THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION AMONG the continental formations of North America commonly described as lacustrine is the Green River (Eocene), which covers large areas of northwestern Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah. Since the formation is one of the principal sources of oil shale in the western United States, geologists have studied various sections of it more or less intensively during the past decade and have obtained a large amount of information regarding the sedimentology and the fossil content. In a paper published under the above title, in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,1 Professor Henderson has briefly reviewed this evidence to ascertain whether it accords with the view of the lacustrine origin of the formation, and, if so, whether the body or bodies of water in which the sediments were laid down were fresh or saline or alternately fresh and saline. The formation, which is very generally considered a fresh-water lake deposit, is composed chiefly of fine-grained, even-bedded sediments, which, if not deposited in a lake, must have been laid down by streams meandering in broad valleys where shallow, temporary lakes were present. However, comparatively few strata showing cross-bedding, ripple-marks or mud-cracks, which would characterize this type of deposition, have been observed. Fossils are numerous and are mainly of non-aquatic forms. Fresh-water fishes have been obtained principally from a single, thin stratum at two localities in Wyoming. The presence of so many skeletons in a thin layer of a lacustrine formation is difficult to explain, unless an arm of the lake were cut off and speedily desiccated. If the sediments are partly fluviatile, this accumulation could easily have taken place in isolated ox-bow lakes which were rapidly filled with sediments. Well-preserved leaves of upland and lowland plants are abundant in the upper part of the formation far from any possible shore line. The aquatic plants are chiefly algae. The microscopic flora consists of conifer pollen, moss spores, annuli from fern sporangia and molds, all of which must have been carried from land; bacteria and blue-green algae, which can grow in both fresh and saline waters; Spirogyra and Protococcus, which are fresh-water types. Insects are principally flying forms, whose wide distribution in the strata can be easily accounted for. The most abundant and widespread fossils have been identified as the larvae of botflies or forms related to them. These larvae to-day infest land ani1Vol. 8, pp. 662-668, 1924. mals, and are not aquatic at any stage of their existence. The explanation of their distribution, if the Green River be lacustrine, is difficult. It is evident from Professor Henderson's discussion that further intensive field work is necessary to determine the origin of certain parts of the formation. While probably most of the beds are fresh-water lake deposits, certain strata doubtless have been deposited by other agencies. The sedimentology of the formation should be thoroughly investigated, and more information secured regarding the paleontology. The identification of the botfly larvae needs confirmation. If these by chance should be some other form, the explanation of their distribution might be more easily made. In any event, it does not seem likely that these larvae had the habits of the modern types. NORMAN E. A. HINDS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND LABORATORY METHODS A METHOD OF MEASURING THE WATER TEMPERATURES OF LAKES AT DIFFERENT DEPTHS THE measuring of the temperature of lake waters at various depths in connection with the study of the development of the thermocline, the percentage of saturation of oxygen and carbon dioxide and the distribution of life is a problem in which every limnologist is actively interested. The usual method of using the Negretti-Zambri reversing thermometer, while quite accurate after certain corrections have been made, is a rather slow and tedious procedure, even though several thermometers and lines are used at the same time. It is apparent that much time and labor would be eliminated by the use of some electrical indicating thermometer. The thermophone, described by Whipple, has not proven entirely satisfactory. The apparatus here to be described has been used successfully by the writer for three summers at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory in taking daily temperature readings on Lake Okoboji with what seems to be accurate results. Feeling that other limnologists have felt the need for such apparatus the following brief description is given. The indicator used is the Charles Engelhard type P-1 indicator provided with two centigrade scales of fifteen degrees each, divided into tenths of a degree. One scale reads from zero to fifteen degrees, the other from twelve to twenty-seven degrees centigrade, allowing an overlap on the two scales for checking purposes. While these scales are sufficient in range for ordinary work on the main lake, for ponds or shallow water which will give higher readings in mid summer, a third scale could be added. The markings on the scales are far enough apart so that much finer readings than tenths of a degree can be made. The indicator is of rugged construction so that it has given no serious trouble during the three summers used and seems to be in good condition for the coming summer as well. This indicator is mounted in a double gimbel box to compensate for the rocking of the boat due to wave motion. Except on extremely rough days no difficulty has been experienced in reading the scales when the engine of the boat is not running. The gimbel box is placed in a larger box filled with loose excelsior to minimize the effects of the vibrations due to the running of the engine when going from one place to another. The bridge box is of the Wheatstone type and is provided with a four-way switch. Switch point No. 1 is for the scale reading from 0-15, No. 2 for the scale 12-27, No. 3 is voltage proof for scale No. 1 and No. 4, the voltage proof for scale 2. It is possible, therefore, to check each scale before using. The resistance box is operated by two 12 volt dry cells, which are easily replaced when worn out, usually not more than once during the summer. It would make for considerable compactness and ease in handling if the resistance box and the indicator were incorporated in one box, which could easily be done at the factory. The thermometer, which is connected to the resistance box by a three-wire, 150 foot water-proofed Meters. lead, is the regular Engelhard 100 ohm platinum wire resistance thermometer. It is made up of a little spiral of highly resistant platinum wire wound upon a fused quartz tube which, in turn, is hermetically sealed into an outer quartz tube by fusion. This is then mounted in a perforated brass tube fitted with a moisture proof terminal head. The thermometer requires but little attention save to renew occasionally the rubber gaskets in the head so that the terminals may not get water soaked. The advantages of this instrument are its reliability, the ease with which it may be used, the rapidity in making readings, the continuous line of readings from top to bottom and the possibility of checking up the readings as the thermometer is being raised. The thermometer responds very quickly to changes of temperature, one or two minutes are usually sufficient for the needle of the indicator to come to rest. The following table gives a comparison of the readings as the thermometer is lowered from the surface to the bottom of the lake and again as it is raised. The reading for August 16, 1922, was taken at 9 A. M. The sky was clear, there was very little breeze so that the lake was almost flat, although the day before was rough. This accounts for the evenness of the temperature in the epilimnion. For the same date in 1923 the reading is for 1:20 P. M., and the lake again was fairly smooth but somewhat rough in the morning. For August 16, 1924, the reading was taken at 8 A. M., with a northwest wind blowing at Aug. 16, '23. Air, 26.5° C. Aug. 16, '24. Thermocline. 4 5 7 10 RETARDATION OF THE ACTION OF OXIDASES BY BACTERIA IN a variety of plants and animals there are found substances which are capable of accelerating certain oxidations. These substances, in the majority of cases, resemble the hydrolyzing enzymes in the minute quantities in which they are effective and in their instability towards heat. The discovery of these oxidizing enzymes we owe to Schönbein, who employed guaiac as a means of detecting them. According to Bach and Chodat,1 the oxidizing enzymes which occur in living tissues in reality consist of two parts: the one part, oxygenase, acting as the carrier of the oxygen; the other part, peroxidase, facilitating the transfer of the oxygen to the material undergoing oxidation. Onslow2 believes that in plant tissues there are two separate enzymes acting as above. It has long been known that milk would turn blue in the presence of guaiac, showing the presence of oxidases. The writers have found that stale milk would have no effect on a solution of guaiac. The staleness of milk is due to the growth of bacteria. This paper is an attempt to correlate the number of bacteria present in the milk with the destruction of the oxidases. It is an attempt to show that the presence of bacteria will hinder and finally stop all oxidations, through oxidizing enzymes. In all the observations the following method was employed. Fresh Grade B milk was obtained at the store. Two hundred cc were put into a sterile bottle; corked with cotton and kept in an icebox at a temperature of 12° C. for further tests. From this stock supply there were daily drawn 5 cc of milk by means of a sterile pipette and tested as follows. To 2 cc in a sterile test tube was added 1 cc of a 1 per cent. solution of guaiac and the time determined for the blue color to disappear. The remaining 3 cc were treated in the following way in order to determine their bacterial count. Four dilutions were made up: 1 to 100; 1 to 10,000; 1 to 1,000,000 and 1 to 100,000,000. One of each of the last three dilutions was plated out into a separate petri dish, and agar-agar added. The dish was ro 1 Bach and Chodat, Centr. f. Biochem, 1903, 1, pp. 417 and 457. 2 Onslow, Biochem. Jour., 1920, 14, pp. 535, 541. tated so as to form an emulsion between the milk and the agar. They were then kept at a temperature of 37.5° C. for a period of five days and then the colonies of bacteria counted. This was done daily at the same hour until the milk taken from the stock bottle failed to give a blue color with the guaiac solution. All apparatus used was sterilized in an autoclave, with live steam for two hours, and then allowed to cool before using. They The results are given in Tables 1 and 2. show that at first the increase in bacteria accelerated the action of the oxidases as shown by the increasing length of time it takes for the blue color of the guaiac to disappear. But as the bacteria continue to increase the color of the guaiac disappears more and more quickly until finally there can be gotten no color with the guaiac. In the observations there is quite an agreement between the number of bacteria present and the time taken for the color of the guaiac to disappear. guaiac to guaiac blue. This prevention is due to the number of bacteria present. Up to about three millions of bacteria per cc the action of the oxidases is accelerated and from then on their action is retarded. IRVING KUSHNER ALEX. S. CHAIKELIS COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, CULTIVATION OF THE VIRUS OF TOBACCO MOSAIC BY THE METHOD OF OLITSKY RECENT publications of Olitsky1 on the cultivation of the virus of mosaic disease of tobacco and tomato attracted unusual attention. The intense but fruitless search which has been made by numerous workers for the causal agent of this pathological condition has made it evident that the problem presents many difficulties. Perhaps no type of plant disease has been more seriously studied by pathologists during recent years than mosaic. It is not surprising, therefore, that Dr. Olitsky's announcement of artificial cultivation of the virus should receive immediate and enthusiastic consideration. The objective aspect of Olitsky's experiments is extremely simple and should be easily duplicated by any one caring to make the test. The bearing of positive results in this connection on future studies of the general problem of mosaic would undoubtedly be very great, and any effort to verify the findings reported is fully warranted. With this in view, an exact repetition of the experiments described was undertaken. The method followed is essentially as follows. Eighty grams of young tomato tissues were minced and then mortared to a pulp. This was mixed with 250 cc of sterile, distilled water. The mixture was centrifuged for one hour at 1,500 to 2,000 revolutions per minute. The supernatant liquid was passed successively through two Berkefeld N size filters and disposed in 3 to 5 cc portions in small test tubes. This, if it was found to have a pH value between 5.3 and 6.0, constituted the "culture" medium. This medium was held at 28 to 30 degrees C. for seven days to insure sterility. The inoculum used at first consisted of Berkefeld V filtrate from inoculated tobacco and tomato extract. Later sap was drawn directly from the stems of infected plants by means of capillary glass tubes and placed at once into the culture medium. Each culture tube received either 0.1 to 0.2 cc of the infectious filtrate or 0.01 cc of the sap as an inoculum. Succeeding transfers were made 1 Olitsky, Peter K., "Experiments on the cultivation of the active agent of mosaic disease of tobacco and tomato."' SCIENCE, Vol. LX, No. 1565, 1924, p. 592; "Experiments in the cultivation of the active agent of mosaic disease in tobacco and tomato plants.'' Jour. of Exp. Med., Vol. XLI, No. 1, pp. 129-136, 1925. by putting 0.1 to 0.2 cc from the first culture into a second as a subplant and so on indefinitely. This procedure, of course, made a series of dilutions of the original inoculum, and Olitsky concludes that growth must have taken place if a decrease of infectiousness did not accompany the succeeding transfers. Every detail of Olitsky's procedure was carried out as completely as possible with one single exception, namely, the use of tobacco instead of tomato plants as tests of the infectiousness of the various cultures. This should not, however, influence the results, as tobacco is quite as susceptible to mosaic as are tomatoes. An additional check (not used by Olitsky) was introduced by the use of sterile, distilled water as a "culture" medium. All dilutions or transfers were made at the same time and in the same manner in both the water and tomato extract. Ten plants were inoculated with each dilution in each of three series; so that the figures given below represent the number of infections in a population of 30 plants for each transfer number. The results of the three separate series of experiments, including more than 260 plants, are given in summary form here. NUMBER OF PLANTS INFECTED IN THIRTY INOCULATIONS 1 Extract. The original undiluted filtrate which was used as an inoculum gave 21 infections in 30 inoculations. It is clear that so far as these results are concerned Olitsky's findings are not confirmed, for there is no indication of an increase of the virus as the transfers proceed. The water cultures gave a rate of infection slightly higher than those made in tomato extract in the higher dilutions. These data are, no doubt, too meager to establish conclusions contrary to those reached by Olitsky, but they suggest the desirability of greater accumulation of experimental evidence, and are given here in hopes that they may assist in keeping the question open until the facts are fully established. It appears to the writer not impossible that Olitsky's results may have an interpretation other than that indicated in his articles. MAURICE MULVANIA NORTH CAROLINA ACADEMY OF THE twenty-fourth annual meeting of the North Carolina Academy of Science was held at State College, Raleigh, May 1 and 2, 1925. The academy is making an especial effort to help the cause of science in the high schools and to that end has provided a prize to be administered by a committee for excellence in work in high school science. Present membership was reported as 250. Officers for the coming year were elected as follows: President, J. P. Givler, North Carolina College for Women; Vice-president, J. O. Halverson, Department of Agriculture, Raleigh; Secretary-treasurer, B. Cunningham, Duke University; members of the executive committee, H. B. Arbuckle, C. M. Heck, A. Henderson. Officers for the North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society are: President, F. E. Rice, State College; secretary, L. B. Rhodes, Dept. Agriculture, Raleigh; councilor, J. M. Bell, Univ. of North Carolina. The following papers were presented: Presidential address, The life and habits of the honey bee: H. B. ARBUCKLE. Results of the plankton studies of Chesapeake Bay: BERT CUNNINGHAM, et al. Variations of proteins in corn: H. B. ARBUCKLE and O. J. THIES, JR. A study in the direction-sense of animals: J. F. DASHIELL. Development of some disc fungi: F. A. WOLF. The physiography of Brazos County, Texas: E. O. RANDOLPH. Two rare types of abnormality in cotton seeds: S. G. LEHMAN. Morphological ecology of certain Savannah plants: C. F. WILLIAMS. Results of soft pork investigations: J. O. HALVERSON and E. H. HOSTETLER. Seasonal catch of snakes at Raleigh: C. S. BRIMLEY. New ideas concerning mass: A. H. PATTERSON. Some Homoptera from Cuba: Z. P. METCALF. Some properties of ice crystals: E. K. PLYER. Meteorological inquiries from the viewpoint of 1795: L. A. DENSON. Some factors affecting the growth of young rats: F. W. SHERWOOD. Investigation on the germinating and heating of cotton seed in warehouse storage: E. E. RANDOLPH. Loessial soil and the world's food supply: COLLIER Совв. The excitation of the O-energy levels in tungsten by electron bombardment: O. STUHLMAN, JR. The rate of rotation of a Foucault pendulum: K. B. PATTERSON. Observations on conjugation in Spirogyra from living material: J. N. COUCH. New water molds from the soil: W. C. COKER and J. V. HARVEY. The present status of the high school science program: C. M. HECK. An oil-bearing soft pelite from Ontario, Canada: COLLIER COBB. Methods of investigation in social psychology: C. C. TAYLOR. The structure of the atomic nucleus: A. H. PATTERSON. Oil-bearing shales of North Carolina: F. C. VILBRANDT. Models of elementary crystal structure from X-ray evidence: OTTO STUHLMAN, JR. Riccia sorocarpa, Bisch: H. L. BLOMQUIST. X-rays and their biological effects: L. H. SNYDER. The effect of heat on the viscosity of some of our familiar lubricating oils: H. B. ARBUCKLE. The development of the periblast in the teleosts: J. T. PENNY and W. R. EARL. A simple proof of the law that the only possible periods of crystal symmetry are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6: J. H. SWARTZ. Iron coloration in rocks and minerals: G. R. MACCARTHY. Structural conditions in the West Central Appalachians: W. F. PROUTY. Progress on state insect survey, with comparative data on other animal groups: F. SHERMAN. (a) Brief notice of a new method for the radioactive determination of the age of the earth; (b) Brief notice of a new method of stratigraphic correlation: J. H. SWARTZ. The Triassic basin west of Raleigh: W. F. PROUTY. General properties of involution in N-ary algebra: E. T. BROWNE. Regularity of quadratic transformations of infinite series: G. M. ROBINSON. Notes on osculating hyperboloids: J. W. LASLEY. NORTH CAROLINA SECTION AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Studies on the nutritive value of the peanut: the effect of peanut proteins on growth of pigs: J. O. HALVERSON and EARL HOSTETLER. Nitration of P-cymere: A. S. WHEELER and C. R. HARRIS. The evaluation of lubricating oils: F. C. VILBRANDT and R. M. BYRD. Recent developments in chemical industries of North Carolina: F. C. VILBRANDT. An investigation of the deodorizing and decolorizing of fish oils: E. E. RANDOLPH and G. L. ARTHUR. Oxidation of sulfur dioxide with permanganate: F. C. VILBRANDT and H. A. DICKERT. Latent heat of fusion of some nitrotoluenes: H. D. CROCKFORD. E. M. F. studies on battery metals: F. C. VILBRANDT and R. R. Suggs. The refractometer as a means of determining dry matter in true and colloidal solutions with particular application to foods: F. E. RICE. The determination of phosphorus in steel: F. C. VILBRANDT and W. M. MEBANE. The chemist in the laundry: F. C. VILBRANDT and W. C. QUINBY. |