when Messrs. Lovell Reeve & Co., who had bought the magazine from the Curtis family in 1845, found themselves unable to continue the publication, they offered the copyright to Kew for £250. Although the botanical authorities would gladly have carried on the publication, the government refused to sanction the purchase, and at one time there was considerable anxiety lest the copyright should be sold and cross the Atlantic. At a dinner of some leading horticulturists on the first night of the Chelsea Show the feeling was so strong that the magazine must remain in England that the requisite sum was guaranteed at once and the copyright was purchased on the following day. The next step was to propose to allow the magazine to appear as an official publication from Kew; but the Treasury refused to sanction the conditions imposed by the new owners. The latter then approached the council of the Royal Horticultural Society, with the result that it is hoped to resume publication in 1922, and an early announcement will be made as soon as the negotiations and arrangements are complete.

THE Elgin Observatory of the Elgin National Watch Company, at Elgin, Illinois, on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, obtained its first chronographic record of the French scientific radio time signals from the LaFayette Station, Bordeaux, France, at a distance of 4,400 miles. The recording apparatus devised by Frank D. Urie is entirely automatic, the incoming radial signals controlling the movement of the chronographic pen. The receiving aerial is a small one consisting of a single wire 180 feet long and 30 feet high.

WE learn from the Journal of the American Medical Association that a bill has been introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives to "reorganize and promote the efficiency of the United States Public Health Service." It is known as the Watson-Dyer bill. The bill provides for 550 officers of the reserve corps of the Public Health Service, including 50 dental surgeons and 50 scientists other than medical officers, who may be transferred to and commissioned in the regular corps of commissioned officers of the Public Health Service

by the President, in the grades of assistant surgeon, passed assistant surgeon, surgeon, senior surgeon, and assistant surgeon-general. Officers in the last grade will be known as medical directors. No officer will be commissioned or promoted until after passing an examination before a board of regular commissioned officers of the Public Health Service. The bill further provides that no reserve officer shall be commissioned in the regular corps of the Public Health Service who has not had three years' satisfactory service in the army, navy or Public Health Service, a part of which service must have been between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918. There are only 200 regular commissioned officers in the Public Health Service at present. They are largely engaged in administration, scientific research, industrial and child hygiene, neuropsychiatry, domestic and foreign quarantine, immigration, prevention of venereal diseases, public health education, and other matters pertaining to public health. There are about one thousand commissioned officers of the reserve of the Public Health Service on active duty, caring for ex-service men. These officers are indispensable, yet they have no fixed tenure of appointment. The Watson-Dyer bill transfers at least half of them to the regular service without any additional expense.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NOTES

MR. GEORGE F. BAKER, chairman of the board of directors of the First National Bank, has given $700,000 to Columbia University for the purchase of an athletic field on Dyckman Street. The property, property, which comprises twenty-six acres, will be developed at a cost of about $3,000,000.

THE University of North Carolina has received the sum of $26,000 for the establishment of the Graham Kenan fellowship in philosophy. The gift was made by Mrs. Graham Kenan in memory of her late husband.

PROFESSOR Wм. R. WORK, of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, has been placed in charge of the department of electrical engineer

ing, to succeed Professor Alexander J. Wurtz, who has been made research professor in the new research division of the institute.

DR. J. A. GUNTON has been appointed head of the chemistry department in Transylvania College, Lexington, Ky. Dr. Gunton recently received his doctorate of philosophy from the University of Illinois.

DR. CLIFFORD S. LEONARD, for the past year fellow in chemistry to Sweden on the American-Scandinavian Foundation, has completed his research at the Karoline and Nobel Institutes of Stockholm and has been appointed research instructor of pharmacology at the University of Wisconsin.

DR. R. H. ADERS PLIMMER has been appointed by the Senate of London University to the university chair of chemistry, tenable at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, beginning with the new year. At present he is head of the biochemical department of the Rowett Research Institute at the University of Aberdeen.

I am of the opinion that if the Foxhall jawbone could be reexamined now, it would be possible to say with considerable certainty as to whether it was derived from the Crag, or not. But, unfortunately, the specimen cannot now be found, and advertisements placed by me in various newspapers and other journals have failed to bring it to light. Owing to the kindness of the acting registrar to the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom, I have been informed that Dr. Robert Hanham Collyer was registered in England on the 23rd of

June, 1868, with the qualification M.D., Medical College, Pittsfield, His Massachusetts, 1839. application for registration is dated the 23rd of October, 1867, when he gave his address as 40, Carlton Hill, St. John's Wood. At the time of his registration he was at 1, Norman Terrace, Stockwell, which he subsequently changed to 199, Brompton Road, S. W., which was his registered address in 1878, in which year his name lapsed from the Medical Register in consequence of this address having been found to be inaccurate by means of an inquiry under Section 14 of the Medical Act. According to the American Medical Directory, the college from which, apparently, he obtained his degree is described as the Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, an institution which is classed with those which are extinct or merged with other colleges. There is reason to believe that Collyer returned eventually to America, taking the Foxhall jaw-bone with him. It would seem unlikely-in view of the importance he attached to the specimen-that no instructions would be left by him for the preservation of the specimen after his death, and I hope that the publicity now given to this matter may result in the Foxhall jaw-bone being once more brought to light.

There are several clues to aid our search. First the records and graduates of the Pittsfield Medical College. Some member of Dr. Collyer's class may have left descendants. Or, some member of his family may recall him. Or, the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences may find letters from Dr. Collyer to Dr. Samuel G. Morton, the distinguished anthropologist of that institution.

HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK CITY

THE PROTECTION OF MICROSCOPIC SECTIONS

REFERRING to Professor Long's suggested method for protecting microscopic sections from mechanical injury in SCIENCE of October 7th., may I suggest the following, which will remedy the difficulty without resorting to the use of a thin film of parlodion.

Instead of using the natural Canada balsam for mounting (which does remain fluid for years), use balsam prepared by heating the

natural product on a water bath until it is hard, but not brittle, when cool. Then dissolve in a menstruum such as chloroform or xylol. After balsam is applied to the slide allow to stand over-night and then finish by placing cover glass over the sections, using gentle heat to render the balsam fluid. This mounting medium will then be found to be hard enough to withstand any pressure applied on the cover glass by careless students.

It is advisable to prepare this balsam oneself, unless it can be procured from a reliable firm which uses the above method of preparation.

AMEBOID BODIES ASSOCIATED WITH
HIPPEASTRUM MOSAIC

In a recent publication 1 the writer described and pictured certain bodies in the cells of corn plants suffering from mosaic disease. Since the bodies are confined to diseased portions of the plant, it was suggested that they might be of etiological significance.

Those who are working on the mosaic disease problem will be interested to know that similar bodies have now been found in the light green portions of mosaic leaves of Hippeastrum equéstre Herb. This plant belongs in the Amaryllidaceae and is not closely related to corn. Its leaves which are thick and soft are well suited for cytological studies. The mosaic

1 Bul. Exp. Sta. H. S. P. A. 3:44-58 (1921)

pattern shown by Hippeastrum is quite different from that of corn. The intracellular bodies associated with this disease will be described in detail in a future paper.

L. O. KUNKEL EXPERIMENT STATION OF THE HAWAIIAN SUGAR PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION,

HONOLULU, T. H.

THE TUNING FORK

IN SCIENCE for November 11, I cited briefly some inadequate references to the actions of a tuning fork to justify the preservation of matter that was very old; there was no reason to name the writers for these references were minor parts of their papers. But in SCIENCE for December 16, one of the writers, Mr. Young, comes to the front, as if I had made a personal attack on him, and defends his former expressions, but qualifies them, still leaving the subject in a very confused state. He quotes his former dynamically unsound "statement that the fork has only a single note at the base" and now adds the indefinite remark, "This of course is only an approximation"; it is noteworthy that he does not attempt to state what he thinks is the truth.

In his final paragraph he attributes to Professor Watson an "alternative explanation" which is only a corollary of Chladnis' old accepted theory; but probably the professor of physics would not use over his own signature such an inexact expression as the "center of mass tends to rise" or "lower," or leave it doubtful whether "center of mass" always relates to the same point.

CHARLES K. WEAD

QUOTATIONS

"KEY" CHEMICALS

LORD CREWE and Lord Haldane argued last week for the release of scientific apparatus and chemicals from the restrictions imposed by the safeguarding of industries act and the reparation act. Scientific research and the teaching of scientific students, they alleged, were seriously impeded because of the delay and difficulty in importing certain chemicals and apparatus from Germany. The stronger

the evidence for their case, the more certainly does it lead away from the action they pressed on the government. Although protection may be dubious as a general principle, there are certain industries of little intrinsic economic importance, and yet vital to the national safety, because of the dependence of larger industries upon them. Are there any avocations more certainly "keys" to national prosperity than scientific research and the training of scientific workers? In these matters we must depend neither on Germany nor on any foreign country. If dependence exist at present, the administration of the acts should be tightened, not relaxed, until we become self-supporting. But the case is probably over-stated. Before the war scientific workers here and in the United States had got in the habit of using such chemicals as bacteriological stains and such forms of optical glass as microscopic lenses from one or two German makers, not because these were better than all others, but because they were standardized and all workers using them could easily compare their results. Convenience, not necessity, had led to a German monopoly. American bacteriologists are endeavoring to meet the state of affairs by agreeing on a reliable standard brand of each kind of stain and discouraging the use of variants. Similar action might be taken in this country not only with regard to stains, but to many other kinds of chemicals and of apparatus used in research. But we note with concern as further witness of the aloofness of the state from science, that the interpellations on this scientific question were addressed to the minister of transport, who undertook, apparently to the satisfaction of every one, to refer it to the president of the Board of Education. Is there not a Royal Society, at one time the natural adviser of the government on scientific matters?-The London Times.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

Studies on some Flagellates. E. PENARD. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1921, Part 1, Oct. 12. Idem, Etudes sur les Infusoires d'eau douce; Geneva, "1922" [1921].

The inadequacy of our knowledge of local protozoan faunas is emphasized by two recent papers by the veteran Swiss protozoologist, Penard, in which he describes, chiefly from two limited regions in the environs of Geneva, 7 new Flagellates and 148 new species of Ciliates, including 8 new genera. Central Europe has been more intensively studied faunistically than any other portion of the world, yet six years observation by one student has brought to light 155 new forms in groups which are the especial delight of the microscopist and which have been by no means neglected by the protozoologist. Faunistic data furnish material essential to the study of many far-reaching problems in ecology, in distribution, in geology, and especially in paleogeography. Yet it is evident, from such papers as Penard's, that our faunistic data for all regions are only fragmentary.

Many of Penard's papers, like those of Leidy, show an intimate and friendly companionship with these microscopic forms, being full of data as to behavior, structure and function being described together, conveying to the reader a vivid impression of the lives of these organisms and showing an interest on the part of the observer which is contagious. May it not be that laboratory zoology is to-day disproportionately emphasized in comparison with out of door studies? A broad knowledge of field natural history, combining taxonomic, faunistic and ecological studies and studies of behavior under natural environmental conditions, is essential to any adequate attack upon many problems, among which are some of the most interesting in the whole field of zoology. This is a type of work to which it is easy to introduce young students and it is one to which a fair proportion of them could well afford to devote their lives, for evidently our knowledge in this field is most inadequate. The field, while easy to enter, calls for the finest qualities of skill, accuracy, persistence and judgment. It commands a natural interest and it gives data of wide bearing.

MAYNARD M. METCALF

THE ORCHARD LABORATORY OBERLIN, OHIO

SPECIAL ARTICLES THE FORMS OF GAS AND LIQUID CAVITIES IN GELS, AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

BY SURFACE COMPRESSION

It has been observed by both chemists and biologists that gas bubbles arising in gels exhibit lenticular forms. The most complete investigation of the phenomenon has been made by Hatschek who, after making measurement on many bubbles, endeavored by a statistical study of their orientations to explain the observed facts, including the divergence from sphericity, by postulating definitely oriented directions of cleavage within the gel, corresponding presumably to a honeycomb microstructure of its water-poor phase. Neither Hatschek himself nor later workers have been convinced that this explanation was the true one. Working with gelatine, but more especially with silica gels, the writers have produced, from air-saturated media, controllable airbubbles both by rise of temperature and by reduction of air pressure, and have observed additional facts that lead to an altogether different, albeit simple and complete, interpretation of everything observed.

The

Concomitantly as the gas content of a bubble is caused progressively to diminish, the space formerly occupied by the gas becomes filled by infiltration with liquid from the liquid phase of the gel, giving rise finally to liquidfilled, phantomlike, cavities, whose very existence has heretofore escaped observation. forms of these cavities thus arising spontaneously in an isotropic medium on alteration of a single external condition are exceedingly symmetrical and beautiful. As demonstrated by photomicrographs, they exhibit two main types:

(1) If derived from gas cavities of oblate spheroidal form, the liquid-filled phantoms are of forms that may be likened to bivalve molluscs whose shells are either (a) segments of spheres, or bowl-shaped; or (b) of inflected curvature, like a circular basin with a flaring edge; or (c) like the last, but with a central apical spike like that of a helmet. Each one of these forms is immediately explicable if it be considered that, while forming, the original airbubble thrust aside the elastic water-poor

phase of the gel, which was thus obliged to collect in an elastic layer or membrane under compression round the periphery of the bubble. The bubble cavity is thus contained and en

The

veloped by a membrane which may appropriately be considered in surface compression, as contrasted with the customary surface tension, because adjacent portions of this enveloping membrane tend to move apart from instead of toward each other, in a direction tangential to the surface of curvature. sphere is the stable form that must be enveloped by a membrane in surface tension, but is no longer stable if its bounding membrane is in surface compression; and this instability is, therefore, in such a case, relieved first by an exhibition of oblateness and later by an out-thrusting of the membrane in the region of smallest radius of curvature, giving rise to the forms observed in a manner entirely predicable by purely geometrical reasoning.

(2) If derived from gas cavities of prolate spheroidal form, the liquid cavities are of forms somewhat like that of those walnuts, occasionally met with, that have three instead of two lunes or boat-like portions composing their shells. This spontaneously formed solid, trilunar, figure has one axis of triad symmetry perpendicular to one plane of symmetry, and is usually of sharpened angle both along its three edge-ribs and especially at the ends of its chief axis, by reason of the outward thrust of its enclosing membrane, precisely as would be predicted by the reasoning noted above. An example of this form is shown in Fig. 2;

FIG. 1

FIG. 2 while Fig. 1 shows the form referred to under (b) above. These figures are from photomicrographs of cavities not more than one millimeter in diameter; and each cavity contains, besides liquid, a small spherical bubble of air, which appears dark.