velocity aloft. The series
of nine soundings of the free air made in two
days is probably unprecedented in the annals
of meteorology. This occurred on September
12 and 13 last, when from 6:37 in the morning
of the first day to 1:06 in the afternoon of the
next day the nine kite flights were made one
after another, without a pause between them.
During the last of these flights a west-north-
west wind with a velocity of 69 miles per hour
was successfully navigated by a kite at a
height of 10,177 feet above sea level.
Tue “ spectre of the Brocken” is a phenom-
enon usually observed only from mountain
summits. But for two hours on the night of
August 6 it was observed by the writer from
the top of the Blue Hill Observatory tower, the
height being about 700 feet above sea level.
Fog, which had been brought in from Boston
Harbor by a light easterly wind, arrived at
Blue Hill shortly before eight o’clock. Its
upper surface, which was very distinct, was
about at the level of the upper windows of the
tower. The moon, about three-quarters full,
was well above the horizon, and a few scattered
cirrus streamers were the only high clouds
visible. From the top of the ladder on the
anemometer poles the surface of the fog
stratum had the appearance of a wavy sheet of
water. Directly opposite to the moon the
observer could see, at an estimated distance of
75 feet, a dark image of himself enlarged about
three times his natural size. The image was
surrounded by a white light which faded away
at its edges, leaving a dark space between it
and a broad colorless circle, sometimes called
“Ulloa circle” or “white rainbow.” The
circle was complete and appeared to have a
radius of about 22°. When the observer
moved the whole apparition moved likewise,
proving it to be an entirely subjective phe-
nomenon. It disappeared later when the fog
deepened, rendering the moon invisible.
Anprew H. PALMER
BLvuE HILL OBSERVATORY,
November 1, 1911
SCIENCE
[N. 8S. Vou. XXXIV. No. 881
SPECIAL ARTICLES
THE LIFE HISTORY OF A PARASITIC NEMATODE—
HABRONEMA MUSCZ
Firty years ago, from Bombay, India, the
late H. J. Carter* reported the discovery of
nematodes parasitic in the house fly, giving
them the name of Filaria musce, and suggest-
ing that their investigation might throw light
on the life history of the guinea-worm. In
the same year Diesing’ transferred Carter’s
species to the genus Habronema, making it
the type. Carter’s description and figures,
though not accurate in all respects, particu-
larly in the interpretation placed on certain
details of structure, are sufficient for the recog-
nition of the species. Subsequently to Carter,
several writers have mentioned the presence of
nematodes in the house fly, in some cases iden-
tifying them with Carter’s species, in other
cases being apparently unaware that the spe-
cies had ever been described or named. Leidy’
noted the occurrence of Habronema musce in
about 20 per cent. of flies examined at Phila-
delphia. Further than occasional records of
the occurrence of Habronema musce@ in flies,
practically nothing up to the present time has
been added to Carter’s account of the worm,
though it has long since become known that
this parasite has nothing to do with the
guinea-worm.
In the summer of 1910, the present writer
found Habronema musce fairly common in
house flies caught at Washington, D.C. The
fact that this nematode occurred in the larval
stage in flies suggested two alternative hy-
potheses, first, that the adult was a free living
form, second, that the adult occurred para-
sitic in some host other than the fly. No
evidence favoring the first hypothesis was ob-
tained, as the nematodes from flies when
placed in various media such as water, damp
1Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Lond., 3 s. (37),
v. 7, January, 1861, pp. 29-33, pl. 14, Figs. 1-4.
* Sitzeungsb. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch., Wien,
Math.-naturw. Cl., v. 43, 1 Abt. (4), pp. 273-274,
1861.
* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. [v. 26, 3 s., v. 4]
(2), April-September, 1874, pp. 139-140.
/
¢
NovEMBER 17, 1911]
earth, horse manure, etc., invariably died with-
out showing any indication of further devel-
opment.
Further observations on Habronema musce@
were made during the summer of 1911, when
it was found commonly present in house flies
in Colorado and Nebraska. A series of stages
in the development of the parasite was ob-
tained by examination of various stages of the
fly from larva to imago, and it became evident
that the fly acquires its infection during its
larval stage. This suggested the hypothesis
that Habronema musce@ is the larval stage of a
nematode parasitic during its adult stage in
the horse, inasmuch as horse manure is a
favorite breeding place of the house fly. The
structure of the esophagus of Habronema
musce suggested the further hypothesis that
this parasite belonged either to Spiroptera
megastoma or to S. microstoma, nematodes
which occur in the stomach of the horse.
Ordinarily the testing of the hypothesis that
Habronema musce@ is the larval stage of a
horse parasite would require properly con-
trolled feeding experiments, but, in September
of the present year, the problem of the identity
of the parasite was solved in another way.
The stomachs of two horses were examined
shortly after death. In one of them, a few
adult nematodes were found which, from their
naked eye appearance, closely resembled Spi-
roptera microstoma. In the other, a large
number of the same species of adult worms
was found, and in addition numerous smaller
nematodes of various sizes. Microscopical ex-
amination of the worms collected from these
horses revealed the presence of a complete
series of stages in the development and growth
of a single species of nematode from larva to
adult, only the one species being represented,
except that a few individuals of a species of
Trichostrongylus were also present. The
smallest forms corresponded perfectly to the
nematodes found in adult flies, and the cor-
rectness of the hypothesis that Habronema
musce is the larval stage of a nematode para-
sitic during its adult stage in the horse, was
thus confirmed. The adults of Habronema
musc@, though very similar to, proved to be
SCIENCE
691
different from, Spiroptera microstoma, most
noticeably in the structural details of the head
and pharynx, vagina of the female and bursa
and spicules of the male. The spicules alone
present sufficient evidence of a specific differ-
ence in the two forms, as will appear from the
following measurements:
In Habronema musce the left spicule meas-
ures about 2.5 mm. in length and about 5 y in
diameter near its middle, the right spicule
about 500 » in length by about 10 » in diam-
eter near its middle. In Spiroptera micros-
toma, or, giving this species its correct generic
designation, in Habronema microstoma the
left spicule measures about 800 ,» in length by
about 15 » in diameter near its middle, the
right spicule about 350 » in length by about
20 » in diameter near its middle.
The life history of Habronema musce, as
determined by the results of the investigations
which have been briefly sketched in the present
paper, may be summed up as follows:
A horse infested with the adult worms ex-
cretes their embryos in its feces. These em-
bryos enter the bodies of fly larve developing
in the feces from eggs deposited by house flies.
During the development of the fly larve and
pup, the worms with which they have become
infested also undergo a process of growth and
development, reaching their final larval stage
at about the time the flies emerge from the
pupal state. Further development of the
worms waits upon the swallowing of the in-
fested flies by a horse, in which event the life
cycle becomes completed by the growth of the
worms to maturity.
Of interest to entomologists and sanitarians
is the fact that Habronema musce affords a
means of determining with some degree of
accuracy what proportion of the flies occur-
ring in a given locality find their breeding
place in horse manure, to this extent, that if
examination of a considerable number of flies
shows that a certain per cent. are infected, it
may be safely assumed that at least that per-
centage of the flies in the locality have devel-
oped in horse manure. A percentage obtained
in this way would of course probably be con-
siderably smaller that the actual percentage, as
XS
-
i>
‘
¥
i-
692
it is unlikely that all horses in the locality
would be infested and as some flies even
though developing in manure from an infested
horse would probably escape infection.
A more comprehensive discussion of Habro-
nema, illustrated with figures, will be pub-
lished at a later date, probably as a bulletin of
the Bureau of Animal Industry.
B. H. Ransom
BuREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY,
U. 8S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
WASHINGTON, D. C,
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
THE one hundred and fifty-fifth regular meeting
of the society was held at Columbia University on
Saturday, October 28. The attendance at the two
sessions was about forty, including thirty-five
members. President H. B. Fine occupied the
chair. The council announced the election of the
following persons to membership in the society:
Professor T. B. Ashcraft, Colby College; Professor
Clara L. Bacon, Goucher College; Professor J. M.
Davis, State University of Kentucky; Professor
W. C. Eells, Whitworth College; Dr. J. L. Jones,
Yale University; Professor F. C. Kent, University
of Oklahoma; Professor L. C. Plant, University
of Montana; Mr. R. E. Powers, Denver, Colo.;
Mr. T. M. Simpson, University of Wisconsin;
Professor Evan Thomas, University of Vermont;
Professor H. C. Wolff, University of Wisconsin;
Mr. W. A. Zehring, Purdue University. Nine
applications for membership were received.
A list of nominations of officers and other mem-
bers of the council, to be placed on the ballot for
the annual election, was adopted. Provision was
made for committees to audit the treasurer’s ac-
counts and to make arrangements for the summer
meeting to be held at the University of Pennsyl-
vania in 1912. The invitation of the University of
Wisconsin to hold the summer meeting and col-
loquium at that university in 1913 was accepted.
It was decided to change the form of the Annual
Register of the society by omitting all mention
under the personal entries of membership in other
organizations. A committee was appointed to con-
sider and report to the council a plan for placing
the business of the society on a permanent basis.
The following papers were read at this meeting:
A. R. Schweitzer: ‘‘On a functional equation.’’
SCIENCE
[N.S. Vou. XXXTV. No. 881
E. V. Huntington: ‘‘A new approach to the
theory of relativity.’’
L. P. Siceloff: ‘‘Simple groups from order 2,001
to order 3,640.’’
H. H. Mitchell: ‘‘ Determination of the quater.
nary linear groups by geometrical methods.’’
G. A. Bliss: ‘‘A new proof of the existence
theorem for implicit functions.’’
R. E. Powers: ‘‘The tenth perfect number.’’
E. W. Brown: ‘On the summation of a certain
triply infinite series. ’’
L. L. Dines: ‘‘On the highest common factor of
a system of polynomials.’’
R. D. Carmichael: ‘‘A_ generalization of
Cauchy’s functional equation.’’
R. D. Carmichael: ‘‘ Fundamental properties of
a reduced residue system mod n.’’
R. D. Carmichael: ‘‘On composite numbers P
which satisfy the Fermat congruence a?-!1=
1 mod P.’’
Edward Kasner:
infinite order.’’
B. H. Camp: ‘‘Series of Laplace’s functions.’’
N. J. Lennes: ‘‘A new proof that a Jordan
eurve separates a plane.’’
The San Francisco Section of the society also
met on October 28, at the University of California.
The Southwestern Section holds its fifth annual
meeting at Washington University on Saturday,
December 2. The annual meeting of the society
for the election of officers will be held at Columbia
University on December 27-28. The Chicago Sec-
tion will also meet in the Christmas holidays.
F. N. Coie,
Secretary
‘*Differential invariants of
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Factors affecting Changes in Body Weight:
FRANCIS G, BENEDICT.
The normal human body is continually under-
going changes in weight, graduallly losing weight
between meals, and increasing it when food is
taken. Very great losses incidental to excessive
muscular exercise are chiefly due to variations in
the water content of the body. By means of ex-
periments with the respiration calorimeter, it has
been shown that a change from a diet with a pre-
ponderance of carbohydrates to one with a pre-
ponderance of fat may cause a loss in weight
amounting to two pounds per diem for three days.
Experiments made with diabetics also show large
changes, chiefly due to the retention or the loss of
water. The gains or losses of body material,
chiefly fat, are especially emphasized.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11