edge as those on the chemical side. For example there is the rich field of study concerning the permeability of cell membranes and the viscosity of protoplasm, subjects bearing intimately on the life and activities of all cells, and involving the methods of physics rather than chemistry; there is the study of stimulation and functional response in the excitable tissues, which, especially in its electrical aspects, requires much of the technique and knowledge of the physicist; there is the whole field of the special senses including physiological optics and color vision, all of which may properly be called biophysics; and there is the study of the effects of radiation of various sorts on cell structure and function. All these are large fields offering great possibilities of future development, into which the average biologist is but meagerly equipped to penetrate far without the aid of a physicist with whom he can cooperate in a state of mutual understanding.

How is the situation to be met Undoubtedly most biologists-especially physiologists -would do more effective work if they had given more time to the study of physics, but it is a question how much time they can afford to divert from biological study for this purpose. The physiologist who tries to approximate the training of the professonal physicist, will not have time to acquire the thorough knowledge of biology which he should have. The physicist who must first of all be expert in his own line, can not digress to explore the field of biology with the thoroughness necessary to see where his methods would yield a harvest of data valuable to biology and instructive to himself.

The best answer is probably to be found in cooperation between experts in the two fields. A well-trained physicist with more than average knowledge of biology, cooperating with a physiologist with a good elementary knowledge of physics, should make a team capable of doing valuable work in the field where physics and biology touch-the analysis of vital phenomena.

To this end there should be courses of instruction in biophysics adapted to bringing

together the workers in the two fields. Physiology as taught in the best laboratories offers the nearest approach to this which at present exists in most universities. But in physiology the biological side strongly predominates; the physical technique taught is crude compared with that of the trained physicist, and there is little attention given to physical theory. Moreover, physiology is usually taught in medical schools, where it is made to conform to the needs of the prospective physician. Thus it is treated as an applied science rather than as a pure science; it is not primarily adapted as a preparation for research.

A course is being developed at Harvard which, it is hoped, will prove a useful step toward meeting this need. It is offered by the physics department under the designation "biophysics." Through cooperation between members of the departments of physics, zoology, botany and physiology and the Cancer Commission, it is intended that this course shall serve the students of both physics and biology, introducing to the physicists those phenomena whereby living matter shows its chief differences from all other matter, and some of those applications of physics to biology which promise to add substantially to our knowledge, and enabling the biologists to learn something of those aspects of physics which it is most important that they should know. ALEXANDER FORBES

HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE POWEr resourceS OF CANADA THE Canadian Commission of Conservation is issuing a series of reports upon the power resources of the Dominion, the latest being "Water Powers of British Columbia." According to a review in the Geographical Journal it is a large volume of over 600 pages, illustrated by maps and photographs, and it deals with the subject (so far as present knowledge goes) in an exhaustive manner. A "General Introduction" discusses the value of water as a natural resource, explaining the

complicated interrelations between the various uses-e. g., for power, irrigation, navigation, fisheries, domestic supplies, etc.-drawing on the experience of the United States as well as that of Canada, and showing the need for common organization and communal supervision of the various users. A second chapter deals with "Water Power Data," and under this head are given facts showing the recent tendency, particularly marked in the United States, for the control of water-power to become concentrated in the hands of a few great and related groups of financial interests. Succeeding chapters describe the history and present position of legislative control, and most of the remaining part of the volume is devoted to the present utilization and the possibilities of water-power in the Province, and the physical conditions which determine them, viz., relief (including storage facilities) and climate. In this connection a detailed description of the physical geography of each of the river systems is given, and numerous tables of streamflow, precipitation, and temperature. The scope of the volume is therefore wider than its title would suggest. It may be noted that the surveyed sites give a total of about 3,000,000 H.P., but although this is an advance on earlier estimates, it does not take into account the fact that very large and important areas have been only superficially surveyed or are virtually unknown, nor does it allow for storage improvements.

Another publication of the commission deals with "Power in Alberta-water, coal and natural gas." It first enumerates the water-powers of the Province, which are mainly on the Bow River above Calgary and on the Athabasca River about 150 miles above Lake Athabasca, and then discusses the relative costs and advantages of water-power and steam-power. This leads to a consideration of the coal resources of Alberta. These are enormous, and the report states that they form 87 per cent. of the coal of Canada, and to show what that means one may add that, according to Memoir 59 of the Geological Survey of Canada, the total supply of the Dominion is 1,234,000 million tons, while that of the British Isles is only

190,000 million tons. Allowance has to be made for the facts that of the Canadian total about three quarters consists of sub-bituminous coal or lignite, and that three fifths of the Alberta supply belongs to this group. Making allowance for this, it still remains true that the fuel resources of Alberta are very much greater than those of Britain. Natural gas is at present locally important, but it has an uncertain future. The report ends with a note comparing various methods for the fixation of nitrogen by electricity, a matter which will be of importance when the prairie lands need cheap artificial manures.

FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS

THE regular sealing operations at the Pribilof Islands closed for the season on August 10. The Bureau of Fisheries reports that telegraphic information is to the effect that in the current calendar year through August 10 there were taken on St. Paul Island 21,936 pelts, and on St. George Island, 4,042, a total of 25,978. Of the skins taken, 721 were from seals 7 years of age or older. The figures given are subject to slight correction when final reports are made. The fall killings, made chiefly to supply. food for the natives, will add somewhat to the year's total.

The by-products plant which was operated in connection with the sealing operations on St. Paul Island produced approximately 1,800 gallons of oil and 29,000 pounds of meat or fertilizer. The operations of the plant were curtailed because of inability to secure a sufficient number of laborers from the Aleutian Islands.

During the present sealing season the bureau has utilized on St. Paul Island a number of native workmen from St. George Island. This was done without curtailing the proper take of sealskins on St. George. The transfer of the men from St. George to St. Paul was effected by the Coast Guard cutter Bear and the bureau's vessel Eider.

The Bureau of Fisheries further states that misrepresentations have recently gained currency to the effect that pelagic sealing operations are to be permitted shortly in the North

Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. It has been alleged that the United State government is about to remove the restrictions on pelagic sealing and that great activity will soon be witnessed in the outfitting of vessels for carrying on the work. A newspaper has recently published an item which purports to give minute details. The statements therein are so misleading in character as to give rise to the impression that they were fabricated solely for the purpose of creating a sensation or of encouraging uninformed persons to engage in an illegal enterprise.

The truth of the matter is that pelagic sealing in the North Pacific Ocean, north of the thirtieth parallel of north latitude and including the seas of Bering, Kamchatka, Okhotsk, and Japan, is prohibited by an international agreement entered into in 1911 by the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia. The agreement is in perpetuity unless one or more of the parties thereto dissent. With the well-demonstrated benefits which accrue to all the governments concerned from the rational management of the fur-seal herds, there is little likelihood that any one will permit its citizens or subjects to resume at any time in the future the disastrous practise of pelagic sealing.

The United States and Canada cooperate fully in patrolling and protecting the Alaska fur-seal herd. U. S. Coast Guard vessels are ever on the alert to detect violations of the international agreement, and it is safe to say that any clandestine operations would come to grief in short order.

In the fiscal year 1920 the revenue to the United States government from the sale of fur-seal skins was $1,457,790. Aside from the revenue to this government, the governments of Great Britain and of Japan share in the annual take of Alaska fur-seals to the extent of 15 per cent. each.

THE PROPOSED CALIFORNIA ANTI-VIVISECTION LEGISLATION

THE board of regents of the University of California and the trustees of Stanford University have united in a protest against the anti-vivisectionist initiative. They say:

The advance of sanitation, modern medicine and physiology and the teaching of biology all rest on animal experimentation. The control of epidemic diseases, the management of surgical operations and of childbirth, and the certification of milk and water supplies would be impossible without the knowledge gained by such studies. In fact, the whole structure of the present-day protection of the public from disease rests upon animal experimentation.

The University of California and Stanford Uni versity are vitally interested in this initiative measure since its passage would stop the research work now going on in their medical schools, hospitals and laboratories, and in the Bureau of Animal Industry. The studies on botulism in olives, which will not only save the ripe olive industry of the state, but many lives, would cease, as would likewise the manufacture of serum for the prevention of hog cholera, the preparation of vaccine for anthrax, and the various other measures that annually save millions of dollars and prevent great suffering among domestic animals. Even feeding on animals would be impossible.

No worse attack on the welfare of the state and on the right of the university to seek and teach the truth could be made. Every man, woman and child, every unborn babe, every domestic animal in the state will be affected if this measure becomes a law. It is unnecessary special legislation due to prejudice and misinformation. No one will tolerate cruelty to animals. The present laws of the state are drastic and quite sufficient to control any abuse. We know that there is no cruelty to animals in the laboratories of the universities. They are in charge of men and women of the highest character, who are unselfishly working to better the lot of their fellow men. Anesthetics are always used for animals in the laboratory in exactly the same way that they are used by surgeons in the operating room. The real object of the antivivisectionist is not the prevention of cruelty to animals, but the prevention of progress in science and medicine.

THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL NEW ENGLAND INTERCOLLEGIATE GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION THE sixteenth annual New England Intercollegiate Geological Excursion will be held in the vicinity of Middletown, Connecticut, October 8 and 9, 1920. There will be two parts to the excursion. Friday afternoon the Strickland pegmatite quarry, Collins Hill, Portland,

will be visited. The quarry has produced in recent years a greater variety of interesting minerals than any other in this locality, and is always an attraction to visiting mineralogists.

Saturday the party will devote its attention to the faulting within the Triassic valley. The fault-line between the Lamentation Mountain block and the Hanging Hills block will be the particular study. Step faults and drag dips are frequent along the fault-line and give clear evidence of the magnitude of the faulting movements.

On Friday evening Professor W. M. Davis will speak on the Connecticut Triassic area as a whole. Professor W. N. Rice will then outline the details of the Saturday excursion and Professor W. G. Foye discuss the pegmatite quarries in the vicinity of Middletown. Immediately before these talks a luncheon will be served to the visiting geologists by Wesleyan University.

A collection of minerals from the pegmatites including one of the largest known collections of uraninites in the country will be on exhibition.

A cordial invitation is extended to all teachers and graduate students of geography and geology in the high schools, normal schools and colleges of New England.

October 17. Dr. J. H. Moore, astronomer, Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, Calif. Subject: "The nebulæ."

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

DR. LEO S. ROWE, assistant secretary of the treasury and formerly professor of political science in the University of Pennsylvania, has assumed the directorship of the Pan-American Union at Washington, succeeding Dr. John Barrett, who has retired after fifteen years as head of the union.

Ar a meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry in New York City on September 27, the Grasselli medal was conferred on Dr. Allen Rogers, of the Pratt Institute. The presentation address was made by Professor M. T. Bogert.

PROFESSOR FREDERICK HAYNES NEWELL, head of the department of civil engineering at the University of Illinois and formerly director of the United States Reclamation Service, has resigned and will go to California.

DR. ERNEST W. BROWN, professor of mathematics in Yale University, is on leave of absence during the first half of the current academic year and is sailing for England early in October to be away for a couple of months. His address there will be Christ's College, Cambridge.

PROFESSOR CHARLES A. KOFOID, of the University of California, has returned to Berkeley from a tour of the British and French institutes of parasitology and tropical medicine. He delivered addresses at the British Association for the Advancement of Science on "Hookworm and human efficiency" and on "The neuromotor system of flagellates and ciliates and its relation to mitosis and the origin of bilateral symmetry." He was elected vice-president of the Zoological Section of the association and received the honorary degree of doctor of science from the University of Wales.

MR. E. C. LEONARD, of the division of plants, U. S. National Museum, who accompanied Dr. W. L. Abbott to Haiti in February for botan

ical explorations, returned to Washington on July 30.

PROFESSOR JOSEPH F. ROCK, formerly professor in the College of Hawaii, Honolulu, has left Washington upon an extended trip of agricultural exploration in eastern Asia for the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, U. S. Department of Agriculture, with which he has recently become connected.

AT the congress of physiologists held in Paris last July under the presidency of Professor Charles Richet, the Americans in attendance were Professor G. N. Stewart, Western Reserve University; Professor Frederic S. Lee, Columbia University; Professor Graham Lusk, Cornell University; Dr. L. J. Henderson, Harvard University; Professor J. J. R. Macleod, Toronto University, and Professor Fraser Harris, Dalhousie University.

SIR WILLIAM MACEWAN has been elected president of the International Society of Surgery, whose next meeting will probably be held in London during the summer of 1923.

THE following officers of the Pacific Division of the Phytopathological Society of America have been elected and will hold office for two years: President, Dr. H. S. Reed, Riverside, California; Vice-president, Dr. J. W. Hotson, University of Washington, Seattle; SecretaryTreasurer, Dr. S. M. Zeller, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon.

J. J. DAVIS has resigned as agent in charge of the Japanese beetle control project at Riverton, New Jersey, to accept a position as head of the departments of entomology of Purdue University and the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, effective on October 1.

MR. R. M. OVERBECK, geologist, has resigned from the U. S. Geological Survey to accept a position with an oil company.

THE Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences states that while in charge of a Coast and Geodetic Survey subparty working in New Mexico, Mr. R. L. Schoppe was struck by lightning and seriously burned, but is recovering.

ACCORDING to the Berlin correspondent of the London Times Professor Einstein is so much disgusted by attacks made upon him by certain of his anti-semitic scientific colleagues that he may leave Berlin altogether. The Tageblatt makes a strong protest against the annoyance to which Professor Einstein has been subjected, which it describes as disgraceful. It says: "It is the duty of the Berlin University to do all in its power to keep Professor Einstein. Every one who desires to maintain the honor of German science in the future must now stand by this man. " Professor Einstein himself makes a reply in the Tageblatt to his assailants. He ends by saying that it will make a singularly bad impression on his confrères to see how the theory of relativity and its originator are being traduced in Germany.

THE botanists of America have sympathized deeply with the eminent French bryologist, M. Jules Cardot, whose house at Charleville was wrecked and the most valuable part of his library and collections destroyed by the German invaders. Not only was this done, but M. Cardot's fortune was so impaired by the loss of property due to the war that, for the present at least, he has given up his studies and entered the service of the French Government of Indo-China. A portion of M. Cardot's library and collections valued at 10,000 francs has been acquired by the French National Museum at Paris. The museum contributed 5,000 francs, English bryologists and botanists 2,500 francs and members of the Sullivant Moss Society in excess of the other 2,500 francs. The success of the American subscription was due largely to the efforts of the secretary of the society, Mr. Edward B. Chamberlain.

ARMAND GAUTIER, long professor of biological and medical chemistry in the Paris School of Medicine and distinguished for his contributions to these subjects, has died at the age of eighty-two years.

Dr. D. P. von HANSEMANN, professor of pathologic anatomy at Berlin, has died at the age of sixty-two years.