A FEDERAL forestry reserve of 500,000 acres in northern Wisconsin is proposed in a bill offered by Senator J. S. Carroll, of Glidden. The last legislature authorized a federal forestry reserve of 100,000 acres. When the inspection of the proposed areas was made by federal representatives a year ago, it was found that there were other lands which may be included within such a reserve. The state would retain concurrent jurisdiction with the United States government over the forestry area. Lands so withdrawn no longer would be subject to local taxation.

UNDER the name of the Prince Albert National Park, 1,377 square miles have been set apart in Northern Saskatchewan in order to preserve in perpetuity a section of the primitive forest and lake country, and to provide the people of the province, as well as those of other parts of the dominion, with a great recreational

area.

ACCORDING to the Italian correspondent of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Emperor William institute for anthropology, hereditary transmission in man, and eugenics, which is being erected in Dahlem, near Berlin, by the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, is rapidly nearing completion. Professor Eugen Fischer, anatomist, of Freiburg, will be the director of the institute. He will also be the head of the department of anthropology. The department of hereditary transmission in man will be in charge of Professor Muckermann, a former Jesuit father. The head of the department of eugenics has not yet been announced. It is hoped that the new institute can be dedicated in September, in connection with the meeting of the International Congress on Heredity, which is to be held in Berlin.

THE University of Oregon Medical School is the recent recipient of a portable electrocardiograph which is the gift of Mrs. Charles F. Beebe in memory of the late General Charles Beebe.

ACCORDING to the Journal of the American Medical Association Dr. K. Miyajima has announced that the Rockefeller Foundation will donate funds for the establishment of a new chair of public hygiene in the Keio Medical College in Japan.

PRESIDENT COOLIDGE, by a recent order, has set aside a tract of about 2,350 acres in Jasper County, South Carolina, as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds. The area embraces certain abandoned rice lands belonging to the United States and abutting on the Savannah River, near Savannah, Ga., and is to be known as the Savannah River Bird Refuge. The new reservation has been placed under the administration of the Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

NOTES

AIDED by the million dollar gifts of Edward Stephen Harkness, of New York, and Samuel Mather, of Cleveland, the drive for $6,000,000 for the Western Reserve Medical Center has been completed. A total of $6,534,355 was contributed by 5,176 persons to erect a new Lakeside Hospital, a new Rainbow Hospital and a nurses' dormitory. Besides this, two special gifts totaling $1,500,000 were made for special units not included in the original plans.

THE new mines laboratory of the college of mines of the University of Washington was dedicated on May 25.

PROFESSOR HENRY S. GRAVES has resigned as provost of Yale University, effective July 1. Dr. Graves is giving up his office in order to devote his full time to his duties as dean of the Yale school of forestry and as Sterling professor of forestry.

DR. ERNST A. POHLE, of the University of Michigan, has been appointed professor of physiological chemistry at the University of Wisconsin.

DR. D. B. YOUNG, head of the department of biology at the University of Arizona, has been appointed professor of zoology at the University of Maine; Dr. F. H. Steinmetz has been appointed professor of botany and entomology in the university.

DR. PAUL S. SEARS, associate professor of botany at the University of Nebraska, has been appointed head of the department of botany at the University of Oklahoma.

DR. EMIL WITSCHI, of the University of Basel, has been appointed to a professorship in zoology at the State University of Iowa. He will have charge of the graduate and undergraduate work in experimental embryology. Dr. O. M. Helff, associate in zoology at the university, has been promoted to an assistant professorship, and will have charge of the undergraduate work in general and comparative physiology.

DR. J. M. D. OLMSTED, associate professor of physi ology at the University of Toronto, was recently appointed professor of physiology at the University of California, not associate professor, as was previously announced. Dr. Olmsted will be on leave the second half year when he will visit the physiological laboratories of Europe.

DR. HARVEY ALFRED ZINSZER, acting professor of physics at the Mississippi State College for Women

has recently been appointed professor of mathematics at Hanover College, Indiana.

DR. ROBERT B. BRODE, National Research Fellow at Princeton University, has been appointed assistant professor in the department of physics at the University of California.

DR. CHARLES S. GWYNNE, formerly instructor in the department of geology at Cornell University, has been appointed assistant professor of geology at Iowa State College.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE THE WHALE SHARK, RHINEODON TYPUS, AT THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS-A NEW FAUNAL RECORD

WILLIAM BEEBE in the log of the Arcturus1 has put on record the finding of a huge shark on the north side of Narborough Island in the Galapagos group on June 9, 1925. It was seen by six members of the staff of the expedition and I have talked with Dr. W. K. Gregory and Mr. John Tee-Van, both of whom saw the shark at close range, and from them have gotten first-hand accounts of its appearance.

Compared with any other sharks seen on the expedition it was enormous, measuring from thirty to forty feet in length. It had a broad blunt head with large and heavy fore parts, but tapered rapidly to a very narrow hinder region and thin tail. It came nearly to the surface of the water in a quartering position under the stern of the Arcturus. At first there seemed to be a school of fish some distance below the surface with their sides shining through the rippling water, as they swam in a flock turning from side to side. But as this supposed school approached nearer the surface this illusion disappeared and the "school" took the form of this gigantic shark with its back and sides covered with whitish spots. Unfortunately, the huge fish did not come nearer the surface than two or three feet, and equally unfortunately it quickly sank and disappeared from the sight of the excited watchers.

This huge fish could only have been one of the two great sharks found on the west coast of South America-the basking or bone shark, Cetorhinus maximus; or the whale shark, Rhincodon typus. That the former fish is found not merely in the southern hemisphere but in the waters along the western shores of South America is shown in a paper which I published some years ago. My chief authority for the occurrence of Cetorhinus on the coasts 1 Beebe, William, "The Arcturus Adventure.'' York, 1926, p. 414.

New

2 Gudger, E. W., "On the Occurrence in the Southern Hemisphere of the Basking or Bone Shark, Cetorhinus maximus.'' SCIENCE, 1915, Vol. 42, pp. 653–656.

of Ecuador and Peru was Charles H. Stevenson,3 who quotes a Captain Baker that he was formerly engaged in fishing for bone sharks in these localities for the sake of the oil from their livers. However, Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy very kindly informs me that Captain Benjamin D. Cleveland, master of the brig Daisy, told him in 1912 that he had formerly fished for bone sharks for liver oil off the west coast of South America, and indeed not far from the Galapagos.

Clearly the bone shark is found in those waters, and it might be thought that the huge shark at Narborough was Cetorhinus, but for two things-Cetorhinus is black or at least dark and has a pointed, bullet-shaped head and nose, while Rhineodon had a blunt fairly truncate snout and has the body covered with large spots arranged in rows both vertically and horizontally. Undoubtedly the huge Narborough fish was Rhincodon.

Furthermore, this occurrence of the whale shark in the Galapagos ties up with other faunal records of its occurrence on the west coast of South America. Günther records that W. Nation in 1878 examined a specimen at Callao, Peru, and sent to the British Museum part of its jaws. In this same little article Günther quotes a letter from Signor G. Chierchia, commander of the Vettor Pisani, describing the capture near Taboga Island, in Panama Bay, of a whale shark about twenty-nine feet long.

I sought for years for Chierchia's account of his voyage but vainly, until about a year ago when I found his book in the U. S. National Museum.5

Careful translation of Chierchia's Italian text brings forward little data not contained in the account printed in Nature. In fact, the two accounts are practically identical. Chierchia sent to Günther among other desiderata a photograph of his specimen, but this was never published, and inquiries of the department of ichthyology of the British Museum (Natural History) bring only the information that in the intervening forty-two years it has disappeared. However, the discovery of Rhineodon at the Galapagos gives us a new faunal record for this great shark, and leads to the belief that it may be found all the way from Callao to Panama.

AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY

E. W. GUDGER

3 Stevenson, Charles H., "Aquatic Products in the Arts and Industries." Report U. S. Fish Commissioner for 1902, 1904, Vol. 28, pp. 227-228.

4 Günther, A. C. L., "The Voyage of the Vettor Pisani." Nature, 1884, Vol. 30, p. 365.

5 Chierchia, G., Collezioni per Studi di Scienze Naturali fatte nel Viaggi intorno al Mondo della R. Corvetta Vettor Pisani. . . . Anni 1882-83-84-85. Roma, 1885, pp. 66-68.-Pesca di un enorme squale (Rhineodon).

...

THE NEED OF STUDIES OF THE MINERAL
NUTRIENT CONTENTS OF FOODS
AND FEEDS

THE subcommittee on animal nutrition of the National Research Council wishes to call to the attention of research workers in nutrition the need for further extensive information-which should be readily obtainable on the mineral nutrients of foods and feeds.

The fundamental importance of the mineral elements in nutrition being universally understood, as also many details of their more obvious functions, much progress remains yet to be made especially in the understanding of their complex interactions, their relations to the vitamins, and their metabolism in tuberculosis, anemia, pellagra, rachitis, caries and the various types of rheumatic disorder.

While animal experimentation in this field must deal primarily with pure compounds the study of dietetic relations calls for a much broader and more detailed knowledge than we now possess of the quantitative presence of mineral nutrients and of the causes of variations in the contents of mineral nutrients, in human foods and animal feeds.

It is well known that the mineral nutrient constituents of the leaves and stems of plants vary widely in response to conditions of growth, such as relating to soil and climate; and even the seeds and fruits of plants vary significantly in these regards, though less prominently than do leaves and stems.

In the light of these facts we believe that the mineral nutrients of each agricultural crop, each food and each feed should be studied in extensive series of samples selected to represent significant environmental conditions or methods of preparation; and it is especially to be desired that such analyses should cover not only the organic nutrients, and those inorganic elements ordinarily considered as nutrients -namely, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine and iron, but also those others the functions or effects of which are much less perfectly known-namely, manganese, fluorine, bromine, silicon, boron, aluminium, copper, arsenic and zinc.

It is the hope of the committee that studies of soil fertility and of plant and animal nutrition may be so expanded as to yield information of the kinds specified and that new researches may be undertaken for the specific purpose of bringing forth the knowledge desired.

PAUL E. HOWE,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Animal Nutrition, National Research Council.

ENGLISH VS. METRIC SYSTEM

I REGRET that Professor Gortner (SCIENCE, February 11, 1927, p. 163) should take exception to the use of the term a "quarter of wheat" in the paper by Mr. Williams and myself but I am quite unrepentant.

While I heartily agree with him as to the merits of the metric system and the unscientific basis of the English system of weights and measures, the fact remains that the latter system is still in general use in this country for all except scientific purposes. The scientific data in papers published in scientific journals should be, and usually are, given in metric units, and our paper is no exception to this. The sentence which Professor Gortner quotes deals with information which is not scientific, but agricultural; since in the art of agriculture the unscientific British system of weights and measures is still in use, it is necessary to give such information in language which is readily intelligible to those familiar with Briitsh agricultural conditions. It is primarily for such that this information was intended, and had the usual yield of wheat from this land been stated in say metric quintals per hectare, or even in hundredweights per acre, the British reader would have had to calculate back into quarters or bushels per acre, since he is accustomed to think of the yielding capacity of agricultural land in terms of the units of yield used by the farmer. It is true that this puts the foreign reader at a disadvantage, but he can readily convert into metric units if he consults a suitable authority.

Here I must parry the charge of writing in an unscientific manner, which is implied in Professor Gortner's remarks, by suggesting that in seeking for the sense in which we used the word "quarter," he himself has not proceeded as scientifically as might have been expected from a scientist of his distinction, "to whom English is the native language, and who has been brought up to use the English system of weights and measures." If he had consulted Webster's New International Dictionary, a standard work of reference produced under American editorship, he would have found the definition: "Eight bushels, the fourth of a ton, used especially in measuring grain." Consultation of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 10th Edition, Vol. 22, p. 713 would similarly have yielded the definition: "as a measure of capacity for grain it measures eight bushels." The quarter, and the bushel, are of course primarily measures of volume, and the weight of a measured bushel varies with the kind of grain, and with different samples of the same grain; Webster's parenthesis "the fourth of a ton" is not strictly accurate. For conversion to weights of wheat an arbitrary average factor must be used,

but by reference to Vol. I of the same work, under the heading "acreage and yields of British crops" in the articles on Agriculture, p. 398, is found the definition: "per imperial quarter, that is, 480 lbs. of wheat"; the imperial bushel is the same as that in use in the United States, 60 lb. of wheat.

Finally the International Institute of Agriculture of Rome, of which one function is that of coordinating and distributing agricultural information, has published a useful book: "Recueil de Coefficients et d'Equivalences" (4th Edition, 1922) in which are given the metric equivalents of the weights and measures of all countries. Here, on pp. 30 and 31 we find "quarter = 8 bushels = 2.90942 hl" and "1 Quarter froment = 480 liures = 2.17724 q.”

Thus, despite the inconvenience caused by the failure of this country, as well as the United States, to adopt the metric system of weights and measures, there is no special difficulty in defining a quarter, and in converting it to metric units, if the source of reference is chosen with due regard to the context in which the term is used.

The inaccuracy of this equation, according to later historical studies relating to logarithms, results directly from the striking and well known theorem that the only pair of algebraic numbers which satisfies the equation y=e is x = 0, y=1. The tables which Napier computed imply that the rational integral numbers listed therein have rational integral logarithms, according to his use of this term. It is, therefore, obvious that no general exact rational relation can possibly exist between these so-called logarithms and those of base e, since Napier did not consider any operation leading to transcendental numbers. The fact that the given equation is approximately true is of secondary interest.

The tables of Napier represent in general only approximate values, as do all logarithmic tables. But the fundamental theory, as found both in his "Descriptio" and in the body of his "Constructio," leads

to a "general exact rational relation" between his logarithms and those of base e, and involves transcendental numbers. Napier's conception of logarithms is kinematic and based on continuity. Napier uses expressions, such as, points "travel," "distances traversed in equal times," "ducenda sit linea fluxu . . puncti," which can not be successfully interpreted without admitting continuity. We quote from the "Constructio" ( 25, 26) the specification for his "geometrically moving point" and his definition of "logarithm":

A geometrically moving point approaching a fixed one has its velocities proportionate to its distances from the fixed one.

The logarithm of a given sine is that number which has increased arithmetically with the same velocity throughout as that with which radius began to decrease geometrically, and in the same time as radius has decreased to the given sine.

Logarithms are here defined by the velocities of two points, and it is easy by aid of the calculus to derive, rigorously, the above equation, as is done in my "History of Mathematics" (2d ed., p. 150). Napier uses such phrases as "incommensurable number," "bc, the logarithm of the sine ds" (bc and dS being line segments), "the logarithm which be represents," logarithms "may be included between near limits." These and Napier's mode of deriving his theorem on limits, and his fundamental theorem, "logarithms of proportional numbers or quantities are equally differing," make it very evident that, in the presentation of his theory, Napier looked upon logarithms as exact values deduced from the above kinematic definition of a logarithm.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

FLORIAN CAJORI

AN UNAUTHORIZED REPRINT

I should feel grateful, if you will permit me through your columns to draw attention to the issue in the United States without my permission of a reprint of my "Grammar of Science." That work without revision is hopelessly out of date, and it is not only an injury to the author but an insult, if it leads any purchaser to suppose that the treatment of the subject in 1911 is an adequate criticism of the state of physical science in 1927, and represents the present views of the writer.

Morality in such matters appears to differ very widely on the two sides of the Atlantic. I can only sympathize with a well-known British author who on seeing a multinational publisher enter a club-room remarked to me: "Now Barabas was a publisher."

KARL PEARSON

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Embryology of the Pig. By BRADLEY M. PATTEN. 323 pp., with 372 figures and a colored plate. P. Blakiston's Sons & Co., Phila., Pa. Price, $3.50. BRADLEY PATTEN has again scored a marked success in this little book. The "Embryology of the Pig" will be ranked among the best of our textbooks. With his former "Embryology of the Chick," Dr. Patten's accounts of these chapters of embryology make the story of development live for the student, while leading him, in a most interesting manner, to examine the facts for himself in the laboratory.

The reviewer would compare these up-to-date little texts of vertebrate embryology, for their combination of stimulating interest and vision of the meaning of processes, together with their practical treatment, to Balfour's "Elements" in the 80's, which is high praise.

It has been possible for Patten to make a great advance in two respects. First, the influence of a great growth of the literature of the subject is felt all through the new work; and secondly, Dr. Patten has devoted considerable study to the rich collections of the Carnegie Embryological Laboratory in Baltimore, where is found a great variety of specimens, models and illustrations of stages of the pig, paralleling one of the most extensive set of human material in the world. This has assured breadth of view and makes the statements of the author authoritative. It warrants his personal opinions where controversy has confused topics.

Glancing at the special characteristics of the book, we find certain interesting comparisons and supplementary features to those of the "Embryology of the Chick." The later text is a valuable extension of the earlier, as well as a supplement. Thus, much more space is given here to the history of germ-cells, maturation, the sexual cycle and fertilization. This is in accord with the special availability of such material for the mammal, as well as because of the large amount of published work on these stages of mammals. The chapter on cleavage, formation of the germ-layers and the development of the blastocyst is another most useful supplement to what is given for the chick. Such a definite and complete account of these stages of the pig has been long needed for our text-books. The incorporation of results from the Carnegie collection has done much for this chapter; and for the next on relations of embryo in uterus and membranes; as well as in the review of stages of the development of the body-form and primary systems. Here we are given, for the first time, ages of the chief stages. Something of the kind may have been given before, here and there, but the full series of pictures and timed data for the pig now furnished is consecutive and definite and gives a most

convenient basis for comparisons with other mammals and man.

Chapter VII presents a rather full examination of early pig embryos, which are comparable to the four-day stage of the chick, well studied in the former text-book, and already familiar to the student. It is easy to turn from these stages of the pig to the study of human embryos, since models and well-illustrated articles abound for the human from this period onward.

The first seven chapters, or 137 pages, have carried the development well beyond the topics taken up for the chick; relatively early stages. Here is a thoroughly analyzed fundamental stage of a mammal, reminding one of Minot's 9 mm to 12 mm pigs, and furnishing an excellent basis for the comparisons and correlations which the author makes with the chick. The rest of the book, 160 pages, is devoted to chapters which cover most of the features of later development.

The author, however, decides to select and emphasize certain topics, even at the expense of others which will be slighted. He feels that some subjects can be taken up in preference to others because of ease of technique, or special interest, while others would prove too difficult to warrant the time required. So although he covers the most important aspects of most systems of organs, some which may be regarded of equal value are not considered at all. This is announced as a definite plan, and the introduction should be read not only for the explanation, but also for other opinions and suggestions.

Some teachers will object to the omission of the lymphatic system, the later history of the musculature, skull and jaw development, sense-organ stages, and other special topics. The absence of such sections does indeed remove the book from the category of the ordinary systematic, all-around symmetrical and complete text-books. It must be remembered, however, that this little book is not ordinary, but a departure. We have already quite a series of the more complete, comparative and systematic type to which the teacher may refer for what is omitted.

The chapter on the nervous system groups the stages of development interestingly around a functional discussion and takes up items basal to later study of neuro anatomy. It might be well to add a few more paragraphs on the developmental changes in relations through which the basal ganglia of the third ventricle and the lateral ventricles are brought together, with the resultant adult shape of the lateral ventricle, and the defining of the Insula. A couple of figures would help here, showing these relations and the choroid plexus of the brain opened and viewed from above in pig embryos of about 40 mm. The digestive and respiratory systems and the