SCIENCE 



Friday, September 12, 1919 



CONTENTS 

 Not T^n hut Twelve: Dr. William Benjamin 

 Smith 239 



A National Institute of Nutrition: Dr. H. P. 

 Abmsbt 242 



The Osier Presentation : Lieutenant Colonel 

 F. H. Garrison 244 



Scientific Events: — 

 Medical Education and Practise in China; 

 Mineral Production of tlve United States in 

 1918 ; Fifth National Exposition of Chem- 

 ical Industries 246 



Scientific Notes and News 248 



University and Educational News 251 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Possible Sounce of Cosmical Energy: Dr. 

 Ingo W. D. Hackh. Imperfect Stage of 

 Leptospliwria tritici of Wheat: L. W. 

 DURRELL 252 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 A Brief Survey of Some Eecent Chemical 

 Literature: Professor H. P. Talbot 253 



Organization of the American Section of the 

 International Geophysical Union: Dr. 

 Habrt O. Wood 255 



Special Articles : — 

 Besemilances between the Properties of Sur- 

 face-Films in Passive Metals and in Proto- 

 plasm : Professor Ralph S. Lillee 259 



Societies and Academies: — 



The North Carolina Academy of Scien<:e: 

 Bert Cunningham 262 



MSS. intended for 'publication and booka, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrieon-on- 

 Eudson, N. Y. 



NOT TEN BUT TWELVE! 



There has come to my hands a x)etition in 

 the form of an open " Letter to Lord Balfour " 

 (" Chairman on Weights, Measures, Coinage, 

 etc."), circulated in the name of the "World 

 Trade Club," and calling upon " United States 

 American President, His Excellency Wood- 

 row Wilson, United States American Con- 

 gress, etc.," and "British Premier, His Ex- 

 eelleney David Lloyd George, Houses of Par- 

 liament, etc.," for "legislation, promulgation, 

 Orders in council that will bring about the 

 exclusive use of Meter-Liter-Grain by the 

 United States of America " and " The British 

 Isles." 



As the matter is of far-reaching scope and 

 prime importance, may I be allowed a word 

 of earnest protest. 



The reasons advanced in the fifteen pages 

 of argument, on disregarding the ill-advised 

 and ill-founded appeal to national prejudice 

 against the alleged Germanic character of our 

 present system (or chaos), amount merely to 

 the oft-repeated affirmation that the metric 

 system, being consistently decimal, is far 

 simpler, more convenient, and time-saving 

 than any non-decimal system, since reduc- 

 tions from unit to unit are made merely by 

 shifting the point, as in dollars and cents. 

 That herein lies a certain very considerable 

 convenience is not denied in any quarter and 

 needs no detailed exposition. Also the ad- 

 vantage of world-wide uniformity in weights, 

 measures, and coinage are plain and uncon- 

 tested. But this latter fact is no reason for 

 the Anglo-Saxon world to pass over to the 

 Latin-German system, rather than for the 

 latter to yield to some far superior system of 

 the former. While conceding all that may be 

 said with any show of reason in favor of a 

 decimal system, we must not forget nor dis- 

 guise the very grave disadvantages that in- 

 here ineradieably in it, especially in its cum- 



