January 28, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



93 



evaporation the animals encyst. The dried-up 

 culture is left exposed for one or two days, 

 when new hay infusion is added. The ani- 

 mals, having divided within the cysts, revive 

 and are found in greatly increased numbers. 

 This drying-up process can be repeated until 

 a more or less concentrated culture of the or- 

 ganisms is obtained. The concentrated culture 

 of organisms is then pipetted into a petri dish 

 in which a piece of ordinary filtered paper, cut 

 so as to exactly cover the bottom of the dish 

 and moistened with hay infusion, is placed. 

 The petri dish is then left uncovered to slowly 

 evaporate. The filter paper, with the encysted 

 organisms on it, when thoroughly dry can be 

 cut into small pieces and kept indefinitely. 



To start fresh cultures, pieces of the filter 

 paper are put into watch glasses or other con- 

 tainers and hay infusion added. In a short 

 time the animals revive and new cultures of 

 the original are thus obtained. 



This method of keeping stock cultures seems 

 to be especially adapted for schools and colleges 

 where only a limited amount of time is devoted 

 to the Protozoa and where no time for the ordi- 

 nary culture preparation work is available. 



Joseph H. Bodine 

 Zoological Laboratokt, 

 UNrvERSiTT OP Pennstlvania 



QUOTATIONS 



THE BRITISH COMMITTEE FOR AIDING MEN 

 OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE IN RUSSIA^ 



We have recently been able to get some 

 direct communication from men of science 

 and men of letters in North Russia. Their 

 condition is one of great privation and limita- 

 tion. They share in the consequences of the 

 almost complete economic exhaustion of 

 Russia; like most people in that country, 

 they are ill-clad, underfed, and short of such 

 physical essentials as make life tolerable. 



Nevertheless, a certain amount of scientific 

 research and some literary work still go on. 

 The Bolsheviks were at first regardless, and 

 even in some cases hostile, to these intellectual 

 workers, but the Bolshevik government has 



1 From Natwre. 



apparently come to realize something of the 

 importance of scientific and literary work to 

 the community, and the remnant — for deaths 

 among them have been veiy numerous — of 

 these people, the flower of the mental life of 

 Rusia, has now been gathered together into 

 special rationing organizations which ensure 

 at least the bare necessaries of life for them. 



These organizations have their headquarters 

 in two buildings known as the House of Sci- 

 ence and the House of Literature and Art. 

 Under the former we note such great names 

 as those of Pavlov the physiologist and Nobel 

 prizeman, Karpinsky the geologist, Borodin 

 the botanist, Belopolsky the astronomer, 

 Tagantzev the criminologist, Oldenburg the 

 Orientalist and permanent secretary of the 

 Petersburg Academy of Science, Koni, Bech- 

 terev, Satishev, Morozov, and many others 

 familiar to the scientific world. 



Several of these scientific men have been 

 interviewed and affairs discussed with them, 

 particularly as to whether anything could be 

 done to help them. There were many matters 

 in which it would be possible to assist them, 

 but upon one particular they laid stress. 

 Their thought and work are greatly impeded 

 by the fact that they have seen practically no 

 European books or publications since the 

 Revolution. This is an inconvenience amount- 

 ing to real intellectual distress. In the hope 

 that this condition may be relieved by an ap- 

 peal to British scientific workers, Professor 

 Oldenburg formed a small committee and 

 made a comprehensive list of books and pub- 

 lications needed by the intellectual community 

 in Russia if it is to keep alive and abreast of 

 the rest of the world. 



It is, of course, necessary to be assured that 

 any aid of this kind provided for literary and 

 scientific men in Russia would reach its desti- 

 nation. The Bolshevik government in Moscow, 

 the Russian trade delegations in Reval and 

 London, and om- own authorities have there- 

 fore been consulted, and it would appear that 

 there will be no obstacles to the transmission 

 of this needed material to the House of Sci- 

 ence and the House of Literature and Art. 

 It can be got through by sfiecial facilities even 



