Grand Conclave

There is probably no event of greater general scientific importance and interest than the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is held every year between Christmas and New Year's Day, so that scientists may be able to attend in full force. At other times, university duties might detain some or activities in far lands might keep them away.

Mathematicians, physicists, opticians, chemists, electrochemists, astronomers, geologists, geographers, seismologists, zoologists, eugenicists, mammalogists, botanists, phytopathologists, plant physiologists, ecologists, geneticists, pharmacologists, historians, philologists, paleontologists, microscopists, anthropologists, physiologists, psychologists, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, mining and metallurgical engineers, civil engineers, illuminating engineers, ceramicists, medics, anatomists, bacteriologists, agronomists, foresters, horticulturalists, educators, political scientists and simple naturalists--all assembled last week in Washington to hear and to tell (in accordance with their discoveries, observations, deductions) the truth.

Secretary of State Hughes opened the meeting with an address on International Cooperation. Later, the members went to the White House to be addressed by the President. But the main business was the meeting of the several sections, devoted to their respective subjects, before which papers were read. The succeeding paragraphs give a brief resume of the substance of some of the more important subjects treated .--followed by the name of the man who contributed the paper :

Anemia. Preparations of spleen and bone marrow combined have been used to increase the number of red blood corpuscles in rabbits, dogs, human beings. The treatment was used successfully in cases of secondary anemia, but had no value against pernicious anemia.--Dr. Chauncey D. Leake, University of Wisconsin.

Sir Esme. The U. S. has the "geographical merit" of being 3,000 miles away from Europe's troubles; but England, close at hand, must return to the balance of power doctrine or adhere to a league for peace.--Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador to the U. S.

Left-Handers. There is a larger proportion of left-handed men than women. Investigations seemed to indicate that high intelligence is associated with a high degree of laterality or at least with stability (that is, not with ambidexterity).--June E. Downey, American Psychological Association.

Potato Sap. By extracting a small amount of sap from a healthy potato plant and injecting it into a tobacco plant, the latter was found to become diseased. This disease from this plant could be transmitted to an unlimited number of other plants, showing that it was not merely a case of poisoning. --Dr. James Johnson, University of Wisconsin.

Improved Copper. Copper bars, seven-eighths of an inch thick, and six inches long, so soft that they can be bent double like a stick of molasses candy, but so strong that they can hardly be straightened with the strength of one's hands, were exhibited. Each is a single crystal of copper, produced by an improved process.--Dr. Wheeler P. Davey, General Electric Co.

New Vitamin. Experiments with the diet of white rats disclosed that on a certain diet they will thrive but will not produce young or, if they have young, will not have sufficient milk to feed them, will become nervous, irritable, cross with the young and even eat them. Olive, peanut, soy bean and peach kernel-oil were found to restore and promote fertility but failed to produce lactation (that is, milk for the young). The seeds of wheat, corn, hemp produced fertility and lactation. From these facts are inferred the existence of a new vitamin, called Vitamin E or Vitamin X.--Dr. Barnett Sure, University of Arkansas.

Radical Students. Psychological tests applied to students at Columbia, Dartmouth and Yale showed that the former were the most radical, the last the most conservative; also that radicals, compared with conservatives of equal intelligence and family environment, were quicker in reasoning powers and better able to shake off habits.--Dr. H. T. Moore, Dartmouth College.

Deaf. A device to be held in a speaker's hand and attached to the hand of a totally deaf person, which transmits the vital vibrations in the speaker's body to the deaf person, was described. A limited success with the instrument has been achieved.--Dr. Robert H. Gault, Northwestern University.

Mars. Studies of the surface temperatures of Mars as indicated by its radiation showed that, in winter, its North Pole has a temperature of --94DEG Fahrenheit; in summer, its South Pole has --76DEG. In equatorial regions, the temperature varies from 40DEG to 60DEG, but the range of temperature between day and night may be as great as 180DEG. The conclusion is that, if life exists, it is confined to mosses and lichens among the plants and troglodytic animals.--Dr. William W. Coblentz, U. S. Bureau of Standards.

Chlorine. No evidence has been produced from clinical researches that the chlorine-gas treatment for diseases of the respiratory system has any curative effect. The doses which can be taken without danger are exceedingly weak. Scientists hope to find a better gas for the purpose.--Major H. J. Nichols, Army Medical School.

Bryan. "I am not simply a scientist and a teacher but also a Christian. ... It is precisely because I am a follower of Christ that I most resent the attitude of Mr. Bryan. . . . Evolution is the universal belief of science today. . . . Many omissions of relevant evidence and some apparent misrepresentations of the evolution theory and its supporters may well be due to Mr. Bryan's unfamiliarity with the facts in the case. A lawyer who does not know law or a doctor who has not studied medicine is a quack and subject to legal control; even a high school teacher must be duly certificated. Is there not at least a moral obligation that a man professing authoritative leadership on evolution should first familiarize himself with the subject?"--Dr. Edward L. Rice, Ohio Wesleyan University (Methodist).

Intarvin, an artificial fat, has been fed to diabetic patients without the ill results attendant upon eating ordinary fats, allowing them to gain in weight and strength. It supplements and sometimes hastens the curative action of insulin. It is harmless even if taken continuously in quantity.--Dr. Max Kalin (the inventor), Dr. William J. Gies, Columbia University; Dr. Hattic L. Heft.

Heart disease affects 2% of the population, including many children less than six years old. It causes 12.7% of the deaths recorded by one life insurance company. The public should be better informed of the effect on the heart of rheumatism, tonsilitis, syphilis and other contagious diseases.-- Robert H. Halsey, M.D., Manhattan.

Sol. After two years in which the sun gave off less heat than usual, it has now returned to normal. It is hoped to be able to learn the periods of fluctuations in the sun's heat in order to make "long distance" weather predictions. Attempts of that nature are already going forward in Chile.--Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot, Smithsonian Institution.

Hiccoughing epidemics are traceable to streptococci. These germs are found in the throats of affected patients. In a recent epidemic, several cases were studied in which the subjects hiccoughed from two to eight days.--Dr. Edward C. Rosenow, The Mayo Foundation.

Blood Pressure. Exposure of dogs to bright sunlight results in lowering their blood pressure. The same result is sometimes observed in men.--Dr. C. I. Reed, University of Chicago.

Chimpanzees are intellectually closer to man than has been believed. Two young specimens confronted by problems apparently stopped to reflect, and a solution apparently came to them.--Dr. Robert M. Yerkes, Yale University.

Total blindness is decreasing in

the U. S.; 5% is inheritable and can be lessened by satisfactory marriage laws; 13 1/2% is due to industrial accidents and is being reduced. Of defects for which glasses are worn, myopia (nearsightedness) constitutes 16%.--Michael V. Ball, M. D., Warren, Pa.

Earthworms, although proverbially blind, are sensitive to light all over their bodies, according to experiments made with a small beam of intense light.--Dr. Walter N. Hess, Johns Hopkins University.

Plant Sprays.. Copper hydroxide used as a spray is 15 times more effective as a fungicide than Bordeaux mixture commonly used on plants, and moreover leaves no stain. It may be the active ingredient of Bordeaux mixture.--Dr. Henry D. Hooker, University of Missouri.

Spanish moss, which grows in long gray festoons on Southern trees, has no roots and subsists entirely on what it gets from the air. Yet its ashes contain large amounts of sodium, iron, silicon, sulphur, chlorine. Whence these elements? Chlorine, sodium, sulphur may be carried high in the air by ocean spray, and come down in rain. The presence of the iron and silicon is a puzzle.--Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, Dr. Ruth Buchanan, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Hookworm disease in China among silk workers and rice farmers comes from going barefooted under mulberry trees in the fields where the ground is infected. . When the coolies learn to wear shoes, it will be eliminated.--Dr. W. W. Cort, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene.

Rats in Maze. If hungry rats and well-fed rats are put into a maze with food at the farther side, the hungry rats get through first, proving again that necessity is the mother of invention.--Dr. Arthur H. Smith; Dr. John F. Anderson, Rutgers College.

Intelligence Metre. A machine to give intelligence tests, which holds up a printed question until a key is pressed giving an answer, was described. It records the number of correct answers or, in cases where there are several possible answers, the number of answers made before the right one is given.--Dr. S. L. Pressey, Ohio State University.

Artificial ulcers in the intestinal tracts of dogs were produced when the secretions of the stomach were allowed to flow without first being mixed with the juices of the liver, pancreas and duodenum. The ulcers can be cured if the gastric juice is prevented from passing over them. The experiments proved that, if gastric juice is not neutralized, it attacks the tissues at the base of the stomach.--Dr. F. C. Mann, Mayo Foundation.

X-rays, which pass through most solids, can be refracted. Photographs were taken of the rays spread out in fans passing through crystals.--Prof. Manne Siegbaton, Upsala, Sweden.

Blood Thickness. On the principle that a stone falls more rapidly than a feather (through a medium) because of its greater density, a quick means of testing the thickness of blood was devised by timing its rate of descent through water. In this way, it was found that the blood may be diluted 10% in five minutes (by secretions of salt water from glands) if a person passes from a cold to a warm room. The additional liquid is provided by nature so that the blood may not become too thick through the loss of water by perspiration.--H. G. Barbour, W. F. Hamilton, M. H. Dawson, I. Neuwirth, University of Louisville.

Supreme Court. A paper on Constitution vs. Constitutional Theory contained the following remarks: "In interpreting the commerce clause (of the Constitution) the Supreme Court has shown itself ready to permit the National Government to make vast inroads upon what have been thought to have been the reserved powers of the states, so long as its object is the promotion of prosperity.

"On the other hand, as the recent child labor cases show, once the National Government, operating on the same clause, undertakes a program of humanitarian legislation, then the reserved rights of the states become a very grave consideration indeed.

"Indeed, the objector may speak more bluntly and declare that the judges are simply partisans of certain economic interests and that their use of the jargon of precedent and theory is so much camouflage in the shadow of which matters of choice take on the delusive appearance of inevitability. No student would care to deny the force of these views."

Thus, with bold words, Professor Edward S. Corwin spoke his mind impugning the highest court of the country. He sits where Woodrow Wilson sat, in the chair of Government and Politics at Princeton.

Insulin. A new means of administering insulin (diabetes cure), through the mouth instead of hypodermically has been evolved. Tablets with a coating that does not dissolve until it enters the intestines preserve the insulin from destruction by the juices of-the stomach.--Dr. John R. Murlin, University of Rochester.

New Antiseptic. Research in the Brady Urological Institute of Johns Hopkins University conducted since 1917 has resulted in the development of a new antiseptic, "mercurochrome."

Administered intravenously or otherwise, it was found to produce no ill effects on the body, but has an antiseptic effect against the germs of a great many diseases. It has been tested against 255 diseases. In many of them, the number of cases treated was so small that it has been impossible to draw conclusions. In cases of infection due to streptococcus viridans, and in cases of pyelonephritis failures have been recorded. There have been marked successes, however, in the use of mercurochrome against pneumonia in children, against septicaemia, streptococcus hemolyticus and pyogenes, staphylococcus and against many other general and local infections. When the uses of mercurochrome are thoroughly determined, the result may be the "greatest conquest of disease in the history of medicine." -- Dr. Hugh H. Young, Johns Hopkins University.

Uniform Months. The section of the Association devoted to economic and political science unanimously adopted a resolution urging that months of Uniform length would be advantageous from the point of view of salaries, rent, statistics, interest and other matters.

Easter. The Roman Catholic, Greek, English and .some other churches have joined in the movement to reform the calendar insofar as fixing a specific date for Easter is concerned. (Easter is now fixed in relation to the phases of the moon. This arrangement was made at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D. in order to give persons making Easter pilgrimages a waxing moon on their journey and a waning moon on their trip back home).--M. B. Cotsworth, Director of the International Fixed Calendar League.

Sex of Plants. Certain plants can be made to change from male to female or the reverse by altering conditions of soil, moisture, light. The inference is that sex is dependent on environment.--Prof. John H. Shaffner, Ohio State University.

More Sex. Experiments on fruit, flies and bees show that sex is determined by the arrangement of chromosomes in the cells derived from parents. The inference is that sex is hereditary. --Dr. Calvin B. Bridges, Columbia University.

More. Experiments conducted on plant lice and similar animals tend to show that sex is neither entirely hereditary nor environmental, but is determined by the effect of bodily activity.--Dr. A. Franklin Shull, University of Michigan.

Prof. Pupin. Professor Michael Idvorsky Pupin, of Columbia University, was elected President of the Association for 1925. He was born at Idvor, in Banat, Hungary, in 1858. He came to the U. S. 50 years ago, worked his way through Columbia and joined the electrical engineering faculty there. He became an inventor and devised many useful and highly technical electrical inventions. He is now Professor of Electro-Mechanics.

Plastic surgery (restoration of mutilated features) was practiced in Italy as early as 1456. Noses, lips, ears were repaired. Hospitals of the 14th and 15th Centuries were scrupulously clean; bed linen was changed often; stoves were wheeled to the bedsides of patients in winter. Anatomy was studied by dissection, leprosy almost disappeared, other diseases were isolated.--Prof. Lynn Thorndike, Columbia University.

Skull surgery (trepanning) was successfully practiced by prehistoric people in Michigan according to the evidence of skulls found there.--Prof. E. F. Greenman, University of Michigan.

Crickets. Study of crickets and grasshoppers indicates that their chirping is not used as a means of attracting mates; the females do not respond. If insects use sound as a means of communication, such sounds are probably above the range which can be detected by the human ear.--Dr. Frank E. Luts, American Museum of Natural History.

Rickets, a deficiency disease, is supposed to be produced by the lack of a certain vitamin. Milk and cod-liver oil are cures for this disease. But it can also be cured by exposing patients to ultraviolet rays. Now it has been found that, by exposing various vegetable oils, ordinarily not curative of rickets, to ultraviolet rays, they become just as potent against the disease as cod-liver oil and milk.--Alfred F. Hess, M.D., and Mildred Weinstock, Manhattan.

Quetzalcoate, the Plumed Serpent, god of the Mexican Indians, was not a god at all, but a real emperor who lived and ruled in A. D. 1191. He was famed as a great conqueror, as the inventor of pulque (an intoxicating drink), for his justice, for his sanctity.

In later times, legend turned him into a god. This was discovered from the reading of 12th Century Maya hieroglyphics in Yucatan.--Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, Peabody Museum, Harvard.

Mount Diablo in California, about 1,000,000 years ago, moved 20 miles.

It is composed of rock which is much older than the rock on which it rests.

During a crustal disturbance in that region, a body of this older rock was shoved across the newer rock.--Dr.

Bruce Clark, University of California.

Tornadoes. During eight years ending with 1923, there were 752 tornadoes in the U. S., causing the loss of 1,929 lives. The greatest number of tornadoes in one state (26) occurred in Arkansas.--D. H. C. Hunter.

Imbecile dwarfs are occasionally born to Caucasian parents. These dwarfs have strong resemblances to the Mongolian racial type,--broad flat face, small, involuted ear, small nose, big toe resembling a thumb. All white babies go through this stage before birth but few retain these prenatal characteristics. --Dr. Charles B. Davenport, Director Experimental Evolution Station, Carnegie Institution.

Freak Fish. By turning ultraviolet rays upon the eggs of minnows in various stages of development, it is possible to produce fish with one to four eyes, two heads, two tails.--Dr. Marie Heinricks, Chicago.

Work-Study-Play. There are 24,000,000 school children in the U. S. and about 400,000 more appear every year. In order to cope with congestion problems, the "work-study-play" plan has been tried in 67 cities. It increases the capacity of existing buildings from 33% to 40%.--Frank M. Phillips, U. S. Bureau of Education.

Boll Weevils.. Tests have been conducted with boll weevils and other insects to determine what smells they like best. An experiment is now under way using an extract from unripe cotton bolls to lure boll weevils to poison.--Dr. N. E. Melndoo, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

The human heart continues to increase in size up to the age of 80. The kidneys become smaller after 50.--Dr. R. Bennett Bean, University of Virginia.