chronological order. In addition to the texts, there will be considerable illustrative material touching on hospitalization and treatment, the use of baths, venesection, new remedies, pest banners, broadsides and medals, also Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian, and various aspects of the plague and syphilis dealt with in the graphic arts. General texts illustrating the Greek, Byzantine, Mohammedan and medieval practise in fevers will occupy half of the space allotted. The other half will contain tracts on the plague and syphilis, original descriptions, new diseases and primary treatises on the doctrine of contagium vivum. A descriptive catalogue will be ready for distribution at the time of the annual session.

THE London County Council according to the British Medical Journal has adopted the recommendations of the committee appointed by the Illuminating Engineering Society to inquire into eyestrain in cinematograph halls. These recommendations will be put into force at once so far as new halls are concerned, and will be applied to existing halls as opportunity offers. The chief recommendation sets out the limit of the vertical angle of view. The committee believes that ocular discomfort arises mainly from the abnormal angle at which very often the eyes of spectators are directed upwards, and that conditions suitable for the eyes would be secured if a moderate value for the angle of elevation were adopted. It is therefore proposed that the angle of elevation subtended at the eye of any person seated in the front row by the length of the vertical line dropped from the center of the top edge of the picture to the horizontal plane passing through the observer's eye shall not exceed 35 degrees. In some of the London halls this condition is complied with, and in others it is approached, but in others again the angle in question exceeds 60 degrees.

Nature states that the members of Mr. L. H. Dudley Buxton's expedition have now returned from a stay of some weeks in the Island of Malta. The object of the expedition was to collect material for a study of the

physical anthropology of this island. About 1,000 adults, men and women, were measured. The fine series of ancient bones which Professor Zammit excavated in the Hypogæum at Hal-Saflieni and elsewhere was collected together and measured. A long series of skeletal remains from a modern ossuary were also examined. A special visit, lasting for two days, was paid to Gozo by Mrs. Jenkinson and Miss Moss to work at the physical anthropology of that island. The expedition has collected an immense mass of valuable material, which will take some time to arrange and digest. As soon as this work is sufficiently far advanced Mr. Buxton hopes to submit a preliminary account of the results of the expedition to the Royal Anthropological Institute.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

By the will of Edmund Cogswell Converse, who died on April 4 in Pasadena, California, Amherst College receives a bequest of about $250,000. Of this amount $200,000 will be used for the upkeep and development of the Converse library, for the building of which Mr. Converse donated $250,000 in 1916, the building to be a memorial to his brother, James B. Converse. The remaining $50,000 of the bequest will be used to establish an Edmund Cogswell Converse scholarship fund.

THE Journal of the American Medical Association writes that "much disappointment is being expressed in university circles in Toronto at the failure of the Ontario government to take action during the present session of the legislature on the report of their own appointed special commissions which has been inquiring into the status of the universities of the province. As the University of Toronto expected $1,000,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation there will be for the present no available funds for further expansion as it will be doubtful if even this sum will be forthcoming owing to the failure of the government to come to the assistance of the university."

THE trustees of the estate of the late John W. Sterling, to whom the residue of the estate was left in the interest of Yale University, have established two additional Sterling professorships at Yale; one of these is to be assigned for the present to mathematics, one to physiological chemistry. Professor Ernest W. Brown, of the department of mathematics, has been assigned to one of these professorships, and Professor Lafayette B. Mendel, professor of physiological chemistry has been assigned to the other. Four, Sterling professorships have now been established, the other two being the new professorship of education recently filled by the appointment of Frank E. Spaulding, formerly superintendent of public schools in Cleveland, Ohio, and the new professorship of chemistry recently filled by the appointment of Professor John Johnston, formerly secretary of the National Research Council. Each of these professorships has an endowment of about $225,000. After meeting the salary of the professor, "the university shall have the right to use any surplus income of these funds in advancing the work of the said professorship through the appointment of assistants, aid in publication, opportunity for study or investigation in New Haven or elsewhere, or in other ways."

PROFESSOR PAUL H. M.-P. Brinton, head of the department of chemistry at the University of Arizona, has accepted appointment as professor of analytical chemistry in the school of chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

PROFESSOR HALE HOUSTON, head of the department of civil engineering at Clemson College, S. C., has been elected associate professor of engineering at Washington and Lee University, the appointment being effective on September 1.

Ar Stanford University associate professors have been promoted to be professors as follows: William A. Manning in applied mathematics; Leroy Abrams in botany; Jesse B. Sears in education; Thomas Addis in medicine. Assistant professors to be associate

professors: Edwin W. Schultz and William L. Holman in bacteriology; William M. Proctor in education; Charles N. Cross in mechanical engineering; Frank W. Weymouth in physiology; John E. Coover in psychology. Assistant clinical professor to be assistant professor: Henry G. Mehrtens, in medicine. Instructors to be assistant professors: Elizabeth L. Buckingham, and Edith R. Mirrielees in English; Edward B. Towne in surgery; James P. Baumberger in physiology; Gordon F. Ferris in entomology (zoology).

PROFESSOR BRAUS, of Heidelberg, has been proposed as the successor to Professor O. Hertwig, of Berlin, who has sent in his resignation.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE GENETICS OF THE "CHINCHILLA" RABBIT

A CONSIDERABLE interest exists in the raising of rabbits for fur, stimulated no doubt by the extensive use and high price of fur garments in recent years, and by the fact that wild furbearing animals are on the decrease. Rabbit fur has long been used as a substitute for other furs and sold misbranded but is coming to be used under its own name and on its own merits. One impetus to such use comes from the development chiefly in France of breeds whose fur is attractive in its natural colors. Among such breeds are the chocolate or "Havana," the French silver of "champagne d'argent," and the "Chinchilla." This last is an especially pleasing color variety of a pearl gray color. The coat is similar to that of a wild gray rabbit except that (1) it contains no yellow whatever, the yellow ticking of gray rabbit fur being replaced with white, and (2) the black portions of the gray fur are toned down to a slaty blue. Both these differences appear to follow from a single genetic change, a mutation in the color factor less extreme than that which has occurred in the white or albino variety, yet affecting the same genetic factor or gene."

66

If a chinchilla rabbit is crossed with any of the common color varieties other than white, the chinchilla character behaves as a reces

sive in heredity, in which it agrees with the behavior of the albino character. But if it is crossed with the albino variety itself, offspring are produced all of which are chinchillas, and in later generations both chinchilla and white young are to be expected. These facts indicate that it is an alternative form or allelo

morph of albinism. It constitutes the fourth recorded albino allelomorph in rabbits, the series in the order of decreasing pigmentation being (1) ordinary pigmentation, (2) chinchilla, (3) Himalayan albinism, (4) ordinary albinism (snow white). A similar but not identical series of albino allelomorphs was described for the guinea pig several years ago by Sewall Wright.1 Chinchilla seems to be substantially equivalent to the guinea-pig albino allelomorph seen in the red-eyed silver agouti variety. A homologous albino allelomorph in the rat has been described by Whiting and King, under the name of ruby-eyed dilute

gray.

2

One defect of the new fur varieties of rabbits is their relatively small size. Furriers desire larger, stronger pelts, such as can be obtained only from large-sized animals. In the case of the chinchilla variety the desired improvement can be obtained easily and speedily. The desired size is found in varieties raised chiefly for meat, such as the Flemish Giant. Various color varieties occur in this breed including the albino, known as "white Flemish." By mating a pure chinchilla with white Flemish rabbits, young will be obtained all of which will be chinchillas in color yet will have increased size, intermediate or a little greater than intermediate between the sizes of the respective parents. By further crossing of the improved chinchillas with white Flemish, still larger chinchillas may be obtained, and in a very short time the full size of the Flemish breed may be substantially secured in a rabbit having the chinchilla coat. In this process of improvement there will be no wasters, unless the fifty per cent. of whites are so regarded, for the peculiar method of in1 Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 241, 1916.

2 Jour. Exp. Zool., 26, 1918.

heritance renders all other young valuable, W. E. CASTLE

since all will be chinchillas. BUSSEY INSTITUTION

THE EARLY HISTORY OF LITMUS IN BACTERIOLOGY

66

THE writer is indebted to Professor F. G. Novy, of the University of Michigan, for the correction of a statement in a recent article entitled Chemical Criteria of Anaerobiosis with Special Reference to Methylene Blue," published in the Journal of Bacteriology, January, 1921, Volume 6, page 1.

The statement in question is as follows:

"The earliest authentic reference to the bacteriological use of litmus appears to be that of Wurtz (1892) who introduced litmus lactose agar as a differential medium for Bact. coli and Bact. typhosum. It was impossible to confirm Novy's (1893) allusion (copied by Hunziker, 1902) to Buchner (1885) and Cohen (?) as first to use litmus acid and reduction changes respectively, the last reference apparently being altogether erro

Professor Novy points out in a letter, which is quoted by permission, that many of the workers of that period, including himself, had used litmus for several years prior to the date of Wurtz's paper. As Professor Novy says, "Wurtz was a late comer." My reference to Wurtz as apparently the first can be defended only upon the admittedly uncertain grounds that having attempted in vain to find a reference to litmus in Buchner's article as quoted by Novy and Hunziker, and having failed to find even an article by Cohen, I took what seemed at the time the earliest authentic reference.

The following is quoted verbatim from Professor Novy's letter:

It is true that the references are not correct; whether it be due to failure to send me proof, or to my own carelessness I am unable to say.

The only reference which I give to Buchner is to E. Buchner, the chemist, and concerns his hydrogen culture work. My text (p. 597) mentioned Buchner (unqualified) and, as was more or less the custom of the day, it meant the bacteriologist, Hans Buchner. Unfortunately, through some slip no reference to his work is given.

Buchner was apparently the first to use litmus media for bacteria, although the ophthalmologist Leber preceded him by three years, employing litmus gelatine to demonstrate acid production by Aspergillus.

Cahen, and not "Cohen (?)," published his paper in the Journal given, in the next volume to that cited. While the citation is not correct as to volume and page, still with the name and Journal given it hardly justifies characterization as "apparently altogether erroneous.''

It thus appears that both of us have been to some extent guilty and the present note is therefore offered in mutual condonation.

The following list of authentic references prior to 1890 was supplied by Professor Novy and each has been confirmed by the undersigned.

Leber-Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1882, 19. 163. H. Buchner-Arch. f. Hyg., 1885, 3, pp. 417, 418, 419.

Marpmann-Centralbl. f. d. allgemeine Ge

sundheitspflege; Ergänzungshefte, 18851886, 2, Heft 2, p. 123. (The number appeared in 1886 but the title page of the volume bears date of 1889.) Weisser-Ztschr. f. Hyg., 1886, 1, p. 334. Cahen-Ibid., 1887, 2, pp. 387, 394. Neisser-Virchow's Archiv. f. pathol. Anat.

u. Physiol., 1887, 110, p. 394. Loeffler-Berl. klin. Wchnschr., 1887, 24, pp. 610, 631.

Berhring-Ztschr. f. Hyg., 1889, 6, p. 142; 7, pp. 173, 177.

Petruschky-Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., 1889, 6, pp. 628, 657.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

IVAN C. HALL

ANOTHER DRIFT BOTTLE WHICH CROSSED

THE ATLANTIC

In a previous note1 the writer gave the record of a bottle which drifted from the Gulf of Maine to the Azores. Recently record has

1"On a bottle which drifted from the Gulf of Maine to the Azores," SCIENCE, N. S., Vol. LIII., No. 1365, February 25, 1921. Through a misprint the writer's name was given as "James W. Moor'' instead of "James W. Mavor."

been received of a bottle which was picked up in the Orkney Islands. This bottle, No. 230, was set out on the same day (August 29, 1919) as No. 198 which went to the Azores and was put out about 6 miles to the southeast of it, i.e., 7 miles southeast of Point Lepreaux in the Bay of Fundy. It was picked up on the Island of Papa Westray, one of the northwestern islands of the Orkney group, on January 21, 1921, about one year and five months after it was set out. This bottle probably followed the northern route of the North Atlantic wind drift ("Gulf Stream") as indicated for another bottle recorded previously.1

UNION COLLEGE, SCHENECTADY, N. Y.

JAMES W. MAVOR

NEWSPAPER SCIENCE

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: The recent press reports quoting me as saying that I had obtained the closest approach to a perfect vacuum ever recorded" are false and without foundation. The daily press copied and added to an item in the Utah Chronicle, a student paper, which itself was inaccurate in saying I had "perfected the apparatus." The student reporter after seeing in the department of physics a well-known form of vacuum pump wrote the original article without submitting it to me before publication. I am taking this opportunity to deny the statements credited to me by the newspapers which have given me so much undesirable and distasteful publicity.

In all 29 gages are in operation-distributed as follows: Birmingham 3, London 8, Glasgow 9, Southport 2, and 1 each at Kingston, Malvern, Newcastle, Rochdale, Rothamsted, St. Helens, and Sterling. Two more stations are about to operate.

Full returns have been published in the Lancet.

The following data are given in this report: 1. Monthly deposits for the two stations representing high and low deposits.

2. Total solids deposited monthly at all stations.

3. Mean monthly deposits for summer half years, i.e., April to September, 1918 and 1919.

4. Mean monthly deposits for winter half years, i.e., October to March, 1918-19, and 1919-20.

5 and 6. Classification of stations according to amounts of elements.

7 and 8. Totals of classified stations for each element of pollution.

9. Comparison of mean monthly deposit during summer and winter.

10. Average deposit of each element for each month for two London and four Glasgow stations.

Also six summaries and analyses.

The station showing the highest mean monthly deposit for the year is Southwark Park, London, with 15.35 metric tons per square kilometer, but it is said that probably Newcastle or Rochdale, for which full year results were not available, might have exceeded this figure. The lowest value was 3.17 at Malvern.

Generally speaking there is evidence of a considerable diminution of summer deposit in practically all the districts.

The highest deposit of tar in the London group was in February, the lowest in May; while in the Glasgow group the highest was in November and the lowest in September. This may be regarded as a normal distribution, as the winter months, including the two highest deposits, are the time when domestic fires are in operation, while the lowest deposits occurring in May and September, are in the summer months when fires are presumably not required. In Glasgow there is a second minimum in December and February. Wind doubtless has a great influence on the quantity of deposit, high winds sweeping it away from the vicinity of its origin and calm weather favoring deposit near the source of impurity.

Of the research work, the chief problem has been accurate measurements of acidity in the air. Automatic filters have been devised, holding 24-hour discs and many records have been made of impurities in London air. It has been shown that there is a definite cycle in the distribution of the impurities during the 24 hours. From midnight to 6 A.M. the air is practically clean of impurity, very little being recorded except during fogs. At about 6 A.M., when fires are lit, there is an increase in im

P.M. the quantity varies very little. At 10 it begins to diminish rapidly and has almost disappeared by midnight.

The committee is considering the possibility of utilizing standard rain gages. For large deposits this might work, but for country places with small deposits the 20 cm. gage (8 inch diameter) would not suffice since the area of this gage is practically 1/10 that of the standard deposit gage. One great objection to the use of the standard rain gage is the impossibility of estimating the quantity of tar and