SCIENCE 



Friday, August 1, 1919 



CONTENTS 



A National Latoratory of Human Nutrition: 

 Professor Graham Lusk 97 



The Irwin Expedition: Professor C. H. 



ElGENMANN 100 



Abraham Jacohi: Lieutenant Colonel F. H. 

 Garrison 102 



Scientific Events: — 



The British Scientific Products Exhibition; 

 The British Parliament and Medical Re- 

 search; A Bill for a National Department of 

 Sealth; The Eoclcefeller Institute for Med- 

 ical Eesearoh; The Bamsay Memorial 104 



Scientific Notes and News 108 



id Educational News HI 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Laboratory Instruction in Chemistry: Pro- 

 fessor Arthur A. Blanchard. Meteorol- 

 ogy and the Trans-Atlantic Flight: Pro- 

 fessor R. DeC. "Ward 112 



Quotations: — 

 British Science and Industry 115 



Scientific Boolcs: — ■ 



BabcocTc on the Turtles of New England: J. 



T. Nichols 115 



Special Articles: — 



The Fungus Parasite of the Periodical 

 Cicada: A. T. Speare 1-] 6 



The Ohio Academy of Sciences: Professor 

 Edward L. Rice 117 



MSS. intended for "publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



A NATIONAL LABORATORY OF 

 HUMAN NUTRITIONi 



The Inter- Allied Scientific Food Commis- 

 sion, which held meetings during the spring 

 and early summer of 1918 in Paris, Eome and 

 London, decided to recommend to the four 

 governments represented, those of France, 

 Italy, England and the United States, that a 

 laboratory for the study of human nutrition 

 be established in each of those countries. The 

 commission called attention to the fact that 

 at least one quarter of the income of a nation 

 is devoted to the purchase of food by its in- 

 dividual citizens and that, since the poorer 

 the individual the greater is the proportion of 

 his wage devoted to the purchase of food, it is 

 therefore a matter of the highest importance 

 for the welfare and prosperity of a country 

 that the methods of the best possible utiliza- 

 tion of its food resources for the benefit of its 

 citizens be sought out and in time definitely 

 established by reliable scientific data. 



The comforts which one enjoys in the mod- 

 em world are derived from the advance of 

 science. Though the so-called " practical 

 man" says he will accept no "theories," yet 

 in reality he never acts except upon some 

 theory of his own. The difl^erence in the 

 value of the opinions of the " practical man " 

 and the " scientific man " is that the theories 

 of the latter are more likely to be correct than 

 those of the former. 



If one looks back into histoiy one notes the 

 influence which an American-born scientist, 

 Count Eumford, had upon the fortunes of 

 Bavaria. Among the 60,000 inhabitants re- 

 siding in Munich there were so many beggars 

 and vagabonds, who were all potential thieves, 

 that in the year 1790 Rumford authorized the 

 seizure of 2,600 in one week and put them to 



1 A paper prepared in London in June, 1918, at 

 the request of Professor Lajiglois for publication in 

 France. 



