334 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1345 



Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. It has been 

 alleged that the United State government is 

 about to remove the restrictions on pelagic 

 sealing and that great activity will soon be 

 witnessed in the outfitting of vessels for carry- 

 ing on the work. A newspaper has recently 

 published an item which purports to give 

 minute details. The statements therein are 

 so misleading in character as to give rise to 

 the impression that they were fabricated 

 solely for the purpose of creating a sensation 

 or of encouraging uninformed persons to 

 engage in an illegal enterprise. 



The truth of the matter is that pelagic seal- 

 ing in the iNorth Pacific Ocean, north of the 

 thirtieth parallel of north latitude and in- 

 cluding the seas of Bering, Kamchatka, 

 Okhotsk, and Japan, is prohibited by an 

 international agreement entered into in 1911 

 by the United States, Great Britain, Japan 

 and Russia. The agreement is in perpetuity 

 unless one or more of the parties thereto dis- 

 sent. With the well-demonstrated benefits 

 which accrue to all the governments con- 

 cerned from the rational management of the 

 fur-seal herds, there is little likelihood that 

 any one will x>ermit its citizens or subjects to 

 resume at any time in the future the dis- 

 astrous practise of pelagic sealing. 



The United States and Canada cooperate 

 fully in patrolling and protecting the Alaska 

 fur-seal herd. U. S. Coast Guard vessels are 

 ever on the alert to detect violations of the 

 international agreement, and it is safe to say 

 that any clandestine operations would come 

 to grief in short order. 



In the fiscal year 1920 the revenue to the 

 United States government from the sale of 

 fur-seal skins was $1,45Y,790. Aside from the 

 revenue to this government, the governments 

 of Great Britain and of Japan share in the 

 annual take of Alaska fur-seals to the extent 

 of 15 per cent. each. 



THE PROPOSED CALIFORNIA ANTI-VIVISEC- 

 TION LEGISLATION 



The board of r^ents of the University of 

 California and the trustees of Stanford Uni- 

 versity have united in a protest against the 

 anti-vivisectionist initiative. They say: 



The advance of sanitation, modern medicine 

 and physiology and the teaching of biology all 

 rest on animal experimentation. The control of 

 epidemic diseases, the management of surgical 

 operations and of childbirth, and the certification 

 of milk and water supplies would be impossible 

 without the knowledge gained by such studies. 

 In fact, the whole structure of the present-day 

 protection of the public from disease rests upon 

 animal experimentation. 



The University of California and Stanford Uni- 

 versity are vitally interested in this initiative 

 measure since its passage would stop the research 

 work now going on in their medical schools, hos- 

 pitals and laboratories, and in the Bureau of Ani- 

 mal Industry. The studies on botulism in olives, 

 which will not only save the ripe olive industry of 

 the state, but many lives, would cease, as would 

 likewise the manufacture of serum for the pre- 

 vention of hog cholera, the preparation of vaccine 

 for anthrax, and the various other measures that 

 annually save millions of dollars and prevent great 

 suffering among domestic animals. Even feeding 

 on animals would be impossible. 



No worse attack on the welfare of the state and 

 on the right of the university to seek and teach 

 the truth could be made. Every man, woman and 

 child, every unborn babe, every domestic animal 

 in the state will be affected if this measure be- 

 comes a law. It is unnecessary special legislation 

 due to prejudice and misinformation. No one wUl 

 tolerate cruelty to animals. The present laws of 

 the state are drastic and quite sufSeient to oontrol 

 any abuse. We know that there is no cruelty to 

 animals in the laboratories of the universities. 

 They are in charge of men and women of the 

 highest character, who are unselfishly working to 

 better the lot of their fellow men. Anesthetics are 

 always used for animals in the laboratory in ex- 

 actly the same way that they are used by sur- 

 geons in the operating room. The real object of 

 the antivivisectionist is not the prevention of 

 cruelty to animals, but the prevention of progress 

 in science and medicine. 



THE SIXTEENTH ANNUAL NEW ENGLAND IN- 

 TERCOLLEGIATE GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION 



The sixteenth annual New England Inter- 

 collegiate Geological Excursion will 'be held in 

 the vicinity of Middletown, Connecticut, Oc- 

 tober 8 and 9, 1920. There will be two parts to 

 the excursion. Friday afternoon the Strick- 

 land pegmatite quarry, Collins Hill, Portland, 



