yearling beef steers were subjected to low planes of nutrition. The extreme low plane involved a loss of 81.5 kilos in body weight, or 30 per cent. This included a loss of 44.3 kilos of fat and 10.9 kilos of protein. The total fat in the animal was reduced from 18 to 2 per cent. The skeletal fat even was reduced to 2.9 per cent., showing extreme emaciation. Not only was there a loss in total body protein but the flesh suffered depletion in total nitrogen from 3.58 per cent. to 3.18 per cent., amounting to 10 per cent. of the normal. The water content of the flesh was normal. The soluble nitrogen and albumins were reduced one third. The per cent. of extractive nitrogen was lowered 10 per cent. as was also the concentration per 100 grams water. The relation of extractives to total protein remained constant. A storage of body protein was indicated since the muscle fibers retained their structure and general form.

Scurvy in poultry: J. S. HUGHES and F. E. Fox. The relation of the vitamine content of feed to the vitamine content of milk produced: J. S. HUGHES and J. B. FITCH.

(1) The enzymes

Studies in embryo-chemistry. of the embryonic pancreas. A. Lipase: VICTOR E. LEVINE and EBEN J. CAREY. Pig embryos ranging from 45 to 260 millimeters were employed. The pancreas was removed from the embryo, the total number of organs per litter weighed, triturated and made up with mammalian Ringer solution, the salts of which have an accelerating or activating effect upon lipase. The preparation was centrifuged and the supernatant liquid used. The dilution was such that 1 c.c. was equivalent to 10 mg. tissue. The gall bladder and contents were also removed, ground and diluted with distilled water. Blood was obtained from the umbilical vein. Ethyl butyrate or olive oil was used as substrate. Controls were kept with substrate, enzyme preparation, bile, bile and enzyme, blood, blood and enzyme. After an incubation period of 18 hours at 37.5° C. the flasks were titrated with n/70NaOH, using phenolphthalein as indicator. Titrations with olive oil were made in 50 per cent. alcohol. With an increase in the age of the embryo there was observed not only an increase in the lipolytic activity due to the increased weight of the organ, but also an increased activity per milligram of tissue. The gall bladder showed the presence of bile salts at a very early stage, for striking accelerations in the lipolytic process were demonstrable. The effect of bile salts on lipolysis is far

more sensitive a test for these salts than any purely chemical one. Embryonic blood was found to contain an accelerator second in vigor to the bile salts. The increased activity can not be ascribed to an enzyme present in blood, since whole blood or serum after long boiling is still effective. The accelerating substance corresponds to auxo-lipase in the blood of the adult.

A new test for sugar in the urine: VICTOR E. LEVINE. A solution of 2 per cent. sodium tellurite in 10 per cent. sodium carbonate is the reagent employed. The reaction involves the reduction of the tellurite to elemental tellurium. With small amounts of sugar the free tellurium forms a colloidal solution, which is a characteristic brown in direct light and a gray black in reflected light; with large amounts a gray black precipitate of tellurium results. The test is carried out by heating for several minutes 5 c.c. reagent with 1 to 2 c.c. urine. Carbohydrates possessing a free Pentoses carbonyl group respond to the test. (arabinose, rhamnose, xylose); hexoses (glucose, fructose, galactose); dihexoses (lactose, maltose), give positive reactions. Sucrose, raffinose and polysaccharides (cellulose, glycogen, inulin, starch), glycoproteins, nucleoproteins and cerebrosides reduce only after hydrolysis and subsequent neutralization. Aldehydes and ketones do not cause reduction of alkaline tellurite. Formic acid, chloroform, nucleoprotein, thymol, uric acid and creatinine also do not interfere with the test.

Disodium phosphate is a specific catalyst for the quantitative oxidation of glucose to CO2 with H2O, at 37°: EDGAR J. WITZEMANN. W. Löb (Biochem. Zt. 32: 43 (1911)) claimed to have shown by inadequate methods that mixtures of 1/3 M solutions of Na,HPO, and NaH,PO,, having the OH ion concentration of normal blood, catalyse the oxidation of glucose with H2O2. It was found that glucose, and its transformation products, may be determined quantitatively by oxidizing them to CO2 with KMnO, first in hot alkaline solution and afterwards in H2SO, solution. By this method Löb's statements were conclusively proved. Moreover it was shown that the glucose not recovered by the KMnO, method, after the H2O, oxidation, could be recovered during the oxidation as CO.. The oxidation of glucose to CO, with H2O, at 37° C. in the presence of the phosphate mixture is quantitative. The Na2HPO, is the active compound in the system and in this instance functions as a true oxidizing enzyme without having any other characteristic property of an enzyme. NaOH,

NaHCO, and Na,CO, alone or in mixtures do not produce this effect. Mixed with Na HPO, they diminish or destroy its effect.

The standardization of the borax solubility test for commercial casein and its application: HARPER F. ZOLLER. The viscosity of casein in borax solutions shows that the maximum viscosity is obtained at a hydrogen ion concentration of pH 8.15, while at a pH of 8.9-9.1 the viscosity is less but constant owing to the buffing effect of borax in this region. The importance of conducting the borax test in this buffered region is discussed. The great variation in the viscosity of casein solutions at different concentrations of casein is utilized in the improved test by choosing a concentration which will bring out the difference in physical constitution of caseins prepared under safe and dangerous temperature conditions. The viscosities of several caseins in borax solutions is given to show that differences in the physical structure of caseins have greater influence upon their viscosity than the normal contaminating substances present in commercial caseins. High temperature caseins always exhibit a comparatively great initial viscosity. The improved casein-borax test is given. The essential changes include low solution temperatures, reduced concentration of casein and increased concentration of borax. These changes are based upon purely physico-chemical relationships. The value of the casein-borax test is defined as an accurate means of differentiating between low and high temperature caseins.

The precipitation of grain curd casein from pasteurized milk including pasteurized sweet cream buttermilk: HARPER F. ZOLLER. The grain curd method can be successfully applied to the separation of casein from pasteurized milks only when higher precipitating temperatures are used. The optimum precipitating temperatures are exhibited in the form of curves for the different observed conditions of pasteurization. The marked differences in the physical nature of the curd from pasteurized and unpasteurized milks are strikingly revealed by the grain curd method of precipitation. Attempts to overcome some of these physical effects by the use of organic acids as precipitants and with coprecipitants are described. The advisability of using rennin to precipitate casein from pasteurized milk is dismissed because of the time required and the large quantity of mineral entrained in the curd. Large centrifugals are urged to wash and press the casein precipitated by the grain curd method from pasteurized and nor

mal milk. The phenomena of the retrogression of the hydrogen ion was discovered in the whey and wash water bathing the curd precipitated from pasteurized milk by the grain curd process at 34° C. This rapid decrease in acidity is attributed to the excessive precipitation of alkaline earth phosphates during pasteurization, and their subsequent resolution at the expense of the hydrogen ion as they are brought into ready contact by the soft dispersing curd. The great check in the rate of this retrogression wrought by using higher temperatures for precipitation is believed to be due to the engulfing of these precipitated phosphates by the firming of the curd; thus the inti mate contact between the solution and the phos phates is reduced.

Grain curd casein: MANSFIELD CLARK, HARPER F. ZOLLER, A. O. DAHLBERG and A. C. WEIMER. To meet the demand for a high-grade commercial casein required in the manufacture of the glue to be used in the construction of aircraft, a controlled method of manufacture was devised and put into larger-scale operation. This method was based primarily upon the properties of casein as an emphoteric electrolyte, the chief control being exercised through the adjustment of the hydrogen ion concentration at which the casein is precipitated and at which it is washed. The casein so produced met the analytical requirements of the government specifications, gave promise of being suitable for the manufacture of a high-grade glue and possessed a uniformity in physical characteristics which would doubtless have eliminated the necessity for troublesome changes in glue formulas. Some laboratory data and certain details of manufacture are presented.

Chlorine as a flu preventive: HARRISON HALE. The use of chlorine as a flu preventive when breathed for 5 minutes daily in air containing 43 to 275 parts of chlorine per million was tested at the University of Arkansas, February, 1920. More than 800 treatments were given to 184 different individuals, none of whom developed the flu except one who began to feel sick within a few hours after his first treatment, and whose case seems to have developed previously. The evidence tends to show that chlorine is a preventive, but is not conclusive because of the rapid decrease in the number of flu cases.

The synthesis of lysine in the organism of the white rat: HOWARD B. LEWIS and LUCIE E. ROOT.

Respiration in cereals. The respiration of sprouted wheat. The respiration of rice paddy

and milled rice. The respiration of frosted wheat plants. The respiration of wheat plants infected with stem rust: C. H. BAILEY and A. M. GUJAR.

The etiology of limberneck in fowls: 8. D. WILKINS and R. A. DUTCHER. Many theories and beliefs are extant relative to the primary causes of limberneck in poultry. Attempts have been made at the Minnesota Station to produce limberneck by the following methods: (1) Dietary treatment. (2) Feeding and injecting B. botulinus and its toxin. (3) Feeding spoiled foods. (4) Feeding salts and brines. (5) Feeding inorganic poisons. (6) Feeding larvæ of certain flies (Lucilia cæsar). (7) Feeding maggots from various sources. Negative results were obtained in all trials except when larvæ of Lucilia casar were fed. These larvæ were obtained from ova deposited on limberneck carcasses.

The relation of vitamines to the development of sex organs in cockerels: S. D. WILKINS and R. A. DUTCHER. White Leghorn cockerels of uniform age and weight were divided into two groups. Group I. received a diet of polished rice only, while Group II. received a diet of polished rice, supplemented by 2 grams of green alfalfa, daily. The testes were found, after 30 days, to have atrophied, in Group I., in spite of the fact that some birds had not lost in weight, showing that atrophy of organs is not necessarily accompanied by general inanition. In Group II. the testes were found to be practically normal for birds of that age and breed.

Effect of vitamine deficiency on various species of animals. I. The production of xerophthalmia in the rabbit: V. E. NELSON and A. R. LAMB. A diet deficient in the fat-soluble vitamine will produce a disease of the eyes of rats which is called xerophthalmia. This condition has been repeatedly produced in rats, and is said to have occurred in children, but has not been reported in any other species. We have begun a study of the relative requirements of various species for this substance. On a ration deficient in fat-soluble A young rabbits grew for a few weeks, but at the end of 60 days lost weight and became nearly blind. Butter-fat effected a cure. It is suggested that herbivorous animals may require more of this vitamine than

the rat.

The role of vitamines in the growth of yeast. I. Are vitamines essential? E. I. FULMER, V. E. NELSON, F. F. SHERWOOD. Evidence indicates Water Soluble B is unnecessary for yeast growth. Yeast

has been growing months in a vitamine free medium at two thirds the rate manifested in wort. Alcoholic extract of alfalfa stimulates growth. Heating the extract with alkali does not destroy this effect. Alcoholic extracted malt gives results like untreated malt. The ammonia content of the medium influences growth. There is an optimum concentration variations from which materially decrease the crop. One is unwarranted stating this or that substance is indispensable until the best synthetic medium is developed.

A correction of two previous papers: 1. Rate of recovery from the action of fluorite rays. 2. Sensitization to heat due to exposure to light of short wave lengths. The graphical representation of hydrogen ion concentration. Notes concerning formol titration of nitrogen: W. P. BOVIE.

CHARLES L. PARSONS,
Secretary

(To be continued)

THE SUMMER MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY THE twenty-seventh summer meeting and ninth colloquium of the American Mathematical Society were held at the University of Chicago on September 7-11. The meeting was preceded on September 6 by a meeting of the Mathematical Association of America and extended over three sessions, lasting until noon on September 8. On the afternoon of that day the colloquium opened. The colloquium consisted of two courses of five lectures each, on "Dynamical Systems" by Professor G. D. Birkhoff, of Harvard University, and on "Topics from the theory of functions of infinitely many variables" by Professor F. R. Moulton, of the University of Chicago. The attendance at the colloquium was eighty-eight, exceeding by nearly twenty the previous record for attendance at a colloquium.

The attendance at the regular sessions of the Society included more than one hundred and twenty persons among whom were nearly one hundred members of the society. One hundred and sixteen persons were present at a joint dinner of the society and the association held on the evening of September 7. Excellent accommodations had been provided at Hitchcock and Beecher Halls, and at the Quadrangle Club, which was most generously put at the disposal of attending members. A resolution expressing to the department of mathematics of the University of

Chicago the society's appreciation and gratitude was unanimously adopted.

Upon recommendation of the council, the society voted to raise the annual dues from five to six dollars and the life-membership fee from fifty to seventy-five dollars. Thirteen new members were elected at this meeting: Dr. R. F. Borden, Brown University; Dr. Tso Chiang, Nan Kai College, Tientsin, China; Professor H. M. Dadourian, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.; Mr. J. Douglas, Columbia University; Mr. P. Franklin, Princeton University; Mr. C. F. Green, University of Illinois; Captain R. S. Hoar, Ordnance School, Aberdeen, Md.; Professor Jessie M. Jacobs, University of Texas; Mr. E. L. Post, Columbia University; Professor C. D. Rice, University of Texas; Mr. L. G. Simon, New York City; Professor J. E. Stocker, Lehigh University; Mr. Tsao-Shing Yang, Syracuse University. Twenty-one applications for membership in the society were received.

Vice-president Richardson presided at the sessions of Tuesday and Wednesday forenoons; Professor M. W. Haskell presided on Tuesday afterThe following thirty-four papers were read

noon.

at this meeting:

On the projective generation of cyclides: ARNOLD EMCH.

A generalization of the strophoid: J. H. WEAVER. On the relative distribution of the real roots of two real polynomials: C. F. GUMMER.

The polyadic expansion of a number: A. A. BENNETT.

On the location of the roots of the jacobian of two binary forms: J. L. WALSH.

On the transformation of convex point sets: J. L. WALSH.

On Kakeya's minimum area problem: W. B. FORD. On completely continuous linear transformation: T. H. HILDEBRANDT.

Integral equations in which the kernel is quadratic in the parameter: ANNA J. PELL.

Annihilators of modular invariants: OLIVE C. HAZLETT.

Construction of multiple correspondences between two algebraic curves: VIRGIL SNYDER and F. R. SHARPE.

Note on a method of proof in the theory of Fourier's series: DUNHAM JACKSON.

On the drift of spinning projectiles: J. W. CAMP

BELL.

Functions of infinitely many variables in Hilbert space: W. L. HART.

A property of continuity: D. C. GILLESPIE.

Periodic orbits of type 2/1: L. A. HOPKINS. Note on the median of a set of numbers: DUNHAM JACKSON.

An application to Weierstrass's function of the generalized derivative of type (C1): C. N. MOORE.

A method of graduating curves: L. R. FORD. Note on a generalization of a theorem of Baire: E. W. CHITTENDEN.

On classes of functions defined in terms of relatively uniform convergence: E. W. CHITTENDEN. On the relation between the Hilbert space and the calcul functionnel of Fréchet: E. W. CHITTENDEN. A generalization of the Fourier cosine series: J. L. WALSH.

Note on a class of polynomials of approximation: DUNHAM JACKSON.

Reciprocal subgroups of an abelian group: G. A. MILLER.

Characteristic lines of transformations: E. R.

HEDRICK, L. INGOLD and W. D. A. WESTFALL. Pseudo-differentiation of a summable function: W. L. HART.

Five notes on Einstein's theory of gravitation: EDWARD KASNER.

On the convergence of certain trigonometric approximations: DUNHAM JACKSON.

Note on the Picard method of successive approzimations: DUNHAM JACKSON.

Symbolic notation in the theory of modular invariants: OLIVE C. HAZLETT.

On the Fourier coefficients of a continuous func tion: T. H. GRONWALL.

A sequence of polynomials connected with the n-th root of unity: T. H. GRONWALL.

Upper bounds of the coefficients in conformal mapping: T. H. GRONWALL.

1

THE AGRONOMIST'S PART IN THE WORLD'S FOOD SUPPLY1

THE welfare of mankind is intimately bound up with the world's food supply. Not that man can "live by bread alone," but he is unable to devote himself to the higher phases of an advancing civilization if he is conscious of the gnawings of hunger. Since the shortage in various food products during the war, people generally have taken a much keener interest in the whole question of food supply. The old statement that " we never miss the water till the well runs dry" is here exemplified. So long as the grocer had plenty of flour and sugar most people considered the supply in much the same way as they considered the supply of air. The only worry was to find money with which to purchase needed articles.

When it became necessary to go to a dozen stores before being able to buy any sugar, and then only a pound or two; when the meat allowance was restricted; and when white flour had to be supplemented by all kinds of substitutes-then people began to realize that the supply of food might not be inexhaustible.

The shortage of food during the war has been a good lesson for the people of the United States. It has taught them what some of the peoples of Asia have been so often forced by famine to realize, namely, that food can be had only when a supply is available, and that this supply may at times be far short of actual needs. Conditions during the war were of course unusual; we hope they will never recur. I do not at this time desire to consider the food shortage due to the war but rather the whole food situation as it is likely to affect mankind in the future as the

1 Address of the president of the American Society of Agronomy, Springfield, Mass., October 18, 1920.