It is not required that the article of food containing added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredients must affect the public health, and it is not incumbent upon the Government, in order to make out a case, to establish that fact. The act has placed upon the Government the burden of establishing, in order to secure a verdict of condemnation under this statute, that the added poisonous or deleterious substances must be such as may render such article injurious to health. The word "may" is here used in its ordinary and usual signification, there being nothing to show the intention of Congress to affix to it any other meaning. "It is," says Webster, an auxiliary verb, qualifying the meaning of another verb by expressing ability, . contingency or liability, or possibility or probability." In thus describing the offense Congress doubtless took into consideration that flour may be used in many ways-in bread, cake, gravy, broth, etc. It may be consumed, when prepared as a food, by the strong and the weak, the old and the young, the well and the sick; and it is intended that if any flour, because of any added poisonous or other deleterious ingredients, may possibly injure the health of any of these, it shall come within the ban of the statute.

Also, the jury after hearing all the evidence in the case of injury to the flour by the Alsop bleaching process brought in a verdict for the government on all the counts in the libel. These counts included injury to the flour for making bread and for being colored in such a way as to conceal inferiority and thus permit the sale of the flour at a higher price.

The only point in the verdict of the Supreme Court reversing the conclusion of the lower court was on the failure of the judge in the lower court to instruct the jury properly in regard to injury to health. The Supreme Court did not enter into any discussion of the merits of the case whatever. It would be proper to state that when the case was remanded to the original court for a new trial, the United States attorney agreed to withdraw that part of the libel charging injury to health, whereupon the claimants acceded to all the other parts of the libel and the decree of the court condemned the 625 sacks of bleached flour, in the following terms:

Now, therefore, it is ordered that the said amended libel be taken pro confesso; and the said cause coming on to be heard ex parte, and the court being fully advised, doth find all of the allegations of said amended libel herein are true.

It is, therefore, ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said six hundred and twenty-five (625) sacks of flour, more or less, as aforesaid, be and the same are hereby

condemned and forfeited to the United States, and the marshal of this court is hereby ordered and directed to proceed to confiscate and utterly destroy all of said property, and to report to this court how he executed this order and decree.

It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that the taxed costs of the libelant herein, and the taxed costs of the claimant, be paid by the claimant, Lexington Mill and Elevator Company, said claimant in open court consenting thereto.

The above condemnation, it seems to me, is more nearly in harmony with the facts of the case than the author's conclusion as to the practical harmlessness of bleaching above referred to. In spite of the fact that this decision, from which, of course, no appeal could be taken, as it was a consent decree, settled once and for all the legal status of bleached flour and opened a clear way for the complete suppression of bleaching except when the flour was consumed within the state in which it was bleached. As most bleached flours transgress state lines, if this decree had been properly enforced the bleaching of flour would have entirely ceased within a short time.

Unfortunately, the authorities having in hand the administration of the law failed to improve this opportunity of forever destroying this reprehensible process. On the contrary, they issued a statement which was considered an invitation by the flour bleachers to go to the limit in extending this practice. The fact that there were many important problems which had been settled by the court seemed to have escaped their notice and they published a statement as follows:

No action will be taken at the present time on the ground that the bleaching introduces into the flour a substance which may be injurious to health provided, as a result of bleaching there is not introduced such a quantity of the bleaching agent as to render the flour injurious as indicated in the decision of the Supreme Court.

This was understood by the flour bleachers to mean that no action of any kind would be taken against bleached flour on the other grounds which had been established by the court as the reason for condemning bleached flour as both adulterated and misbranded. In point of fact, no action of any kind ever has been taken by the properly constituted authorities to hold in check or to stop the bleaching of flour, and it has become well-nigh universal. Even the millers who were bitterly opposed to bleaching have been forced to practice it in order that they could sell in the markets of the country a larger percentage of their output as patent flour. The most remarkable statement, however, of the food enforcing authorities is the following:

Whether bleaching in any given shipment reduces the quality and strength of the flour or conceals damage or inferiority must be decided on the basis of facts in each particular case.

These were the very facts that were decided by the court. This particular phrase, of course, was understood by the bleachers as a general statement which indicated that the whole evidence in regard to conceal

ing damage or inferiority or in reducing the quality and strength of the flour would have to be gone over again, as the authorities simply ignored that these matters were already settled once and all in the decree of the court.

The curse of the corpse-white flour will, of course, die out in time. The people of our country are learning little by little that the whiteness in the flour is inversely proportional to its nutritive value. It has been established by the experiments of the Public Health Service that white flour fed to fowls induced a speedy occurrence of polyneuritis or beriberi which quickly proved fatal. On the other hand, the fowls of same quality and age fed upon the whole grain wheat, or wheat flour made of whole grain, at the end of ninety days, when all the white flour fed fowls were dead, showed no sign of even an approach of beriberi or polyneuritis.

Facts of this kind which have now been established by all investigators will gradually permeate into the conscience of our people and lead to such a demand for wholesome flour that the process of bleaching, if never again attacked by the authorities of the government, will lapse of its own innate prejudicial character. Our bread supply will then be restored to normal, and thus the cheapest source of food for our people be preserved in its natural degree of wholesomeness. It is, of course, a matter of regret that a work of such high character and value as the one in question should so far lose sight of the fundamental principles of nutrition as to convey an impression to the reader that the bleaching of flour is a wholly innocuous and apparently praiseworthy proceeding. H. W. WILEY

WASHINGTON, D. C.

SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND

LABORATORY METHODS

A RAPID METHOD FOR DEMONSTRATING THE EFFECTS OF PLANTS ON A CULTURE SOLUTION

TEACHERS or students of plant physiology may find the method here described useful in demonstrating very easily and graphically within a few hours the changes in concentration of various ions in a solution

produced by the growth of plants in the solution. The chief difference between this and the usual methods of growing plants in culture solution consists in the much larger ratio of plants to volume of solution used in this method. With this procedure, it is easily possible to demonstrate to a class of students that plants absorb different ions at very different rates and thereby cause very considerable changes in com

position of the culture solution.

The technique is as follows, actual figures from a certain experiment being given. A number of trials with similar procedure at different times have given similar results.

To five grams (about two hundred seeds) of club wheat kernels in a test tube were added 5 cc of water. After two hours the grain was spread on wet filter paper and covered with two sheets of the same paper. The whole was thoroughly wet, placed in a pan and covered with another pan to keep the seed moist. After two days, the roots were about 1 cm long. The sprouted grain was then spread on a piece of mosquito net tied over the mouth of a glass jar 8 cm in diameter and covered with wet filter paper. The jar was kept filled with tap water up to the net. Two days later, the roots had gone down into the water and the young shoots were about 1 cm high. The wet filter paper cover was then removed, leaving the plants exposed to the air. Six days later, the young shoots were 7 to 12 cm high, with roots about the same length. Five days later, the plants were 10 to 15 cm high, growing vigorously. During all the time the plants were kept in a south window at a temperature of 60 to 75° F.

At this time, when the plants were fifteen days old from the time seed was soaked, the net was removed from the top of the jar, the roots of the plants washed in distilled water, and the whole mass of plants was then placed upright in a beaker 6 cm in diameter. Thus the roots were compressed into a small space. Now absorption experiments were begun. On successive days the plants were supplied with dilute solutions of single salts, the volume of solution being just sufficient to keep the roots immersed. If necessary, more water was added in order to maintain sufficient liquid to cover the roots. At the end of the period of absorption, the remaining solution was made up to the original volume with distilled water and tests made for ions remaining. Portions of the original solutions were tested in the same way at the same time. The tests were only very roughly quantitative. The results obtained are set down in the following table. The numbers given represent milligrams of the ions present before and after the absorption period. In some cases, a considerable

PO,

After

38

After

32

38 +++

K Sodium cobalti nitrite reagent
SO, BaCl,

PO, Acid ammonium molybdate

NO, Diphenylamine, .01% in H2SO.
"" pH Phenolsulfonephthalein indicators

By examination of the table, it may be seen that when KNO, was used in small amounts, both anion and cation were completely removed from the solutions by the plants in nine hours, the solution remaining nearly neutral. When KCl, KH,PO, or KHCO, were used, the K was absorbed, but not all the anions. When Ca(NO3)2 or NaNO, were supplied, the NO, was used up, but most of the cation was left in the solution which became alkaline. When (NH),SO, was given, much of both ions remained unabsorbed, but more NH4+ than SO, had been absorbed, so the solution became acid. Also, when KH,PO, was given, the absorption of K+ being relatively greater than of H2PO, the solution became more acid.

16 +

is applied to the solutions before and after the plants have been grown in them. If properly managed, the difference between the two solutions before and after the action of the plants may be made easily visible to a good-sized class. The two test tubes, showing the test on the two portions of solution before and after the plants have grown in it, should be exhibited side by side.

For investigational purposes, the same bunch of plants may be used day after day if the roots are well washed in distilled water each time before being placed in a different solution.

DIVISION OF PLANT NUTRITION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

P. L. HIBBARD

SPECIAL ARTICLES

NOTE ON MAGNETIC DECLINATION DURING the total eclipse of January 24, 1925, magnetic observations were made at an isolated point near Ithaca, New York. The primary object of the investigation was to record any quick changes in declination of the earth's magnetic field during the time of the eclipse. While the device used could also record the slow gradual changes, it had no advantages in that respect over the vibrating magnet method ordinarily used.

A small bell type magnet, of short period of vibration, was suspended by a quartz fiber in a metal casing and carefully shielded from air currents. By means of a telescope about two meters away, the apparent motion of a cross hair in the telescope was observed as reflected from a small mirror fastened to

the stem of the magnet. Attached to a sliding arm was a pointer which could be kept on the moving cross-hair image by the telescope observer. A pen on the other end of the arm recorded the fluctuations directly on a chronograph tape moving about 22 cm a minute, thus giving a continuous record of the declination. Figure 1 is an actual photograph of a portion of the tape, showing the magnetic variations of the earth's field at about 9:30. From A to B on the graph there is no irregularity, thus showing an absence of magnetic disturbance. However at B, the graph becoming very irregular gives evidence of some degree of magnetic storm or other disturbance of unknown origin. The small punch holes made by the recorder every half second served the double purpose of giving the exact time and forming a datum line from which to make measurements of the graph. A second recorder punched the tape at minute intervals as shown at P. The whole apparatus as used had been designed some time previously to record and study local magnetic disturbances, and its accuracy of recording may be greatly varied according to the needs. In case of any local disturbances known at the time, it was found very convenient to telegraph

by Morse code any remarks to that effect directly upon the tape at the time of occurrence by means of the second recorder.

The record on January 24 started at about 8:30 continuing until 9:50. There was, throughout, a continual changing observed in the declination complicated by frequent evidences of magnetic storm. The declination increased very rapidly beginning at about 8:55, and reached a definite, fairly sharp maximum at 9:16, which lasted for about two minutes. After this point, it started to decrease at about the same rate as that of increase. However, instead of decreasing continuously, there was a reversal at 9:26 and then after a period of about eight minutes assumed a much slower but steady rate of change.

Figure 2 shows a contracted graph, obtained from measurements on the tape at the one-minute intervals. At the times marked by X the tape record showed various large irregularities, although there were in addition more frequent, smaller deviations. It will be noted that these positions correspond in general to the larger deviations from a smooth curve. The period T-T is that of totality and is marked by some irregularity, although this is probably due solely

to the ordinary disturbances. It is reasonable to suppose that the dotted line might represent the normal procedure of the graph, but there is no experimental evidence available to justify the supposition. One peculiarity of the maximum effect is its lag of about seven minutes behind the period of totality. A second peculiarity is the unexplained reversal which occurred shortly after the maximum. The total angular variation over the period of measurement was of the order of ten minutes. A curve was also obtained the following day, over the same time limits, and showed a very quiet state of the magnetic field. L. S. TAYLOR

ROCKEFELLER HALL, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ARCA PATRICIA SOWERBY, A MIOCENE FOSSIL FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC1

IN 1850 G. B. Sowerby2 described Arca patricia and other Miocene fossils collected in the valley of Rio Yaque del Norte, Dominican Republic, by Colonel Heneken, a British army officer. This species, like many others described in the same report, was not figured. Almost every writer who has had anything to do with the Miocene mollusks of the Dominican Republic has made a guess as to Arca patricia, but none took the trouble to inquire about the type material. Sowerby compared this species with Arca grandis Broderip and Sowerby, a giant Arca living on the Pacific coast of Central America and northern South America. Therefore, it was natural to suppose that Arca patricia resembled Arca grandis. Following this lead Gabb supposed that Arca patricia is the giant Miocene Arca from the Dominican Republic that is remarkably similar to Arca grandis. Guppy, who examined the type material, merely commented that Arca patricia is "undoubtedly near A. grandis." Maury followed Gabb and also recently used the name Scapharca (Scapharca) patricia for the large Miocene Arca from Trinidad. Pilsbry thought Arca patricia might be Arca chiriquiensis Gabb, a species first collected from middle Miocene beds cropping out on Chiriqui Lagoon on the Atlantic coast of Panama close to the Costa Rican boundary. Arca chiriquiensis has an extensive distribution, as it has been found in Miocene beds in the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Haiti and Colombia. At all these localities it lived in water of low salinity.

1 Published with the permission of the director, U. S. Geological Survey.

2 For references see synonymy.

8 Pilsbry, H. A., Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia Proc., Vol. 73, pp. 405-406, 1922.

The type material of Arca patricia is in the foreign collection of the Geological Society of London. In 1911 this collection was transferred to the British Museum (Natural History). Mr. L. R. Cox, of the Geological Department of the British Museum, recently very kindly sent me a cast of the holotype that is so skilfully made that it looks like an actual shell. Mr. Cox informed me that the type material consists of about twelve specimens, but one specimen (Geol. Soc. London No. 12828) was selected by Blake and Sherborn as the holotype when they compiled the catalogue of type specimens in the collection of the Geological Society of London. The cast shows that Arca patricia is very different from both Arca grandis and Arca chiriquiensis; and, as Mr. Cox suspected, it is the species to which Dall in 1898 gave the name Scapharca (Argina) tolepia. Dall's description of this species as an Argina misled Dr. Maury, so she gave another name to the same species-Scapharca arthurpennelli. The holotype of Scapharca (Argina) tolepia Dall (both valves in attached position, U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 113,801) was collected on Rio Amina, a northward-flowing tributary of Rio Yaque del Norte. The type locality of Scapharca arthurpennelli Maury is on Rio Mao, a northward-flowing tributary of Rio Yaque del Norte lying west of Rio Amina. The holotype of Arca patricia is a little larger than the holotype of Scapharca (Argina) tolepia; its posterior end is a little more extended, and its umbo is not so broad. Both specimens can, however, be duplicated in a series of about 150 topotypes of Scapharca arthurpennelli. Pilsbry and Johnson described three new subspecies of Arca tolepia. Some of these subspecies may not be valid in view of the variable features of this species, which is one of the most abundant fossils in the Cercado formation (lower Miocene) of the Dominican Republic. Gabb thought the specimens in his collection were young shells of the giant Arca.

In the lists of fossils published in the report entitled, "A geological reconnaissance of the Dominican Republic," Mansfield and I followed Maury in the use of the names Arca patricia and Arca arthurpennelli, as we wished to get stratigraphic results from almost 1,000 species of Tertiary mollusks in the shortest possible time. But it was inexcusable to overlook the identity of Arca tolepia and Arca arthurpennelli.

This picturesque muddle, which is the result of disregarding type material, is summarized as follows:

Blake, J. F., List of the types and figured specimens recognized by C. D. Sherborn, F.G.S., in the collection of the Geological Society of London; verified and arranged with additions, p. 65, 1902.