652 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1-458 



Some 'of ithis material had been prepai-ed 

 for publication in the form of a paper on 

 Air Navigation and sent to press early in Octo- 

 ber, (following which his attention was eagerly 

 concentrated on fui-ther problems. So the end 

 came like a ship holding its course accurately, 

 and passing out of sig'ht with all sails set. 



'M. H. D. 



Pittsburgh^ Pa. 

 November 6, 1922 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



MORTALITY FROM CANCER 



The Depar'tment of Conunerce announces 

 that tihe returns compiled by the Bureau of the 

 Census show that over 76,000 deaths were due 

 to cancer in the death registration area of the 

 United States in J921, and assuming that the 

 rest of the United States had as many deaths 

 from this cause in proportion to the population, 

 the total number of deaths from cancer in the 

 entire United States for 1921 was 93,000, while 

 for 1920 the number is estimated as 89,000 or 

 4,000 less than for 1921. 



The trend of the cancer death rate is upward, 

 the rate for 1921 being higher than that for 

 any earlier year in twenty-three of the thirty- 

 flour states. The cancer death rate in the regis- 

 ti-ation area in 1921 was 86 per 100,000 popu- 

 lation, against 83.4 for 1920. In comparing 

 the death rate from cancer in one state with 

 that in another, the bureau uses "adjusted" 

 rates in order to make allowance for differ- 

 ences in the age and the sex disti-iJbution of 

 the population, because, generally speaking, 

 only persons in middle life and old age have 

 cancer, so that a state with many old persons 

 may be expected to have more deaths from 

 eanieer than a state with comparatively few 

 old persons. 



The highest "adjusted" cancer rate for 1921 

 is 99.6 per 100,000 population for the state of 

 Massiaehusetts, and the lowest is 47.6 for the 

 state of South Carolina. For a few states ad- 

 justed rates have been calculated separately for 

 the white and colored population. In this 

 group of states the highest adjusted cancer 

 rate for the white (population is 95.9 per 



100,000 population for New York and the 

 highest rate for the colored population is 90.6, 

 also for New York. The lowest adjusted can- 

 cer rate for the white population is 51.5 for 

 Tennessee and the lowest for the colored popu- 

 lation is 36.4 for Floiida. 



The adjusted rates show that the northern 

 states have comparatively high and the south- 

 ern states comparativelj' low cancer mortality, 

 while there is little difference ibetween the ad- 

 justed cancer rates of the white and colored 

 races of the same states. 



COLORS FOR TRAFFIC SIGNALS 



Thirty-nine men, representing as many ad- 

 ministrative bodies, trade associations, scien- 

 tific or technical societies, and government de- 

 partments, make up the sectional committee on 

 colors for traffic signals which was organzed 

 at a meeting in New York City on November 9 

 under the auspices of the American Engineer- 

 ing Standards Committee. In opening the 

 meeting, P. G. Agnew, secretarj^ of the Amer- 

 ican Engineering Standards Committee, said 

 tOiat this was unquestionably the most repre- 

 sentative group that has ever come together 

 anjrwhere in the world to discuss this subject. 



The committee elected as its officers the fol- 

 lowing representatives of the three sponsors 

 for the icode : Chairman, Charles J. Bennett, 

 state highway eommissioner of Connecticut, 

 representing the American Association of 

 State Highway Officials; vice-chairman, Dr. 

 M. Q. Lloyd, representing the United States 

 Bureau of Standards; secretary, Walter S. 

 Paine, research engineer, 2Etna Insurance Com- 

 pany, Hartford, Conn., representing the Na- 

 tional Safety Council. 



Because of the difficulty of bringing the en- 

 tire sectional committee together at frequent 

 intervals an executive committee was appointed 

 wiith instructions to collect infonniation on the 

 subjects coming within the scope of the code, 

 to digest this information, to appoint sub- 

 committees, to arrange for the necessary re- 

 search work, and to draft definite recommenda- 

 tions for the iconsideration of the sectional 

 committee. The executive committee consists 

 of the following: 



