State Medical Boards of the United States, and formerly dean of the Long Island College Hospital; treasurer, Dr. George W. Kosmak, attending surgeon of the Lying-In Hospital, and formerly secretary of the American Association of Obstetricians.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS

A DORMITORY for foreign students at Columbia University and other schools in New York has been made possible through a gift promised to members of the Cosmopolitan Club, an organization of students in Columbia and New York University. Plans for the dormitory provide for a building of 500 rooms to be erected at a cost approximating $1,000,000, on Riverside Drive opposite Grant's tomb. The newspapers report that the donor is John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

DR. F. S. HARRIS, director and agronomist of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and professor of agronomy at the Utah Agricultural College, has resigned to become president of the Brigham Young University, at Provo, Utah, where he succeeds Dr. George H. Brimhall, who has been made president emeritus. Professor Wm. Peterson, station geologist and professor of geology in the college, has been appointed to succeed Dr. Harris as director of the station.

DR. NATHAN FASTEN, who went to the Oregon Agricultural College last September from the University of Washington, has been promoted to the headship of the department of zoology.

DR. JOHN W. M. BUNKER, who has been for several years at the head of the bacteriological department of the Digestive Ferments Company of Detroit, has been elected assistant professor of biochemistry and physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING RECENT AURORAS, MAY 13 AND MAY 14, 1921

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: On the evening of May 13, 1921, there occurred a great aurora,

not visible here on account of clouds, but again on the evening of May 14 there was another great display visible here in spite of the half moon and a low-lying fog which tended to spoil the visibility. As in other great auroras, the great bundles of streamers appeared to converge toward the zenith from the south as well as from the north, east and west. The sky at times was virtually covered with auroral light. The outburst of May 13 caused great disturbance to telegraph and telephone wire transmission and must have been of unusual magnitude. All the effects noted in the aurora of May 14 a day later conformed to the perspective ideas, pointed out in my paper, "Inferences concerning auroras," read at the Boston meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on November 14, 1916, and published in its Proceedings, Vol. 3, pp. 1-7, January, 1917.

It is rarely that one great aurora follows so closely on the heels of another and at an interval so short as a day. In fact I have no record or recollection of such a happening in my time of observation, which now extends over fifty years, more or less. Hence the cor ditions lead to the inquiry whether any unusual condition existed in this instance.

An examination of the solar surface appears to provide, or at least suggest, a possible explanation, and at the same time throw light on the nature of the relation of the aurora to the solar disturbances.

On May 15 there were to be seen on the solar surface two large spot areas, separated by an interval of about one-fourteenth of the diameter of the sun, the one following the other as the sun revolved. These two spot areas, quite distinct from each other, were nearly round, the first a single spot, the second a compact group with a much disturbed area adjacent. They were located near the center of the solar disc.

As the solar revolution takes place in nearly 26 days, the interval between the spots appears to be approximately one day of the surface movement.

This means that in about one day the sec

ond spot would replace the first in relation to the earth. If the first spot gave rise to emission of ions, radially, which in its orbital motion the earth reached and in which it became enveloped, the aurora of May 13 was possibly the result. The same relation repeated a day later by the second spot replacing the first would account for the aurora of May 14.

The relation of the two auroras in time, and the sequence of spot positions on the revolving sun are significant to say the least.

In this connection it may be noted that the great aurora of March 22, 1920, had a very long and unusual duration, beginning early in the evening of that day and continuing all night, even being observed just before sunrise on the 23d. It may have continued during part of that day, invisibly of course. At that time an examination of the solar surface disclosed a remarkably elongated spot area or chain of spots, and at each end of the chain or elongated group was a well-marked rounded spot. The group was fairly uniform in width extending in a direction nearly parallel to the solar equator, and its length would amply account for the long continuance of the aurora if emanations were pouring out from the whole group as it revolved with the the sun.

Moreover, its advance past the meridian of the sun was apparently much the same before the aurora as with the two spots believed to have caused the auroras of this year on May 13 and 14. Such an advance points to a period (several hours possibly) required for the ionic emanations from the spot area to traverse the radius of the earth's orbit, from the sun.

Another matter of interest may be mentioned. In many auroras, especially during the greater outbursts, there occurs at times the peculiar streaming upward, as if a luminous wave was running up toward the zenith crown; a sort of flaming effect. The motion is fairly rapid, perhaps one half second being required to traverse the length of the streamer. The point I wish to make is that the apparent velocity of this wave-like luminosity upward seems to be constant in all auroras that I

THE LANDSLIDE NEAR MONT BLANC

THE March Bulletin of the Royal Italian Geographical Society contains an account, well illustrated with map and photographs, by Professor U. Valbusa of the landslides near Mt. Blanc which occurred on the 14th and 19th of November last and made much stir in the newspapers, even to the point of exciting fear that the round-topped "monarch of mountains" had lost some of its height (4,807 meters). Such was by no means the case, as the head of the slide was on the eastern side of the subordinate dome known as Mt. Blanc de Courmayeur (4,709 m.), two kilometers east of and nearly 500 meters lower than the main mountain dome. Granite rock masses about half a square kilometer in total slanting area, were dislodged from the oversteepened side of an east-facing spur, the top of the gray slide-scar being a little lower than the terminal point of the spur which has an altitude of 4,381 meters. The detached rock masses first slid down into a second-order cirque of small size between the spur of origin and the Aiguille blanche de Pétéret, near by on the southeast; there they turned a short distance northeastward and descended from the hanging outlet of the small cirque to a level of about 3,200 meters on the Brenva glacier at the western side of the great first-order cirque in which this glacier gathers its névé branches, and from which a narrower glacial tongue cascades southeastward into the over-deepened trough-locally known as the Allée blanche of the uppermost Dora Baltea. On reaching the main glacier beneath the small cirque, the slide turned to the right, and gathering ice as it rushed along spread over the whole 3-kilometer breadth of

the glacier at the cirque front, even dashing a little upward on the opposite mountain side; and then, rushing down the steep glacial cascade where it cut off séracs and clogged crévasses, it divided on the convex surface of the lower glacier and overran both lateral moraines but failed to reach the mid-extremity of the tongue on the floor of the Allée blanche. The total distance traversed by the slide was about 8 kilometers according to the map, but only 5 according to the text; the total descent was from altitude 4,300 to 1,500 meters. The time of descent of the first slide on Nov. 14, as estimated by eye witnesses, was between 2 and 3 minutes; the velocity of movement was the greater because winter snows had not yet fallen on the ice in the great cirque. volume of the slide was roughly estimated at between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 cubic meters. Dust of rock and ice was spread by the wind blast of the slide, right and left of its course on the glacier and the mountain flanks, for a width of a kilometer or more; trees were overturned by the blast outside of the lower lateral moraines; a temporary lakelet was formed where the right lower branch of the slide, crossing the trough floor and ascending a little on the farther side, obstructed the Dora Baltea. The slide was evidently one of those spasmodic efforts by which the Alpine mountain faces, over-steepened by glacial sapping, try from time to time to regain more moderate slopes, such as they had in Preglacial time; but the volume of the fallen rock was but a trifling fraction of the spur from which it was detached.

W. M. D.

EXTRA-MUNDANE LIFE: A COMMENT

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In discussing the highly speculative subject of intelligent life in other worlds it is well to keep in mind two serviceable precepts of scientific reasoning: First, failure to prove that A is B is not a proof that A is not B. Thus, failure to furnish evidence that other worlds are inhabited by intelligent creatures is not to be construed as proof that such extramundane life does not exist. Second, of two discordant

propositions: A is B; A is C; one of which must be true and for neither of which any evidence is forthcoming, we are intellectually bound to accord hospitality-not adoption but hospitality-to the one which is marked by the greater likelihood. Viewed without anthropometric bias this earth is, as we know, one of the less important members of the system to which it primarily belongs-a system dominated by a single undersized yellow star. If we had a time word corresponding to the space word parsec, and also had more definite geological knowledge of the past and future duration of this planet, we might express quantitatively the fact that the human race is relatively a mere episode in the history of the planet itself; while our increasing knowledge of the Milky Way with its encircled disk of stars must convince us that our solar system is, in turn, only an incident in the history of the stellar system to which it belongs. Which is more probable, that this one insignificant planet is the only world in which creatures capable of feeling and knowing have originated and developed, or that multitudes of other worlds have afforded both conditions and cause for life, including intelligent life, and are the homes of beings of both physical and mental parts. The latter supposition seems to be invested with incomparably greater likelihood. ELLEN HAYES

WELLESLEY, Mass., May 22

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS The Health of the Industrial Worker. By EDGAR L. COLLIS and MAJOR GREENWOOD, containing a chapter on Reclamation of the Disabled by ARTHUR J. COLLIS and an introduction by SIR GEORGE NEWMAN. London, J. & A. Churchill, 1921.

The appearance of the first English book on industrial hygiene could not have been more happily timed. With a combination of an industrial depression and a glutted labor market there is a widespread tendency among American managers to scrap the elaborate personnel machinery established during the war"to safeguard the health and capacity of the

workmen by sensible observance of the facts and teachings of physiological science." The authors form a peculiarly authoritative combination. As late H. M. Medical Inspector of Factories, member of the Health of Munition Workers Committee and Director of Welfare and Health under the Ministry of Munitions, Dr. E. L. Collis brings to his task an unusual background of practical experience in preventive medicine and industry. Dr. Major Greenwood is probably the foremost British medical statistician. Both authors are members of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board.

The book is divided into four parts. In the first section an historical review of British industrial conditions preceding the eighteenth century is followed by an account of industrial legislation from the famous Ordinance of Laborers in 1349, following the Black Death, to the recent (1911) Coal Miners Act and Workmen's Compensation (Silicosis) Act of 1918. The first section closes with two valuable chapters on the utilization of statistical methods in industrial preventive medicine and the effects of industrial employment upon health as indicated by vital statistics. A study of the mortality and accident rates in the English coalfields has brought out a most suggestive correlation between the percentage of miners who voted in favor of a general strike in August, 1920, and the regional mortality distribution. In Nottinghamshire where deaths and accidents are at a minimum, only 55 per cent. of the miners favored a general strike while in Lancashire where conditions are the worst of any English coalfield, unrest was likewise at a maximum since 89.7 per cent. of the miners voted to strike. These figures indicate a deep-lying relation betwen social unrest and health conditions.

In the second part of the book a chapter is devoted to each of the following subjects: Fatigue, tuberculosis, cancer, accidents and the industrial employment of women.

No matter in the whole field of industrial hygiene is of more fundamental importance than the occurrence of fatigue. Researches. . . into the way in which the human machine works, are show

ing that optimum output is obtained by not allowing fatigue to exceed physiological limits: that the goal of the economist-output-can be best attained through the same agencies as allow the medical man to obtain his objective health.

The authors place little faith in the socalled direct tests for fatigue and caution against conclusions regarding fatigue that have been drawn from output, sickness and turnover figures, except in cases where working conditions are remarkably uniform.

The problem of industrial tuberculosis is summed up as follows:

Not through any special intensive measures of campaigning against the tubercle bacillus, not even by the segregation of the actively tuberculous, does there seem any real hope of salvation. We have to improve the homes of the working classes in the first place it is a sound popular instinct that inspires the popular outcry against urban and even rural housing conditions: in the second place, we have to ensure better factory conditions. We require regulations of the hours and intensity of work, of the physical characters of the atmosphere, and of the quantity and quality of the meals taken, so that the workman returning home shall not reach it in a condition of definitely lowered resistance to an infection which must still be regarded as ubiquitous.

Pathological fatigue, inadequate ventilation and insufficient food are believed to be the three outstanding disposing factors to tuberculosis among industrial workers.

Although tuberculosis has been steadily decreasing, "the sudden change which has taken place in the conditions of life consequent upon the development of modern industry, has been associated with a rapid rise in cancer mortality, and this rise is greatest where modern industry is most developed." In a selected group of occupations (1900-02) the mortality from cancer in England and Wales was greatest among chimney sweeps and seamen and least among farmers and grocers. Chimney sweeps' cancer seems to be directly associated with their occupation; in Belgium, where coal like English coal is used, there is almost complete immunity, but great care is taken to prevent contact with soot. No explanation is offered for the increasing cancer

mortality which parallels advancing industrialism.

A study of British industrial accident statistics for 1913 has shown that more fatalities resulted from persons falling than from machinery moved by mechanical power. This fact suggests a high proportion of preventable accidents and further studies have indeed shown that 60 to 80 per cent. of all industrial accidents are apparently due to mistakes on the part of the workers. Safeguarding of machinery alone has not been found to reduce accidents more than 10 per cent.-a result which conforms with American experience. The interesting studies of Greenwood and Woods regarding predisposition to accidents are presented in considerable detail and additional evidence is advanced corroborating their conclusion that a trivial accident indicates a susceptible worker.

A worker who has had three trivial accidents is a more dangerous person than one who has had a single bad wound.

In the chapter on the industrial employment of women the authors have presented a thoughtful analysis of the physical, physiological and psychological aptitudes and shortcomings of women. The commonly accepted physical inferiority of women they believe may be due to lack of physical training rather than actual structural capacity. The problem of the expectant mother was successfully met by the Ministry of Munitions by establishing a light employment dêpot.

Overalls and gloves were made and mended and other sewing work was done by expectant mothers drawn from several factories in a district. The hours of work were shorter than normal, and the workers were paid on a time basis. Milk was given in the morning, a good meal mid-day, tea in the afternoon, and a rest room provided.-The women readily availed themselves of these facilities; lost time was negligible, and work was so well done that the depot was a financial success.

Although the authors admit "that the effect of plumbism in causing miscarriage and still births is a sufficient reason for excluding females from exposure to lead fumes. . .” they " are unaware of any scientific evidence

in support of the alleged sexual proclivity." This conclusion is contrary to the findings of Oliver, Legge and Goodby.

The third part of the book consists of a practical discussion of industrial food re quirements, ventilation, lighting and general sanitary accommodations. Attention is again directed to the disproportionately high percentage of wages required for the purchase of adequate food in the case of workers on "heavy jobs," jobs that require 3,800 calories as compared with 2,800 calories for light work. According to the calculations of Greenwood, Hodson and Tebb workers in the former class must spend nearly 13 s. weekly for food alone while in the latter case 10 s. will suffice. The practical problem is complicated by the fact that remuneration is less in the case of heavy jobs than for operations needing many fewer calories. In calculating working men's budgets the physiological demands of specific occupations must therefore be taken into consideration.

The value of the chapter on ventilation might have been considerably enhanced by a discussion of some of the methods for dust determination and the presentation of E. V. Hill's " zone of comfort" chart. The report of the New York Ventilation Commission should certainly be included in the bibliography. On page 327, Fig. 26-B presents a somewhat unfortunate example of "good lighting." The intense local illumination and the consequent deep shadows and contrasts are certainly not in keeping with the best modern practise. American experience has shown that a high general illumination with local illumination reduced to a minimum gives the most satisfactory results.

The fourth section of the book will be of particular interest to industrial physicians and nurses, personnel managers and social service workers. In the opinion of the reviewer a discussion of the physical standardization of jobs, for example by Martin's method, would have been a welcome addition to the chapter on "Supervision of Industrial Health." There is far too great a tendency to depend upon such qualifications as "short