The bones were found on a hill slope bordering a small stream valley. They were embedded in fine textured, uniform, very fine sandy and silty material of light brown color, without stratification, and entirely free from gravel or coarse gritty materials.

Accompanying the larger fossil bones were a number of jaws, skulls and small bones of small rodent or rodent-like animals, and there was some evidence in teeth marks on some of the rib bones that at least some of these smaller animals were of contemporary date.

A more accurate and exhaustive account of the fossil remains has recently been published by Dr. Bryan.1

BUREAU OF SOILS,

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

MACY H. LAPHAM

DEFEAT OF ANTI-EVOLUTION IN

MINNESOTA

SINCE Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the home of the Reverend W. B. Riley, a leader in anti-evolution agitation and in attempts at legislation against the teaching of evolution in tax-supported schools in many states, a little more than ordinary interest may be felt by scientific men in the failure of the "Riley bill" before the Minnesota legislature that is now in session. This may be especially so because a letter by the Reverend Riley in a leading newspaper here now admits his defeat, but with so much apparent cheerfulness that a person who knows him well may be inclined to wonder as to just what he expected to accomplish by this bill and whether after all his defeat is not more in appearance than in reality.

It may be well for the evolutionists not to be deceived. The bill as it was presented to the legislature is any way more of a gesture or oratorical skirmish than an effectual attack on evolution teaching. Something more serious for Minnesota may lie behind it. In Minnesota, where the function of the university is defined in the constitution of the state, a mere legislative enactment very probably could in no way bind the university as to its educational policy. It is virtually a fourth department of the state and coordinate with the executive, the legislative and the judicial functions.

The State University has little if anything to fear from direct legislation against teaching any subject whatever in Minnesota. Again it is notable that the Riley bill does not aim broadly to forbid the teaching of evolution, but is specifically directed against the 1 U. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 790-B, The "Palouse Soil" Problem with an account of Elephant Remains in WindBorne Soil on the Columbia Plateau of Washington.

doctrine of the descent of man from animals, as if a particular department of the university is criticised. Against this bill, however, other universities of this state join with the State University in common. Both sides of the controversy thus make a great showing of political strength before the legislature.

Arguments used by either side are not such as are used pro and con in a scientific debate on the validity of natural science theories of evolution. No scientist as such appears against the bill nor for it. The battle is political when not theologic. Dogmatic assumption and deduction and even gross bigotry are met in kind largely. As a geologist, I could view the whole matter as in the clouds above me. I am spectator only.

Very obviously the Reverend Riley's opponents who do not know him intimately are deceived in him. From occasional contact with him for thirty years, it is not consistent for me to say that there is anything shallow about him. He doubtless has a very deep and serious purpose from which he may not be easily diverted. It may be a very pertinent matter to pause to consider just now as to whether any advantages are losing to the Riley attack.

To the best of my knowledge, the legislature and the governor do not commit themselves in the essential matter in laying aside this bill. Nothing is built up that hinders further agitation. The most sanguine of my friends predict only a lull of a year or two or even four, in Minnesota, whereas a few years ago any such attack at all would have been taken as highly improbable. Anti-evolution may be gaining in public respectability.

As a scientist, I am aware that something new is happening in this controversy about the teaching of evolution in Minnesota's schools. Attack by antievolutionists is not new here, however. Attack from

the pulpit and otherwise by the Reverend Riley as against individual teachers of sciences began some 20 years ago. An effective method then is to back him off the board in defense of natural science theories of evolution by a plain show of visible evidence in their support. My personal experience is then that he can be a very reasonable and gentlemanly antagonist when faced in that way.

The new thing in the present instance, however, is not only his open attack on whole universities here, but further that the old effective method of meeting him can not be used by anybody. The controversy is gone beyond the field of the natural sciences, dogmatically into theology and politics on both sides. In all this controversy in Minnesota now the science professor is only an innocent bystander, in a sort of a no-man's-land. And, the end is not yet!

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

FREDERICK W. SARDESON

MORE HUMAN TAILS

A FEW days ago I received a letter from Dr. E. G. Hastings, of the Department of Agricultural Bacteriology of the University of Wisconsin, in which he called my attention to a paper in the collected works of Robert Koch, the second volume, second part, page 822.

On consulting this paper (a most unexpected place for such a revelation), I found two photographs of human beings with well-developed tails about as long as a human foot, which had been photographed by Koch in India in 1871. One was a lad seventeen years old, and the other a child.

I thought that your readers might be interested in these photographs, as Dr. Hastings referred to my note on this subject, which was published in SCIENCE in the issue of June 11, 1926.

W. W. KEEN

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Differential Calorimeter, with Special Reference to the Determination of the Human Basal Metabolism. By A. K. NOYONS. Louvain, 1927. 189 pp., 34 illustrations.

Du Bois's splendid book on basal metabolism,1 backed by his unique experimental experience, has brought metabolism and, specifically, clinical calorimetry to the attention of physicists and physiologists, as well as medical men. From Louvain, Belgium, there has just appeared a book which not only supplements the technical portion of Du Bois's book but is all the more remarkable when one thinks of its birthplace, and how under most harassing economical conditions the human calorimeter has been developed to a point heretofore never attained. Recognizing that with man all measurements of the heat production, including the heat of vaporization of water, are best made by the differential principle, Professor A. K. Noyons, of the department of physiology of the University of Louvain, has printed in readable English the first description of an extremely clever device which physiologists have long known was being developed at Louvain. This differential calorimeter is unique in that the author, at once a physician, physiologist and physicist, has combined in it the most. scientific and accurate methods applicable to the measurement of the heat given off by a human. The compensation chamber furnishes, for the first time, an exact duplicate of the heat of vaporization of water in that precisely the same amount of water vaporized from the skin and lungs of the human subject is there vaporized, and an electrical current, passed through a suitable resistance, generates pre1 Du Bois, E. F. "Basal Metabolism in Health and Disease." Philadelphia, 2d ed., 1927.

cisely that amount of heat given off by radiatio convection and conduction from the subject.

Without governmental or, indeed, institutional sulvention these calorimeters have been privately constructed and tested, and already one is being prepared for introduction into a large clinic. The technical details may not be discussed here. Noyons has seemingly forestalled every criticism so far as the physics of heat measurement on a human being is concerned-save for the perplexing question as to the changes in the average body temperature. The complete isolation of the patient in a rather somber chamber may be impracticable for temperamental cases. One can but wish that, in addition to the many text references, the extensive literature survey (which is international to a refreshing degree) necessarily made by the author could have been recorded as a list of titles on direct and indirect calorimetry.

The use of English was, we believe, wise. When one knows, as does the reviewer, that the book was thought out in Dutch, written in French, and then translated into English, one is surprised that so few distinctly foreign (though rarely, if ever, obscure) phrases occur.

As a promise of what this new metabolism center is to give us in the future, the book is most stimulating to all who have anything to do with heat production and basal metabolism, and with the present wave of interest in this subject, in perhaps less than a decade we shall all have basal metabolism measurements included as a part of our annual assessment of physical fitness.

FRANCIS G. BENEDICT

NUTRITION LABORATORY OF THE

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

SPECIAL ARTICLES

PRESSURE PHENOMENA OF THE ELECTRIC

WIND1

1. Apparatus. The spectacular group of experiments which we used to perform once a year seem but rarely to have come to any useful maturity. I can recall only the electronic measurements of Professor Chattock. Having appropriate apparatus at hand, it seemed promising to look at them in detail and in the attached figures I will summarize the main results.

The simple apparatus as originally used (Fig. 4, insert) consisted of the two brass posts P, P', usually 8 cm apart and fixed in the hard (or soft) rubber base B. T supported by P is a small thimble of brass perforated by the slender tube U, which leads to the

1 Advance note from a Report to the Carnegie Institution, of Washington, D. C.

interferometer U-gauge. The post P' carries the darning needle n coaxially with U, and both n and U fit snugly, so that they may be slid to different distances x apart. P and P' are in contact with the poles of a small Wimshurst machine, capable of delivering inch sparks. The latter was usually turned by hand near a clock beating quarter seconds, and the speed of rotation of six turns (sometimes three turns) per second for each plate was easily maintained.

2. Needle electrode. The group of curves 1 refers to a hard rubber base with posts P, P', 8 cm apart. Irregularities are referable to freakish action of the machine quite apart from rotation; but it is noticeable that the pressures (s, approximately in 10-6 atmosphere) are (here) roughly double for 6 rot./sec. as compared with 3 rot./sec. I was disappointed at the relatively low mean pressures in evidence and therefore scraped and boiled the hard rubber base in dilute acid, for greater insulation. The resulting graph actually shows reduced sensitivity and now suggests a maximum. In curve 2 a soft rubber base was tested. The graph is smoother with a very definite crest, but no better in s. Finally the graph 3 on a cylindrical hard rubber base is no advance on the others.

Improved conditions appear with graph 4, referring to posts P P' but 4.5 cm apart. Whether one or three sharp needles are used is relatively unim

To accentuate this result the thimble was cut down (the form is practically immaterial), admitting of larger between the same posts. The graphs, of which Fig. 5 gives an example, fully bear out the surmise, and the cusp has risen to nearly four times the height of the crests in figs. 1, 2, 3. What the larger x insures is probably greater axial momentum of the ionized wind, and a point immediately in front of a surface of high potential gives the latter a longer range of action. Eventually the life of the ions is in question. Again the forms of the curves must depend essentially on the position of charged bodies, like the poles of the electric machine, near the field, as these deflect the air current. No pressures are observed until the charge of the machine exceeds a certain specific ionizing potential, after which the appropriate pressure (s) appears at once. In the reversed case pressure vanishes before the machine is discharged. My greatest difficulties thus far have

been the fluctuating potentials of the machine, due, so far as I can see, to the casual partial self-discharge within. Sputtering is fatal.

3. Mucronate electrode. Borrowing a term from the botanists, what is needed therefore is a slightly convex electrode E' with a sharp fixed needle point projecting less than a millimeter from its center (see insert Fig. 6) and facing (convexities toward each other) a similar but unarmed electrode E. P. P' are as before, 4.5 cm apart.

The results obtained with this mucronate electrode (Fig. 6) are astonishing; for the curve sweeps aloft in some cases to over five times the heights of the original crests. Thus far these graphs have not started until = .5 cm is passed. They are peaked at the upper end, and drop from the sharp crest. They imply a degree of sensitivity that makes interferometer observation difficult, every little irregularity of the Wimshurst being magnified.

By placing the posts P P′ 10 cm apart with a clear field between, the crest has been increased to s = 250. A good example of these results is given in a reduced scale in Fig. 7, which consists of two approximately linear branches on each side of the crest.

Micrometer results on the pressures s as related to the inverse saliency of the needle point can not be given here; but I may mention that for a spark gap x = 2 cm (30 kv/cm) a needle point projecting .005 cm beyond the effective limit of the electrode, gave a pressure 8=560, that is, 70 per cent. above the crest of Fig. 7, and about fifteen times the original sensitivity. Finally, it seems clear that the crests in Figs. 6 and 7 are to be associated with the limiting potentials of the machine, their x position being an indication of the maximum field between electrodes. CARL BARUS

BROWN UNIVERSITY

probably become the head of the malleus in those animals which possess only three ossicles. It is designated in this study as the accessory bone. The fact that four ossicles are present in some bats suggested the idea that four ossicles may exist in other animals in earlier developmental stages.

Three ossicles are present in the adult white rat (Mus rattus). The malleus has a peculiar shape. The ossicles from an animal one day old were removed and studied. Four bones were found to be present. Two of these represented the malleus of the adult animal. The discontinuous lines in the figure of the adult malleus show the approximate place where the two bones fuse in the adult. Since four bones are found to exist in the young of this particular species, it is probable that they exist in

SOME PECULIAR AUDITORY OSSICLES THREE auditory ossicles are generally said to be present in animals which possess these bones. While making a study of the ossicles of several generd of bats, the author found four present in many instances. Doran, in his famous monograph on mammalian auditory ossicles, has described and figured the ossicles from several genera of bats. The chief dif

ference between the ossicles from the genera used in this study and those of Doran's is in regard to the head of the malleus. Each malleus which Doran studied possessed a well-developed head. In no case did a head exist on a malleus in this study. However, a fourth bone was usually found. This was located between the malleus and incus. It was entirely separated from the malleus, but in some cases it was found fused to the incus. This bone has

AT the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held in Washington on April 25, 26 and 27, the following papers were presented:

The nature of the insensible perspiration: FRANCIS G. BENEDICT and CORNELIA GOLAY BENEDICT, Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. We have made numerous experiments, chiefly with one subject, in which the insensible perspiration has been analyzed, and the effects of environmental temperature, of the removal of clothing, and of a blast of air from an electric fan have been readily determined. Thus, a typical experiment showed in the preliminary period a total insensible loss, both from the lungs and skin, of 21.76 grams per hour, when the subject was nude in an environmental temperature of 25° C. In the next period, when the nature of the loss was studied, it was found that 7.58 grams per hour were lost from the skin, 8.13 grams were lost as water from the lungs, 17.08 grams of carbon dioxide were eliminated, and 15.36 grams of oxygen were absorbed. In another experiment at a room temperature of 20° C. the total loss, when the fan was blowing over the nude body, was 19.55 grams per hour. In a period immediately following, with the fan still going, 8.45 grams were lost from the skin, 7.29 grams were lost as water from the lungs, 22.54 grams of carbon dioxide were eliminated, and 19.81 grams of oxygen were absorbed. Although the results are in large part for one special subject, with whom experiments without clothing could be made, at least a dozen other persons have been studied with ordinary clothing, and the general deduction can be made that the total insensible loss in weight of the average woman, resting quietly, will be about 20 or 30 grams per hour. That of the average man will be nearer 40 grams per hour. Of this about 45 per cent. is in water from the skin, about 45 per cent. is in water from the lungs, and 10 per cent. represents the difference between the intake of oxygen and the output of carbon dioxide. The effects of the removal of clothing, of wind movement, and of temperature below the point when visible perspiration occurs are astonishingly small, chiefly because the skin temperature is profoundly lowered by such measures. The total insensible loss is a reliable index of the total metabolism and is finding use in modern clinics.

The embryology of Equisetum debile Roxb.: Douglas HOUGHTON CAMPBELL, Stanford University. The genus Equisetum includes about 25 species, the sole survivors of a very ancient group of plants. A knowledge of the embryo is therefore of great importance in determining their relationships to the other Pteridophytes. No comprehensive study of the embryo has been made since that of Sadebeck in 1878, although several contributions to the

E. pa

subject have been made since. A large number of gametophytes of E. debile was sent the writer from India. These contained great numbers of embryos in all stages of development, so that it was possible to secure an almost complete series showing the early history of the sporophyte. E. debile differs considerably in some of the details of the embryo from the species (E. arvense, lustre) studied by Sadebeck, and more nearly approaches E. hiemale and E. variegatum. The most important point brought out in these investigations is the origin of the buds from which the secondary shoots develop. These buds are of endogenous origin, and sometimes, at least, arise from the root, thus closely resembling a primitive form, Ophioglossum. This fact supports the view already expressed by the writer that there is a real, if somewhat remote, relationship between the Equisetineae and the most primitive ferns. Both from its size, and from the many sporophytes produced from it, the gametophyte of Equisetum debile is strongly reminiscent of certain liverworts, especially Anthoceros.

Some aspects of protoplasmic surfaces: W. J. V. OSTER

HOUT.

The effect of tubercle bacilli and the chemical fractions obtained from analysis on the cells of the connective tissues in rabbits: FLORENCE R. SABIN and CHARLES A. DOAN.

The effect of small amounts of chemicals in increasing the life activities of plants: F. E. DENNY, Boyce Thompson Institute. Plants in a dormant or relatively inactive period may be stimulated into increased activity by chemical treatment. Thus, the processes of coloration, which take place in lemons and oranges during storage after removal from the tree, may be hastened by treatment with low concentrations of ethylene (CH). The time required for coloration is reduced to about one fourth the normal time by adding to the air surrounding the fruit 1 part ethylene to 10,000 parts of air. The life activities of the fruit as judged by the rate of respiration is doubled or even trebled by this treatment. Potato tubers when freshly harvested are dormant, and will not sprout if planted at once under favorable growing conditions, the rest period lasting from 1 to 4 months in different varieties of potatoes. This period of inactivity may be shortened by treating the tubers with various chemicals such as thiocyanates (SCN), thiourea (N,H,CS), and ethylene chlorhydrin (CH,CIOH). The gain in time of sprouting is about 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the variety of potato and the stage of dormancy at the time the treatment is applied. Twigs of apple, grapes, lilac, etc., also have this dormant period in autumn, and the buds of these species can be forced into early growth by treatment with certain of these chemicals, the gain in time of budding or blooming ranging from 1 to 9 weeks. It is shown that these facts are related to the general problem of growth in plants, and in particular to the theory of the mechanism of growth control, and to the causes of correlations in the growth of plant buds. These results have