be strange indeed if the miller did not endeavor to practice using the optimum amount of water for this purpose. As a matter of fact, the amount of water that may be used in conditioning is very closely limited. Too little added moisture means either a low flour yield or a yield of flour containing considerable speckiness or grayness. On the other hand, too much added water causes a considerable reduction in flour yield due to gumming up, flaking, reduction of bolting surface, and production of flours and feeds which are very subject to molding, souring, or other damage directly due to excessive moisture content.

American flours are notable for their low moisture content and consequent ability to keep in good sound condition for many months. English and French flour will average at least 2 per cent. more moisture and they must be consumed without delay. American flours exported to Europe, including both the high grade flours and the low grade flours, are also notable for their excellent keeping quality even after the long ocean voyage.

It is indeed a matter in which American millers take pride "that the flour of the country is gradually approaching the condition in which the bran and germ remnants are reduced to the greatest possible minimum," but it does not follow "that this means a more thorough extraction from the white flour of the vital elements of the wheat" or that "it is distinctly deteriorated in nutritional value." What is "nutritional value ?" It is not claimed that white flour as purchased from the grocer is a perfect food. No one eats white flour. It is used in the manufacture of numerous articles of food which are eaten together with other foods. What does it signify if fowls or white rats fed nothing but white flour die after a few months? The same thing will occur with almost any single food including even milk which comes pretty near being a perfect food for infants. Even a liberal diet of graham bread would not supply sufficient iron or iodin nor even the important element calcium, since so large a proportion of the relatively limited amount of minerals in the branny portion of the wheat is indigestible in the human stomach. The mineral elements present in wheat and bran and flour are those of which there is little or no lack, viz., phosphorus and potassium, wheat ash being about three quarters potassium phosphate. Feed the bran to cows, equipped by nature with digestive fluids containing enzymes capable of breaking down the cell walls of bran, alfalfa and other coarse fodders and let them supply us the necessary calcium, vitamines, etc. Then make from milk, flour and yeast a good, rich milk bread which, with other ordinary foods, will contain most of the needed elements. A full milk loaf spread with vitamine-rich butter comes

much closer than any single article of diet to supplying the nutritional value desired.

Dr. Wiley doubts if any household consumer ever demanded a whiter flour. His doubts may be set at rest. During twenty-five years' experience in constant consultation with millers and flour buyers, no small proportion of our investigations have been concerned with the question of color. Any small miller dealing directly with housewives of the town could testify on this point.

Dr. Wiley appears to hold the common notion that the darker portions of flour produced in milling can be bleached and sold at the price of patent flour. But no bleaching process is capable of removing or bleaching the branny impurities which give a grayish or dull color to flour. Flour bleaching processes do only what bleaching does to linen-remove yellowness, therefore grayness remains just as gray as before.

I was unaware until Dr. Wiley stated it that nitrogen peroxid is a mixture of nitrogen and nitrous oxids or that nitrous oxid has any flour bleaching ability. Whether the presence in flour of 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million of nitrogen in nitrites or of 24 to 159 parts of chlorin in chlorids or the residue of 32 parts of benzoyl peroxid or rather, of what remains of these substances after fermentation and baking into bread, is deleterious, is a question regarding which the Department of Agriculture and the general public seem long ago to have come to the same conclusion which Dr. Bailey expressed, namely "that the effect of bleaching on digestibility is too slight to merit consideration."

Dr. Wiley says: "The curse of 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." This prophecy is not justified by any facts which I know of. The proportion of bleached flours to unbleached flours which we have seen in recent years is certainly increasing. I have no figures for the proportional output of bolted flour in comparison with grahams and so-called whole-wheat flours. Any miller is willing to supply graham and whole-wheat flours, but he knows from experience that these flours soon become rancid and unsound while the high grades of flour remain sound and wholesome months after the low grade flours have become inedible. I infer that it is both bleached and unbleached flours upon which Dr. Wiley considers a curse rests. To all appearances, however, the general public is continuing in its belief (justified both by the bacteriological count and the microscopic examination) that whiteness or creamy whiteness is a sign of cleanness, and that bread is one of the cheapest and best foods. Let those who need a mild laxative or

CHARLES H. BRIGGS

THE HOWARD WHEAT AND FLOUR TESTING LABORATORY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

In the issue of SCIENCE for October 16 Dr. Wiley reviews a recent book by Sherman. In the course of this review Dr. Wiley takes occasion to digress from his subject to mention some things concerning butter which he states Sherman failed to mention in the book reviewed.

Dr. Wiley's statements are unjust to the dairy industry because they are inaccurate. The three statements to which I take exception are: (1) That the standard for butterfat has been reduced 4 per cent. in 20 years. (2) That 75 per cent. of the creameries neutralize the cream used for butter manufacture. (3) That the purpose of neutralizing is to make possible the use of cream otherwise unfit for butter manufacture.

His basis for stating the standard for butterfat has been reduced 4 per cent. in comparing the analyses of butter made for exhibition purposes 25 years ago when there was no legal standard with the legal standard at present, not the composition of butter as found on the market at present. It is a well-known fact that butter made for exhibition purposes has a somewhat higher fat content than the regular market product due mainly to lower salt percentage. For this reason the low water content of butter reported in 1902, which was based upon analyses of exhibition samples, was unquestionably not typical of the regular market product at that time. Analyses of 170 market samples reported in 1907 showed an average fat percentage of 82.35. Analyses by this division of 2,051 exhibition samples in 1923 showed an average of 83.46 per cent. of fat. At the same time 363 market samples averaged 82.35, or exactly the same as found in 1907. A total of 1,000 analyses of market butter in 1925 showed 81.31 per cent. fat. The most that can be said is that American market butter now averages about one per cent. less fat than in 1907 and closely approaches the composition of the competing product of other leading butter producing countries.

The statement that 75 per cent. of the creameries neutralize the cream before churning is based upon inaccurate information. As a matter of fact no statistics are available on this point and the basis of any statement made must be familiarity with conditions based upon a close contact with the industry.

Nearly one fifth of the creamery butter manufactured in the United States is made in Minnesota and this state stands far in the lead in this product. A close knowledge of conditions in this state makes possible the statement that out of about 840 creameries in the state a total of less than fifty neutralize the cream used. One fourth of all the creameries in Minnesota are making butter from pasteurized sweet cream, that is, fresh cream in which no fermentation of any kind has developed to any appreciable extent. The other creameries develop some acid fermentation in the cream as has been done for centuries. A considerable number of this group use pure culture starters as an aid in securing the desired fermentation.

While we do not commend the practice followed by some creameries of reducing the acidity of the cream by the use of lime, the so-called neutralization, we deny the implication that cream so treated is injurious to health or that it is otherwise unfit for butter manufacture. The cream which is neutralized has undergone ordinary acid fermentation with some development of yeast after a relatively high acidity is reached. It is well known that these types of fermentation are not ordinarily accompanied by injurious products and not the slightest evidence has ever been presented that cream of this kind is in any way detrimental to human health. The writer has used dried buttermilk from such cream as a sole feed for young calves without the least evidence of trouble, in fact less sickness was experienced than usual when ordinary skim milk is used. Large quantities of the same product are used as a food for chicks with excellent results.

The purposes of neutralizing cream are two-fold, the first is to prevent excessive loss of fat in the buttermilk, the other is to increase the keeping quality of the butter. It has been known for several years that free acid in butter regardless of origin has an unfavorable effect upon the keeping quality. The quality of the fresh butter is not appreciably improved as a result of neutralization of the cream from which it is made.

one who has spent almost his whole active life in protecting the interests of the consumer against unwarranted practices by the manufacturer and dealer to have sympathy with the adulterators of flour from any point of view. Such adulterations add to the miller's profit without adding anything to the nutritive value of the flour. Bleached flour has been pronounced by the courts both adulterated and misbranded and has therefore no right to enter interstate commerce nor to be sold in the District of Columbia. In closing this discussion, I am content to submit the question to the readers of SCIENCE, a group of citizens well qualified to judge without prejudice. At the same time, I must admit that the dietitians of the country look with a very considerable degree of disfavor upon diminishing the nutritive value of flour in order to secure the greatest yield and the least nutritious product. Dr. Briggs asks: "What is nutritive value?" I answer, that nutritive value is to secure the largest amount of nutriment that nature has put in our foods. The millers are endeavoring to produce a food with a minimum content of nutritive value. Graham bread may not supply a sufficient amount of iron or iodine, but it does supply a sufficient amount of phosphorus and high grade proteins to give the maximum nutritive value to ground wheat. This is not denied in any place by Dr. Briggs. It is, of course, possible to supply some of the vitamins and minerals removed in the milling, by others existing in other kinds of foods. Is it reasonbale, however, to increase the demand for such foods as do supply these missing elements, when they could all be secured by eating our wheat in a form as nearly as possible to its natural composition? Not only does it cost a lot more money to make white flour a nutritious food, as Dr. Briggs admits, but it is a useless expenditure when we have to buy from other sources the very elements which the millers take out of the grain. I take it that no better exposition of the merits of white and bleached flour can be presented than has been done by Dr. Briggs. I hope, however, that many other writers on health can give a better exposition of the merits of whole wheat flour than I have endeavored to give in the review of the books in question. I am quite content to leave the matter now to the judgment of the intelligent people of this country, and that includes all the readers of SCIENCE. I feel that the theories which I have endeavored to present are those which will commend themselves more and more to the sober judgment of the American people in general.

Dr. Eckles claims that there are three errors in my review of Sherman's book on the subject of butter. The first error is that the butter fat standard has

been reduced by 4% in the last few years. He admits that the best butter made for exhibition purposes had a percentage of butter fat 4% higher than the standard at the present time. He also points out that 2,051 exhibition samples of butter in 1923 showed an average of 83.46% of fat, almost 4% above the present standard. His own statements, therefore, sustain my point.

The second error is that 75% of the creameries neutralized the cream before churning. My authority for this statement is found in the hearing before the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in a remark made by the attorney of the so-called neutralizers.

The third error pointed out by Dr. Eckles was that the purpose of neutralizing butter was to make it possible to use cream otherwise unfit for butter manufacture. I know by personal observation and study that this statement is positively correct. The authorities enforcing the food and dairy laws of Minnesota, the state in which Dr. Eckles resides, agreed with me in my statements respecting the butter made from neutralized cream. Dr. Eckles does not, therefore, represent the official opinion of Minnesota on this question.

All the butter made in creameries of neutralized cream enters interstate commerce with no statement of the origin or character. The people who buy creamery butter suppose they are getting the highest type of butter and they do not know until they eat it, or try to eat it, that some of it is the lowest type of butter.

The final solution of this problem is quite similar to that of white and bleached flour. Shall the manufacturers be protected in selling a depreciated article for the price which they get for the real genuine article? There is a tendency in some quarters of official life to protect the manufacturer while, under the food laws which Congress enacted, the first duty of the officials is to protect the consumer.

H. W. WILEY

SCIENCE NOT IN IT

ON January 1, 1926, the Washington Post published a symposium on "The Helpful Achievements of 1925" composed of replies of a number of national and local business, professional and political leaders, to the question "What in your opinion has been the most helpful and outstanding development of the year 1925 ?"

It is worthy of consideration that no one of the fifty-eight distinguished men cited any scientific discovery among the achievements of the past year. EDWIN E. SLOSSON

DIRECTOR, SCIENCE SERVICE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE FROM THE PRINCIPAL SCIENTIFIC AUTHORITY OF THE FUNDAMENTALISTS

ON returning from Switzerland to my headquarters in England, I find your brief letter of January 6. You say that you do not "have clearly in mind the circumstances" to which I have referred in my previous letter. I suppose that if you had thought the matter of sufficient importance you could have consulted your letter files of last year and the year before and those of some two years before that.

After the shameful way in which you have treated me,

it is certainly very appropriate for you to say now that the "tone" of my letter "apparently makes inadvisable further consideration of the subject."

May I repeat that Professor Schuchert's letter is a clear libel, and that both he and you are due for some legal demands whenever I return to America from the rather extended trip around the world on which I have entered. An apology and retraction now would do no good; I am through with this soft of foolery. I will see what the law can do for me. Apparently there is only one kind of argument that such men as you and Schuchert can understand; and I intend that you shall have it.

Dr. Hutton became a crystallographer long before the days of X-ray crystal analysis. To him the exterior of a crystal is a wonderful example of the beauties of nature, and a constant stimulus to the crystallographer's curiosity, for from these external forms can be gained a whole theory of the inner architecture of crystals. To one of Dr. Hutton's early training, the results of X-ray crystal analysis are highly important because they offer clear evidence that the old ideas underlying the theory of space groups were sound. His chapter on "The Revelation

of Crystal Structure by X-rays" is an excellent short résumé of the Laue, Bragg and Powder methods. Only in a few scattered instances has he placed a little too much faith in statements which he has found in the literature, so that he has at times unwittingly taken pure assumption for fact.

The whole book is written from the historical view

point and loses nothing in interest by being a little discursive for instance, when the author ends a discussion of ice crystals by an account of his ascent on Mount Blanc in a snowstorm, or when he ends the chapter on "Experiments in Parallel Light" by a description of ancient and modern carvings in quartz. The book has twenty-one chapters, which cover the measurement of crystals by the goniometer and by X-rays, the types of crystal structure, isomorphism, polymorphism, morphotropy, optical properties, liquid crystals, etc. Appendices give an excellent glossary of technical terms, and a list of the thirtytwo classes of crystals and their distribution among the seven systems of crystallization. The book contains many beautiful illustrations.

Dr. Wyckoff studied crystallography shortly after Professor Laue's discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. Like Dr. Hutton, he saw in the X-ray method a means of distinguishing, in some cases at least, between the various alternative structures which were compatible with the external symmetry of the crystal. The idea of crystal symmetry is so dominant in Dr. Wyckoff's mind that it was perhaps inevitable that his first chapter should be on "The Symmetry Characteristics of Crystals." It is characteristic of the author that his discussion of this topic is exact, and quite complete. The subject is difficult, but he has handled it well. From the standpoint of a salesman, "selling" his subject to the reader, it is unfortunate that this chapter comes first. The average reader will never finish it. If he substitutes pages 94-97 from Dr. Hutton's book, he can start in with Dr. Wyckoff's chapter two, and finish the rest of the book with pleasure and profit.

Contrary to the habit of some, Dr. Wyckoff takes quite literally the proverb, "If it's in the literature, it isn't so." For this reason, his discussion of the structures of the various crystals contains the cautious statements "seems to prove," "it is said," "is supposed," "it has been stated." The book has fifteen chapters. The first eight deal with crystal symmetry, X-rays, and the application of X-rays to crystal structure studies. The remaining seven deal with the structures of specific crystals. A bibliography, a group of tables for use with the gnomic projection, and a table giving sin in terms of tan & are given in two appendices.

Sir W. H. Bragg had a world-wide reputation as

a physicist before he became actively engaged in X-ray crystal analysis. His son, Professor W. L. Bragg, also had a thorough training in physics. It is natural, therefore, that each of them should see the subject through the eyes of a physicist rather than of a crystallographer. To them it is of interest how a physical agent like X-rays can give us knowledge of the arrangement of atoms in crystals, and how the arrangement, so determined, is consistent with the external symmetry. This takes up, altogether, eleven chapters (diffraction, production and absorption of X-rays, the intensity of diffracted X-ray beams, X-ray spectra and the spectrometer, crystal structure, methods of crystal analysis and crystal symmetry). There is an excellent chapter on atomic forces as determined from crystal structure data, and another on the structure of organic compounds.

The whole book is written in the clear and delightful style which characterizes the lectures of the authors. This is not to be wondered at, for both the Braggs are excellent teachers as well as renowned physicists. The result is a book of fifteen chapters which should be read by every physicist, chemist and crystallographer. They will all find it "a faithful sketch of the subject as it stands to-day."

Under the generally accepted theory of isostatic equilibrium in the earth's crust it is thought that the depression of the ice-weighted area should have been, at least partially, balanced or compensated by uplift of neighboring territory. While the location and character of a zone of uplift, or "peripheral bulge," is not determined, it yet appears quite certain that it would lie beyond the weighted territory, and in this case outside the New England coast. In so far as the downthrow of the glaciated area was due to elastic compression of the earth's crust it appears by mathematical analysis that the depression would extend far beyond the weighted area. Under the theory of isostasy, the subsidence beneath the glacier load was chiefly effected by plastic deformation, the forced migration or flow of deep-seated magma out from beneath the weighted area into the surrounding unweighted territory. The considerable depth at which pressure and heat would produce the required plasticity implies a thickness of the supercrust too great to permit of abrupt and sharp folding, or of a high and narrow bulge. At whatever radial distance any bulging occurred it must have been a wide zone of low elevation.

According to Mr. Sayles's conception the axis of oscillation, or hinge-line, was inland from the moraine and within the ice-weighted area. But it should be noted that the moraine belt was part of the loaded area, carrying beside the marginal ice the considerable load of drift deposit. Conceding that any hypothetic bulge would largely have sunk, in response to the Postglacial rise of the deglaciated area, the fact that no clear proof of such bulging has been found on our land territory argues for a wide uplift of small relief.

This complex and difficult subject in geophysics is discussed in an interesting article by Professor R. A. Daly in the October issue of the American Journal of Science. He there suggests that the downthrow of the glaciated area might, possibly, have been produced by a down-punching of the area, with surrounding faulting.

So much for the theoretic, and now for some facts. In southern New England we find many plains of sand and silt of wide extent and high above the sea, which are positive effects of standing water. Some of these water-laid deposits face the sea, and some occur in the terminal moraine. Some geologists formerly thought that these evidences of submergence belonged to an episode of glaciation antedating the latest, or Quebec glacier. Waiving the strong argument against multiple glaciation of New York and New England, the fact remains that these waterproduced features are superficial, and the very latest geologic record of the region. They have not been