men at Cape Wild, where they were supposed to be. Two members of the relief expedition will continue the search in Northwest Siberia. THE Lange Koch expedition which left Denmark last year and wintered in Melville Bay started for Peary Land on March 15. There has been some difficulty in the transport across Melville Bay as the Cape York Eskimos hired for this task had not arrived, but it is hoped that everything was got across safely.

DR. J. CHARCOT, the French polar explorer, sailing in the North Atlantic in his exploring vessel, the Pourquoi Pas, has succeeded in landing upon the islet of Rockall, which lies some 260 miles west of the Hebrides and 185 miles from St. Kilda.

THE Antarctic expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton planned to leave England on September 12. The steamer Quest was found to give inadequate accommodations for the increased personnel necessary after the program to be followed was increased, and alterations made on the ship delayed the work of fitting out the expedition.

THE British Iron and Steel Institute met in Paris under the presidency of Dr. J. E. Stead on September 5 and 6.

THE Scientific American, long the leading weekly American journal of industry, invention and science, will hereafter be published monthly in combination with The American Scientific Monthly.

SEVERAL hundred American engineers will meet with representatives of the principal engineering societies of Great Britain and France at a dinner to be given at the Engineers' Club in New York City on the evening of October 10. The dinner, while formally celebrating the homecoming of the mission of American engineers who went abroad to confer the John Fritz Medal upon Sir Robert Hadfield of London and Eugene Schneider of Paris, will mark the launching of a new movement to bring English and American engineers together. The guests at the dinner will include the twelve members of the deputation

which represented the John Fritz Medal Board and representatives of the British and French societies by which they were received. Invitations have been extended to many men prominent in public life, including Mr. Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce; Viscount Bryce and Mr. Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State. Others who will attend are the governing boards of the four national engineering societies, the John Fritz Medal Board of Award, the Library Board of the Engineering Societies and of the Engineers Club; the trustees of the United Engineering Society, and the officers of the Federated American Engineering Societies.

THE Journal of the American Medical Association states that according to an agreement to improve their equipment and coordinate their personnel, the several public health agencies operating laboratories in Memphis on September 1 moved into their new quarters in the university laboratory. Dr. William Krauss, professor of preventive medicine and hygiene in the college of medicine for many years, has been made director of the laboratories, and his salary will be paid jointly by the agencies interested, which include the malarial research laboratory of the U. S. Public Health Service, the West Tennessee laboratory of the State Board of Health, the department of bacteriology of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and the laboratories of the Memphis department of health. The plan of coordination has received the endorsement of Dr. Frederick F. Russell, director of laboratories for the International Health Board.

Under the auspices of the Yale Medical School, the state of Connecticut and the Rockefeller Foundation will unite to finance the proposed Connecticut Psychopathic Hospital. The Rockefeller Foundation will provide $500,000, the state probably the same amount, while the share and part of Yale in the transaction is not determined. The hospital building will be erected by the state grant, the Rockefeller Foundation will supply the salaries for the teaching staff, while Yale may

supply the clinical quarters and other costs. As the New Haven General Hospital is now a part of the Yale Medical School, the Psychopathic Hospital is expected to supply the cases under observation. There will be a close connection between the new psychopathic hospital and the New Haven General Hospital. Details of arranging for the gift will come before the Yale Corporation at its next meeting. Governor Lake of Connecticut recently appointed a commission to take charge of the plans for expenditure of the state fund of $500,000 for the hospital. Dr. Paul Waterman, of Hartford, is chairman of the commission, and Dean Winternitz, of the Yale Medical School, is a member.

Nature says: "The classical experimental

plots which Lawes and Gilbert started at Rothamsted have been of the greatest service to agricultural science, and their importance is constantly increasing. Fundamental questions in the physics, chemistry, and biology of agriculture can be attacked with more confidence in the light of results obtained from long-continued field experiments carried out on a systematic plan. Further, the results are capable of statistical examination. The importance of the Rothamsted experiments led to the institution of a parallel series at Woburn in 1876 by the Royal Agricultural Society. The Woburn soil is light and sandy, but that at Rothamsted is a heavy loam. The two series of experiments enable instructive comparisons to be made between these two soil types. All interested in agricultural

science received with concern the decision of the council of the Royal Agricultural Society to relinquish-owing to economic conditions -the Woburn experiments. Fortunately the danger has been averted. Arrangements have been made for the experiments to be continued under the auspices of, but legally distinct from, the Rothamsted Experimental Station. The general portion of the Woburn farm will continue under the direct control of Dr. A. J. Voelcker, who for many years has carried out the duties on behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society. The new arrangement will not

only ensure the continuance of the valuable work already done, but will also lead to a closer contact with the work of Rothamsted."

THE Directoria de Meteorologia e Astronomia of the Brazilian Department of Agriculture has been divided into two separate services "Directoria de Meteorologia 2" and "Observatorio Nacional." The division for meteorology has been placed under the direction of Dr. Sampaio Ferraz. It will continue the climatological work established in 1909, unifying methods of meteorological research and publishing all available data for the past ten years. It is planned to issue nine bulletins by the end of the year. The division will establish a forecast service for central and southern Brazil; an aerological service for aviators and kite and pilot balloon stations; a special coast service for navigation; an agricultural meteorological service; a marine meteorological service; a special service of rains and floods, and the usual investigations in every department of meteorology with especial reference to longer ranges in weather forecasting. Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Geraes and São Paulo continue their state services, but under the supervision of the Directoria. The Reclamation Service of semi-arid northeastern Brazil will maintain its rain organization.

STATISTICS relating to the growth of the population of France show that last year the excess of births over deaths was 159,790, as against 58,914 in 1913, while the number of marriages has doubled. It is the first time since the war that statistics have been available for the whole of France, including the three departments of Alsace-Lorraine. The births were 834,411 last year, compared with 790,355 in 1913-an increase of 44,056. The deaths were 674,621 against 731,441 in 1913— a decrease of 56,820. The marriages were 623,869 last year against 312,036 in 1913.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

By the will of the late John McMullen, president of the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Dredging Company, Cornell University will

receive a bequest estimated at from one to two million dollars.

FIRE which resulted in damage to equipment of approximately $20,000 and to the building of about $28,000 was discovered in the attic of the Richardson Chemistry Building, Tulane University, New Orleans, on the morning of July 6.

DR. J. M. BELL succeeds Dr. F. P. Venable as head of the department of chemistry at the

University of North Carolina. Dr. Venable, who was formerly president of the university, has resigned as head of the chemistry department, but retains his professorship.

DR. EUGENE P. DEATRICK has resigned as instructor of soil technology, College of Agriculture, Ithaca, N. Y., to become associate professor of soils, and head of department, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va.

DR. REUBEN S. TOUR has been appointed professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Tour, who succeeds Dr. O. R. Sweeney, who resigned because of ill health, has served for several years as an expert for the government on nitrate and other chemicals, and will continue to act as consulting expert for the govern

ment.

DR. CHAS. C. MACKLIN has resigned his position as associate professor of anatomy in Johns Hopkins University to accept the professorship of histology and embryology in Western University, London, Canada.

PROFESSOR H. LEBESQUE, of the faculty of sciences, University of Paris, has been elected professor of mathematics at the Collège de France.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE SECULAR PERTURBATIONS OF THE INNER

PLANETS

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: It is true, as Professor Poor states (SCIENCE, Vol. 54, pp. 30-34, 1921), that if we are at liberty to assume any distribution of density we like around the sun it is not difficult to account

for all the secular perturbations of the four inner planets within their mean square errors, by means of the Newtonian law of gravitation. Professor Poor, however, does not appear to have read much of the paper of mine to which he refers,1 or he would have noticed that the density we are at liberty to assume is subject to very severe limitations. It is possible to estimate the density of the matter at any distance from the sun directly; for the amount of light it scatters is known from observations of the zodiacal light and the corona, and by considering different possible constituents, whose scattering powers

for

given masses are known, we can determine limits to the density. Seeliger and de Sitter succeeded in explaining the residual secular perturbations of the four inner planets by means of two ellipsoids of matter, one close to the sun, and the other extending to the orbit of the earth. I showed, however, in the paper referred to, that the density of the matter between the orbits of Mercury and Mars can not exceed 600 of that required by these writers, and in a later paper2 I showed that the disturbing effect of the matter near the sun can not exceed 10-9 of that supposed to be produced by their inner ellipsoid. Accordingly, none of the secular perturbations of the inner planets can be explained by means of the Newtonian law of gravitation. The fact that the excess motion of the perihelion of Mercury is accounted for by Einstein's law therefore decides definitely in favor of the latter. Further, Einstein's law is the simplest that can account for it. None of the other nine residuals exceeds 3 times the corresponding mean error, and only three of them the mean error itself, and there is therefore no reason to regard them as anything but accidental errors.

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE,

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND

HAROLD JEFFREYS

1The Secular Accelerations of the Four Inner Planets,' Monthly Notices, R. A. S., Vol. 77, pp. 112-118, 1917.

2"On the Crucial Tests of Einstein's Theory of Gravitation," loc. cit., Vol. 80, pp. 138–154, 1919.

SPOROZOAN INFECTION

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have just detected, in an American recently arrived in the Philippine Islands from the United States, a case of infection with Isospora hominis Rivolta, 1878 (emend Dobell, 1919). Circumstances connected with the case lead me strongly to suspect that the infection was contracted in the United States. Inspection of the recent literature has disclosed that since 1918, at least eleven cases of sporozoan infection (including Isospora) have been discovered in the United States. Four of these cases apparently are autochthonous. They will be found in the tables accompaning papers by Kofoid and his coworkers, 1, 2 on the examination of overseas and home service troops in New York. These findings have escaped comment for one reason or another and, as the patient studied by me has never been in any part of Europe-much less the Eastern Mediterranean area where coccidial infections seem to be endemic, I consider we have reason to suspect that dissemination of the parasite is occurring among the civilian population of the United States.

We have little knowledge of the clinical manifestations of "human coccidiosis" and no knowledge of its pathology. Reports indicate that the parasite is not especially harmful to adults, but too much should not be assumed in this direction. Especially should we be watchful for infections in children and in people of lowered vitality. The cysts of the coccidia are highly resistant to desiccation, and to the action of chemicals and disinfectants, and they remain viable for long periods of time-much longer than do the cysts of other intestinal protozoa infesting man, so that the parasite presents a difficult problem in epidemiology.

All available information should be gathered at this time, regarding the incidence of human coccidiosis in the United States, for it

1 Kofoid, Kornhauser and Plate, Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., Vol. 72, p. 1721, 1919.

2 Kofoid and Swezy, N. O. Med. and Surg. Jour., Vol. 73, pp. 4-11, 1920.

may be possible to trace the cases originating in the soldiers already observed, and other cases that it is not unlikely have originated from them by this time. Such studies can not begin too early. With the object of aiding such an investigation, I am, by authority of Professor Elmer D. Merrill, director of the Bureau of Science, sending preserved material from our case to the following specialists, where it will be available for comparison with any material that may be found in the United States:

Professors Gary N. Calkins, Columbia University, New York; Robert W. Hegner, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; Henry B. Ward, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill.; Charles A. Kofoid, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; R. B. Gibson, Iowa State University, Iowa City, Ia.; Ernest E. Tyzzer, Harvard University Medical School, Boston, Mass.; Kenneth M. Lynch, Medical College of the State of South Carolina, Charleston, S. C.; James C. Todd, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.; Mark F. Boyd, University of Texas, Galveston, Tex.; and Allen J. Smith, University of Pennsylvania.

BUREAU OF SCIENCE, MANILA, P. I.

FRANK G. HAUGHWOUT

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE AND APPARATUS FOR ROUMANIA

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: You were so kind as to publish in SCIENCE (April 8) my letter in which I showed: (1) That our Institutions do not possess American books and instruments; (2) that the disadvantageous exchange of our money since the war, prevents us from making scientific purchases in the United States; (3) that means should be found to remove a difficulty that hinders scientific relations.

This letter provoked the interest of the American universities and intellectuals. I received not only approvals but also gifts consisting of books and even scientific instruments.

We accept with gratitude all these manifestations of sympathy, but they do not

bring the practical solution of our question.

The institutes of our university have funds that would be sufficient if the value of the dollar were of 5 lei, as it was before the war, and not 90-100 lei as it is now. The credits assigned to our laboratories, even augmented, can not meet at the same time the general rise in price of scientific materials and the disadvantageous exchange of our money.

The solution of this great difficulty might be found, I think, in the organization of a credit with a fixed term of payment in 3 or 4 years. Such credits were organized during the war for the supply of engines of destruction; why should it be impossible to organize them in a time of peace in order to facilitate scientific cooperation and for the benefits of science?

I think that this organization might be created. Under the auspices of an American scientific association a number of booksellers

and instrument makers might be grouped, forming a society which would divide among them the orders of our institutions centralized by the chancellor of the university.

The total sum forming the price of the objects, guaranteed by the university, would be divided into two fractions: one part payable immediately and another credited for 3 or 4 years, with a fixed annual interest. Our universities are state institutions and offer every guaranty of solvency.

I beg again the friends of science and of international cooperation to be willing to examine the question also from this point of view and seek the solution of the organization of this credit. Our university is ready to make every sacrifice in its power in order secure practically and permanently the cooperation of American science.

INSTITUTE OF SPEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ, ROUMANIA

E. G. RACOVITZA

AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE FOR

FOREIGN COUNTRIES

IN SCIENCE, Volume 53, page 335, April 8, 1921, Professor Racovitza, of the University

of Cluj, Roumania, points out that his university is practically barred from access to the American scientific literature and scientific instruments by the present state of foreign exchange. He points out that SCIENCE, which before the war cost thirty-five Roumanian lei, now costs five hundred and ninety-five lei.

The Biological Club of the University of Minnesota believe that such a situation should not exist and that American scientific literature should be widely disseminated in Europe. Obviously, however, the University of Cluj can not purchase many American journals at such a rate of exchange. Accordingly the secretary of the Biological Club was authorized to write Professor Racovitza and ask him for a list of journals which he would prefer to have in their library. In a letter under date of July 16, he submits the following list in order of his preference: (1) The American Naturalist, (2) Ecology, (3) Genetics, (4) Journal of General Physiology (Loeb), (5) Journal of Morphology, and (6) Journal of Experimental Zoology.

The Biological Club is accordingly asking the publishers of The American Naturalist to send that journal to the library of the Institutul De Speologie, Universitatea Din Cluj, and bill the subscription price to the Club until further orders.

We are publishing this note in SCIENCE in the hope that similar scientific organizations will take like action. In case such action is taken by any organization it is suggested that it might be advisable in order to avoid sending duplicate journals to their library that a central clearing house of some sort should be established. If this seems best the undersigned would be glad to serve in this way. H. D. BARKER,

Secretary of the Biological Club

THE TRUTH ABOUT VIVISECTION TO THE EDITOR of SciencE: In the Womans Home Companion for July, 1921, is the best paper on this subject I have ever seen called "The Truth about Vivisection" by Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes. Mr. Baynes first read