plied chemistry in the University of Manchester and in the College of Technology, died on December 8 at the age of sixty-four years.

DR. JAMES MURIE, the English naturalist, has died at the age of ninety-five years.

W. P. HIERN, F.R.S., the well-known systematic botanist of England, recently died, aged eighty-five

years.

DR. W. R. DYKES, secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, and an authority on the genus Iris, died on December 1, aged forty-eight years.

DR. CARL SCHOY, who was recently called to the University at Frankfort-am-Main to take charge of the work in the history of oriental mathematics, died on December 6 at the age of forty-eight years. A correspondent writes that Dr. Schoy was well known as a writer on the history of Arabic mathematics. Although he took up the study of the subject rather late in life, he made great progress in his work, and during the last few years he has written a number of important memoirs upon the subject of Arabic mathematics and astronomy.

SECTION Officers for the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which meets

from February 15 to 18, are as follows: Biology, Charles T. Vorhies, chairman, University of Arizona; Dr. W. P. Taylor, secretary, University of Arizona; education, Dr. Frank C. Lockwood, chairman, University of Arizona; Dr. J. O. Creager, secretary, University of Arizona; medical science, Dr. Gerald B. Webb, chairman, 402 Burns Building, Colorado Springs; Dr. I. E. Wallin, secretary, University of Colorado Medical School, Denver; Physical Science, Dr. O. C. Lester, chairman, University of Colorado; Professor F. M. Life, secretary, University of Arizona; social science, Professor E. B. Renaud, chairman, University of Denver; Henry B. Roberts, secretary, University of Denver. Members wishing to present papers in any of the above sections should send titles to the proper section chairman. Papers on special subjects not covered by any of the above sections should be submitted to the executive committee, A. L. Flagg, chairman, 306 Goodrich Building, Phoenix, Arizona.

THE American Association of University Professors held its twelfth annual meeting at the University of Chicago on December 28 and 29. The program included the election of officers; the presentation of committee reports, a luncheon with the Modern Language Association, and the annual dinner at which the principal speakers were President Max Mason, of the University of Chicago, and Professor

A. O. Leuschner, of the University of California, president of the association.

THE next meeting of the American Chemical Society will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from April 5 to 9.

THE scientific society known as the Priestley Club, founded in 1875 to promote the discussion of scientific topics and facilitate the social intercourse of scientific men, celebrated the attainment of its jubilee by a dinner at the University of Leeds, England, on December 15. The speakers included Sir J. C. Irvine, principal of St. Andrews University, the vice-chancellor of Leeds University and Professor Arthur Smithells.

THE National Research Council, operating on a grant of $50,000 provided by the General Education Board of New York, has undertaken the study of a new forestry policy for the United States and its workers are about to begin an examination of all the sciences, from the directly related subjects of botany and zoology to the ones more remotely concerned, like geology and chemistry, with a view to correlating all the information obtainable in the development of new ideas. The survey was first proposed by Chief Forester W. B. Greeley, of the U. S. Forest Service, and will be carried through by Dean H. S. Graves, of the Bailey, of Harvard University, and Dr. H. A. Spoehr, Yale University school of forestry; Professor I. W. of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

THE General Education Board has made an appropriation of $35,000 to the American Chemical Society to insure the publication of the second decennial index of Chemical Abstracts. Therefore the directors of the society have been able to authorize the work and the editor will take immediate steps to begin the preparation of the material.

Ir is reported that the sum of over $250,000 has already been collected in Germany for Dr. Eckener's fund to build a Zeppelin for scientific exploration.

seum.

THE collections made by Dr. Aleš Hrdlička in South Africa have reached the U. S. National MuThey comprise fragmentary fossils of apes from the Taungs (Buxton) quarry; paleolithic implements from Bechuanaland and the Zambesi, and a

series of decorated baskets from Northern and Southern Rhodesia.

MEMBERS of the Sterling expedition to New Guinea, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, completed the second part of their journey recently, arriving in Manila on December 24. The expedition next will go to Batavia, where outfitting will be completed.

THE Smithsonian Institution has arranged to fur

nish through the United States Weather Bureau, the telegraph companies, the Associated Press and Science Service, daily or 10-day mean values of the solar constant of radiation for use in weather forecasting, beginning on January 1. For the purpose of studying the solar constant of radiation, the Smithsonian Institution has established observatories on the top of the Andes Mountains in Chile and on Table Mountain, California. It is from these stations that the institution proposes to broadcast through the agencies named, if they wish the information, the values of radiation.

IN consideration of the excessive use of laurel, ground pine and holly for Christmas decorations, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden held an exhibit from December 8 to 23, the purpose of which was to show cultivated plant materials which should prove satisfactory as substitutes for the wild plants above mentioned.

ACCORDING to the American Medical Journal, a research section has been established by the U. S. Veterans' Bureau, and Dr. Philip B. Matz has reported to the central office for duty as chief. The purpose of the section is to study available medical data, the results accomplished, the developments of new policies, and the investigation of standards in medical centers for improvement of clinical work and the furtherance of research. The chief will be responsible for the study of the clinical material in the hospitals and outpatient departments of the bureau, with particular reference to the results of treatment. He will survey the records kept in the central office and in the field to determine their adequacy for the purpose of investigation. Certain laboratories of the bureau will be designated as research laboratories, which in addition to caring for the routine of the institutions concerned will engage in broader work to be assigned from time to time. These laboratories will also be distributing centers for culture mediums, standardized solutions, Wassermann reagents, typhoid and other cultures and various agglutinating serums.

THE International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, of the League of Nations, has according to the London Times settled into the offices which have been provided for it in Paris by the French government. It occupies a large suite of rooms in the southern end of the Palais Royal, overlooking the gardens, a suite which includes a fine range of galleries. The Director of the Institute is M. Julien Luchaire, who has at present a staff of about forty

persons working under him on the task of establishing a clearing house of information from all countries, which will be of use in guiding students in their researches.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

NOTES

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY has received a gift of $1,000,000 from the General Education Board for increases in equipment and facilities for advanced teaching and research in the physical and biological sciences. This endowment is conditional on Princeton's raising an additional $2,000,000 for the same purpose.

THE board of trustees of Johns Hopkins University has approved the plan to abolish the undergraduate school at the university. To become effective the plan must now be approved by the State Legislature.

RAWSON LABORATORY, a $600,000 six-story building, was dedicated on December 17 as a part of the Rush Medical College of the University of Chicago.

It is reported that the Rockefeller Foundation, of New York, has offered to establish reciprocal research scholarships, somewhat similar to the Rhodes scholarships, between American and Australian universities. Professor Copeland, of Melbourne University, has been invited to the United States to arrange the details of the plan, and the university council has granted a leave to him.

DR. PARKE REXFORD KOLBE, formerly president of the Municipal University of Akron, will be installed as the new president of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute on January 13.

DR. ERWIN RUDOLPH SCHMIDT, of the staff of the Augustana Hospital, has been appointed professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin and surgeon of the Wisconsin General Hospital, to take the place of Dr. Carl A. Hedblom, who recently resigned to accept a similar position at the University of Illinois.

DR. FREDERICK HOWARD FALLS, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa, has accepted an appointment to head similar work at the University of Illinois in the medical school in Chicago.

PROFESSOR H. WILDON CARR, of London, is serving as visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California during the current academic year.

DR. HENRY STEPHEN, senior lecturer in chemistry at the University of Manchester, has been appointed to the chair of chemistry in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

PROFESSOR H. A. BROUWER, of the Technical Institute at Delft, Holland, has been appointed professor

of geology at the University of Utrecht. Dr. Brouwer will not leave the chair of geology at Delft, but will go to Utrecht to give his courses.

PROFESSOR HANS RADEMACHER, of the University of Hamburg, has been appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Breslau.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE PROJECTION OF ULTRA-VIOLET LINES

RECENTLY, when attempting without quartz lenses or prisms to demonstrate the existence of ultra-violet lines in the spectrum of mercury, I projected the image of a slit in front of a "Laboratory Standard" mercury vapor lamp onto a "day-light screen" (Trans-Lux), using only a flint prism and a single crown lens. I expected to use a fluorescent screen to pick up the ultra-violet lines but found that the translux screen showed these lines up, though not brightly. The lines were easily visible at a distance of five feet. I could only convince myself that these were ultraviolet lines by these arguments: (1) the lines were not at all the correct color for the violet end of the spectrum; (2) they were not due to stray light; (3) when falling on anthracene they produced fluorescence, even when the slit was covered with an ultraviolet wave-filter.

Perhaps a more powerful source of light, with proper lenses and prism, would bring these lines out strongly enough for a large lecture room, especially when the wave-filter cuts off the visible spectrum. PAUL F. GAEHR

WELLS COLLEGE

INFLUENCE OF AIR AND SUNSHINE ON THE GROWTH OF TREES

A CASE came under my observation this past summer that will furnish an example of some value to teachers of botany and crop production of the advantage of ample air and sunlight for growing plants.

Mr. A. L. Rogers, of Waterville, Washington, in order to study past variations in climate in that locality, made a section of a forest tree for the purpose of studying the thickness of the annual growth rings and correlating variations in this thickness with known variations in rainfall for the past thirty-three years the records of rainfall being available for that period. I recently had the opportunity of examining the section. Assuming that a ring of growth has been made each year, the tree was a seedling in the year 1820. Up to, and including the year 1898, the average thickness of the annual rings was approximately one sixteenth of an inch. Beginning with the year 1899, and extending to 1924, when the tree was cut,

the rings had an average thickness of approximately three sixteenths of an inch. I suggested to Mr. Rogers that the region must have been logged off in the winter of 1898-9; that previous to that time the tree had been closely surrounded by other trees and thus was unable to secure the necessary air and sunshine for maximum growth; that after the logging off, the rate of growth of the tree had been about tripled.

Investigation revealed that this suggestion was in accordance with the facts. Several stumps, much decayed, were found in the immediate vicinity of the tree, and the date of the logging off operations proved to be the date suggested by the change in rate of growth of the tree.

Additional moisture available to the tree after the

logging operations may also have been a factor in the increased rate of growth.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

W. J. SPILLMAN

AN UNUSUAL STRAIN OF SERRATIA
MARCESCENS BIZIO

A STRAIN of Serratia marcescens which, so far as we have any knowledge, has been kept in the laboratory of the department of botany of Wellesley College for at least four years, has developed characteristics unusual for this species. It seems worth while to make a brief note of these variations.

The following culture reactions were obtained with this organism: agar streak varying from white to pink and red, taking on a very bright color and metallic luster with age, the pigment sinking into the agar, in some instances for several millimeters; pigment formed at 35° C.-37° C., soluble in water and alcohol, slightly soluble in chloroform; gelatin liquefied rapidly, the medium becoming red; nutrient broth turbid after two days, then becoming red throughout and showing a thin pellicle; no gas in dextrose, sucrose or lactose broths after two weeks, dextrose and sucrose acid; the reaction in lactose broth was rather peculiar and necessitated more extended experimentation which can not be reported at this time; indol not produced; nitrates reduced to nitrites; potato agar showing a very luxuriant, rose-colored growth; growth on starch agar as on nutrient agar and the color bright red; 30 per cent. peptone agar, producing a very light pink growth; litmus-milk acid and coagulated with little or no peptonization. The form is Gram negative, and motile with peritrichous flagella. The italics indicate the deviations from the description given in Bergey's Manual.1

1 Bergey's "Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1923.

2

The variability of this species has been noted repeatedly by observers, and there has been much discussion as to its ability to form gas in carbohydrates. Miss Hefferan, who has done the most comprehensive work on this group, found in eight strains of S. marcescens (B. prodigiosus) gas formation in dextrose in seven, in sucrose in four and in lactose in one. Her B. prodigiosus VIII formed no gas in any of the three sugars used. In this respect our form agrees with VIII and differs from all the rest of her series and from the type described by Bergey.

Miss Hefferan also found among the eight strains variations in viscosity, in the amount of color in broth, and in the presence of a pellicle on broth cultures. B. prodigiosus I, II, III, IV, VI and VII produced slight color in liquids and a red surface ring; V produced a heavy orange-red membrane and VIII only a pink, or violet, surface ring. Our strain colored bouillon a brilliant rose red throughout, with a thin pellicle, thus differing from any strain previously described. This excessive pigment formation is the most striking characteristic of this form. In a few days agar streaks become a most brilliant red, varying from scarlet to crimson, while the upper layer of agar becomes deeply stained with pigment. In the solubility of this pigment in water this form differs from all descriptions of Serratia species which have come under our notice. Pigment formation takes place at high temperatures-30° C. to 37° C.which is also a variation from S. marcescens, but is characteristic for related species.

The suggestion that the excessive pigment formation might be due to contamination with some other form was tested by repeated platings and a study of many slides. The white colonies, which were considered as possible contaminations, invariably, upon being streaked on agar, produced red growths, and the slides showed apparently pure cultures with Gram's stain and carbol fuchsin. Single-cell isolation would have made this point certain, but time has not been available for this work.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE, WELLESLEY, MASS.

RACHEL SCHREINER LAETITIA M. SNOW

THE CLEARNESS OF THE OHIO RIVER

In the body of the interesting address by Dr. Alexander Findlay on "The twilight zone of matter" is a

2 Hefferan, Mary, "A comparative and experimental study of bacilli producing red pigment." Centrbl. f. Bakt. Abt. II., Bd. XI, p. 311-540, 1904. 1 SCIENCE, LXII, 1600, p. 195.

statement which seems too indefinite to be taken broadly, in view of the nature and importance of the matter under discussion. The comparative clearness of sundry river waters as affected by the presence or absence of colloids is under discussion, and the statement is made:

"The water of the Ohio River, on the other hand, is at all times clear, owing to the absence of protective colloids and the presence of lime and other salts which act as precipitating agents."

The Mississippi and Nile are the rivers included in the reference to "on the other hand" in the above quotation. Taking the statement as made we would first of all point out that the analysis of no great river such as any of those mentioned can safely be taken at any point as truly representing the colloidal or any other condition of the whole stream; certainly not in the case of the Ohio. As the writer can testify from personal observations of his own, and as might be inferred by an inspection of the geological nature of the regions drained by the Ohio, such a statement as the one made above becomes meaningless unless restricted to a particular stage of the river. The two separate rivers forming the Ohio at Pittsburgh, viz., the Allegheny and the Monongahela, are not in themselves at all times clear nor does the resulting river, the Ohio, become so or remain so during its entire course. As a matter of fact, one of the muddiest rivers I have ever seen is this river at Cincinnati, even after it has received the limestone waters of the several streams, Miami, etc., from its course along the southern boundary of the state of Ohio, and after it has been the recipient of all sorts of factory and industrial refuse matter, mine waters, sewage, etc. In short, the Ohio, like its sister, the Mississippi, is not a hydrographic unit, nor are sweeping assertions as to its colloidal behavior to be accepted as at all times, or at all stages correct; there are other factors involved in the discussion besides the relation of lime to colloids. Very probably the quotation as used did not originate with Dr. Findlay, but is to be taken rather as typical of certain general assertions, lacking carefully coordinated data. The statements have been going the rounds for many years that limestone drainage acts as a clarifying agent in natural waters; it may be true that it does up to a certain point. But there are streams in southern Ohio so saturated with lime salts that freshwater mussels flourish in them; the pebbles become in time coated by lime, as do also submerged tree trunks, but at the same time the waters are seldom clear; clays, "muds" in general, all the usual inwash of a cultivated and populated region. Probably most scientific persons who have given any time and ob

servation to the behavior of river waters and natural drainage will be willing to admit the great importance of colloidal action in natural river waters, but this truth will not be abetted in any way by the circulation of statements which lack coordination with the other equally important factors in the case.

So far as lime salts are concerned it would seem to be true of fresh waters as it is of sea waters that organic life and organic "matter" tends to remove them, and that in so doing will pull down an appreciable quantity of other suspended matter. The clarity or non-clarity of the resulting stream will then depend, will it not, upon another adjustment of factors such as the relative amounts of "clay matter" suspended in it, the intake of other streams along its course, and the degree of removal of the original lime and organic matter. It has always seemed to the present observer that the condition of the lower portions of such streams as the greater rivers, the Nile, Mississippi, Ohio, etc., is a sort of survival from a series of natural "experiments" rather than due to the action of one set of factors; and that assertions to the effect that a certain river always does this or that are true only when, as is not always the case, a definite series of like reactions are set up. The apparent preponderance of the "lime salts" over organic matter in the final stages of the Mississippi, and indeed the relative abundance of any of the usual "salts" commonly recorded in water analyses are still in too chaotic a state of coordination with modern ideas of ionization, etc., to be taken too weightily. That colloidal action plays an important part in the reactions constantly in process in river waters may presumably be taken as correct; that such actions play the all-important or even the most important part in such reactions is another matter and is by no means to be given the preeminence ascribed to it in the quotation as given.

FREDERICK EHRENFELD

LABORATORY OF GEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Osteology of the Reptiles. By SAMUEL WENDELL WILLISTON. Arranged and edited by William King Gregory. Cambridge, 1925. The Harvard University Press. Price $4.00.

A THING that has been lacking hitherto in the literature of vertebrate palaeontology is a comprehensive and adequate treatise on the osteology of reptiles. There have been many excellent discussions of the osteological characters of special groups and a certain amount of high-grade text-book treatment of the

skeleton of the Reptilia. None of these could fill the need of a comprehensive reference book on reptilian osteology.

This need Williston's "The Osteology of the Reptiles" has filled in an admirable manner. The book is divided into two sections; the first, comprising two thirds of the volume, deals with the reptilian skeleton from a strictly morphologic viewpoint; the second, comprising the remaining third, consists of a brief classification of the Reptilia, with definitions of the major groups and many of them minor ones.

The section on the primitive skeleton of reptiles, in the introduction, is a discussion of particular value. Professor Williston's specialty, in his. later years at least, was the morphology of the Permian amphibians and reptiles, and his account of the primitive reptilian skeleton forms a very adequate groundwork for the discussion of the skeleton in the later and more specialized groups. The tabular key of the bones of the primitive skeleton sums up for the student the names of the bones of the repțile skeleton and their location in a very clear and compact way.

Following the introduction is a chapter on the skull of reptiles, occupying nearly a third of the book. Horns, processes, fenestrae, etc., are given a general discussion and their more striking modifications in the various groups are noted. Then the bones of the skull are considered one by one, their primitive positions and contacts noted and their special characters and modifications in the later and more highly specialized reptilian groups discussed. A table of synonyms of names of skull bones adds to the usefulness of this section.

Following the discussion of the separate skull elements is a series of sections dealing with the skull in the various orders of reptiles, noting general form, elements present, degree and kind of fenestration, dentition and adaptive modifications.

After the chapter on the reptilian skull is one on the vertebral column, in which the vertebra are discussed and their elements, developments and modifications, both as individual vertebra and as regions of the vertebral column.

Similar chapters follow on ribs and sternum, pectoral and pelvic girdles and limbs. In each of these the primitive characters of the Permian reptiles are discussed adequately and the modification from the primitive conditions considered as such.

This part of the volume is complete in itself and might be used independently of Part II, which deals with the classification and systematic treatment of the reptilian orders.

Part II begins with a brief chapter on the principle or problem of classification, which points out clearly the difficulties in the way of arriving at a