October 22, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



387 



vapors, and hopes later to publish data on 

 this subject. John K. Eobeetson 



, Queens's University, 

 Kingston, Canada 



autopsy of a black fish 

 To THE Editor of Science : On July 5, 1920, 

 a large female Blackfish, Glolocephalus malas, 

 a species of whale sixteen feet long came 

 ashore near Woods Hole, Mass., and was 

 brought to the Fish Commission Laboratory 

 at this place for autopsy. The task was new to 

 all present and when a large sac capable of 

 holding a pailful or two was seen near the jtos- 

 terior end of the body, it was at once recog- 

 nized as probably the empty bladder. This, 

 however, proved to be incorrect for the empty 

 urinary bladder was found near as a hard, 

 flesh-colored organ contracted to the size of a 

 man's large elongated fist. The sac when more 

 closely examined was found to be a recently 

 delivered uterus, completely relaxed, upon the 

 inner surface of which the site of the placenta 

 could be plainly made out and with its open 

 mouthed sinuses capable of receiving the tips 

 of a little finger. This therefore was probably 

 an unique case of death from post-partum 

 hemorrhage, damp bed and absence of a ma- 

 rine accoucheur with his ergot. A few days 

 later the history of the case was completed by 

 the finding of the infant, a youngster about 

 three feet in length, also cast ashore near where 

 the body of the mother was found. 



There is no doubt the character of the case 

 would certainly have been undiagnosed had 

 there not been present at the post-mortum, an 

 old general medical practitioner who recog- 

 nized first that the body of the animal showed 

 an almost exsanguine state, corroborated later 

 by the condition of the relaxed uterus. 



G. A. MacOallum 

 Woods Hole, Mass., 

 July 26, 1920 



countries, and with public gardens in cities of 

 the United States, should not be allowed to 

 rest. There is force and sound argument in 

 the proposal and no contrary argument. The 

 present national Botanic Garden is national 

 only in its name and in the fact that it is 

 maintained at a slight cost to the nation. It 

 is not national in its exhibit of plant forms. 

 It was a pleasing little spot when the capital 

 was a village. It carries one's thought back to 

 when the mighty Library of Congress was 

 housed in one small room in the Capitol. The 

 Botanic Garden has made little growth in fifty 

 years because it could not expand outside of its 

 tall iron fence. Now the little space within 

 that fence is being dedicated to monuments. 

 I The weight of opinion among government 

 and private botanists and landscape archi- 

 tects is that the Mount Hamilton tract should 

 be the site of the great new and really national 

 Botanic Garden. It fronts on one of the main 

 boulevards. It is already accessible by steam 

 and electric railroads. It adjoins the vast pub- 

 lic park which the government is building up 

 from the bottom, the marshes and the margins 

 of the Eastern branch. It thus fits into and 

 becomes a part of the park system. These are 

 among the reasons which botanists urge to 

 bring the matter into public favor. But to 

 them the strong reasons are that in this tract 

 of land are high hills, steep slopes, gentle 

 slopes, thick woods with many varieties of 

 timber, deep ravines, meadows, marshes, brooks 

 and rivulets, and about all kinds of soil which 

 all kinds of American plants pick out for 

 home. 



: It is a great idea that the United States 

 should have a Botanic Garden of which all 

 Americans could say, " It is the greatest thing 

 of its kind on earth." — Washington Evening 

 Star. 



QUOTATIONS 



THE NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN 



The plan for the creation of a national Bo- 

 tanic Garden and arboretum that will be com- 

 parable with government gardens in other 



A NEW BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL 



During the past two decades the develop- 

 ment of ecological studies in this coimtry has 

 been rapid. Five years ago, as a result of 

 continued and insistent demand, the Ecolog- 

 ical Society of America was organized and 

 at once included in its membership botanists 



