sometime in 1923. The date will be given in later announcements.

THE Congress of the German Society of Geneticists will be held from September 25 to 27, immediately after the Mendel celebration in Brünn. It is open to members, as well as to guests interested in research in genetics. The following addresses are on the program and will be followed by a general discussion of the subjects: R. Goldschmidt, Berlin, "The problem of mutation"; H. Spemann, Freiburg i. B., "The hereditary material and its activation"; E. Rüdin, Munich, "The inheritance of mental disturbances." On September 27 a special session will be held, which will be addressed by E. Baur, Berlin, on the "Tasks and aims of the science of genetics in theory and practice." In addition to these addresses, a large number of other papers are on the program. Information on all matters concerning the congress and its program may be obtained from Dr. H. Nachtsheim, Berlin, N. W., Invalidenstrasse, Nr. 42.

A MEETING was held recently at Harvard University, at which the subject under discussion was the killing of flies and mosquitoes. Sanitary experts, business men and the heads of women's and children's welfare organizations of the metropolitan district were present. J. Albert C. Nyhen, director of fly and mosquito suppression of the Brookline Board of Health, and Professor G. C. Whipple, of the engineering department of Harvard University, called the meeting, at which Professor Whipple presided. Its purposes were to consider action to be taken in a cooperative movement for the suppression of mosquitoes and flies in the metropolitan area and to call a later meeting to start a state-wide mosquito campaign. It is hoped that all insect nuisances affecting public health may be abolished and the movement will try to include the flea and the biting fly.

THE Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture is using airplanes for locating and photographing undiscovered lakes in the national forests of Alaska. It has long been known that there are many lakes on the headlands and islands traversed by the

inside passage between Seattle and Skagway that do not appear on any map. During the New York-Nome flight made by army aviators, lakes were frequently sighted which could not be found on the latest and most authentic maps of the territory. Tales of unknown water bodies are constantly being brought in by trappers and prospectors. Less than a year ago a lake four and one half miles long and one half mile wide was discovered at the head of Short Bay. This lake has over 1,000 acres of surface area and is less than one and one fourth miles from tidewater, yet because of the surrounding country's rough topography, it has remained unknown and unnamed. Recognizing that many other of these "lost lakes" may be sources of valuable water power, the Forest Service has laid plans to map this no man's land of the north by means of aerial photographs. A few days' flight, it is said, will be sufficient to cover the area with a degree of accuracy that would require many years and great expense to accomplish by ordinary methods. The work, which has been approved by the Federal Power Commission, will be done by seaplane, flying from Ketchikan as a base.

THE British Medical Journal states that the annual report of the Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum for 1920, which is the nineteenth, shows steady progress in all directions; it pays a tribute to the late Sir William Mather, one of its most generous supporters and an energetic member of the governing body for seventeen years. The Wellcome Research Laboratories are accommodated in the Gordon Memorial College; they are under the supervision of Major Archibald, who is maintaining the high standard set by his predecessors, Drs. Andrew Balfour and Chalmers; it contains research departments in medicine, chemistry and entomology, the activities of which are duly set forth. Research work in the bacteriological section was interfered with by depletion of the staff and by the large amount of routine work that had to be carried out. But the director has a number of articles awaiting publication-namely, notes on urinary amoebiasis in the Sudan; on kalaazar in the Sudan; on tropical splenomegaly caused by a hitherto undescribed bacillus; on

juxta-articular nodes, their etiology and pathology; and on baciluria as a cause of pyrexias of uncertain origin in the tropics. According to the report, the time when the prophets of research had to clamor for a hearing is happily past, and there is no longer any hesitation on the part of government departments or private enterprise in appealing for assistance. Of the two possible methods of extension to meet these increased responsibilites Major Archibald advocates decentralization, by the establishment in various parts of the Sudan of local laboratories, temporary or permanent, for medical, chemical, and entomological research. This he considers preferable to the creation of new and larger laboratories at Khartoum. His recommendation has been unhesitatingly approved by the government.

In order to present to the public more promptly the results of its scientific investigations, the Bureau of Mines issues a series of brief mimeographed reports of investigations as an adjunct to the printed publications. Besides affording a medium of prompt publication of information, the reports of investigations provide a vehicle for the publication of briefer material which would hardly justify issuance in the form of printed bulletins. These reports deal with major metals, minor and rare metals, non-metallic minerals, petroleum, gasoline, coal, coke, safety, sanitation, mine accidents and other subjects. The reports are mailed free to interested applicants as long as the editions are available. Descriptive notices of issues in the series are mailed regularly to all who desire to receive the information. Serial 2316, just issued, is a subject list of reports of investigations issued to December 31, 1921, and describes some 300 reports, whose range covers such subjects as abrasives, automobile exhaust gases, breathing apparatus, carbon black, Fuller's earth, liquid oxygen explosives, mine telephones, oil pipe lines, slate dust, valuation of oil properties, airplanes in mine-rescue work, powdered coal, helium, mine timbers, lead poisoning, smoke prevention, elays, building stones, safety in quarrying, etc. Serial 2316 may be obtained from the Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C.

The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society reports that a short account is given in

Ymer of the scientific expedition organized by Prince William of Sweden for zoological research in the region of the Kirunga volcanoes, north of Lake Kivu. The expedition left Marseilles towards the end of 1920, landed at Mombasa, and passed through the Kenya colony and Uganda to its destination. Various camps were established among the volcanoes and on the north shore of the lake, and extensive zoological collections made, including specimens of the mountain gorilla. Near the lake the barren lava-fields due to the sudden eruption of a new volcano in December, 1912, were found to be but sparsely covered here and there by new vegetation. The expedition went north to the Belgian post of Ruchuru and Lake Edward, through a district described as a paradise for sportsmen. Passing rapidly through the Semliki valley, where interesting collections were made in the outliers of the great equatorial forest, it spent some time at the Belgian post of Isumu, and made some study of the Wambutti dwarfs. Thence the return was made by The collections, Lake Albert and the Nile.

which have been deposited at the Natural History Museum at Stockholm, include about 1,000 mammals, 1,700 birds, and some hundreds of reptiles and amphibia, besides a large number of insects.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

NOTES

SIX medical students from Polish universities have been selected to go to America to finish their studies preparatory to entering the new Institute of Hygiene recently established at Warsaw by the Rockefeller Foundation. Professor Selskar Gunn, representing the Rockefeller interests, has made the final choice of the students after a competitive examination organized by the Polish ministry of health. An endowment of $250,000 has been given for the establishment of the institute by the Rockefeller Foundation.

THE departments of engineering and medicine at the Kyushu Imperial University have just been opened to women students. Women are still barred from attendance at the Imperial University in Tokio and at most of the other higher schools.

AT Stanford University, Dr. Lewis M. Terman has been appointed head of the department of psychology to succeed Professor Frank Angell, who retired at the end of the academic year 1921-1922. Other additions to the department include Dr. W. R. Miles, professor of psychology, and Dr. Calvin P. Stone, assistant professor.

PROFESSOR J. J. THORNBER, director of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, has in addition received appointment as dean of the College of Agriculture of the University of Arizona, succeeding Dean D. W. Working. MR. CHARLES W. T. PENLAND, A.M., Harvard, has been appointed instructor in biology in Colorado College for the ensuing year. Mr. H. R. Remmers, A.M., Iowa, has been appointed instructor in psychology.

MR. R. A. BRINK, who has for the past two years been at the Bussey Institution of Harvard University, has been appointed assistant professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin. He succeeds in this position Dr. E. W. Lindstrom, who goes about September 1 to the Iowa State College at Ames as professor of genetics, where he will organize a new depart

ment.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

FILTERED AIR

IN SCIENCE of June 2, 1922, in mentioning the work of the Committee for the Investigation of Atmospheric Pollution, reference was made to the work of Dr. Owens on the amount of dust found in expired air. It has been taken for granted, I think, by many medical men that in passing through the nasal and buccal passages efficient filtering of the air took place; and that all dust particles were deposited on moist membranes and automatically removed by secretion flow. Dr. Owens' experiments seem to prove that in ordinary breathing the expired air still contained as much as 70 per cent. of the suspended impurities which entered during inspiration. So that only about 30 per cent. of the impurities in air are removed in transit through respiratory passages.

Dr. Chase S. Osborn, formerly governor of Michigan and one who had much to do with mines, referring to the above mentioned insufficient filtering, suggests that there may be something in the fact that the influx of air has not the velocity and current strength of the efflux, and states that the finding of Dr. Owens that air is not purified in its passage through the body appears to be proved without doubt by sillicosis in the Transvaal mines. He says: It takes very little time comparatively for a miner's lungs to fill up. He is then subject to all sorts of pulmonary diseases. Dr. Gorgas was summoned to see if he could offer anything to prevent or cure. Even when the men wear masks these do not entirely avail, as often the men are in close places and will not wear the masks.

Good water, sterilized milk and insect screens have aided materially in reducing disease. May we hope to add to the list filtered air? There seems to be no doubt but that the use of a mouth mask was helpful in combatting the spread of influenza.

ALEXANDER MCADIE

THE "PROCESSING" OF STRAW IN a recent number of SCIENCE, Professor Harold Hibbert calls attention to the work done in Germany in converting straw into a feed of greater value by boiling it with soda and suggests that American farmers may convert a waste product into "a profitable and palatable cattle food of high nutritive value" by following the German example. Professor Hibbert has apparently overlooked the fact that this feed is extremely low in proteins. This fact was mentioned by Lorenz Hiltner in his pamphlet in 1917-18 and is recognized as being a point against "processed" straw as a feed. Various methods have been tried by the Germans to increase the protein content, some of which are mentioned by Hiltner.

The Office of Forage Crops has been interested in the development of this German work but has not been convinced of the value of the process for the American farmer. While it is not possible to make accurate estimates of the expense involved it is quite evident that the labor item would be considerable. The farmer would have to set up a plant however simple

whether he used the cold process with NaOH or the boiling process with soda. Such a plant would necessarily be of considerable size since straw is light and considerable quantities of liquid (eight times the weight of the straw) must be used. Besides the treatment, the processed straw must be washed to remove the alkali. All of this involves labor and increases the cost of the process. Besides it seems probable that in America it will always be possible to grow corn or sorghum for feed much more cheaply than to process straw even if the latter were wholly a waste material, which is not the

ease.

Without doubt the attention of experiment stations should be and probably has been called to this process but it seems unwise even to suggest it to the average farmer.

A. J. PIETERS

OFFICE OF FORAGE CROP INVESTIGATIONS, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

DOES THE BIBLE TEACH EVOLUTION? THE creation of man according to the story in Genesis is placed by chronologists at about 4004 B.C. The acceptance of this date or indeed of any variation from it that has been suggested carries the imperative implication that all existing types of man-white, yellow, red, brown and black-Englishman, Japanese, Malay and Negrito-have all descended from Adam and Eve. It matters not what anthropological characters may be assumed for Adam and Eve, the diversity of their supposed progeny illustrates what the biologist means by evolution. The Biblical story with its logical implications stamps every believer in it as an evolutionist. However, no serious scientific man will admit for a moment that human evolution has proceeded as rapidly as the story in Genesis necessarily supports. Viewed from the evolutionist's standpoint, the theory involved in the Biblical story makes Darwin's ideas seem exceedingly conservative. Really Mr. Bryan ought to attack Darwin as a hide-bound reactionary whose notions regarding the slow rate of modification in species seriously challenges the truth of evolution as taught by the Bible. CHARLES V. PIPER

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date. By J. T. Jenkins, D.Sc., Ph.D. London, H. F. and G. Witherby, 326 High Holborn, W. C., 1921. 336 pages, with reproductions from photographs and old engravings.

In the preface to this book, the author tells us that no attempt has hitherto been made to give within a brief compass a detailed history of the whale fisheries: to the best of our knowledge and belief, this statement is in the main correct and the volume under consideration may be looked upon as an effort to remedy this lack of information. Parts of the story have, it is true, been told, and told very well, particularly that relating to the United States, and these Mr. Jenkins has passed over somewhat lightly, devoting much time and care to bringing together and making available for the reader who knows only English the story of the early days of the fishery and especially the important part played by the Dutch who, having practically dispossessed the English, for more than a century successfully prosecuted the chase of the whale about Spitzbergen or, as it was constantly called, Greenland. At the height of this fishery, the decade from 1680-89, nearly 2,000 vessels sailed to Spitzbergen-1,966, to be exact and the catch of whales was 9,487, but from that time, with certain spurts, the industry gradually declined, coming to an end about 1800.

Mr. Jenkins has been at great pains to give us the details of this whaling, the size of the vessels often much larger than the average American whaler of the fifties-their crews, equipment, even provisions and the manner of capture and trying out. All of this is interesting and important, to most of us it is new, and for this information we are most grateful. In one detailed list of equipment is noted "150 hogsheads of cidar and four tunnes of wines, eight kintals of bacon and six hogsheads of beefe," proportions that might have met with the approval of Falstaff.

One point is surprising-the comparatively

small number of whales taken per vessel, the average being about three and seldom as many as five. To give an idea of the intensive, not to say destructive, methods of modern whaling, it may be noted that the day's catch of a steam whaler is often as great as the season's catch of these early days.

There were, however, some exceptionally "fat" years when the number ran up to ten or twenty whales per vessel, which possibly means better weather and better ice conditions.

The English in their first attempts did little better and it is small wonder that later on the Americans attained preeminence in their field, though they in turn failed sadly to realize the possibilities of modern steam whaling and the industry fell into the hands of the Norwegians. As practically the same weapons and methods were used by the Americans as by their predecessors and competitors, it would seem as if this success might justly be ascribed to the greater energy in the pursuit of whales.

The Americans seem to have had an inborn contempt for the use of any gun harpoon, for while it was employed by the English as early as 1780 in the capture of the Bowhead, it was never adopted by the Americans and it took a visit to South Georgia to convince the modern New Bedford whalers that the Norwegian whaling methods were really any improvement over their own. For that matter, even the English did not adopt their own gun harpoon until well along in the nineteenth century.

The English and Dutch did not have an entirely happy time owing to troubles with one another and with the French, and if a whaler secured a cargo of oil, it was by no means certain that he would reach home with it. In those days the line between privateering and piracy was none too sharply drawn and often the only rule followed was

That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.

Spanish and French, Dutch and English, with some participation by Danes and Germans, Americans and Norwegians, each in turn led in the whale fishery and each has played, or is playing, an important part in the slaughter of the whale, and Mr. Jenkins tells us of them all.

The book opens with a chapter on Whales and their Classification, their habits and haunts, which is followed by one on the Economics of Whaling, including under this head the methods employed, utilization of products and the possibility of conservation. In discussing the measures that have been proposed or taken to preserve the whales, Mr. Jenkins seems inclined to give some credence to the argument of the whalers that the industry will in a way regulate itself, that long before whales can be exterminated, their capture-on account of lessened numbers-will cease to be profitable. This, as shown by experience in other "fisheries" and even by the collapse of Newfoundland whaling after a few years of prosperity, is a fallacy, as is the statement made in connection with the Natal whaling, and often used with all manner of statistics, that there is a tendency for the whales to abandon the coast altogether. Altogether is quite correct; as in the case of seals and walruses, the abandonment is due to the fact that the whales have been killed off and put beyond all hope of return. To illustrate, it may be said that Right Whales were formerly common off the eastern end of Long Island but that during the past decade only two have been seen and these fortunately escaped.

While steel and the automobile have temporarily stayed the extermination of the Bowhead since his "bone" is no longer in demand for whips and corsets, the species increases but slowly at the best and some new demand may blot the species out of existence.

So we subscribe most heartily to a previous statement, on page 47, that "in no case has the cessation of whaling taken place sufficiently soon to render possible the recovery of the whales to any appreciable extent."

About the only real protection that has been given whales is the prohibition, by the Norwegian government, of whaling in some localities and the establishment of close seasons in others. This has been done in response to the protests of fishermen whose reasons are set forth in the Last Phase of Whaling.

There is an occasional little slip here and there, as where it is said a superior kind of oil was found in the head of the Sperm Whale,