64 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug.-Sept. 



The Buffalo Boy Scouts' Council has started a wild life club, the 

 members of which are pledged to do a good turn for the wild creatures 

 of field and forest. A bronze button will be given the bovs on qualify- 

 ing for membership and, as they progress, silver and gold buttons will 

 be awarded. When the plan is perfected it will be offered to the 

 National Council with the hope that it will be adopted by the entire 

 membership of the Boy Scouts, which exceeds 200,000. Some of the 

 boys are giving illustrated talks in the schools on the value of wild 

 life and the best means of protecting it. 



The startling statement by no less an authority than Dr. C. K. 

 Clarke, Superintendent of the Toronto General Hospital, that more 

 than 12 per cent, of the patients admitted to the public wards of that 

 institution have syphilis, is the feature of the eighth annual report of 

 the Commission of Conservation just issued. These conditions, it is 

 pointed out, are no doubt representative of those prevailing elsewhere in 

 Canada where statistics are not yet available. The return of thousands 

 i f soldiers at the end of the war lends more than usual interest to this 

 f ture of the Commission's report. Other phases of the subject, in- 

 cluding measures for controlling the menace, are discussed by Drs. 

 j. J. Mackenzie, C. H. Hair, and Wm. Goldie, of the Faculty of 

 Medicine, University of Toronto. 



An address on The Production and Preservation of Food Sup- 

 plies, by Dr. P. H. Bryce, gives tables showing the relative values of 

 rent foods. Results of experiments by the Commission at Port 

 Dover, Ont., in utilizing fish waste in the manufacture of stock meal, 

 oils and fertilizer, are set forth, whilst Drs. H. J. Wheeler and Frank 

 T. Shutt make interesting contributions >ai the use of commercial 

 fertilizers. In addition, a readable account is given of the varied 

 activities of the Commission, including town-planning, game preserva- 

 tion, water-powers, agriculture, mining and general publicity work 



The Comstcck Printing Company of Ithaca, N.Y., recently pub- 

 lished a most interesting volume of 438 pages entitled "The Life of 

 Inland Waters." This book, the price of which is $3.00, is an 

 elementary text of fresh-water biology for American Students. The 

 authors are James G. Needham and J. T. Lloyd. This book is 

 divided into seven chapters: I, Introduction; II, The Nature of 

 Aquatic Environment; III, Types of Aquatic Environment; IV, 

 Aquatic Organisms; V, Adjustment to Conditions of Aquatic Life: 

 AT. Aquatic Societies; VII, Inland Water Culture. There are 244 

 text figures. 



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