tional welfare requires that the manufacturer of scientific apparatus in this country should be sufficiently protected so as to be enabled to compete with foreign production. But, on the other hand, it is evident that if we make the duty on such supplies so rigid as to exclude foreign articles entirely, a decided handicap on knowledge must result, for it is well understood by those who have been in touch with scientific production that certain things, such as fine instruments and rare chemicals, can only be profitably made by one concern, perhaps, in the whole world. It does not pay any one else to compete with such a manufacturer as the sales are too small. If, for instance, there is need of some rare organic chemical that is only made by one man in the world and, while of very great scientific value, is not sufficiently used to warrant any two concerns to study the details of manufacture, it is obviously unwise to handicap any scientist in any country from obtaining this article. Many of the chemicals in Kahlbaum's list, so familiar to all in pre-war days, come in this category, and it can not be disputed that a prohibitive duty on such items will restrict research work to a considerable extent and serve no good purpose, because the amount of revenue received by the government is too small. In addition, the encouragement given to manufacturers to produce rare chemicals is almost nil and no American firm could be induced to undertake the task. Perhaps in the past the duty-free privilege to institutions was abused, not directly by the institutions, but because of the wording of the original law, for some articles which had acquired a commercial rather than a scientific standing could be imported duty-free by all institutions regardless of the fact whether the article was also produced in this country or not. The patriotic element played no part in the decision, even though the home-made article cost but little more than the imported one. One great drawback to the importation of scientific apparatus has always been the great amount of time which elapses between placing the order and its delivery. In order to overcome this drawback many people, and this ingeniously, have sought to induce the importer to deliver the goods from the shelves and replace the article when the import shipment arrives. However, this was a distinct evasion of the law and it has been reported that certain firms have been threatened with fines for committing this evasion of the government regulations. In some cases these firms did this unknowingly for the accommodation of the institution. Again, in many cases the interest in the research had almost vanished before the article was delivered. Therefore, to meet the demand, firms that imported materials were compelled to carry immense stocks of imported articles in order that they might have on hand the kind of apparatus or the chemical required. This necessitated an enormous increase in the cost of apparatus to institutions. Furthermore, any improvements to apparatus which might occur to the scientist after having placed the order were impossible of execution, owing to the distance between the manufacturer and the user. It might be said that the distance between manufacturer and consumer has almost always prevented the habit of suggesting improvements from making itself felt. This difficulty could be avoided by having the apparatus manufactured nearer at hand. The law proposed by the Council of the American Chemical Society, namely, that the duty-free law be entirely abolished, will undoubtedly prove satisfactory to a limited extent.1 Apparently there is no great opposition to the law on the part of institutions that have been accustomed to duty-free importation and naturally no commercial firm that has made use of duty-paid materials before will oppose it. As a matter of fact, many American firms make materials that are equal if not superior in many ways to the imported goods. Coors porcelain, made by the Herold Glass & Porcelain Company of Golden, Colorado, Pyrex Glass of the Corning Glass Company of Corn 1 See Journal of the American Chemical Society, January, 1919, Council Proceedings and Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, January, 1919. ing, New York, the Nonsol Glass manufactured by Whitall, Tatum & Company at Milville, New Jersey, the especially fine physical control of the Kimble Glass Company at Vineland, New Jersey, and the production of fine special apparatus by Eimer & Amend of New York City-all show what can be done in this country in an emergency. If these conditions continue to be fostered we may in time lead the world in the production of scientific things. Certainly interest in this subject is growing and a movement is now on foot to interest manufacturers, jobbers and buyers in the possible publication of a journal devoted to chemical apparatus. Undoubtedly the time will come, however, when some qualifying clause should be embodied in the tariff laws by which the defects of the proposed high protective tariff laws will be overcome, in order to assist especially qualified men to procure from abroad articles of great scientific merit though of little commercial value, which of necessity must be produced by the genius who devised the apparatus or prepared the compound. Probably this clause would necessarily be administered by some committee of scientists appointed by the government. Whether these defects to the proposed law are to be remedied by allowing certain things to come in dutyfree as indicated, or by a system of bonuses to scientific institutions or members using material, is a debatable question. To sum up the whole matter, it would seem to the authors that a method should be devised whereby all essential scientific material should be manufactured by the nation and while a general protective duty will probably be secured from Congress, it is our opinion that care should be taken that no obstacle be put in the way of the scientist doing constructive research. THOMAS B. FREAS, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY W. L. ESTABROOKE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE USE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE IN SHIPBUILDING REINFORCED Concrete was first used in making a boat in France in 1849, but its use languished from 1849 until 1887 when a small concrete boat was built in Holland. This boat was first used by duck shooters on account of its high stability, and in 1918 it was still in use by a cement-products company in Amsterdam. Italy, Germany and England next fell in line, and a revival of concrete boat construction in France took place in 1916. Concrete boats were constructed also in New South Wales, Canada, China and Spain. After the outbreak of the war, as her ships were destroyed by submarines, Norway lost no time in building concrete ships. At the Fougner plant, at Moss, the Nannsiffiord, a 200-ton concrete cargo vessel was built and, after a successful trial trip, engaged in traffic between Norway and England and along the Norwegian coast. Norwegian coast. This was practically the pioneer seagoing self-propelled concrete ship. In 1918 the construction of two fleets of concrete barges, each barge measuring 20 by 130 feet and of 550 tons capacity, was begun at New Orleans, La., and at Seattle, Wash. In 1918 the Faith, a concrete self-propelled merchant vessel of 5,000 tons dead-weight capacity, was launched at San Francisco, Cal. In the stress to supply new ships reinforced concrete was adopted as a building material mainly for the following reasons: First, the concrete materials required are easily obtained, and the steel needed is employed in a form and quantity which make no strain on the rolling mills; second, the labor is less skilled and is recruited from a class totally different from the ordinary shipyard labor, so that the work does not increase the stress on the existing shipyards; third, a concrete ship costs no more than a steel ship and requires less expenditure for its upkeep; fourth, the time of construction is shorter. When these facts are coupled with three considerations which make reinforced concrete most valuable for shipbuilding there seem to be abundant reasons for its present larger use for that purpose. These considerations are: First, the concrete ship can be made practically waterproof; second, the reinforcement can be completely inclosed by the concrete so as to prevent rusting; third, concrete and reinforced concrete are absolutely fireproof. Concrete used as construction material improves with age; there is no definite knowledge to-day as to the limits of its durability in time. It is not known to be attacked by insects; mould, vermin and bacteria find no soil for growth in it, and consequently ferroconcrete vessels can easily be kept clean. The ease of repairing a concrete ship by the simple application of new concrete is also a distinct advantage. A chapter of "Mineral Resources of the United States" on cement in 1917, published by the United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, includes a section on concrete ships, by Robert W. Lesley, associate of the American Society of Civil Engineers, one of the pioneer manufacturers of Portland cement and a member of the committee on concrete ships of the American Concrete Institute. Mr. Lesley gives a full account of the ship Faith, the investigations of the American Concrete Institute, government construction, and patents for concrete ships, also a bibliography of concrete in shipbuilding. In carrying out its emergency shipbuilding program the government made contracts for a large number of concrete ships. After the armistice the general program was changed; the total output of steel, wood and concrete ships was curtailed, but the infant concrete shipbuilding industry will probably continue to grow, for it still affords great opportunities for research and development. EDUCATION AND SCIENCE IN THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE ESTIMATES THE estimates for civil services for the year ending March 31, 1920, as quoted in Nature, amounted in Class IV. (Education, Science and Art), to £41,251,610. The following are among the estimates: as a token of the affectionate regard in which he was held by his fellow members." Professor Pickering was a vice-president of the society from 1909 to 1917. DR. J. A. ALLEN, curator of mammals in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, has been elected the first honorary member of the American Society of Mammalogists and the only person to be elected to such membership during the present year. THE Harris lectures for 1920 at Northwestern University, are to be delivered by Professor Edward Sharpley Schafer, professor of physiology in the University of Edinburgh. DR. E. H. SELLARDS, who has been state geologist of Florida since the organization of the survey in 1907, has resigned, and has accepted appointment as geologist in the Bureau of Economic Geology of the University of Texas. Herman Gunter who has been assistant geologist since the department was established has been appointed state geologist. DR. HERMAN BIGGS, public health commissioner, New York state, presided over the Red Cross Conference held at Cannes this month. CONSEQUENT upon the occupation of AlsaceLorraine by the French, M. Esclangon, formerly assistant at the Bordeaux Observatory, has been appointed director of the Strasbourg Observatory. W. M. SMART, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge, has been appointed chief assistant at the Cambridge Observatory. PROFESSOR VAUGHAN HARLEY has resigned the chair of pathological chemistry, which he has held for twenty-three years at the University of London. CONCLUDING a study of the various phases of the food problem in Army aviation camps, Guy R. Stewart, assistant professor of agricultural chemistry, has resumed his duties at the University of California. Dr. Roy E. Clausen, assistant professor of genetics, has also returned to the university after nearly two years' service in the army. THE following members of Stanford University have been released from government service and resumed their academic duties with the opening of the spring quarter, March 31, 1919: Bailey Willis, professor of geology; William Frederick Durand, professor of mechanical engineering; Ernest Gale Martin, professor of physiology; Clelia Duel Mosher, assistant professor of personal hygiene and medical adviser of women; Albion Walter Hewlett, professor of medicine and Stanley Stillman, professor of surgery. A COMPLIMENTARY dinner was tendered Colonel Alexander Lambert, M. C., U. S. Army, president-elect of the American Medical Association, by his professional friends in New York City, on April 12. About 400 of the leading physicians of New York and the east attended. Dr. George D. Stewart acted as toastmaster. The speakers were Colonel Frank Billings, M. C., U. S. Army, Chicago; Dr. William S. Thayer, of Baltimore; Dr. George E. Brewer, of New York, and Rev. Charles A. Eaton, of New York. Dr. Lambert responded with an account of his experiences abroad as chief medical director of the American Red Cross hospitals. THE Journal of the American Mathematical Society states that Professor Joseph Allen, of the College of the City of New York, and Professor W. H. Metzler, of the University of Syracuse, have gone to France on army educational work. Captain P. L. Thorne, assistant professor of mathematics at New York University, has recently returned to his university work. He served at the front in France with the Sixtieth Heavy Artillery regiment. Captain A. L. Underhill, of the University of Minnesota, has been appointed Commandant at the University of Grenoble in France, where several hundred American soldiers are taking courses while awaiting their opportunity to return home. PROFESSOR MIYAJIMA, of Tokyo, has arrived in Brazil where he is to do pathological research work at the Butantan Institute. MESSRS. HOYT S. GALE and J. B. UMPLEBY, of the U. S. Geological Survey, have gone to France to investigate certain questions of mineral resources, particularly potash salts, involved in the peace negotiations. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL THE New Haven Section of the American Chemical Society will give a scholarship in chemistry in the Yale Graduate School for the year 1919-20, with the understanding that the scholarship be given to "a graduate student who is a candidate for a higher degree in the department of chemistry. The recipient must be a resident of the territory covered by the New Haven Section, and be selected by a committee composed of the president and councillor of the section and the chairman of the department of chemistry of Yale University." THE Iowa state legislature has appropriated $175,000 for the establishment of a psychopathic hospital at the state university. This hospital will be open to both public and private patients suffering from mental disorders. The same legislature also extended the so-called Perkins law to include adults. By the Perkins law an orthopedic hospital is maintained at the university for the free treatment of the crippled children in the state. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR LEO F. RETTGER has been promoted to a professorship of bacteriology at Yale University. Dr. Rettger received his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Indiana, and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1902. After studying abroad he was for five years. research scholar and fellow at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. IN the department of chemistry of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the following appointments have been made: William H. McAdams, to be assistant professor of chemical engineering; Dr. Charles S. Venable and Dr. William G. Horsch, to be research associates in applied chemistry, and Thomas M. Knowland, to be research assistant in the same department. AT the University of Strasbourg, professor René M. Fréchet, of the university of Poitiers, has been appointed professor of mathematics, and Pierre Weiss, professor at the Polytechnikum, Zurich, professor of general physics. PROFESSOR E. WIECHERT, of Göttingen, has been appointed professor of geodesy and geophysics at the University of Berlin. THE Cavendish professorship of experimental physics, at the University of Cambridge, recently vacated by Sir J. J. Thomson, has been filled by the appointment of Sir Ernest Rutherford, of the University of Manchester. Sir J. J. Thomson retains an honorary professorship. DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE ERRONEOUS GENERIC DETERMINATIONS OF BEES IN SCIENCE, 49: 71, Professor Stevens makes some statements regarding a paper with the above title in SCIENCE, 48: 368. He thinks many important factors influencing generic limitations were overlooked. For example, he points out that the average varies in proportion to the size of the region. In comparing the New Jersey with the local list I thought that fact was obvious. It was intended to discuss neither various factors nor |