same institution, has been appointed professor of hygiene, succeeding Dr. John A. Amyst, who has been appointed deputy minister of health in the Federal Department of Health, Ottawa. Dr. Fitzgerald will continue to act as director of the Connaught Laboratories.

PROFESSOR L. BARD, who for twenty years has held the chair of clinical medicine at the University of Geneva, has accepted a corresponding position at the University of Strasburg.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE

EMIL FISCHER AFTER THE WAR

THE reading of Professor Harrow's highly appreciative account, in SCIENCE of August 15, of Emil Fischer and his work recalls to me a meeting that I had with Fischer in February of this year in Berlin. I have referred, in a recent little book about Germany and Germans since the war, to a conversation which Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor and I, officially representing Mr. Hoover and the American Food Administration, had in our rooms in the Hotel Adlon in Berlin one Sunday morning last February with three distinguished German scientific men. The conversation was primarily an interview with these well-informed men on the subject of the German food situation; we were there to try to find out just what food importations were immediately necessary to keep the German people from further suffering and danger. We had talked with responsible officials of the new German government, and been presented with various official statements by them, but we wanted to check these by any unofficial information we could obtain. Hence this Sunday morning meeting in our hotel rooms with Karl Ballod, Germany's foremost economic statistician, Nathan Zuntz, one of her first animal physiologists, and Emil Fischer, her great organic chemist. But as scientific and university men our talk ran rather freely and frankly, and touched other matters than food statistics. It was a conversation of fascinating interest, 1"Germany in the War and After," 1919, Macmillan Co., N. Y.

with Fischer the dominant figure in it. Ballod, tall and spare, of serious mien, was rather restrained and precise; Zuntz, small and active, even smiling, was perhaps a little exaggeratedly gracious; Fischer, heavy-bodied, vigorous and emphatic, was easy and with no trace of self-consciousness. All agreed on the terrible seriousness of the situation but each had special views as to the more pressing necessities and means of meeting them. All declared that they had realized for more than a year the practical certainty of Germany's ultimate collapse, but replying to our questions as to why they had not used their knowledge of the fatal food and general economic situation to prevail on the German authorities to try to end the war while an ending might be made that would be less disastrous than any that could come after a further persistence in the struggle, all declared their complete helplessness to exercise a sufficient influence on rulers or people. "We should not have been heard at first and before we could push the matter to a general hearing we should have been in prison or have had to flee the country to avoid it. Remember Forster and Nicolai and Muehlon," they said.

They told of their own difficulties to find food for themselves and families, despite their sufficient financial means, and then spoke especially of the terrible hardships of their less well paid colleagues and small-salaried assistants. Fischer, in particular, revealed his sympathy for his distressed helpers, while all three spoke of the serious handicap the situation had been on the work in the scientific institutions with which they were affiliated.

But while Ballod looked on the future

darkly, and Zuntz with no confidence, Fischer was more sanguine. He said: "We have got to start again, but we can start." When we told him that both America and England had made some headway during the war period in the production of dyes and optical glass and some other things that had been a monopoly of Germany in the days before the war, and that we should be far more independent in such ways than we had been before, Fischer was silent a moment, thoughtful and serious of face, but soon looked up and said: "Well, that

sounds rather bad; but "—and he smiled confidently and made a large gesture with his open hands-" we'll make something new that you'll have to have." It was a fine confidence, and characteristic of the wonder-worker who had all his life been making "something new." VERNON KELLOGG

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL,
WASHINGTON

THE AURORAL DISPLAY OF SEPTEMBER 18

ON the evening of September 18, shortly after eleven o'clock and continuing until after twelve, there was the most unusual manifestation of aurora borealis at Fargo that we have ever witnessed. It consisted of an intensely luminous band some five degrees in width, extending through the zenith from one horizon to the other. The eastern end was some fifteen degrees south of east and the western end a corresponding distance north of west. The band was very uniform in width and intensity, though somewhat wider and more intense at the zenith. It had the general appearance of an intense shaft of light from a powerful searchlight, except for its direction and position. At the same time there was a considerable manifestation of aurora at the north, but between that and the band spoken of there was no illumination.

We have never had our attention called to a like phenomenon and we are wondering if it was observed at other points.

C. B. WALDRON

AURORAL DISPLAYS AND THE MAGNETIC

NEEDLE

IN connection with the auroral displays of August 11 last, mentioned in these columns on August 22, it may be of interest to mention the behavior of the magnetic needle at Omaha at the time. The wire chief of the Western Union Telegraph Company called me by telephone that morning and said that there was very considerable and unusual trouble with earth currents over the wires between Chicago and Cheyenne as far south as Kansas City. Upon this notification I began to observe the behavior of the magnetic needle. I have two fine needles about 4 inches long, one in a

transit with a full circle, and the other in a plane table with a range of only 5 degrees on either side of the zero. As the first trembled too much on account of the mechanical vibrations of the floor of the room, I confined my attention to the second. I saw the north end of the needle first creep a few degrees to the west, and then by slow stages advance as far as five degrees to the east. Although I kept myself as motionless as possible, I saw the needle swing violently to the west, the full range of the case, through an arc, therefore, of more than 10 degrees, so that it rebounded by its impact against the side. This was at about 5 P.M., Summer Central Time.

A double track electric railway ran north and south about 150 feet to the east of the needle. At almost its nearest point there is a break in both trolley lines, serving as a division point between two sections. This meant that the current supplied over the trolley to the cars was suddenly interrupted whenever the cars came to this division point. I watched the needle very closely at these moments to see whether this feature might account for its oscillations, but could not find the least connection. The next day the needle was as quiet as if it had been riveted to its

case.

WILLIAM F. RIGGE

QUOTATIONS

SCIENCE AND THE PRESS

Is it possible for the newspaper press to be a useful intermediary between the investigator and the public? Mr. Chester H. Rowell, a well-known American journalist, discussed the question at the recent Pacific meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Neither here nor in the United States can there be any doubt as to the advantage of widespread knowledge of the methods, the objects, the results, and the personalities of science. Even during the war we suffered much from misapprehension of these. Science was called on to produce, and did produce, magical results as a conjuror produces rabbits from his sleeve. There was no appreciation of the long training, the elaborate

apparatus, and the skilled methods required for these feats. And too often the specifications of the inventions were amended by ignorant officials, and, their application entrusted to unskilled persons. Such costly errors can be avoided in the future, and the requisite support given to the deliberate pursuit of science, only if the nation generally learns to understand and sympathize with scientific men and scientific work.

Mr. Rowell is confident that the popular press is indispensable for any general contact with a wide public. He offers advice, based on American conditions, as to how such a result may be accomplished. He distinguishes between the daily newspapers and the Sunday newspapers. The latter vehicle is less sharply marked off in this country than in America, Germany and Vienna, where the vast bulk of the Sunday issues overwhelms those who make first acquaintance with them. Mr. Rowell says that it is necessary to "print an excessive amount of reading matter, to float the advertising." The news will not go round, and so, as a desperate resort, the editors have recourse to literature, science, and the arts. Scientific men are given this friendly advice: the Sunday papers will take anything, even science. But entrance to the columns of the daily newspapers is another matter. That goes by merit. The test of merit is that the " copy" is news. There is no hope, says this expert, of getting things printed as news because they are "useful or useless, beneficial or injurious." "The eternal verities are not news, though a temporary or adventitious fact regarding them may be." The reference, we repeat, is to conditions in the United States, but they may be worth noting by the English public, who are more responsible for the contents of the newspapers they read than they perhaps realize.The London Times.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS Starfishes of the Philippine Seas and Adjacent Waters. By WALTER K. FISHER. United States National Museum Bulletin 100. Washington, Government Printing Office. 1919. Pp. xxi +712, 156 pls.

For several years, students of echinoderms have been awaiting with some impatience the appearance of Fisher's complete report on the sea-stars collected by the Albatross in the East Indian region, between December, 1907, and December, 1910. Several preliminary papers have appeared, in which most of the novelties were described, but it was well understood that the full report would be a monograph of the greatest importance to the morphologist and zoogeographer as well as to the systematist.

This expectation is wholly justified by the present volume, with its wealth of illustration and its ample discussions of structural and taxonomic problems. The brief preface, besides the customary acknowledgments for help received, recounts the chief facts as to number of species collected, the number of novelties and the new genera and subgenera represented. An introduction of some twenty pages gives a brief historical sketch of our knowledge of Philippine sea-stars and then plunges into a detailed analysis of the distribution of the species and the relationships of the fauna. There is a very large amount of zoogeographical material presented here, but the obvious criticism may be made that the treatment is too exclusively analytical. Probably, in view of the fact that the large and highly important material collected by the Siboga in the Dutch East Indies is as yet but partially studied, Dr. Fisher felt that any conclusions drawn from the Albatross material alone would be premature and almost certainly liable to revision. certainly liable to revision. The introduction closes with two pages of analysis of the composition of the Albatross collection and one wonders why this is placed at this point. rather than in connection with the similar data presented in the preface. Following the introduction is an important list of the seastars of Celebes and the Moluccas, with the authority given for each record, and then is given the list of Albatross stations at which sea-stars were taken.

Examination of this station list reveals some interesting facts. The largest number of species taken at any one station was nine

and that occurred but once. This was at station 5648 in Buton Strait, Celebes, in water 559 fathoms deep, and it is very remarkable that all of the nine species were new to science, three represented new genera, and of only one was there more than a single specimen! Surely this is one of the most notable dredgings of sea-stars ever made. At two of the Albatross stations, seven species of seastars were taken, but these were both in shallow water (9 or 10 fathoms) in the Tawi Tawi group; in one case, all were representatives of previously known species; in the other there were two new species, one representing a remarkable new genus. At each of two stations in the Philippines, 5482 at 67 fathoms and 5536 at 279 fathoms, half a dozen species were taken.

The remainder of the volume is occupied with the detailed account of 182 species and 10 subspecies, all but two of which were taken by the Albatross. Only one or two are here described for the first time, but 134 were new when taken and were originally described from this collection. Many of these are notable for structural peculiarities and 18 represented new genera, while others made the segregation of 6 additional genera or subgenera desirable. The method of treatment is admirable; a brief diagnosis of each species is followed by a description, more or less detailed according to the condition of the material and the importance of the species. If young specimens are available, a special paragraph is given to them, the features in which they differ from the adult being pointed out. The museum number of the holotype and the exact position of the type-locality are then given, followed by a statement of the known distribution and a list of the specimens examined. Last, and oftentimes most important of all, is a paragraph of "Remarks," in which is discussed the relationships of the form, its diversities and peculiarities, and any nomenclatural or distributional facts that need elucidation.

Many of the families and genera are treated in the same thoroughgoing way and in these discussions, Dr. Fisher's exceptional knowledge of sea-stars and of the literature con

cerning them is well shown. But more than this is revealed-clear thinking, openmindedness and a perfectly balanced judgment, that are very attractive and most convincing. The writer has no hobbies to ride and no hypotheses to defend; he is obviously seeking all the available facts and only the deductions which may reasonably be drawn from them. He is always seeking to throw light on the subject in hand and to unsnarl the tangles due to lack of knowledge or to misinformation. The frequent and carefully detailed keys to species and genera well illustrate this and will prove of constant service to other workers.

The recognition of subspecies, in the ornithological sense of forms passing by gradation into the typical form but occupying a different geographical area, is something of a novelty in the taxonomy of echinoderms but is of course the natural result of increasing knowledge. The question which may fairly be raised is whether we have sufficient data and material as yet to warrant their recognition. Probably we have in some cases, but in others it were well to be cautious. Thus Fisher recognizes the typical form and three subspecies (using trinomials as in ornithology) of Asterina coronata, of which very few specimens are as yet known; it is quite possible that we are here dealing with a somewhat variable species, and a large amount of material will show that there is no correlation between the diversities and the distribution.

In typography, arrangement and illustration the volume is very satisfactory. It is too bad that "starfishes" is used in the title when Dr. Fisher is known to be an advocate of "sea-stars as a substitute for the more familiar word. No doubt the editor considered "starfishes" a more "popular" title but it is so lamentably inaccurate, it is a pity Fisher could not have had his way in the matter. It is a little odd that neither term seems to be used in the text; at any rate, I have found neither; but once the phrase is used, "specimens of Asteroidea"! There is a good table of contents at the beginning of the volume, and at its end, a very full and useful index. The plates are half-tones, printed on both sides of the paper, interleaved

with pages of explanatory text; the arrangement is unusual and at first sight not attractive, but as soon as one has become accustomed to it, it is found to have much to commend it. The photographs from which most of the plates were made are exceptionally clear and hence the necessity of using halftones is not so unfortunate as might be. The impossibility of using a lens on such plates is counterbalanced by the numerous drawings of the essential details, so that every important species is amply illustrated. The volume is a credit to the Government Printing Office, as well as to the National Museum, and it amply confirms Fisher's position as chief among students of the Asteroidea.

HUBERT LYMAN CLARK

NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND
CLIMATOLOGY

AGRICULTURAL METEOROLOGY

SINCE weather is a prime factor in crop production, the study of agricultural meteorology is not lagging in this great farming country. It is only comparatively recently, however, that the U. S. Department of Agriculture has made available a large amount of reliable information about crops in such a form as to be used readily for comparison with weather and climate. For six years there has been a division of agricultural geography, Mr. O. E. Baker in charge, the principal object of which has been to issue by sections a carefully wrought Atlas of American Agriculture." An advance rainfall map of the United States,1 and advance folios on Frost and the Growing Season, and on Cotton3 have appeared, as well as extensive graphic contributions in the Year Book of the U. S. Department of Agri

1 Reproduced in Mo. Weather Rev., July, 1917, and discussed on pp. 338–345 by R. DeC. Ward. (Reviewed in SCIENCE, N. S., Vol. 48, July 19, 1918, pp. 67-71.)

2 Reviewed in Mo. Weather Rev., November, 1918, pp. 516-517, and in Geog. Rev., May, 1919, pp. 339-344. (Reprinted, Sci. Am. Suppl., August 23, 1919, pp 117–118.)

3 The climatology of the cotton plant is being reprinted in the Mo. Weather Rev., July, 1919, and is reviewed in Geog. Rev., May, 1919, pp. 348–349.

4

culture, 1915, 1916,5 1917° and 1918,' and a fine small atlas on "The Geography of the World's Agriculture." The Weather Bureau's contribution to the Atlas of American Agriculture has been the material for the climatic section, of which there is much still to be published; and now its division of agricultural meteorology, Professor J. Warren Smith, in charge, is pushing forward several lines of investigation on the influence of weather and climate on dates of planting and harvesting crops and on crop yields, and on the occurrence of damaging frosts and the possibility of forecasting them from weather conditions the day before.10 Furthermore, with the excellent crop maps now available, Professor R. DeC. Ward, of Harvard, has written an interesting interpretation of the "Larger relations of climate and crops in the United States." Some of the recent Weather Bureau contributions to agricultural meteorology will be reviewed briefly here.

Relation between Vegetative and Frostless Periods (by J. B. Kincer, Mo. Weather Rev., Feb., 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 106-110, 5 figs., 8 charts). Since 6° C. (about 43° F.) is gen

4"A Graphic Summary of American Agriculture," by Middleton Smith, O. E. Baker and R. G. Hainsworth, pp. 329-403, 4 graphs, 78 maps.

"A Graphic Summary of World Agriculture," by V. C. Finch, O. E. Baker and R. G. Hainsworth, pp. 531-553, 74 figs.

6"A Graphic Summary of Seasonal Work on Farm Crops," by O. E. Baker, C. F. Brooks and R. G. Hainsworth, pp. 537-589, 90 figs. Abstracted and discussed in Mo. Weather Rev., May, 1919, pp. 323-327.

7" Arable Land in the United States," by O. E. Baker and H. M. Strong, Separate 771, 10 pp., 10 graphs, 9 maps.

8 By V. C. Finch and O. E. Baker (Office of Farm Management, U. S. Dept. of Agric.) Washington, 1917. Reviewed in Jour. of Geog., January, 1919, pp. 39-40.

A thorough discussion of the effect of weather on the yields of corn, potatoes and winter wheat, by J. Warren Smith, is published in Proc. Second Pan-Am. Sci. Cong., 1915-16, Vol. 2, pp. 75-92: see review, in Geog. Rev., Vol. 4, 1917, p. 317.

10"Predicting Minimum Temperatures," by J. Warren Smith, Monthly Weather Review, August, 1917, pp 402-407.