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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 193S 



Field Museum of Natural History 



Founded by Marshall Field. 1893 

 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michi^n, Chicago 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Sewbll L. Avery 

 John Borden 

 William J. Chalmers 

 Marshall Field 

 Stanley Field 

 Ernest R. Graham 

 Albert W. Harris 

 Samuel Insull, Jr. 

 Cyrus H. McCormick 



John P. 



William H. Mitchell 

 Frederick H. Rawson 

 George A. Richardson 

 Fred W. Sargent 

 Stephen C. Simms 

 James Simpson 

 Solomon A. Smith 

 Albert A. Sprague 

 Silas H. Straw n 

 Wilson 



OFFICERS 



Stanley Field President 



Albert A, Sprague First Vice-President 



James Simpson Second Vice-President 



Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President 



Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary 



Solomon A. Smith.. .Treasurer and Assistant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Musettm Editor 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Bebthold Laufer CurcUor of Anthropology 



B. E. Dahlgren Acting Curator of Botany 



Oliver C. Fabrington Curator of Geology 



Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology 



H. B. Harte Managing Editor 



Field Museum is open every day of the year during 

 the hours indicated below: 



November, December, January 9 A.M. to 4:30 p.m. 



February, March, April, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

 May, June, July, August, September 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. 



Admission is free to Members on all days. Other 

 adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and 

 Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. 

 Children are admitted free on all days. Students and 

 faculty members of educational institutions are admit- 

 ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. 



The Museum's natural history Library is open for 

 reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 



Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of 

 Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension 

 Department of the Museum. 



Lectures for schools, and special entertainments 

 and tours for children at the Museum, are provided 

 by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond 

 Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. 



Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the 

 public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, 

 will appear in Field Museum News. 



A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms 

 are provided for those bringing their lunches. 



Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go 

 direct to the Museum. 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 

 promptly of changes of address. 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 



Field Museum has several classes of Members. 

 Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- 

 tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members 

 give $500; Non-Resident (Life) and Associate Members 

 pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. 

 All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining 

 Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they 

 become Associate Members. Annual Members con- 

 tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- 

 rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions 

 under these classifications being made by special action 

 of the Board of Trustees. 



Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free 

 admission to the Museum for himself, his family and 

 house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum 

 lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field 

 Museum News is included with all memberships. The 

 courtesies of every museum of note in the United 

 States and Canada are extended to all Members of 

 Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card 

 to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of 

 which they will be admitted to the Museum without 

 charge. Further information about memberships will 

 be sent on request. 



BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS 



Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may 

 be made in securities, money, books or collections. 

 They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to 

 a person or cause, named by the giver. 



Cash contributinns made within the taxable year 

 not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income 

 are allowable as deductions in computing net income 

 under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the 

 income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. 



Endowments may be made to the Museum with the 

 provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. 

 These annuities arc tax-free and are guaranteed against 

 fluctuation in amount. 



LIFE BEYOND EARTH? 



(Coniinufd from page 1) 



Colorado Museum of Natural History, 

 Denver. 



Professor Lipman's method of investiga- 

 tion consisted of first thoroughly sterilizing 

 the exterior of each meteorite by scrubbing 

 it with soap and water, then soaking it in 

 a 30 per cent hydrogen peroxide solution, 

 then in alcohol, and then heating it in a 

 flame for thirty seconds. The meteorites 

 were then placed in a variety of sterile 

 culture media and allowed to remain from 

 two weeks to five months. Under these 

 conditions if any organisms had remained 

 alive on the surface, growths would appear. 

 In most cases no such growth occurred. 

 Specimens which thus showed sterile sur- 

 faces were then transferred under sterile 

 conditions to a sterile mortar in which 

 they were ground to powder. Portions of 

 the powder were distributed into various 

 culture media and watched for whatever 

 growths might develop. 



Both the Mocs and Pultusk meteorites 

 supplied by Field Museum yielded notable 

 colonies of bacteria. These were mostly of 

 the order of rod or bacillus forms, and cocci, 

 but from one culture from the Pultusk 

 meteorite there was produced a very 

 remarkable organism. This organism proved 

 to be autotrophic, that is, one which builds 

 carbohydrates and protein from carbon 

 dioxide and inorganic salts. As these are 

 common constituents of meteorites, such 

 organisms might be able to perpetuate 

 themselves for a long period. 



Many of the other forms found in the 

 meteorites were spore-forming organisms. 

 The preservation of spores in a dormant 

 condition during a long period might have 

 been possible. How long such spores might 

 retain vitality is not known, but one case 

 of germination after forty years is known, 

 and in the view of Dean Lipman there is 

 no reason to doubt a possible retention of 

 their vitality for a period of many times 

 that length. Many other bacteria obtained 

 from the meteorites were coccus forms 

 which are not believed to be spore formers, 

 but in Professor Lipman's opinion they 

 may have produced bodies which served 

 the purpose of spores. 



Studies which have been made on the 

 age of the materials composing meteorites 

 indicate that they are of the same general 

 order in this respect as the solar system. 

 The age of one stone meteorite has been 

 calculated from its helium content to be 

 110,000,000 years. Under what conditions, 

 or at what period, if any, during that time 

 the growth of bacteria might take place in 

 a meteorite, there is at present no means 

 of determining. Naturally far more investi- 

 gation is necessary before satisfactory con- 

 clusions can be drawn. 



In order to determine what sources of 

 food for bacteria might be found in mete- 

 orites, beyond those already mentioned. 

 Professor Lipman also made some investi- 

 gations to learn whether organic nitrogen 

 was present. The result showed a small 

 percentage of organic nitrogen actually 

 present in all of seven stony meteorites 

 which were examined. The existence of 

 organic nitrogen in meteorites had not been 

 previously known. 



Ancient Inflation Attempt 



{Continued from page 1) 



in large quantities, without, however, 

 superseding the existing copper money," 

 says Dr. Laufer. "The legal ratio made ten 

 iron pieces the equivalent of one copper 

 coin. This double standard naturally caused 

 difficulties and the relative value of the two 

 metals was subject to many fluctuations." 

 The casting of iron. Dr. Laufer states, 

 is an art practised through all periods of 

 Chinese history. In early times the Chinese 

 dedicated cast iron to the service of the 

 dead, as a precious and durable substance 

 worthy of being offered to ancestors. 



GLOBES SHOW ABUNDANCE 

 OF CERTAIN ELEMENTS 



Graphic illustration of the quantities 

 existing in the crust of the earth of certain 

 elements is afforded by small globes which 

 are being added to some of the exhibits in 

 the Department of Geology. So far, such 

 globes, with maps of the continents outlined 

 on them, have been installed with the 

 aluminum, iron and silicon exhibits. 



Aluminum is the most abundant of all 

 metals. This is shown graphically on a 

 sphere three inches in diameter by a circle, 

 painted in aluminum color, 1.6 inches in 

 diameter, which represents the space that 

 would be occupied by all the aluminum in 

 the crust of the earth if it were gathered 

 into one place. On another globe of the 

 same size the iron of the earth's crust is 

 similarly represented, by a circle 1.27 inches 

 in diameter. These proportions include 

 not only the ores of sufficiently high grade 

 for mining, but all other aluminum and 

 iron deposits, it is explained by Henry W. 

 Nichols, Associate Curator of Geology. On 

 the other hand, it is emphasized that only 

 the crusl of the earth to a depth of ten 

 miles, which is the farthest point accessible, 

 is considered. There is reason to believe 

 that the inaccessible interior of the earth 

 contains vastly larger quantities, probably 

 as much as two-thirds of the entire substance 

 of the earth being iron. 



On the globe devoted to silicon, the space 

 occupied by the circle is 2.6 inches in 

 diameter. This non-metallic substance is 

 second only to oxygen in abundance as an 

 ingredient of the earth's crust. 



Museum Aids Rotenone Research 



Recently in the Journal of the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences, Howard A. Jones, of 

 the Bureau of Chemistry, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, published the 

 results of experiments in the extraction of 

 rotenone from derris and cube bark, men- 

 tioning particularly Peruvian cube from 

 Field Museum. 



Rotenone is a chemical compound prom- 

 inent as an ingredient of insecticides. Mr. 

 Jones finds cube much richer in rotenone 

 than Old World derris bark. The cultiva- 

 tion of cube {Lonchocarpus wicom; a vine of 

 the bean family), promises to become an 

 industry of importance. The Field Museum 

 material was obtained by Llewelyn Williams, 

 Assistant in Wood Technology, while a 

 member of the Marshall Field Botanical 

 Expedition to Peru (1929). 



An interesting habitat group of beavers 

 may be seen in Hall 16. 



A specimen of the giant salamander of 

 Japan, which grows to about fifty pounds 

 in weight and five feet in length, is exhibited 

 in Albert W. Harris Hall. 



An ingenious cradle for a baby, and a 

 fox-skin swaddling, iised by the Karok 

 Indians of California, are displayed in Hall 6. 



