Science 1939-03-10: Vol 89 Iss 2306

SCIENCE

Vou. 89 FrmAy, Marcu 10, 1939 No. 2306

Contrasts: PROFESSOR FREDERICK G. KEYES ...................... 207
Obituary:
Samuel Prentiss Baldwin: Proressor Francis H.
Herrick. Recent Deaths 212

Scientific Events:
The Henry G. Lapham Fijian Expedition; The
Work of the Commonwealth Fund; Standards for
Photography; Student Affiliate Chapters of the
American Chemical Society ; The Geological Society
of America; The Division of the British Associa-
tion for the Social and International Relations of

Science 214
Scientific Notes and News 216
Discussion : -

Microfilm Copying of Scientific Literature: Dr.

ATHERTON SEIDELL. An Easier Method for Making

an Index: MABEL Hunt DoyLe and Mary A.

BRADLEY. Evidences of a Pre-ceramic Cultural

Horizon in Smith County, Kansas: Dr. Loren C.

Scientific Books:

Travels of a Plant Explorer: Proressor T. D. A.

221
Reports:

Pilot Fitness for Night Flying: Dr. C. E. Ferrer

Special Articles:

Human Toxoplasmosis: Occurrence in Infants as an

Encephalomyelitis Verification by Transmission to
Animals: Dr. ABNER WOLF, Dr. Davin COWEN and
Dr. Beryt Paice. The Localization of Minerals
in Animal Tissues by the Electron Microscope: Dr.
Gorpon H. Scott and Dr. DONALD M. PACKER.
Experimental Proliferative Arthritis in Mice Pro-
duced by Filtrable Pleuropneumonia-like Microor-
ganisms: Dr. ALBERT B. SaBin .. 226

Scientific Apparatus and Laboratory Methods:
Devices for Visual Comparison of Spectrograms:
Dr. George E. Davis. A Gasoline-torch Labora-

SCIENCE: A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advance-
ment of Science, edited by J. MCKEEN CATTELL and pub
lished every Friday by

THE SCIENCE PRESS
New York City: Grand Central Terminal
Lancaster, Pa. Garrison, N. Y.
Annual Subscription, $6.00 Single Copies, 15 Cts.

SCIENCE is the official organ of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science. Information regard-
ing membership in the Association may be secured from
the office of the permanent secretary in the Smithsonian
Institution Building, Washington, D. C

CONTRASTS’

By Professor FREDERICK G. KEYES
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Any alumnus of Brown would be very sensible of the
honor of being asked to take part in as important an
event as we celebrate to-day. When I received the in-
vitation to speak, my first impulse was to rejoice for
the opportunity to express my gratitude for the abun-
dant benefits Brown extended to me some thirty years
ago. My second thoughts turned to dwell on the sig-
nificance and meaning of the splendid Metcalf Research
Laboratory, designed exclusively for graduate study
and researeh.

That this addition had long been a practical necessity
was clear these many years to those who have followed
at first hand the rise of the department to a position
of outstanding importance. Because of my nearness
to the university and my membership on the depart-
ment’s visiting committee, it was easy to comprehend

‘An address delivered at Brown University, Provi-
dence, R. I., on the oceasion of the dedication of the Met-
ad Research Laboratory of Chemistry on December 28,

the time and patience expended under what henceforth
will probably be referred to as “the old conditions.”
Professor Kraus and his colleagues will no longer
spend valuable time in effecting the compromises re-
quired heretofore to provide adequate opportunities
for a rising level of graduate students. It is a great
joy to know that the efforts of the staff to promote the
progress of graduate study and research will take place
in a setting worthy of Brown University and of the
man whose wisdom and generosity have made the
dream of the research laboratory a reality.
Sometimes it is a salutary procedure to pause occa-
sionally, as on the present occasion, to survey the steps
which have led up to the present position. The exer-
cise puts events in their proper relationship, promotes
a decent humility, induces a just pride, emphasizes the
eternal verities, makes for simplicity and enables one
to lay the course for the future on a more assured basis.
Brown University was the seventh American college

j
|

|
ORS
ek
&
thas

208 SCIENCE

of the nine founded before the Revolution, and all were
established exclusively in response to the need for an
educated ministry. The college started with a presi-
dent, James Manning, and one student; without build-
ings, library or endowment, in the midst of Baptists
hostile to ministerial education. The charter of the
college was a document of extraordinary liberality,
notwithstanding an age of bitter sectarianism in which
it was written. It provided that the corporation be
composed of four denominations, prescribing the exact
number of each to prevent non-Baptists from ousting
Baptists and vice versa. It stated also that all teachers
except the president were to be exempt from religious
tests of any kind. Finally, and most remarkable, was
the exclusion of all teaching of “sectarian differences
of opinion,” and “youth of all religious denominations”
were on an equal footing in every respect. As a com-
mentary on the present state of tolerance in certain
parts of the world, the corporation voted on September
6, 1770, “that the children of Jews may be admitted
into this Institution and entirely enjoy the freedom of
their religion without any constraint or imposition
whatever.” In 1774, by the terms of a ruling, Seventh

Day Baptists were not required to attend church and
Quakers were exempted from a law prohibiting stu-

dents from wearing hats indoors. Tolerance relative

to science was written into the charter, which stated
that “the publie teaching shall in general respect the
seiences.”* This liberal and catholic spirit is remark-
able, for the temper of the time was quite the contrary.

Thus, at Yale a student could only be admitted who was

“grounded in polemical divinity according to the As-

semblies’ Catechism, Dr. Amos Medulla, and cases of

conscience,” and similar restrictions existed at each of
the six colleges whose founding preceded that of
Brown.

Chemistry had been taught in medical schools abroad
in the 1790’s, but instruction in the science at Brown
does not appear until the medical school was established
in 1811 under President Asa Messer (1802-1826), in
the course of whose administration enlarged courses
were given in mathematics as well as instruction in
mechanies, astronomy, animal and vegetable physiol-
ogy, pneumatics, hydrostatics and geology. Moreover,
the “almost worthless” philosophical apparatus was re-
placed through the generosity of Nicholas Brown and
Thomas P. Ives, “adapted for all purposes of illustra-
tion.” The first laboratory, also due to the generosity
of Nicholas Brown, was set up in Rhode Island Hall in
1841, which contained a museum and lecture rooms.
-This patron’s gifts and bequests amounted in all to
$160,000 and set an example to friends of Brown and
other colleges. A sum of possibly eight to ten times

2Science probably included geography, arithmetic,
algebra, Euclid, trigonometry, surveying, navigation and
astronomy.

Vou. 89, No. 2306

this amount would represent equal purchasing power at
the present period. | |

Following the Civil War the physical equipment was
much improved and the friends of the university gaye
the library building, Slater Hall, Sayles Hall, Rogers
Chemical Laboratory, Wilson Hall for Physics, the
Ladd Observatory. At the close of Benjamin Ap.
drews’s administration there were nearly a thousand
students, of which 101 were graduate students and the
staff had grown to 90. Under W. H. P. Faunce’s ad.
ministration the university funds were considerably in-
creased; in 1914 to a total of more than three times
that in the previous 150 years, while the physical plant
was further enlarged.

The foregoing hasty sketch brings us to the moment
of a great change in the role which the universities of
the United States were to play in the future; a role,
we hope, that will last a long time, provided humanity
is tough enough to resist the collective madness surging
through the world these twenty years.

The interval between the Civil War and 1914 was of
course one of steady development of science, industry
and transportation in the United States. The country
depended almost entirely upon Europe for goods of
exceptional quality, for scientific apparatus, for dyes,
pharmaceuticals and numerous other products. Grad-
uate study and systematic research in the universities
had made a beginning in the 1880’s under the guidance
of a few German trained chemists, physicists and
mathematicians. By the turn of the century, however,

Germany had become the foremost scientific nation in

the world and was beginning to straddle it like a Colos-
sus. Nothing apparently could resist the progressively
dominating influence of Germany in every department
of art, science, industry and world commerce. An in-
sistently proclaimed excellence in every field set the
ultimate standard as German, and the hall-mark of the
American scholar was a German university degree.
The models of scientific research and graduate study
were faithfully copied in the American universities,
while an increasing stream of freshly Ph.D.’d students
from Géttingen, Berlin, Heidelberg and elsewhere in
Germany was not infrequently distinguished by a curi-
ously accented German speech which often disdained
American pronunciations of the commonest chemical
substances. The American student content with grad-
uate study in an American university was believed to
be distinctly second rate and was usually offered
second-rate opportunities, if any.

Our large-scale manufacturers employed none or few
scientific men, and employers frequently selected Ger-
man and Austrian engineers for responsible positions.
Many manufacturers took over, in their entirety, de-
velopments perfected abroad for American exploita-
tion, and in general cut themselves off from the great

MAR
4 body
toge'
vesti
tion
tarif
Te
: on 4
pure
as st
Fror
scien
| now
the |
facti
| that
ress
istry
like
good
of tl
the f
corp
tunit
with
port
bene
It
and
seier
cent
ation
that
be n
ing |]
in
cond
sibil
erat
of in
have
the «
for
has
It
Unit
duly
| peri
Gree
ently
diffic
in 01
able

Marcu 10, 1939

body of organized and coordinated knowledge brought
together by thousands of university and industrial in-
vestigators. When German or other foreign competi-
tion reduced profits, it was always possible to raise the
tariff.

To-day, a scant twenty-five years later, we look back
on an interesting phenomenon: a miracle, as far as
pure and applied science is concerned, in every respect
as striking as the Greek revival some 2,400 years ago.
From a relatively second- or third-rate contributor to
scientific advance prior to 1914, the United States is
now leading the world in nearly all scientific fields, and
the quality of the product as well as the volume is
growing steadily. It is a justifiable cause for satis-
faction to the university, its graduates and friends,
that Brown has contributed generously to this prog-
ress in all fields, and particularly in the field of chem-
istry. It is often the pleasant custom on occasions
like the present to permit oneself the indulgence of a
good measure of generous comment. In the presence
of this audience I shall merely note as every one does
the fine quality of the physical plant and the esprit de
corps of the scholarly staff of this early American
university. The satisfaction arising from the oppor-
tunities Brown generously offered have grown richer
with the years, and we may now rejoice that these op-
portunities are preserved and further enlarged for the
benefit of the students of the present and the future.

It would be interesting, did time permit, to digress
and survey the exploitation of science by industry
which runs parallel with the extraordinary revival of
science just cited. Relative to the first decade of the
century, progress has been striking, but due consider-
ation of the many aspects of the subject convinces one
that continued advance in science and industry can not
be maintained unless scientific methods and an endur-
ing probity are practiced in the conduct of government,
in the drafting and application of laws, and in the
conduct of publie business generally. Indeed the pos-
sibility is by no means negligible that the effects gen-
erated in the past six years through the amazing spread
of irrationality and emotionalism in government may
have been given sufficient momentum to bring about
the collapse of as splendid a foundation as ever existed
for the most alluring prospect in civilization the world
has ever known.

It is quite evident that this remarkable period in the
United States, which the future history of science will
duly record, is based on a substantial preparatory
period. We know that this was the case with the
Greek revival, although the induction period appar-
ently extended over several centuries, whereas it is
difficult to assign more than a hundred years at most
in our own ease. That it should be short seems reason-
able in view of the character of the people, amongst

SCIENCE

209

whom were a normally disproportionate number of
intelligent, independent and courageous men and

women who were able to function in an atmosphere

of freedom without restrictive interferences of political
origin. Generous consideration must also be given to
the influence of nineteenth century European contri-
butions to scientific development, often brought directly
by students returning from study in the foreign uni-
versities.

Only a cursory reading of the Federalist papers is

enough to show the character, probity and insight of |

the men available for leadership in the states during
the eighteenth century. That they would recognize the
fundamental necessity of providing educational faeili-
ties for the developing nation goes without saying, and
the impulse grew finally to a veritable passion. Per-
haps the stimulating climate of the North Atlantic sea-
board played its part as well’ as the intellectual and
moral qualities of the early settlers, but the fact re-
mains that the progress of the American colleges was
uninterrupted and scientific work of the first order was
accomplished in the early period by Franklin, Joseph
Henry, Priestley, Hare and others.

As already stated, after the Civil War large numbers
of our younger men attended the German universities.
Thus, J. W. Gibbs, A. G. Webster, Rowland and many
others. came under Helmholtz’s influence, while the
number of chemists awarded the doctor’s degree grew
year by year down to 1914. I believe it is substan-
tially true that in science the influence of these German-
trained young men provided a technically deep and
sound foundation which, functioning under American
conditions, produced American chemistry as well as
American physics and mathematics. Beginning with
the turn of the century, their influence had begun to
have a pronounced accelerating effect on research.

The presence of a relatively large number of enthusi-
astic and talented young scientific men in our univer-
sities is certainly one of the necessary factors for good
progress, but this alone would have been insufficient to
account for the American miracle. The factor of tre-
mendous importance, perhaps even decisive, was
indubitably the existence of our free institutions,
financially independent and unhampered by centralized
bureaucratic control. Their liberating influence over
successive generations produced a type well suited to
widening intellectual frontiers. Self-reliance and re-
sourcefulness probably come to be inherent character-
isties in a people who have the stamina needed to settle
a continent in a relatively short time.

The financial independence of our universities per-
mits great freedom in the development and exploita-
tion of a variety of educational objectives which has
had an extraordinary stimulating effect on our univer-
sity students, in spite of the fact that good judgment

rte)
|
ak
RE
Sy Ale
on
PRE
STi
:
th
ae
=

210 SCIENCE

has not always been exercised. It has also made pos-
sible abundant laboratory facilities, which accounts for
the manipulative skill characteristic of the American
student. The rising prosperity of all classes of the
rapidly growing population in the midst of unparal-
leled natural resources is another factor not to be
neglected. Under such conditions the probability that
all grades and varieties of talent in the population will

be given an opportunity to develop is very great. This

is the fruition of the principle of equality of oppor-
tunity, without which no society can discover a large
fraction of the varied abilities latent in its people.

The phenomenon of the founding and the endowment
of large numbers of colleges and universities generously
and consistently supported for three hundred years by
private enterprise and generosity is certainly without
parallel in recorded history. The growth of this almost
universal generous public spirit is moreover a distinctly
American phenomenon’ and it is responsible for the
establishment of every sort of institution in the public
interest. It should be remarked that in isolated in-
stances free institutions have been established in
Europe by groups of public-spirited citizens. These at
the present time have become defunct or seriously
damaged financially. Where, however, in the estab-
lished cirele of history can an institution resembling the
Rockefeller Foundation be found, to name only one
conspicuous example of a product of private generosity
characteristic of, shall I say, “economic royalists” and
“entrenched greed”? Where also does there exist in
the record of the past a single instance of privately
endowed organizations establishing research institutes,
repairing war’s destruction, feeding the starving and
clothing the naked the world over? It would take more
than my allotted time this afternoon to even outline the
manifold beneficences and varied civilizing influences
that have flowed in an ever-increasing volume from the
remarkable public spirit characteristic of the citizens
of the United States. Fundamentally we owe our free
institutions to the existence of this spirit, and through
the opportunities afforded, the talented men and women
of the United States have been given unparalleled
facilities to exploit their abilities in an atmosphere of
freedom according to the scale of their inherent abil-
ities. It is unquestionably our free institutions that
have provided the essential basis for the greatest sci-
entifie and industrial awakening on record.

Brown University is one of the institutions that has
helped to bring about this great miracle. The question
arises inevitably : Will the conditions and cireumstances

8 Private charities and the establishing of independent
institutions proceeded in England during the nineteenth
century, but the magnitude of the development was far
less than in the United States, as would be expected, on
the basis of the greater natural resources in the latter
country.

VoL. 89, No. 2306

which have supported the movement persist and allow
continued progress? What, for example, is the prog.
pect that we will often again assemble to rejoice under
like cireumstances in the gift of a building provided by
private generosity? Unfortunately we are not without
indications that influences and trends have been de.
veloping more or less parallel with the scientific anq
industrial rise which may eventually erush or even
destroy the unique qualities of enterprise, courage,
independence, resource, tolerance and public spirit
inherently responsible for the American phenomenon,
These influences for the most part have the appearance
of being of direct political origin, although fundamen.
tally, in a country organized as the United States is,
subversive political influence is traceable either to lack
of popular understanding and interest or to stupid
human inability to defer apparent temporary advan-
tage for future permanent gain. Certainly if the pres-
ent destructive financial and other governmental
tendencies continue, the descent from the heights to
which we are ascending will be spectacularly rapid. It
can not be overemphasized that processes of destruction
once in motion come to a halt on levels where the dis-
tribution of poverty can contrast sharply with the
widest diffusion of prosperity and well-being ever
known to mankind. The incentives to public generosity
are certainly in danger of drying up, due largely to
unwise fiscal policies, intemperate legislation and in-
creasingly huge taxes. Little imagination is required
to foresee that if the trend is not halted, all private
endowments will be irreparably damaged and the evolu-
tion of democratic institutions retarded. The loss of
financial freedom on the part of our universities and
manifold public institutions involves not only a stag-
gering material loss to the people of the United States
but the destruction of social values and the obliteration
of a civilizing spirit which is sorely needed in a world
where the terrors of ancient human savagery press
upon us from every side. __

I realize there are those who think otherwise, at
least in part. The great state universities will be cited
as examples of politically supported institutions. But
does any one doubt that they would stand at their
present level, in serious activities, were it not for the
example, performance and competition of the indepen-
dent universities that still serve as models and which
function for half the college and university students
in the country. Should any one doubt the dire caiamity
that would attend the passing of our free institutions,
let him investigate the opportunities, equipment and
facilities of European universities at the mercy of
political functionaries. The experience of residence
abroad will show the interested observer the utter
poverty of physical equipment except in a very few
centers, and also disclose the restrictions and central-

functi¢
rewar
advan
that p'
As
Estate’
there V
follow
world
today
“With
the dir
larger
age ma
fast, p
the ere:
of man
Prof
shown
univers
the un
about
what s
ciated |
that
conseql
are of
sities a
insurar
museur
tions ;
mortga
credito:
classes
import:
laws w
limited
That tl
Ther
indeper
additio
search
adoptic
prineiy
made i}
Zens to

MARCH
and W
labors
while
by the
i The fe
of the
4

zed bureaucratic control that retard progress while
suppressing enterprise and initiative. University men
and women abroad too often carry on their scientific
labors in poverty, with poor facilities and no assistance,
while burdened with teaching and routine prescribed
by the political bureaucracy in power at the moment.
The few of genius and talent upon whose efforts much
of the prosperity and well-being of the masses depend
function (in Europe) with difficulty, without adequate
rewards or incentives, while spiritual evolution and
advance in physical welfare are slowed to a fraction of
that possible under our favorable conditions.

As Arthur D. Little says in his fine essay “The Fifth
Estate’—“Our civilization is certainly imperiled, but
there will be no downfall if mankind can be taught to
follow the light already before it.” “In the past the
world suffered grievously from lack of knowledge;
today it suffers from its rejection or misapplication.”
“With the recognition of the spirituality of science and
the divinity of research and discovery should come
larger interests and a new breadth of vision to the aver-
age man, and to us all an acknowledgment of the stead-
fast, purposeful striving shown in the development of
the created world, together with a reverent appreciation
of man’s privilege to aid and further this development.”

Professor Kemmerer, of Princeton University, has
shown in a recent article that the endowments of our
universities are already in danger and indicated clearly
the undermining of democratic institutions brought
about by unsound government financing.* He cites
what should be an obvious fact, curiously unappre-
ciated by the holders of 113,000,000 insurance policies,
that it is the ereditors who must pay ultimately for the
consequences of unwise fiseal policy. These creditors
are of course the people who hold bonds, our univer-
sities and edueational institutions (1 and 4 billion),
insurance companies (100 billion dollars), hospitals,
museums, libraries, foundations, religious organiza-
tions; in faet, every institution holding bonds and
mortgages. As Professor Kemmerer states: “These
creditors are our most conservative investing classes—
classes whose welfare is a matter of such great social
importance that we protect many of them by special
laws which restrict the investment of trust funds to a
limited and supposedly safe field of investments.”
That the situation is now grave is beyond question.

There is also the further problem. Where are our
independent institutions to turn in the future for the
additional financial support needed to promote re-
search and improve educational procedures? The
adoption of the ineome tax formulated on the so-called
principle of “the eapacity to pay” has, to say the least,
made it very difficult for generous public-spirited citi-
zens to give money to the universities or other public

‘E. W. Kemmerer, Atlantic Monthly, 160: 729, 1937.

SCIENCE 211

institutions and it has already gone far to promote the
tendency to “let the government do it.” That is sad
enough, but the “highly progressive income, inheritance
and gift taxes on the part of both the national govern-
ment and the states, taxes whose combined rates in the
higher brackets are already the highest of any advanced
country in the world” (to quote Professor Kemmerer)
makes it likely that the impulse to generous giving will
soon die for want of the means of reasonable exercise.

It is in order to ask what can be done to halt the
danger. In a free country we have the glorious right
to diseuss a situation, and a danger promptly recog-
nized is often partly forestalled. In a true democracy
it is moreover the business of every one to exert himself
in the public interest according to the measure of indi-
vidual ability. First: Every citizen should be made
aware that the qualities of public spirit and public gen-
erosity so wide-spread in the United States are unique
in the history of the world, and without parallel any-
where except to a far lesser degree in England. Sec-
ond, the examples by suitable classification of our pri-
vately endowed educational institutions, hospitals, sei-
entific and medical foundations, charitable and re-
ligious organizations, museums and student-aid organi-
zations should be clearly described and the present
amounts of the endowments given. It is important also
to give for comparison the number of similar institu-
tions in the rest of the world with the amounts of their
endowments, before the war and at present. I under-
stand Professor P. G. Wright has prepared a report
under the Duke University Endowment which gives
data for certain independent institutions in Germany,
Austria and France. Third, the viciously-false unsup-
portable statements incessantly promulgated in the
United States that only a few wealthy individuals pay
the taxes expended by government should be vigorously
refuted by appeal to the facts. These facts are avail-
able, and there are many ways in which their signifi-
cance and importance can be made clear to every one.
An important item related to this which seems to have
escaped the attention of a very large number is that a
continuation of the present fiscal and other government
policies is endangering the hundred billion dollars
worth of insurance back of 113,000,000 widely held
policies. Fourth, the attention of people should be
focussed on the relation of our free institutions to the
publie welfare and to the astounding progress in civil-
izing influences they have promoted. This can perhaps
be most strikingly exhibited by comparisons with con-
ditions in other countries since 1900, and especially the
contrasting wide-spread prosperity in the United
States amongst those possessing industry and good-
will should be made erystal clear by numerical elabora-
tion. Fifth, much of the criticism about the incompe-
tence and demagogery of politicians, while too often

:
|
Sth
|
10, 1939
CH iv,
‘
2
Sek
te
SS
AR
67,
ke
}

212

justified, should be abandoned for a policy of positive
assistance to those in public office who are capable and
sincere. It is commonplace that under our system
politicians must have “causes,” and other things being
equal, it is ridiculous to suppose they wilfully prefer
false,ones. It seems clear that it is the people with
insight and intelligence who should provide the causes
and support the politicians who demonstrate their
sincerity by doing effective work for them in the form
of providing and disseminating accurate data and in-
formation relevant in the promotion of all causes which
will insure the preservation and growth of a free, just
and liberal society.

We belong to a group which has been selected by the
so-called higher educational system of our country.
Favored by natural endowment we have been enabled
to utilize magnificent advantages provided by our free
institutions. Advantages, facilities and an environ-
ment of freedom which ean exist on the present level
only as long as the good will, the generosity, the toler-
ance and the unique public spirit which created them
are preserved.

Many of you will join with me in confessing, how-
ever, that while passively grateful for our advantages,
we have scarcely done anything actively to insure that
the advantages we enjoy will be passed on undimin-
ished and enhanced, to our successors. I am convinced

SCIENCE

Vou. 89, No, 2395

that the greater part of the men in public office 4,
not realize the nature or value of that which jg %
commonplace in our country. It is our duty to take
action without delay, perhaps through our scientig,
societies in a concerted effort to preserve our heritage
of financially free institutions, and save from perish
the priceless spirit of public generosity which brough
them to their present flowering.

The message I bring has a somber cast; perhaps to
serious a tone at the hour of rejoicing. But we haye
come upon evil times and see the finest fruit of oy
labors being misused increasingly to blight the spirit
of mankind and to blacken his soul. Alas, no on
wishes more than I do that the poisons distilled int
the world by addled brains since I trod this campy
thirty years ago could be spontaneously neutralized,
We, however, more than any one else, have the imagins.
tion to envisage the evils and the power to neutralize
the poisons by uniting and exerting ourselves promptly
and courageously. In doing so, we will give tangible
evidence of gratitude for gifts received, and which is
more important, save from perishing the divine civiliz.
ing spirit that gave Brown University the Metcalf
Research Laboratory.

FREDERICK G. Keyes
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY

OBITUARY

SAMUEL PRENTISS BALDWIN

SAMUEL PRENTISS BALDWIN, widely known for his
pioneer work in the trapping-and-banding of wild
birds and for his Research Bird Laboratory, was born
at Cleveland, Ohio, on October 26, 1868, and died of
eoronary thrombosis in that city on December 31, 1938.
He was the son of Charles Candee and Sophia (Pren-
tiss) Baldwin.

His father, a judge of the circuit court of appeals,
was one of the founders and principal supporters of
the Western Reserve Historical Society and was deeply
interested in archeology and geology. The son in-
herited his father’s tastes, and was a trustee of the
Historical Society from 1907 until the end of his life.

After graduation from Dartmouth College in 1892,
Prentiss studied in the Law School of Western Reserve
University and was the first to receive its degree of
LL.B. in his class of 1894. For six years he was a
member of law firms in Cleveland, but withdrew in
1900, and for a considerable time thereafter was
engaged more or less continuously in business.

At intervals in this early period the law had to give
way to geology, when Mr. Baldwin took part in geo-
logical expeditions to the Muir Glacier and to New

Mexico; but after 1900 he returned to his first love,
natural history, and devoted himself more or less con-
pletely to ornithology.

In 1914 Prentiss Baldwin became interested in the
newly devised method of banding wild birds—eneir-
cling one of their legs with a numbered, aluminum ring
—so that, if later recovered and reported, incontrovert-
ible data upon their wanderings and longevity could be
secured. In the course of these practises, which wer
systematically conducted at his Gates Mills farm in
Ohio, in summer, and at Thomasville, Ga., in winter,
Dr. Baldwin devised traps for securing large numbers
of living birds, and originated the method of trapping:
and-banding adult birds, which by 1920 had become 8
successful that it was approved by the Biological Su:
vey. This governmental agency, which took over the
work of the American Bird-Banding Society in 1921,
soon became the “clearing house” for the registration
of the recovered aluminum bands, that began to flow
from all parts of the country. Asa result of this move
ment four Bird-Banding Associations, The Inlan(,
Eastern, Northeastern and Western, were established;
thus covering a large part of the continent of Nort
America, and affording all necessary assistance to the!

handed

March

thousan

Dr. Bal

these ©

Since
intensiV
as “The
Gates
thirty
physiol
based U
The ela
Temper
thousan
Birds”
Clevelal

Dr. B
the one
many a’
qnatom;
specifics
domesti
had eng
through
some
fruit-fly

genetics

and
wherev'
quickly
does no
or neve
the nun
not ma
change
of the
than on
nest or
in two |
Man:
ing in {
ing the
underg
recordi
tending
also pe
of the
stages
scope
a suita
hood.
Dr. ]
of Nat
1923 y
genero.
from I

||
:
>
a *

MakcH 10, 1939

thousands of volunteer workers. It is estimated that
Dr. Baldwin, who became the honorary president of all
‘these organizations, and his assistants alone have
panded between 50,000 and 60,000 individuals.

Since 1914 Prentiss Baldwin was devoted to the
intensive study of ornithology at what became known
js “The Baldwin Bird Research Laboratory” at his
Gates Mills farm, from which have issued upwards of
thirty more or less elaborate papers, relating to the
physiology, development and life-history of birds, and
based upon his own work and that of his associates.
The elaborate treatises on “The Physiology of the
Temperature of Birds,” which involved more than fifty
thousand determinations, and “The Measurements of
Birds” appeared in the Scientific Publications of the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Baldwin soon fixed upon the little house wren as
the one species that was best suited for the study of
many avian problems, touching distribution, migration,
anatomy, physiology, development, behavior and, more
specifically, body-temperature and sexual relations in
domestic life, to mention some of the subjects which
had engaged his attention. In short, the house wren,
through studies at the Baldwin Laboratory, became in
some measure for ornithology what the diminutive
fruit-fly, Drosophila, is for the science of heredity or
s cenetics. The wren, like Drosophila, is easily handled
and controlled; it nests readily in artificial boxes,
wherever placed, and can be trapped in its nestbox and
quickly caught in a hand-net for examination. If it
does not submit complacently to interference, it seldom
or never deserts its young. Through the testimony of
the numbered bands it was shown that house wrens do
not mate for life, but that on the contrary they often
change mates between seasons, and even between broods
of the same year. It was also proved that not more
than one third of all marked individuals return to their
nest or to the locality in which the young were hatched
in two successive years.

Many ingenious electrical recording devices, originat-
ing in the Baldwin Laboratory, were used in determin-
ing the temperature changes which the growing young
undergo from an early egg-stage to adolescence and in
recording visits of the parent birds to their nest when
tending their young. Experimenters in this laboratory
also perfected an instrument for taking motion pictures
of the living embryo in ovo, thus showing successive
stages in embryonic development by use of a micro-
scope with a camera-attachment, the wren’s egg making
— subject because of its small size and hardi-
ood.

Dr. Baldwin was a trustee of the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History for nearly sixteen years, or from
1923 until his death, and in many ways gave it his
generous support. He received the degree of D.Se.
from Dartmouth College in 1932, was a fellow in the

SCIENCE

213

American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the Geological Society of America, the American Orni-
thologists’ Union and the Ohio Academy of Science,
and was a member of the American Society of Natural-
ists, the American Society of Zoologists, the British
Ornithologists’ Union, Deutsche Ornithologische Gesell-
schaft and the Australasian Ornithological Union.

Through his efforts and those of his assistants Dr.
Baldwin had gathered through the years a rich store of
scientific data upon birdlife, which, if properly edited,
should make a most outstanding monograph. On this
achievement Prentiss Baldwin’s mind and heart were
fixed, and he had worked on it with great singleness of
purpose for many years. It is to be hoped that this
work, for which he had labored so industriously, but
which, unfortunately, he did not live to complete him-
self, may yet be given to the world.

Dr. Baldwin was married on February 15, 1898, to
Miss Lilian Converse, daughter of Leonard Hanna, of
Cleveland.

In his personal relations Prentiss Baldwin will be
remembered as a loyal friend, who was ever ready to
extend a helping hand, especially to young men who
were devoted to science, and was determined that all
should receive their just dues. He took a broad view
of his opportunities, and freely gave his time, his effort
and his means for the protection and preservation of
the wild life of the countryside. The many friends of
Dr. and Mrs. Baldwin, and particularly the members
of Western Reserve University, of which he was a re-
search associate in biology, can never forget the gener-
ous hospitality which they have enjoyed in their beauti-
Francis H. Herrick
RECENT DEATHS

Dr. EpMunp B. Wiison, Da Costa professor emer-
itus of zoology at Columbia University, died on March
3 at the age of eighty-two years.

Dr. CHARLES SUMNER PLUMB, professor emeritus of
animal husbandry at the Ohio State University, died
on March 4 in his eighty-ninth year.

Dr. ARTHUR ALFRED BRYAN, agronomist of the
Iowa State College, died on February 22. Since 1934
Dr. Bryan had been in charge of the corn improve-
ment program carried on by the Iowa Agricultural
Experiment Station in cooperation with the U. S.
Department of Agriculture.

Dr. ARTHUR PHILEMON COLEMAN, professor emer-
itus of geology and formerly dean of the Faculty of
Arts of the University of Toronto, died on February
26 in his eighty-seventh year.

Howarp Carter, known for his discovery and ex-
ploration, in association with the fifth Earl of Car-
narvon, of the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, died on
March 2 at the age of sixty-six years.

ae
2
=
= =p
me
4
Fi
Cite
hae Wet
3
3
Be
|
3
-
>

214 SCIENCE

VoL. 89, No, 934

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE HENRY G. LAPHAM FIJIAN
EXPEDITION

On June 27 Dr. C. M. Cooke, Jr., leader and mala-
ecologist, Mr. Y. Kondo, assistant malacologist, and
Mr. Elwood C. Zimmerman, entomologist, Bishop
Museum scientists, departed from Honolulu aboard
the 8. 8. Monterey for Suva, Fiji, to collect mollusks
and insects for the museum. The duration of the trip
was three months.

The expedition was named for Mr. Henry G. Lap-
ham, of Boston, in appreciation of his interest and
financial assistance to the museum’s program of ex-
ploration in the Pacific. Dr. C. M. Cooke, Jr., also
gave generously to the fund and personally financed
exploration in Lau Province. Without the aid of these
two men it would have been impossible for the staff
to have made the trip. The museum is greatly indebted
to them.

Because of illness at home Dr. Cooke was recalled to
Honolulu after three weeks in the field. Mr. Zimmer-
man assumed the post of acting leader and with Mr.
Kondo and Jacob Ulumira, a Fijian assistant, con-
tinued exploration, following closely the itinerary made
up at the beginning of the expedition.

During the course of the expedition collections were
made in the following areas: first, Ovalau island; sec-
ond, Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji, upon which
exploration was done in the Rewa, Serua and Tholo
north districts; and third, in Lau Province, or the
eastern Fijian islands, where Munia, Vanua Mbalavu,
Mango, Lakemba, Oneata, Naiau and Moala islands
were visited. Approximately sixty islands were seen
and notes were taken on the appearance and, where
they were viewed closely enough, the extent of the
forests upon them.

The expedition was principally one of reconnais-
sance. It was a preliminary survey of the region,
and one of its main purposes was to determine the best
type of exploration for this area and the places where
intensive field work should be done when funds are
available for future expeditions. As a result of the
experience gained in this exploration it will be much
easier for the staff to plan future Fijian expeditions.

The staff returned from the field on September 28
with outstanding success and comprehensive collec-
tions. It is estimated that the entomologist procured
approximately twenty-five thousand specimens; the
number of land shells taken has not yet been ascer-
tained, but a splendid cross section of the fauna was
obtained by concentrated work. In entomology and
malacology many “lost species” were rediscovered
which evidently had not been collected since the types
were taken. The museum’s collections of Fijian land
shells and insects is now second to none in numbers

and comprehensiveness. Many new species of |gyj §

shells were collected, and the number of new species af
insects obtained must be counted by hundreds. 1,
success of the expedition will not be truly known unjj
the material has been prepared, specimens studied by
specialists, data sifted, and the results publish
These accomplishments will not be realized for many
years because of the bulk of the material.

During most of the trip the scientists were fort.
nate in having favorable weather, but, as is to be ey.
pected in that region, a number -of collecting day;
were lost because of unpropitious weather. The ¢.
pedition was planned for the “dry season” in order ty
facilitate field work, but, as the drier season comes jp
the winter, the entomologist found that, with fey
exceptions, the summer insects, such as many Lepidop.
tera, buprestid and elaterid beetles and many other,
were in the nymphal, larval or pupal stages, and adults
were either rare or entirely unobtainable. The season
evidently had no effect on land shell collecting.

Exwoop C. ZIMMERMAN

THE WORK OF THE COMMONWEALTH
FUND

THE twentieth annual report of the Commonwealth
Fund, which was established as a foundation “to do
something for the welfare of mankind,” during the
year appropriated $2,277,953 for philanthropic puw-
poses. More than four fifths of this amount was ¢e-
voted to the promotion of physical and mental health,
much the larger share going to medical education,
medical research, public health and community hos-
pitals in rural areas. Both the total appropriations
and the percentage set apart for health purposes were
the largest in the history of the fund, the endowment
having been increased in 1937 to approximately $51,
000,000.

Expressing his conviction that “some of the most
important things that can not be done without money
can not be done with money alone,” the general director
of the fund reported that in encouraging services (0
prevent disease and promote health, tae fund “has
demonstrated repeatedly that money will not create 0
maintain such services at optimum levels unless « great
deal more than money is put into them. He writes:

Foundations have learned that to spend money ef:
fectively for social ends it is necessary to invest judgment
and technical skill, in generous quantity, in the choice o
projects to be aided and in the evaluation of their results
as a guide to further choices. They are fortunate i
being able to focus relatively large amounts of technical
skill on the study and sometimes the shaping of rela
tively small projects. They are particularly justified ™
doing so when the projects in question throw light on the

|
Mar
: meth
tions
abou
| of
q A
for |
| com!
Buil
The
ards
tak
inte!
perf
mate
resu
A
mitt
| tive
| mate
lens
amo
artif
T
resu
for
| tern
tion:
auth
with
the
com
Inte
Pho
date
ST
ical
and
seve
M
othe
thre
Stat
pris
fres
D
pou
met
own

yarcu 10, 1939

methods which must be used in attacking similar situa-
tions on a broader scale. What foundations have learned
about the technique of making money work to buy health
and other means of social progress may be useful in an era

of great publie spending.

STANDARDS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

A start in the establishment of national standards
for photography was taken on February 21 by a new
committee, which met in the Engineering Societies
Building, New York, and elected as its chairman Dr.
Loyd A. Jones, of the Eastman Kodak Company.
The committee was organized by the American Stand-
ards Association with the Optical Society of America
taking the leadership in the technical work. Better
interchangeability of parts and standards defining the
performance of cameras, light meters, film, developing
materials and photographic equipment is expected to
result from work of this committee.

At the meeting plans were made to set up sub-com-
mittees which will cover physical dimensions of sensi-
tive materials and holders; characteristics of sensitive
materials; the finished photographic product; cameras,
lenses, shutters, diaphragms, view finders, sizes and
amounts of light filters, and dimensions of safe-lights ;
artificial iluminants; processing equipment, and pro-
jectors and printers.

The work of this committee is expected not only to
result in national standards, but will also be the basis
for American recommendations in connection with in-
ternational standards for photography. An interna-
tional committee on photography has already been
authorized by the International Standards Association,
with the American Standards Association, which holds
the secretariat, taking the leadership in its work. The
committee is also planning to work closely with the
International Congress of Scientific and Applied
Photography. The committee set March 24 as the
date of its next meeting.

STUDENT AFFILIATE CHAPTERS OF THE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

StuDENT affiliate chapters of the American Chem-
ical Society have been organized in sixteen colleges
and universities. The society will hold its ninety-
seventh meeting in Baltimore from April 3 to 7.

Membership in the chapters reaches 427, while an-
other 145 affiliated undergraduates are scattered
throughout twenty-three institutions in the United
States and Hawaii. The total number of 572 com-
prises 181 seniors, 178 juniors, 148 sophomores, 58
freshmen and 7 special students.

Dr. Charles L. Parsons, secretary of the society,
Points out that it is evident that this newly organized
method of procedure for interesting students in their
Own advaneement is to become an important function

SCIENCE

215

bearing upon the development of the students in their
professional consciousness.

The first group of student affiliates was formed at
Lafayette College, under the auspices of the Lehigh
Valley Section of the society. Other chapters have
been established in Manhattan College, New York
City; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Union College,
Schenectady, N. Y.; Rhode Island State College; Al-
bright College, Pennsylvania; Virginia Polytechnic
Institute; the University of Kentucky; the Rice In-
stitute; Ohio Northern University; Central College,
Missouri; the University of Minnesota; Hamline Uni-
versity; Colorado State College; the University of
California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of
Technology.

The Rice Institute Chapter, with 63 members, is the
largest. The University of Kentucky and the Univer-
sity of California Chapters rank second and third
with 52 and 51 members, respectively. Next come the
California Institute of Technology, with 38 members,
and Lafayette College, with 34 members.

Dr. John H. Nair, of the Borden Company, Syra-
euse, N. Y., is chairman of the Committee on Student
Affiliates, which has supervised the organization of
the student chapters, all of which are planning active
programs in 1939. The society will sponsor an em-
ployment clearing house at the Baltimore convention,
where student chemists will have an opportunity of
meeting the personnel staffs of chemical industries.
The announcement points out that “Personal contact
is becoming more and more a prerequisite for employ-
ment. It will be a long time before employers cease
going first to the colleges, especially those known to
turn out the best trained chemists. This is particu-
larly true for young men just out of college, since no
one but the chemical departments of the colieges
which they are leaving are able to give them any defi-
nite recommendation.”

THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

THE Geological Society of America announces meet-
ings for 1939 as follows:

The Geological Society will join with Section E of
the American Association for the Advancement of
Seience in the summer meetings to be held in Mil-
waukee, from June 19 to 24. Plans for field trips are
being made. Details of the scientifie program and
excursions will be announeed in a later cireular.

The council has authorized a joint meeting of the
society with the Cordilleran Section, to be held at
Berkeley, Calif., from August 8 to 10, followed by sev-
eral field excursions. Fellows of the society are urged
to take advantage of this opportunity and to lend
encouragement by attending this meeting of the only
section. Special facilities will be provided for visiting
features of particular interest under the guidance of

ER
|
4
§
Mes
pak
13
Bite
|
DAMES
43

216 SCIENCE

men intimately acquainted with local problems. It is
understood that greatly reduced fares will be available
on the transcontinental railways, and that local accom-
modations, both in Berkeley and on the excursions, will
be provided at moderate cost. Plans should be made
soon. A circular with more complete detail will be
available shortly. Only one other meeting of some-
what similar character in the history of the society has
been held in California. This was held at Berkeley
and at Stanford University in August, 1915. One
point of present interest in the record is the fact that
the number of fellows attending was almost equally
distributed between the Atlantic seaboard, the central
region and the Pacific coast, with the advantage to the
East coast. The Paleontological Society, the Seismo-

_ logical Society of America and the Society of Keo-

nomic Geologists expect to meet in Berkeley at the
same time.

Because of overlapping time, attention is called to
the announcement of the Pan-Pacifie Science Congress,
which will hold meetings in the San Francisco Bay
Region in July and August (Berkeley, from July 24 to
August 5, and Stanford, from August 6 to 12). To
avoid conflict no geological program will be arranged
by the congress on August 8, 9 and 10, in order that
those attending may participate in the Geological So-
ciety meetings. The excursions arranged for these
meetings will also be made available to registrants of
the Science Congress.

The Geological Society calls special attention also to
the seventh triennial assembly of the International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, which will be held
in Washington, D. C., from September 4 to 15, under
the auspices of the American Geophysical Union in co-
operation with the National Research Council, and with
support from other sources.

The council has accepted an invitation extended by
the University of Minnesota, supported by local edu-
cational and scientific organizations, to hold the 1939
annual meeting in Minneapolis. The dates will be
December 28, 29 and 30. This will be the first meet-
ing of the society to be held in Minnesota, and the
fifth held west of the Mississippi River.

Meetings of the council are regularly held in April
and October and at the time of the annual meeting.
Matters to come before the council should be in hand
well in advance of these dates. It is expected that

Vou. 89, No. 2306

the April, 1939, council meeting will be held on the
fifteenth of the month.

A series of addresses under the general theme
“Frontiers of Geology” is being organized for broad.
easting during March and April through the facilities
of the National Broadcasting Company.

THE DIVISION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA-
TION FOR THE SOCIAL AND INTER-
NATIONAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE

It is announced in the London Times that the Dj.
vision for the Social and International Relations of
Science, formed within the British Association last
August, is arranging a program of meetings at which
topics of immediate interest and importance will be
discussed. The purpose of the division is to study the
relationship between science and the community and
to encourage the application of science to promote the
well-being of society.

The first meeting will be held on March 28 at the
University of Reading, by permission of the Univer.
sity Council and in cooperation with the National
Institute for Research in Dairying, and two sessions
will be devoted to discussion on milk in its nutritional
and allied aspects. Sir Richard Gregory, chairman
of the division, and Sir Daniel Hall will preside at the
sessions, and other speakers will deal with deficiencies
of diet, health aspects, pasteurization, production,
cost, economic and social implications.

It is also proposed to arrange meetings in the early
summer in London and Manchester for review of the
social relationships of science and for discussion with
special reference to pressing problems in industry and
agriculture. In connection with the Manchester meet-
ing, Professor H. Levy has been appointed to deliver
the Alexander Pedler memorial lecture, in which he
will explain the method of approach in the study of
the social problems of science, with particular illustra-
tions of the application of scientific discoveries to
industry.

During the forthcoming meeting of the British As-
sociation in Dundee (August 30—September 6) the di-
vision will hold three sessions at which it is proposed
to consider the coordination of scientifie research,
population movements and nutrition. Sir Richard
Gregory will deliver an address on “Science and
Social Ethies.”

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

THE William Withering Lectures of the University
of Birmingham will be given in late March by Dr.
Peyton Rous, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research. The subject will be “Present Aspects of
the Cancer Problem.”

Dr. E. S. Russet, director of research in the British
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, will give a series
of five DeLamar Lectures at the School of Hygiene
and Public Health of the Johns Hopkins University
on successive days from March 20 to March 24. The

Ma
sul
Fis
Co
ser
au
23,
wil
Me
fer
hot
: sei
wa
fes
bel
oof
op
; at
he
a of
pa
rec
the
4 tut
of
y
of
Sa
| Co
me
the
Th
the
is
chs
Un
on
At
Ho
an
mo
ing
Ma
in

marcy 10, 1939

subject will be “Fish Populations and the Effect of
Fishing.”

Proressor AuGust Krocu, of the University of
Copenhagen, Nobel laureate in 1920, will deliver a
series of lectures at Swarthmore College under the
auspices of the Cooper Foundation, on March 16 and
93, and April 6, 13 and 20, at 8:15 p.m. The subject
will be “The Comparative Physiology of Respiratory
Mechanisms.”

MasaryK UNIVERSITY, Czecho-Slovakia, has con-
ferred on Dr. Francis E. Lloyd, professor emeritus of
botany, McGill University, the degree of doctor of
science, honoris causa.

THE honorary doctorate of the University of Greifs-
wald has been conferred on Dr. V. F'. K. Bjerknes, pro-
fessor of physics at the University of Oslo.

M. EMMANUEL DE MARGERIE has been elected a mem-
ber of the Section of Mineralogy of the Paris Academy
of Sciences in succession to the late L. de Launay.

Durina the dedication ceremony incident to the
opening of the new buildings of the Pasteur Institute
at Garches, a suburb of Paris, the minister of public
health conferred the rank of commander of the Legion
of Honor on Professor Gaston Louis Ramon, director
of the branch, in recognition of his work during the
past fifteen years in immunology, especially the more
recent contributions, such as vaccination against diph-
theria and tetanus.

Proressor W. H. HorrMann, of the Finlay Insti-
tute, Habana, has been elected an honorary member
of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin.

THE 1938 Lamme Medal of the American Institute
of Electrical Engineers has been awarded to Marion A.
Savage, designing engineer of the General Electric
Company, “for able and original work in the develop-
ment and improvement of mechanical construction and
the efficiency of large high-speed turbine alternators.”
The medal and certificate will be presented to him at
the annual summer convention of the institute, which
is to be held in San Francisco from June 26 to 30.

A BRONZE bust of Professor Fred Conrad Koch,
chairman of the department of biochemistry at the
University of Chicago, was presented to the university
on February 8 by a group of alumni and friends.
At the unveiling ceremony, the speakers were Dr.
Howard M. Sheaff, a 1919 Ph.D. from the department,
and President Robert Maynard Hutchins. The bust is
mounted in the lecture room of the Biochemistry Build-
ing and is a companion to the bust of Professor A. P.
Mathews, first chairman of the department.

At the opening clinic for a six weeks graduate course
in medieine sponsored by the Medical School and the

SCIENCE

217

Extension Division of the University of North Caro-
lina, a luncheon was given in honor of Dr. Alfred
Stengel, vice-president for medical affairs at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania.

At the annual election of the California Academy
of Sciences held on February 15 the following officers
were elected: President, Dr. F. M. MacFarland;
1st Vice-president, The Hon. Herbert Hoover; 2nd
Vice-president, Dr. E. P. Meinecke; Recording Secre-
tary, Dr. Olaf P. Jenkins; Corresponding Secretary,
Dr. Charles L. Camp; Treasurer, Francis P. Farqu-
har; Trustee for five-year term, Mrs. Alexander F.

Morrison.

Dr. Max JENNINGS PLICE has been appointed asso-
ciate professor of agronomy at the University of Okla-
homa, and Pr. Michel Afanasiev, associate professor
of horticulture. Other appointments include the fol-
lowing assistant professors: Dr. Gladys Marie Kins-
man in home economies research, Dr. William Win-
field Ray in botany and plant pathology and J. Lee
Brown in horticulture.

Dr. W. M. BEESON, assistant professor and assistant
in animal husbandry in the University of Arizona, has
returned to the University of Idaho as associate pro-
fessor of animal husbandry, in charge of animal nutri-
tion and judging.

Dr. ArtHuR L. BeNTON, of the New York Hospital
and the department of psychiatry, Cornell University
Medical College, has been appointed instructor in the
personnel bureau of the City College of the College of
the City of New York.

Dr. Harotp C. Bryant, who has been assistant di-
rector in Washington of the National Park Service,
in charge of the Branch of Research and Information,
has been transferred to Grand Canyon National Park
as acting superintendent.

BRADFORD WASHBURN, of Cambridge, geographer
and explorer, has been appointed executive director of
the New England Museum of Natural History. Dr.
Edward Wigglesworth will remain as scientific di-

rector.

Dr. WaAuLpo G. LELAND, secretary of the American
Council of Learned Societies, recently became a mem-
ber of the committee of the National Resources Com-
mittee to study the relations of the Federal Govern-
ment to scientific research.

M. N. SHarrner, of the Pennsylvania Topographic
and Geologic Survey, will serve as secretary-treasurer
of the Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists,
to succeed Dr. Arthur B. Cleaves, who recently left
the survey.

LINCOLN ELLSworTH plans an expedition into the
Antaretie in 1941, during which he proposes to camp

Ne
fe
2
ES
-
i
re
Soha
te
‘
“he
|
x

218 © SCIENCE

for the entire winter at the South Pole with “not more
than two companions, to carry on continuous obser-
vations of importance in several branches of scientific
research.”

Dr. Grorce H. H. Tare, assistant curator of South
American mammals of the American Museum of Nat-
ural History, sailed on February 23 for Paris to ar-
range for an expedition to the Ivory Coast of Africa
to collect chimpanzees and mandrill monkeys for
habitat groups in the museum. He will be joined in
Paris by Robert Kane, of the department of arts and
preparation, who has been in East Africa for the last
year.

Dr. L. C. Graton, professor of mining geology at
Harvard University, has returned from a journey of
eight months to islands and bordering countries of the
South Pacific, where he investigated volcanoes, hot
springs and fumaroles from the aspect of their con-
nection with the origin of deep-seated ore deposits.
He was invited to address scientific audiences in Hono-
lulu, Hawaii; Nouméa, New Caledonia; Sydney, Aus-
tralia, and Baguio, Philippines.

Proressor K. LINDERSTR#gM-LANG, of the Carlsberg
Laboratory, Copenhagen, will deliver the sixth Harvey
Society Lecture of the current series at the New York
Academy of Medicine on March 16. He will speak
on “Distribution of Enzymes in Tissue and Cells.”
Dr. Linderstrgm-Lang will also give at Harvard Uni-
versity the Edward K. Dunham Lectures for the cur-
rent academic year.

Dr. CHarLEs H. Best, professor of physiology and
associate director of the Connaught Laboratories of
the University of Toronto, gave a lecture on “Heparin
and Thrombosis” on March 8 before the Yale Medical
Society.

THE Pennsylvania State College is celebrating the
two hundred and sixth anniversary of the birth of
Joseph Priestley with the presentation of the thir-
teenth annual series of Priestley Lectures on March 20
to 24. The lectures, a series of five, will be given each
evening at 7:30 p.m. by Dr. Kenneth 8. Cole, asso-
ciate professor of physiology at the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He will
discuss the interrelationships between physical chem-
istry and cell membranes.

THE Section of Physies and Chemistry of the New
York Academy of Sciences sponsored a conference on
kinetics in solution on February 24 and 25, 1939, under
the chairmanship of Professor Victor K. LaMer,
. Columbia University. The speakers included Profes-
sors Henry Eyring, Princeton University; J. C.
Warner, the Carnegie Institute of Technology; S. H.
Maron, the Case School of Applied Science; P. D.
Bartlett, Harvard University; L. P. Hammett, Colum-

VoL. 89, No. 2306

bia University, and Drs. Irving Roberts, Columbia
University, and F. H. Westheimer, Chicago.

Tue fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the

Pasteur Institute of Paris will be commemorated op
March 15, when it will be presided over by the Pregj.
dent of the French Republic.

THE biennial assembly of the International College
of Surgeons will be held in New York at the Hotel
Roosevelt from May 21 to 24, under the presidency
of Dr. Andre Crotti, of Columbus, Ohio.

An International Congress on Magnetism will he
held in Strasbourg from May 21 to- May 25, under
the auspices of the International Institute of Intel.
leetual Cooperation and the Service Central de la
Recherche scientifique de France. Fifteen reports
will be presented on paramagnetism, ferromagnetism
and magneto-optics. The American representatives
to the congress are Professor J. H. Van Vleck, of
Harvard University, and Professor 8. J. Barnett, of
the University of California.

THE fifth International Congress for the Unity of
Science will be held at Harvard University from Sep-
tember 5 to 10. The subject of the congress is “The
Logic of Science.” Information in regard to it can be
obtained from Professor C. W. Morris, University of
Chicago.

In accordance with the results of a poll recently
taken of the membership of the American Society of
Zoologists, the 1939 annual meeting of the society will
be held next December in Columbus, Ohio, in con-
junction with the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.

THE Association of Southeastern Biologists will hold
its annual meeting on April 14 and 15 at Duke Uni-
versity. Titles and abstracts of papers should be sent
to Donald C. Boughton, Secretary-Treasurer, Univer-
sity of Georgia, Athens, before March 15.

A BIOPHYSICS symposium will be held in connection
with the annual meeting of the Southeastern Section of
the American Physical Society at the University of
Georgia, on March 31 and April 1. Dr. Detlev W.
Bronk, director of the Johnson Foundation for Medical
Physies of the University of Pennsylvania, has been
invited to give a paper on “The Physical Basis of Bio-
logical Organization.” A series of shorter invited
papers also included on the program are: “Applica-
tions of Nuclear Physies to Biology,” J. B. Fisk, Uni-
versity of North Carolina; “The Present Status of
the Electron Microscope,” Otto Stuhlman, Jr., Uni-
versity of North Carolina; “Applications of Photogra-
phy to Medical and Biophysical Problems,” Gilford G.
Quarles, University of Alabama; “Purification of Bio-
logical Materials by Centrifuging,” J. W. Beams, Uni-

Marcu

versity
gram (
Univer
Sympo

THE

School

July 1
tentati
to the
visits t
portan
and pr
Abbé -
tory,
per Ke
have t
Prospe
soon as
further

(Grant

histori

WE
work ¢

MI

SCIE
pursue
tieally
proble1
to thos
of scie

By
lished 1
ciation
organ:
vaneen
selentit
seientif
ingly,
prineiy

Ther
period:
and so’
tions i
relativ
the qu
seienti

In t
genera
course
from {
whethe

if
7
| |
|

10, 1939

versity of Virginia. In addition there will be a pro-
m of contributed papers. Dr. Clyde B. Crawley,
University of Alabama, is chairman of the Biophysics
Symposium.
Tue 1939 annual summer term of the American
school of Prehistorie Research will open in Paris on
| july 1 and close in France on September 9. The
tentative program includes laboratory work and visits
io the museums in Paris and Saint-Germain-en-Laye;
visits to the principal museums and excursions to im-
portant prehistoric sites in various parts of France,
and practice in exeavating at two or more sites. The
Abbé H. Breuil, an authority on Old World prehis-
tory, Will be in charge of the course, assisted by Har-
per Kelley, a former student of the school. They will
have the cooperation of various French specialists.
Prospective students should apply for enrolment as
soon as possible. Applications for enrolment and for
further information should be addressed to George
t Grant MacCurdy, director, American School of Pre-
historie Researeh, Old Lyme, Conn.

We are requested to state that all reprints of the
work of the late Professor George Barger have been

SCIENCE

219

deposited in the department of chemistry of the Uni-
versity of Glasgow, and that copies can be obtained
by application to the secretary of that department.

THE Office National des Universités et Ecole Fran-
caises has offered a graduate fellowship of 18,000
franes for the study of science at a French univer-
sity. Two fellowships of a similar amount are being
offered for study in Paris by the Société des Amis de
l'Université de Paris; one for a graduate student to
undertake scientific research and one for a graduate
student specializing in the study of international rela-
tions. Application blanks may be secured from the
Institute of International Education at 2 West 45th
Street, New York City. The closing date for filing
applications with complete credentials is April 1.

A qirt of $100,000 has been made by Bertram J.
Cahn, of Chicago, toward the fund being raised by
Northwestern University for the erection of Scott
Hall, as a tribute to President Walter Dill Scott, who
will retire next autumn to become president emeritus.
The sum of $200,000 has been given for the Hall by the
Woman’s Building Association of the University Guild
and the sum of $85,500 has been received from various
sources.

DISCUSSION

MICROFILM COPYING OF SCIENTIFIC
LITERATURE

ScIENTIFIC research may in certain rare cases be
pursued for personal gain, but its publication is prac-
tically always solely for the benefit of others. The real
problem is to insure its widest possible dissemination
to those best abie to make use of it for the advancement
of science.

By far the largest part of scientific research is pub-
lished under the auspices of institutions, societies, asso-
cations, governmental agencies, academies or other
organizations having for their object either the ad-
vancement of learning or the industrial applications of
scientific diseoveries. The supplementary diffusion of
scientifie literature by means of microfilms is, accord-
ingly, in entire accord with the aims of those who are
principally responsible for its publication.

There are, however, a small number of scientific
periodicals which are published by private initiative,
and some of these are copyrighted or prescribe restric-
tions in regard to copying their contents. It is this
relatively small number of journals which give rise to
the question as to the legality of microfilm copying of
scientifie periodicals.

In the ease of these, as with research periodicals in
general, the contributors are very rarely paid and of
course do not participate in the profits, if any, derived
from their publication. It may, therefore, be asked
whether it is the contributors or the publishers who are

entitled to the protection afforded by copyright. It is
evident that the contributors do not desire such pro-
tection and it is certainly rarely possible for the pub-
lishers to benefit from it. It is, therefore, not clear
why any publication of scientific research is ever copy-
righted.

Although it was believed that a very small propor-
tion of scientific periodicals are copyrighted it was de-
cided to make a survey to ascertain approximately
what proportion are so protected. For this purpose
101 periodicals received in the field of biological and
agricultural chemistry in the library of the Pasteur
Institute of Paris were examined, and only 15 found to
bear the copyright mark or make any reservation in
regard to copying their contents. Of the latter several
prohibited complete or partial reproduction except by
authorization. It is probable that many of the copy-
righted ones would also grant permission for microfilm
copying if requested. It may be concluded, therefore,
that the proportion of current scientific periodicals
restricted in regard to microfilm copying is very small.

In this connection it may be mentioned that Biblio-
film Service has been operating in the library of the
U. 8S. Department of Agriculture for four years and
has now attained a monthly distribution of more than
20,000 pages of scientific literature copied from several
hundred periodicals, for more than a thousand research
workers in the United States and elsewhere, and has
never had a complaint of copyright infringement. This

|
|

Sg

|

|

‘

at

he

s ba,

7

|

220 SCIENCE

may be considered good evidence that in so far as scien-
tific literature is concerned, the limitations of micro-
film copying imposed by copyright is negligible.

There is, however, another angle of the subject which
has been suggested as of perhaps greater importance
than the legal aspect. That is, the effect which the
general distribution of the material printed in current
journals may have upon their cireulation. It can not
be denied that certain ones, devoted to narrow fields of
learning, do have great difficulty in securing and earn-
ing the support necessary for their existence. In these
eases it is possible that some individuals and even
libraries would not subscribe to them, if the papers
they contained could be obtained in the form of miecro-
films for less than the cost of the subseripiton. These,
therefore, might be damaged by unrestricted microfilm
copying.

This situation, however, raises the question whether
the printing of journals which fail to command suffi-
cient support to pay their way is economically justified.
There is little doubt that the present system of publish-
ing certain very highly specialized research is extremely

wasteful. In the case of journals of interest to a very
limited number of workers the expense and effort neces-
sary for their editing, printing, distributing, cataloging
and conserving in libraries should be weighed against
the advantage to the small group of persons capable of
making use of them. Of course if publication by print-
ing was the only means by which the results of highly
specialized research could be brought to the attention
of persons capable of making use of it for the advance-
ment of science, there would be no question of paying
the cost, no matter how great. Fortunately, however,
the development of microfilms has introduced a far
simpler and more economical plan of distributing such
reports to other workers. This is by what has come to
be known as auxiliary publication. By it, the author
publishes in the widely cireulating printed journals
only such details of his work as are necessary to
acquaint others with its scope and conclusions. He
prepares for an authorized depository a detailed de-
scription of his experiments, accompanied by tables,
charts, illustrations or anything else needed to convey
to others a thorough comprehension of his work. This
complete report serves for the preparation of microfilm
copies which are given an identifying number corres-
ponding to the number which accompanies the printed
summary of the work. Those who read this brief
account in the widely circulated journal and desire
the complete paper simply order a microfilm copy of
it by number from the authorized depository at a very
modest price. Only the number of microfilm copies
that are ordered are made, and only one repository is
charged with keeping the original paper. ‘Thus the
cost of printing, distributing and conserving in libra-

VOL. 89, No, 2306:

ries voluminous detailed reports of research, of interest
to only few workers, is completely avoided.

This plan of publication also has another very im.
portant advantage. The rising costs of printing and
increasing number of papers submitted have forced the
publishers of practically all scientifie periodicals {)
insist on the greatest possible condensation of the
papers they print. This results in the publication of
many papers in such an abbreviated form that theiy
value to others is diminished. Auxiliary publication
by microfilm distribution avoids this and insures that
the work of every investigator is brought in its most
complete form only to those investigators who are able
to make best use of it.

From the above it follows that even though microfilm
copying may adversely affect the publication of certain
small numbers of highly specialized journals it provides
a substitute plan for the diffusion of scientific research
which is far superior and much more economical than
the system of publication solely by printing.

Finally, attention should be called to the fact that
library collections contain not only current periodicals
the contents of which are subject to greater diffusion
by the medium of microfilms, but the accumulated mass
of scientific literature over many years which micro-
films can also place at the disposition of those workers
not having access to such collections. Thus, the ques-
tion of copyright restriction and possible adverse effect
of microfilm copying upon a relatively few journals
should have little weight in appraising the tremendous
service which microfilm copying in libraries can con-
tribute to the advancement of learning.

ATHERTON SEIDELL
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH
WASHINGTON, D. C.

AN EASIER METHOD FOR MAKING AN
INDEX

“Aw easy method for making an index,” described in
the issue of Science for January 20, involves cutting
innumerable strips, handling slips of varying sizes
which would be awkward to alphabetize, working with
adhesive tape and typing twice. Sticking the entries
on 11-inch tape would hamper editing, cross-referenc-
ing and possible transfer of material from one heading
to another, all of which has to be done after the alpha-
betizing has been completed. Thus it appears that
indexing by the proposed method would consume more
time than it would save. When the work is done by the
usual one-card-per-entry method there is but one typ-
ing, alphabetizing is easily done, there is no messing
with tape or time-consuming cutting, and the easily
numbered cards can be readily bundled and sent to the
printer. No typing on sheets is necessary.

If even a quicker method is desired the following

MARC!

sugge

tions

still,

perfo

sectio

tions

slips

and 1

print

the

IN}

EVI

a A

belov

bank

Kan:

of K

Eisel

polos

teria

a fe

inter

bisor

gests

dene

Ac

E:

BE

Y

19

A

coul

to tl

tion,

but

and

dese

thei

a

able

chile

of w

of

Unit

suggested : Use typewriter paper on which perfora-
tions divide each sheet into ten sections. Or, better
still, use rolls of paper 4 inches or 5 inches wide, with
perforations 3 inches apart. Type one entry on each
section, and when the index is completed tear the sec-
tions apart and arrange the slips alphabetically. These
slips are a handy working size, can readily be edited
and rearranged, and then may be sent directly to the
printer. This method avoids putting a card or slip into
the typewriter and taking it out for each entry.

Maset Hunt Dorie
Mary A. BrApLEy
INDEXING SECTION
DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

EVIDENCES OF A PRE-CERAMIC CULTURAL
HORIZON IN SMITH COUNTY, KANSAS

A CULTURAL horizon, buried some ten feet or more
below the top of a twenty-one foot terrace along the
banks of a small intermittent stream in Smith County,
Kansas, has been under investigation by a University
of Kansas field party under the direction of Dr. L. C.
Eiseley, assistant professor of sociology and anthro-
pology at the latter institution. The archeological ma-
terial recovered consists of numerous flakes and rejects,
a few scrapers and a single point. The material is
intermixed with the charred and fossilized remains of
bison and other animals. Although the material sug-
gests more than a casual occupation of the site, no evi-
dences of pottery or agriculture were secured.

According to Dr. H. T., U. Smith, assistant pro-

march 10, 1939 SCIENCE 221

fessor of geology at the University of Kansas, who
conducted geological investigations at the site, the geo-
morphic changes which have taken place involve the
following stages: First, a deposition of over ten feet
of alluvium above the site; second, a lowering of the
local base level and the formation of a flood plain four-
teen feet below the top of the fill; third, a second lower-
ing of base level and the development of a new flood
plain twenty-one feet below the top of the original fill.
This flood plain has a width of a hundred yards and is
entering middle maturity. The geological evidence sug-
gests that these changes could not have taken place
much under a minimum of five thousand years ago,
and the site may actually be older.

Inasmuch as the point recovered is not Folsom, but
a well-worked artifact of a size suggesting its use with
the bow, and as, in addition, there is no reason to refer
the bison remains recovered to an extinct species, it
seems reasonable to assign the site a dating later than
the Folsom culture, but predating by a considerable
margin the appearance of agriculture in the central
plains. The importance of the site lies in its contribu-
tion of additional evidence of the existence of nomadic
bison hunters in the central plains below the recog-
nized ceramic cultures, but evidently later in time than
the Folsom horizon, judging both from the probabie
use of the bow and the associated remains of a living
species of bison. At the same time, because of its
genuine geological antiquity, the site is an added check
on the postglacial, early Recent fauna associated with
man in the Plains region.

LorEN C. EISELEY

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

TRAVELS OF A PLANT EXPLORER
The World was my Garden. Travels of a Plant

Explorer. By Davip FAIRCHILD, assisted by EL1za-

BETH and ALFRED Kay. Chas. Scribner’s Sons, New

York and London. Pp. 494. Many illustrations.

1938,

A MorRE charming and interesting autobiography
could searcely be imagined. Fairchild is not known
to the world from any great discovery or generaliza-
tion, such as those of Darwin, Mendel and the Curies;
but taken all together, his contributions to horticulture
and thus to human welfare have been so great that he
deserves to rank with those who have done most for
their country and the world. The present book, giving
a connected account of his activities, is especially valu-
able as showing what has been done, not only by Fair-
child but also by those who cooperated with him, to all
of whom full and generous credit is given. The results
of all this work may be found in every part of the
United States, where introduced plants are growing

and producing increasingly valuable crops. It would
be impossible to estimate the value of the products
which have been made available to us through Fair-
child, or to say what limit there may be to their in-
creasing value, as they become better known, and the
conditions of their cultivation better understood.
How are such men produced? Fairchild says:

Going back through the mists of sixty-odd years, I
realize that I both had the suitable heredity and was born
into an environment adapted to the development of a
naturalist or horticulturist. In other words, my path was
almost predestined at my birth. I do not believe that I
consciously chose its direction, but rather wandered down
its attractive way unconscious where I was going... .
Had I the choice of a place to be born, a family to be born
into, and an environment with which to surround myself,
I could hardly have chosen more wisely than Fate chose
for me in 1869 when I was born at Michigan State Col-
lege. My parents belonged to the class to whom the intel-
lectual future of this country meant more than anything

~

bad
aS
G
“
;
|

222

else in the world. Asa boy, I heard countless discussions
in my father’s house concerning some of the most funda-
mental changes which have taken place in the education of
the youth of America; discussions among pioneers who
have left their mark on much that is fine and splendid in
the civilization of our country.

When he was ten years old, the family moved to
Manhattan, Kansas, his father having been made presi-
dent of the then small agricultural college. Here, as
he grew up, he was fortunate in coming under the
influence of some active-minded men, who were con-
cerned with the practical problems of the farmers. He
early appreciated the nature of these problems and the
fact that they had to be solved by scientific research.
It was the beginning of many things, and, says Fair-
child: “We were all to be actors and supers in a gigan-
tic drama. Its importance has meant little to the
press, which sees news only in the startling headlines
of the day, but I believe that history will evaluate our
work more highly, for historians view life in terms of
related instead of unrelated days.”

In 1889 he was invited by B. T. Galloway to go to
Washington, to serve in the Department of Agricul-
ture, with a salary of a thousand dollars a year. It
was not a very attractive prospect, and there was some
hesitation about accepting, but as a matter of fact it
opened a broad way to new opportunities, and was the
foundation for the work to which he devoted his life.
Although the department in those days was poorly
housed and appeared to be a rather insignificant branch
of the government service, it included a group of very
remarkable men, who are now famous in the annals of
science. One wonders how they got there, and how
much was due to their native ability, how much to
the fact that they were pioneers in important fields
just then beginning to be cultivated in this country.
It was indeed a wonderful opportunity; the broad
continent of North America, with all its different con-
ditions of soil and climate, so rich in its possibilities,
so poorly developed in comparison to what might easily
be. No doubt in some directions the prospects ap-
peared brighter than they actually were, the many
difficulties not being fully appreciated, but the result-
ing optimism did no harm, and the outcome has been
a very notable enrichment of our standard of living.

Broadly speaking, the problem for agriculture and
horticulture was to find the crops which it was most
profitable to grow in each locality. It was not purely
a question of making money for the farmer, but also

of serving the public. Whether or not the crops pro-

duced more income, it was worth a good deal to have
interesting and diversified foods on the market. In
different parts of the world, from very early times,
people had striven to improve their crops, or had
selected those they preferred. Sometimes nature had

SCIENCE

Vou. 89, No. 2306

done the selection, as by the survival of hardy varieties
in a cold climate, or of resistant varieties in the pres.
ence of parasites. Some of these variously improved
varieties had been introduced into the United Sta
with very excellent results, but the world had neve
been systematically explored for them.

So any one might have reasoned, but what could he
done about it? Certainly the American government
had no idea of initiating such a great enterprise,
Fairchild, now fairly launched as a scientific worker,
did not yet see himself as a botanical explorer. He
wished to go to Europe to inerease his scientific
knowledge, and the opportunity came when Dr. Stiles
got him appointed to the Smithsonian table at the
Naples Zoological Station. The voyage across the At.
lantic was very stormy, “the roughest and most un-
comfortable of my life.” “One morning I was amazed
to see a man standing in the doorway of the second
officer’s cabin, clad in wrapper and pajamas. It was
the first pair of pajamas I had ever beheld; heretofore
every one I had seen attired for slumber had worn a
nightshirt. Somewhat stunned, I stared at this tall
stranger in open-mouthed astonishment. . . . He was
very good looking, standing there in the sunlight, quite
the distinguished man of the world.” This was Bar.
bour Lathrop, who nicknamed Fairchild “Fairy,” but
was himself the good fairy who directed his destiny
and made his great work possible. When Fairchild
got acquainted with Lathrop, he told him about his
various ambitions, and especially how he longed to go
to Java, but of course could not stand the expense.
When Fairchild had been at Naples about a month,
Lathrop turned up, along with Professor Raphael
Pumpelly, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lathrop
wanted to see what Fairchild was doing, but was not
much interested in karyokinesis. So he said: “You
told me on the boat that you wanted to go to Java.
Have you given up that idea?” Presently he added:
“T’ve decided to give you a thousand dollars with which
to go to Java. I want you to understand that I look
upon this thousand dollars as an investment, nothing
more. I have had you looked up, and you seem to be
all right, and when you are ready for the money | will
send you a letter of credit for that amount.”

One might suppose that Fairehild would have taken
the next boat for Java, but he explained to Mr. Lathrop
that he thought he should continue his training in
Europe, so as to become better fitted to justify the
“investment.” So we find him at Breslau, Berlin and
Bonn, and there is much to tell of his experiences there.

But “every few months a letter would reach me from
Mr. Lathrop asking why the devil I had not gone to
Java.” Eventually, in 1896, the great day came, and
Fairchild sailed for Java “under Dr. Treub’s chaper-
onage.” In his work at Buitenzorg, he specialized in

up ar
Mr. |
reseal
much

seeme
valual
would
but tl
Lathr
had al
to les
thoug!
faults
withon
been
that
treasu
readil
a mod
prise |
enlist
count
peopl
Egypt
(1570
the in

Al
venien
pilot {
Imp
ity to
effeet
amour
better.
also in
1 Fro
Baltim

:
interé
noted
| frient
interf
Faire
off, al
of P €
at the
I wou
|
eultur

fined
=
:

{
oy

10, 1939

the natural history of termites, finding out some very
‘nteresting facts. Perhaps he would have become a
noted entomologist, following the methods of his
friend, W. M. Wheeler, had not Mr. Lathrop again
interfered. The next chapter is headed “The Lathrop-
Fairchild Odyssey Begins.” Mr. Lathrop carried him
off, and one fateful night as the vessel lay off the Island
of Penang, the two men had an earnest conversation,
at the end of which “I had promised Mr. Lathrop that
I would take up a study of the plants useful to man,
and together with him, find a way to introduce their
culture into America. It was a rather vague, ill-de-
fned agreement, but it was a turning point.”

We now find the two men spending many years going
up and down the world, exploring for useful plants.
Mr. Lathrop had no particular interest in scientific
research as such, and apparently did not even care
much for ornamental plants, but no expense or trouble
seemed too great if it resulted in securing some plant
valuable as food or for some commercial product. One
would like to review all these adventures in some detail,
but they must be left for readers of the book. Mr.
Lathrop was not always easy to get along with, and
had an impatient temperament, so that he often wanted
to leave a place at the very time when Fairchild
thought it most profitable to stay. But whatever his
faults, he was a constant friend and supporter, and
without him, many splendid opportunities would have
been missed. On the other hand, we must recognize
that in Fairchild Lathrop found an extraordinary
treasure, and it is greatly to his credit that he so
readily appreciated this fact. The book is written in
a modest vein, but we are amazed at the energy, enter-
prise and resourcefulness exhibited, and the ability to
enlist the aid and interest of all sorts of people in many
countries. The narrative is full of side-lights on the
people and countries visited; thus, for example, in
Egypt he visited the palace of Queen Hatshepset
(1570 B.c.) where he found a bas-relief representing
the introduction of the incense tree from the land of

SCIENCE 223

Punt. “A warm feeling of understanding surged
through me for this woman who, like myself, ap-
preciated the value and romance of plant introduction.
Here on the walls of her palace in Thebes, she had com-
manded a bas-relief to be cut commemorating her im-
portation of a new tree into her domain. It was quite
thrilling, for, as far as I know, there are not a half
dozen memorials commemorating the introduction of
new plants.”

At length Fairchild returned to Washington, to
superintend the now great enterprise which had grown
up, largely through his activities. “I had expected to
find it difficult to settle down to a desk in Washington,
but on the contrary it proved so fascinating that there
were not hours enough in the days or nights in which
to accomplish all there was to do. Beside each day’s
mail, and routine, and reports on my travels to be
written for future reference, there was the world-wide
field of plants still waiting to be introduced.”

On one occasion, he was invited to a dinner party.
“It was a small party, and I found myself seated beside
Miss Marian Bell, who had recently returned from New
York, where she had been working in the studio of
Gutzon Borglum. Our conversation was largely on
art, about which I knew nothing but could talk a good
deal, having traveled with Mr. Lathrop, who was a real
connoisseur. It was the first chance I had to talk to
Miss Bell, and I was fascinated by her. . . . I left the
house, my mind in a whirl, a whirl which has really
never stopped since. It was the beginning of a part
of my life which has been completely different and
vastly more beautiful than anything I had dreamed
possible.”

Thus he became a son-in-law of Alexander Graham
Bell. Of these later happy years, not yet finished,
much might be said, but I hope I have written enough
to arouse some of the enthusiasm which should greet
such a stimulating book.

T. D. A. CocKERELL

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

REPORTS

PILOT FITNESS FOR NIGHT FLYING!

A LIGHT sense tester correct in principle and con-
venient for use is an important instrument for testing
pilot fitness for night flying.

_ Important funetions to be tested are: (a) the abil-
ity to see at night and at low illumination and the
éffeet of dark adaptation on this ability, and (b) the
amount and speed of dark adaptation. Nermal or
better-than-normal sensitivity in light adaptation is
also important. The eyes that are needed for night

"From the Research Laboratory of Physiological Optics,
Baltimore, Md.

flying are the best of what might be called the normal
group; that is, of those that have both good dark and
good light vision. More important than speed and
range of adaptation, however, is the place in the
seale of sensitivity at which the adaptive change oc-
eurs. Some eyes have a good range and speed of
adaptation, but the adaptive change begins so low in
the seale of sensitivity that they never attain the de-

gree of sensitivity that gives the special fitness needed .

for night flying.
The ability to see at night and at low illumination

>

y

4
|
ras
i
;
f
¥
mp

~

224 SCIENCE

and the effect of dark adaptation on this ability. In
general, the ability to see at low illumination may be
tested by determining the threshold of light sensation,
or what is often called the light minimum. The effect
of dark adaptation on this ability may be tested by
determining the light minimum at the intervals selected

Vou. 89, No, 235

In order to show the amount of individual Variatig
that may be found in the ability to sense light at jy
ferent intervals in the course of dark adaptation,
study was made of 206 non-pathologie eases rang
in age from 9 to 70 years.* The results of this stay
are given in Fig. 1. The curves in Fig. 1 show x

10? 10%
Below 39 years Above 25 otal &roup
10
4 y ‘
3
= E
& E
& 2 ‘
= = =
¢,
= -a < Se
3 ~
le
43
io”
13 10 is 0

~
Time of Adaptation (Min)
A

Time of Adaptation (tain-)
B

Time of Adaplation (min)
C

Fic. 1. The light minimum for 206 non-pathologie cases, ages 9 to 70 years, at the end of the period of light
adaptation and after 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes of dark adaptation for the highest, lowest and the 5-, 25,
50-, 75- and 95-percentile cases: A, for the entire group; B, for the group below 35 years of age; and C, for the
group above 35 years of age. The light minimum is expressed in lumens entering the eye per sq. mm of stimulus

for consideration from the beginning of dark adapta-
tion until the process is complete. The results of
these determinations when plotted against time in the
form of a curve give a complete picture of the course
of adaptation of the eye in question throughout a
period of time. Thus one can obtain the eye’s sensi-
tivity at any time from the beginning to the end of
dark adaptation. Whether one or a number of these
intervals is chosen for test depends on the purpose
for which the test is being made. If the eye’s maxi-
mum sensitivity is wanted approximately, for example,
the test should be made at the end of an interval of
20 or 30 minutes.?

2? The determination of the light minimum for the dis-

crimination of detail in objects may also be used as a
test of ocular fitness for night flying. That test, however,

will not be considered in this paper. Depending on the
size of detail that is used, the test may be made for either
foveal or extrafoveal vision. In this connection it may
be noted that the adaptive change in the fovea has a very
much smaller range than in the surrounding portions of

that age above 35 years exerts an important effect o
the power of the eye to adjust itself for seeing at lov
illumination. From this it would seem that the tet-
ing of the light sense renders an additional service i
helping establish the ease against age as a disqualify:
ing factor for night flying and of presenting evidence
against those who wish to continue in this capacity
beyond their time of fitness.

THE AMOUNT AND SPEED OF DARK ADAPTATION

Those intimately conversant with the ocular needs
of the night flyer say that speed is more imporiall

the retina and that the greater number of objects which
it is important that the aviator see are extrafoveal in siz
Both intrafoveal and extrafoveal sizes of test object a
doubtless needed for a complete study of the eye’s fitness
for night flying. So far as we know, it has not bea
determined whether in all cases candidates will be giv"
the same ranking in a group when tested for foveal and
extrafoveal powers of adaptation.

* For the details of this study see C. E. Ferree, @. Rav
and M. R. Stoll, British Jour. Ophthal., 18: 673-687, 1934:

Mahan
hat
me po
rorld
oted
ockpit
ght a
come
fation
Bp resent
pifect
sary,
in rela
poil
hange

urs.

ght
still a ¢
ition be
dapta'
for nig
br bet!
stant
well
crease
The pc
est sh
ond of
For
Hight n
Mark a
msuitabl
approx
Bamoun'
of nor
spectin
ceptior
Amount
ifically
For
possibi
detail
oursely
that w
noted
flying.
The
tions
simpli
Lomb
posses:
and

2
ely

|
>

q
|

| arcH 10, 1939

an total amount or range of adaptation. That is,
hat the night flyer needs more than anything else is
he power to change his vision quickly from the il-
B inated cockpit and instrument panel to the outside
‘orld and back again. In this connection it may be
oted that the transition from outside back to the
Hockpit does not present so serious a problem because
ght adaptation takes place with very much greater
Mapidity than dark adaptation. What problem there
E comes from the fact that until sufficient light adap-
tion has taken place a disturbing dazzle may be
B esent. In most eases at medium intensities this
fect will disappear in a few seconds. If found nec-
sary, a test for this can easily be devised. However,
n relation to fitness for night flying it is perhaps well
» point out again that neither speed nor amount of
hange in sensitivity is as important as place in the
Beale of sensitivity at which the adaptive change oc-
burs. That is, it is quite possible that a candidate
might have a good range and speed of adaptation and
still a comparatively poor power to see at low illumina-
Mtion both at the beginning and at the end of dark
adaptation. Such a person would obviously be unfit
for night flying. The night flyer should have normal
br better-than-normal ability to see objects the in-
stant he looks from the cockpit to the outside world,
mes well as normal or better-than-normal power to in-
rease this ability as dark adaptation is prolonged.
The point should be tested, not assumed; that is, the
est should be made at the beginning as well as at the
end of the period of adaptation selected.
| For testing the amount or range of adaptation the
ight minimum ean be determined at the beginning of
adark adaptation and at the end of some interval of
Bsuitable length, preferably 20 or 30 minutes for the
mpproximate total range. A good conception of the
Sanount of adaptation that may be expected in a group
of non-pathologie observers may be obtained by in-
Bspecting the curves of Fig. 1; also a fairly good con-
ception of the range of individual variation in this
amount, although these curves were not plotted spe-
ifically to bring out this point.
For testing speed of adaptation obviously many
Possibilities are presented. These will be discussed in
detail in other papers. In this paper we shall limit
ourselves to the suggestion of a routine procedure
that will give information on all the essential points
“8 above as important in rating fitness for night
ying,
The instrument recommended for these determina-
lions is the Ferree-Rand Light Sense Tester in the
Simplified form manufactured by the Bausch and
Lomb Optieal Company (Fig. 2). This instrument
possesses many unusual features which render it easy
and convenient to make accurate studies of the light

SCIENCE

225

Fie. 2. Simplified light sense tester with diagram of
its optical system. S,, source of light in far position; S8,,
source of light in near position; A,, intake aperture with
diffuser; F, battery of filters; Lg, collimating lens; Ly,
focusing lens; St, plate containing stimulus aperture; E,
eyepiece.

sense and the effect of dark adaptation on the light
sense. Some of these are: (a) All variable effects due
to size of pupil, also as far as is possible to accommo-
dation, distance of projection of the image and condi-
tion of refraction are eliminated from the results. (b)
For the determination of amount and rate of adapta-
tion a pre-exposure field variable in size is provided,
surrounding and ineluding the test field. (c) The test
field may be quickly varied in size through a visual
angle ranging from near zero to 36 degrees and given
any shape that is desired. (d) A scale is provided in-
dicating the amount of light entering the eye expressed
in lumens per sq. mm. of test field. (e) The instru-
ment can be used with equal facility in any state of
adaptation, light or dark, and all adjustments can be
made without interfering with the state of adaptation
of the observer. Further, all scales can be read by the
examiner in the dark. (f) The instrument is com-
pletely self-contained, neat and compact in construc-
tion and conveniently portable. (g) Provisions are
also made for producing a wide range of intensity of
light in both pre-exposure and test fields without
change in the color or composition of the light, for
making an objective check on the judgment and for
checking the constancy of the amount of light deliv-
ered at the pupillary aperture of the instrument for
any given reading of the scale.

The test should be made as follows. After a suitable
period of adaptation, perhaps 3 to 5 minutes, to the
pre-exposure field of the instrument, the light mini-
mum should be determined and then redetermined
after 2, 3 or 5 minutes of dark adaptation as may be
desired. From the results obtained, the sensitivity of
the light-adapted eye may be derived, the rate of gain

4
‘a,
<)\
|
0)
Wage
Let
»
=
A
>

226 SCIENCE

in sensitivity for a given period of dark adaptation,
and the sensitivity at the end of this period. This
would seem to give the most important information
needed; namely, the light sensitivity of the light-
adapted eye, the sensitivity that may be attained after
a selected period of dark adaptation and the speed of
dark adaptation. This information would enable the
examiner to exclude eyes defective in power to see at
low illumination when either light-adapted or dark-
adapted (hemeralopia, avitaminosis, etc.) and to select
the best of the normal eyes.

In our thinking as to the comparative importance
of pilot fitness as a safety factor in aviation, it is well
to keep in mind a statement made by Major-General

VOL. 89, No, 2306

James E. Fechet (Ret.), formerly chief of the U.s
Army Air Corps.* Discussing the eauses of airplay,

erashes, he says that in more than half the number o¢ |

eases these crashes are due to personnel error or {,
undetermined causes. In the personnel group he ip.
cludes the pilot, the weather man, the airline opera-
tions manager and the mechanic. A small per cen;
of these crashes—less than five, he says—is due j,
mechanical failure—engine malfunctions, breakage of
some part of the plane or its essential accessories
From this it seems that not the plane but its operation
is chiefly at fault.

C. E. Ferree

G. Ranp

SPECIAL ARTICLES

HUMAN TOXOPLASMOSIS: OCCURRENCE IN
INFANTS AS AN ENCEPHALOMYELITIS
VERIFICATION BY TRANSMIS-

SION TO ANIMALS*

A PROTOZOAN encephalomyelitis in infants, described
in recent years,!-? has been experimentally transmitted
to animals and shown to be due to a Toxoplasma. The
latter is a Protozoan which in smears appears of eres-
centic shape, measures 4-6 microns in length and 2-3
microns in width. It is pointed at both ends or has one
blunt end and has a central chromatin body. Although
it is of uncertain classification, it is characterized by an
affinity for many tissues, especially the central nervous
system, wide-spread geographic distribution and patho-
genicity for a wide variety of hosts. In spite of the
last, human infection has not hitherto been established,
one report being very doubtful.* Its occurrence is now
proved by the recent transmission of the infection to
animals from an infant.

The child became ill at three days of age and de-
veloped convulsive seizures, disturbances in respiration
and symptoms of involvement of the spinal cord.
Terminally, irregular reddish-brown areas were ob-
served ophthalmosecopically in each macular region.
The infant died at the age of 31 days. Autopsy,
- limited to the nervous system, revealed a wide-spread
encephalomyelitis, characterized by focal areas of in-
flammation and necrosis, and disseminated miliary
granulomas. The right eye showed a localized chorio-
retinitis. A Protozoan morphologically identical with
Toxoplasma was present in all the lesions.

Fresh tissue removed from lesions in the cerebral

* Investigation aided by a grant from the Friedsam
Foundation.

1A. Wolf and D. Cowen, Bull. Neur. Inst. N. Y., 6: 306,
1937.

2 A. Wolf and D. Cowen, Ibid., 7: 266, 1938.

8 J. O. W. Bland, Lancet, 219: 52, 1930.
Exper. Path., 12: 311, 1931.

Brit. Jour.

cortex and cervical spinal cord five hours postmortem
was emulsified in sterile physiological saline. Four
rabbits, 26 infant mice and 9 rats were inoculated with

the emulsion intracerebrally. Eighteen infant mice |

were cannibalized by the mothers, but of the remaining
8, 6 showed the following evidence of having been
infected: (1) They became ill and were sacrificed or
died in from 18 to 40 days. (2) They showed lesions
in the central nervous system resembling those seen in
the human ease. (3) Protozoa like those in the ner-
vous system of the infant were present in the lesions.
(4) Transmission to rabbits and mice was attempted
from 4 of these mice and was successful in each in-
stance, using brain tissue for intracerebral inoculation
with the production of similar lesions containing para-
sites, and further successful serial passages. The other
mice showed a meningo-encephalitis but no parasites.
Three of the rabbits died in from 9 to 13 days and
showed a meningo-encephalitis. Parasites were found
in the lesions in 2 and successful transmission of the
infection to rabbits and adult mice by intracerebral in-

oculation of emulsified brain was carried out from each |

of the 3. The fourth rabbit and the 9 rats showed
neither clinical nor pathological evidence of infection.
Excluding 18 cannibalized infant mice and 6 rats dying
shortly after inoculation apparently of cerebral trauma,
one finds that 9 or three-fifths of the remaining 15 an!
mals became infected. That this was not a spontaneous
infection activated by the inoculations is evidenced by
(1) the high percentage of infection following the ™-

oculation of the human material, (2) the fact that tox |
plasmosis has not been deseribed in rabbits or mice 1" J

North America and (3) the absence of similar infection
in many animals of the same stock similarly inoculated
with other materials.

‘J. E. Fechet, Flight Surgeon Topics, School of “erg
tion Medicine, Randolph Field, Texas, 1: No. 2, 44-48,
1937.

MarcH 1

In the
been car’
cerebral
emulsion.
Berkefel
rabbits
eumbed, |
mice ino
non-cann
to 3 week
appear U
gishness,
difficultie
second 01

In eve
encephal
necrosis.
cells, mo
and eosi
fant’s br
esions
striated
identical
large nut
Protozoa
failed.

In add
days old
brally.
by the d
taining
cerebrall
temperat
this spee
tigated f

Six ra
lation wi
times wil
immune.
with the
Four mis
tion wer
peritone;
while 2 r

That
case is ¢
(1) Its:
of anim:
the lesio
are very
inoculati
The suse
chick to

range of

MakcH 10, 1939

In the first 6 months, 24 serial passages in rabbits
and 22 in irregularly alternating rabbits and mice have
heen carried out by intracerebral or combined intra-
cerebral and intraperitoneal injection of infected brain
emulsion. Filtrates of emulsions passed through
Berkefeld “N” filters proved non-infective. Of 148
rabbits inoeulated, 131, and of 105 mice, all but 2, suc-
cumbed, the majority in from 5 to 9 days. Of 98 infant
mice inoculated intracerebrally, 52 or four-fifths of the
non-cannibalized succumbed, the majority in from 2
to 3 weeks. In most of the animals, symptoms did not
appear until the last day of life. These included slug-
gishness, pareses, tremors, convulsions and respiratory
difficulties. A rise in temperature beginning on the
second or third day was noted in the rabbits.

In every instance, there was a severe disseminated
encephalomyelitis marked by focal inflammation and
necrosis. The exudate included lymphocytes, plasma
cells, mononuclear leucocytes and fewer neutrophiles
and eosinophiles. Granulomas like those in the in-
fant’s brain were often observed. Focal inflammatory
esions were less frequently encountered in the lungs,
striated museles, heart, spleen and liver. Parasites
identical with those in the human case were found in
large numbers in the lesions. Attempts to cuitivate the
Protozoan on a variety of media free of living cells
failed.

In addition to rabbits and mice, chicks from 1 to 11
days old and guinea pigs were inoculated intracere-
brally. These species proved susceptible as evidenced
by the development of typical histologic lesions con-
taining parasites. A rhesus monkey injected intra-
cerebrally and subeutaneously remained well and its
temperature continued normal. The susceptibility of
this species to this strain of Toxoplasma is being inves-
tigated further.

Six rabbits which did not suecumb to an initial inocu-
lation were re-inoculated intracerebrally from 1 to 3
times within 3 weeks to 3 months and all proved to be
immune. Eight control rabbits and 3 mice injected
with the same material by the same route succumbed.
Four mice which did not sueecumb to an initial inocula-
tion were also re-inoculated intracerebrally and intra-
peritoneally within 24 to 44 months. All survived,
while 2 rabbits and 11 mice used as controls succumbed.

That the microorganism isolated from the human
case is a Toxoplasma is indicated by the following:
(1) Its morphology corresponds to that of Toxoplasma
of animal origin. (2) The course of the disease and
the lesions produced in the animals inoculated with it
are very similar to those noted in the same species by
inoculation of a Toxoplasma of animal origin. (3)
The susceptibility of the rabbit, mouse, guinea pig and
chick to this Toxoplasma corresponds to the wide host
tange of Toxoplasma of animal origin. (4) Convine-

SCIENCE 227

ing evidence of the nature of the microorganism was
obtained by cross-immunity experiments. Toxoplasma
from a guinea pig passaged through mice was kindly
furnished us by Sabin and Olitsky.* The 6 rabbits and
4 mice, noted above to be immune to the human strain
of Toxoplasma, were re-inoculated respectively intra-
cerebrally, and intracerebrally and intraperitoneally
with the Sabin-Olitsky strain using infected mouse or
rabbit brain emulsion. All 10 animals proved to be
immune. Seven control rabbits and 6 control mice suc-
cumbed. Conversely, 2 rabbits immunized against the
Sabin-Olitsky strain proved to be immune to the human
strain, while two controls suceumbed. Working with
the same strains of Toxoplasma, Sabin and Olitsky,
using other methods, have confirmed this cross-immun-
ity and will report their results in the near future.
The Protozoan found in the infant might be called
Toxoplasma hominis, with the reservation that it may
later prove to be identical with one or all of the animal
strains.

Four other cases':?5-* (respectively from New York

City, Chicago, Prague and Rio de Janeiro), very simi-
lar clinically and pathologically to the present case,
have been shown by two of us to constitute a distinct
disease entity marked by encephalomyelitis. In one of
these reports,® the author mentioned focal inflamma-
tory lesions in the heart, striated muscles and sub-
cutaneous tissue as well. The lesions in each infant
contained a parasite morphologically indistinguishable
from that in the present case. There is little doubt
then that they too were cases of toxoplasmic encephalo-
myelitis, although experimental evidence is lacking.
That there may be other forms of human toxoplasmosis
is very probable.

In conelusion, toxoplasmosis has been demonstrated
in man. It has been shown to occur as a characteristic
disease of young infants involving the central nervous
system. The first experimental transmission of a
human toxoplasmosis to animals is described.

ABNER WOLF
Davip CowEN
BERYL PAIGE
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS,
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

THE LOCALIZATION OF MINERALS IN
ANIMAL TISSUES BY THE ELEC-
TRON MICROSCOPE?

In recent years there have appeared a number of
articles on the electron microscope with reference to its
use in biological investigations. Most of these papers

4 A. B. Sabin and P. K. Olitsky, Scrence, 85: 336, 1937.

5 J. Janka, Casopis lekarew ceskyck, 62: 1021, 1923.

6 C. M. Torres, C. R. Soc. de Biol., 97: 1778, 1927.

1 Aided by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and
the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation.

re

“eet &
Pes
Nike
4
:
:
=
at
=
al
4
aS
Ke
Be
|
2
|
4
r Page
|

228 SCIENCE

have been confined to the possibilities of securing tre-
mendously high magnification. In these studies the
absorption of parts of an electron beam by the sub-
stance traversed gave rise to profile pictures, as it were,
of bacteria, colloidal suspensions and in several in-
stances epidermal cells. Another use of this new tool
was in the examination of surfaces, particularly of
metals, by means of the pictures resulting from ther-
mionie excitation of electrons at the metallic surface.
It occurred to us, about four years ago, that this latter
adaptation of the electron microscope would be par-
ticularly useful in localizing minerals in sections of
animal tissues.

It has been appreciated for some time that gentle and
careful ashing of sections of biological tissues gives a
remarkably faithful picture of the topographie dis-
tribution of minerals in such materials. Cells and their
parts can be recognized with little difficulty. If ma-
terial is prepared by a modification of the Altmann-
Gersh? frozen dehydration method there is little chance
that there is any perceptible shift in the cellular loca-
tion of the inorganic constituents. Since most of the
inorganic elements in tissues, particularly Na, K, Ca
and Mg, are excited to thermionic emission of electrons
at more or less specific temperatures, we expected to
be able to differentiate between these various elements
and localize them in cells. With this information at
hand it seemed advisable to ash sections in vacuo on the
surface of a barium and strontium coated cathode in
the electron microscope.

After many experiments, both with apparatus and
method, we have been able to secure pictures in which
cellular structure in striated muscle, gastric mucous
membrane, nerve and in other tissues can be clearly
made out. So far the emission, pictures which have
been obtained have been due to magnesium and calcium
only. It has been possible to localize these elements
definitely in the contraction bands of frozen and de-
hydrated muscle. Epithelial cells of the mucous mem-
brane of the stomach and intestinal tract show exten-
sive concentration of magnesium and calcium in the
free borders of the cells.

These results are being published in detail elsewhere,
and the experiments are being continued.

Gorpon H. Scorr
DonaLp M. PACKER
DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY,
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, St. Louis

EXPERIMENTAL PROLIFERATIVE ARTHRI-
TIS IN MICE PRODUCED BY FILTRABLE,
PLEUROPNEUMONIA-LIKE
MICROORGANISMS

A PROGRESSIVE, proliferative polyarthritis bearing
a clinical and pathological resemblance to human

21. Gersh, Anat. Rec., 53: 309, 1932.

VoL. 89, No. 239

rheumatoid arthritis was produced experimentally jy
mice with a filtrable, pleuropneumonia-like mieq).
organism which was recently isolated from the brajy
of a normal mouse.’ Arthritis can be produced jy
practically 100 per cent. of mice when 0.5 ce of ,
24-hour culture is injected intravenously or 1 ¢e intra.
peritoneally. Swelling of the joints may appear 4;
early as 4 to 5 days. The arthritis is migratory, ney
joints becoming involved while others recede. Fyj.
form swellings of isolated digits, seen so often jp
human rheumatoid arthritis, occur frequently in thes
mice. The process is progressive and chronic in one
or more joints, leading often to ankylosis, especially
in the knees. By the method of “blind passage”? the
microorganism has been cultivated from chronically
affected joints as late as 70 days after intravenous jn.
oculation. Tests revealed that the microorganism does
not multiply in the brain, viscera, pleura or perito-
neum. Excepting the arthritis, the mice appear in
good health and not one of 150 with joint involvement
has as yet died of the infection. Pathological changes
are limited to the joints, and, as in the human dis-
ease, consist chiefly of proliferation in the synovial
membrane, the capsule, the perichondrium of the ar-
ticular cartilage, combined with a synchronous pro-
liferation of the connective tissue and probably endos-
teum of the epiphyseal marrow directly below the
joint cartilage. Intracutaneous, subcutaneous, intra-
muscular or intrathoracic injection or nasal instilla-
tion with or without ether anesthesia induced neither
arthritis nor any local or systemie disease. Rabbits
and guinea-pigs developed neither arthritis, fever or
other signs of disease after inoculation with large
amounts of culture.

A pleuropneumonia-like microorganism recently iso-
lated from toxoplasma-infected mouse tissues’ differs
from the strain just described, in that it can also mul-
tiply in the brain as well as in the serous surfaces of
the peritoneum, pleura and pericardium with the pro-
duction of a characteristic exotoxin which has a spe-
cial affinity for the cerebellum and ean give rise to
chronic choreiform signs when it does not prove fatal.
When the rapid toxie death which follows intravenous
injection of the culture was prevented either by the
use of older mice (at least 2 months of age) or by in-
jection of the centrifuged microorganisms, about 30
per cent. developed an arthritis similar to that pro-
duced by the other strain. The two strains are not
serologically identical but possess a common antigel.
Both strains have been found to pass through 500 my
but not 396 mu gradocol membranes (kindly supplied
by Dr. J. H. Bauer), while on one occasion it was p0s-
sible, by preliminary filtration through a 584 my. mem-
brane, to obtain a positive filtrate through a 322 my
membrane; this suggests that the size of the smallest

1A. B. Sabin, Science, 88: 575, 1938.

MarcH

unit
magnitt
The |
yation
ogy is
ganism

SC]

DEV

In tl
trophot
equal t
compal
vent, a
fect
method
spectro
are det
eated
while
but vis
usually

It is
not in
gap 01
determ
this re
sible ¢
curate
souree
while :
fect co
grams
on the
with t

Obv
aceura
elimin
spectr

this v

spectr

there.

|
|

‘

unit eapable of multiplication is in the same range of
magnitude as that of vaccine virus.

The necessity of applying similar methods of culti-
vation and study to human arthritis of unknown etiol-
ogy is obvious. Whether or not a similar microor-
ganism shall be found to play a part in related human

SCIENCE 229

affections, the experimental disease provides a useful
tool in the investigation of many pertinent questions.

ALBERT B. SABIN
THE LABORATORIES OF THE ROCKEFELLER
INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH,
NEw YorK

SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND LABORATORY METHODS

DEVICES FOR VISUAL COMPARISON OF
SPECTROGRAMS

In the commonly used method of photographic spec-
trophotometry due to Howe, the absorption spectra of
equal thicknesses of two substances which are to be
compared, usually a solution and a sample of the sol-
vent, are photographed side by side in as nearly per-
fect contact as possible. An essential part of the
method is to determine the point or points at which the
spectrograms are equally dark. The points usually
are determined by visual inspection. They may be lo-
cated by means of a microdensitometer, with a worth-
while increase in accuracy under certain conditions;
but visual determinations are much more rapid and
usually are sufficiently accurate.

It is well known that if the two spectrograms are
not in perfect or nearly perfect contact, without visible
gap or overlap, the accuracy attainable in visually
determining the match points is greatly reduced. For
this reason, great care is taken to obtain the best pos-
sible contact. This necessitates very careful and ac-
curate adjustment of the relative positions of the light
source and other parts of the apparatus. Indeed,
while satisfactory contacts are usually attainable, per-
fect contact throughout the entire length of the spectro-
grams is impossible in practice, since the image spreads
on the photographie plate to an extent which varies
with the density.

Obviously the time and effort involved in obtaining
accurate absorption data could be reduced greatly by
eliminating the necessity for excellent contact of the
spectrograms. A simple device has been found to do
this very satisfactorily, making it possible to view the
spectrograms in apparently perfect contact, even when
there is a wide gap or overlap between them.

70 EYE 70 EYE

la’ hi dt
5S JS
(A) (B)
Fig. 1

The device consists essentially of a biprism (Fig.
1-A) which is thinnest along the center line e. It is
made preferably of a single piece of glass, but may
be made of two prisms carefully ground and joined
at the thin edges. It is held with its center line parallel
to the lengths of the spectrograms and directly over
the gap or overlap. Areas ab, cd, extending per-
pendicular to the plane of the paper, then appear at
a’b’, c’d’ in the visual field, with b’ and c’ apparently
in coincidence. Thus the edges of the areas, at b and ¢,
appear in perfect contact, with no visible dividing line.
The area between b and ¢ is invisible. The distance
from b to ¢ varies with the refracting angle and with
the distance from biprism to spectrograms. By vary-
ing this distance, comparisons of the two spectro-
grams can be made at various distances from the edges.

The division between the visual areas remains sharp,
while the distance between biprism and spectrograms
is varied from zero to at least several millimeters.
This range can be increased greatly by viewing the
spectrograms through a small circular aperture (one
eye) or (using both eyes) a narrow slit extending
parallel to the center line of the biprism.

For convenience and accuracy in use, the biprism
should be mounted in an apparatus in which it can be
adjusted to any desired position above the photo-
graphic plate, with its center line parallel to the edges
of the spectrograms. A low-power lens and a viewing
aperture may be mounted above the biprism. [llumi-
nation of the plate should be uniform and by trans-
mitted light.

The device can be used also for comparing the in-
tensities, positions, widths or line shapes of the lines
in two spectra; in comparing two parts of the same
spectral line, as a check on uniformity of width and
of illumination of the slit; in comparing the darken-
ing at two different wave-lengths in the same spec-
trum; ete.

Instead of the biprism, the refracting unit shown in
Fig. 1-B may be used. This may be made of two
plane-parallel plates of glass cemented together at an
angle, or, preferably, of a single piece of glass. Areas
ab, cd of the spectrograms appear at a’b’, c’d’, in per-
fect contact, as when using the biprism. This unit is
less useful than the biprism, however, as the distance
between b and ¢ can not be varied by varying the dis-
tance between the device and the spectrograms.

A biprism which is thickest along the center line

ga
LB
|

230 SCIENCE

also may be used. This reverses the images of the two
areas with respect to the center line. Two images of
the gap or overlap are seen, on opposite sides of the
contiguous areas. These images may interfere with
accurate comparison of the two areas. For this reason
the biprism first described is preferable.
GrorGe E. Davis
DEPARTMENT OF PHYsICcs,
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

A GASOLINE-TORCH LABORATORY
BURNER

THE Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agri-
culture, maintains several research stations at points
remote from such utilities as gas and electricity. Field
workers at such stations are handicapped in not being
able to use Bunsen burners or electrical stoves. This
difficulty has been overcome at the Delta Migratory
Waterfowl Refuge, in Louisiana, by utilizing a gaso-
line-torch stove. The stove was designed and con-
structed by Timothy Sullivan, a machinist at the refuge
WPA project. It can be built at little cost, requires
for heat only an ordinary gasoline “blow-torch” such
as that used by plumbers, and produces a high heat
with comparatively little fuel consumption.

Fig. 1.

The Sullivan burner utilizes the following materials:
Materials: Many of these items may be salvaged
from old machinery or from serap-metal heaps. (1)
One galvanized iron 34-inch pipe sleeve, 34 inches
high. (2) One 13-inch pipe elbow. (3) Three pieces
of %-inch iron pipe, each 13 inches long. (4) Three

VoL. 89, No. 2306

pieces of rubber for insulating shoes for the legs ¢
the stand. (May be eut from old automobile tip,
shoe.) (5) Four 2-inch lengths of § x 4 inch iron hy,
for grate. (6) Collar cut from 43-inch thick ste
plate, to fit the inside diameter of the 32-inch pip,

sleeve and with a hole to receive the 13-inch pipe |

elbow. (Not shown in figure.)

Assembly: One end of the elbow is welded to the ste]
collar, and this unit welded to one end of the pipe
sleeve. This forms the body of the burner, the opm
end of the elbow being the flame intake, and the uppe
end of the sleeve the top of the burner. Then the top
end of the sleeve is cut in four equidistant places t

receive the lengths of iron bar. These lengths are spot. |

welded in place and form a grate. The g-inch iron pipe
is used for the stand, the upper end of each length
being flattened and riveted to the outside of the lower
half of the sleeve. The rubber shoes for the feet of the
tripod stand may be cut with a projection that will fit
up inside of the bore of the iron piping.

Use: a gasoline torch is heated and fired, and placed
so that the end of the barrel is about an inch from the
flame intake of the burner. The amount of heat may
be regulated by adjusting the flame of the torch.

JoHN J. Lyncu

U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BOOKS RECEIVED

ALBRIGHT, JoHN G. Physical Meteorology. Pp. xxvii+
392. 246 figures. Prentice-Hall. $5.35.

BEAVER, WILLIAM C. Fundamentals of Biology, Animal
and Plant. Pp. 896. 299 figures. Mosby.

DarLineTon, C. D. The Evolution of Genetic Systems.
Pp. x+149. 26 figures. Cambridge University Press,
Maemillan. $2.75.

DOLLARD, JOHN, and others. Frustration and Aggression.
Pp. viii+ 209. Yale University Press. $2.00.

GASKELL, AucusTA. Whence? Whither? Why?: A New
Philosophy Based on the Physical Sciences. Pp. xx+
312. Putnam. $2.50.

Index to A. 8S. T. M. Standards and Tentative Standards,
January, 1939. Pp. 140. American Society for Test-
ing Materials, Philadelphia.

KeEeEsine, Fevix M. The Menomini Indians of Wiscon-
sin: A Study of Three Centuries of Cultural Contact
and Change; Vol. X, Memoirs of the American Philo-
sophical Society, 1939. Pp. xi+261. Illustrated. The
Society, Philadelphia.

KLEMPERER, Oro, Editor. Electron Optics. By the Re-
search Staff of Electric and Musical Industries, Limited.
Pp. x +107. Illustrated. Cambridge University Press,
Maemillan. $1.75.

LANDIS, CARNEY and A, Hunt. The Startle
Pattern. Pp. x+168. 4 figures. Farrar and Rine-
hart. $2.50.

PEARSE, A. 8S. Animal Ecology. Second edition. Pp.
xii+642. 132 figures. MeGraw-Hill. $5.50.

ScHEIDEMANN, NorMA V. Lecture Demonstrations [0
General Psychology. Pp. x+241. 10 figures. Um
versity of Chicago Press. $2.50.

WHEEELER, WILLIAM M. Essays in Philosophical Biology:
Pp. xv +261. Harvard University Press. $3.00.

YosuimurA, 8. Dissolved Oxygen of the Lake Waiters

of Japan; Vol. 2, No. 8, Science Reports of the Toky?
54
Y 2.00.

Bunrika Daigaku, Section C. Pp. 63-277.
University of Literature and Science, Tokyo.

—

Vou. 8!

Engine
tion:

Obituai
Edw
Shor:

Scienti
Worl
Univ
in th
The
Scho
seare
tion
Mem
Dr. .

by a
Scientt
Insu
PRO!
Specia
Char

tent

Scientt
Discus.
Safe
Une
PRO}
US.
|
| 2
by
Sr
ing
engin
fore»
| : here
engin
The
ing”)
broad
engin
vario
elude
the e
“The
Lehig
direct
the L