January 16, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



59 



charged acts of inhumamty, sasdng in conclu- 

 sion : " The high command in Germany willed 

 the war, bnt the people in arms approved it, 

 and resolutely waged war with the most 

 ferociously cruel means, even the physicians 

 with the army doing the most odious acts 

 without a word of excuse, regret or pity." 

 The Deutsche, medizinische Wochenschrift of 

 April 10, 1919, as quoted in the Journal of 

 the American Medical Association, related 

 that the matter was brought up in the Berlin 

 Medical Society, and Calmette's protest and 

 the resolutions voted thereon by the Academie 

 de medecine at Paris were discussed. Dr. 

 Fuld offered a resolution that the society 

 should go on record as expressing its regret 

 at such happenings as were specified in the 

 Calmette protest, but his suggestion was op- 

 posed by Orth and others, the speakers saying 

 that there was no proof of the truth of the 

 statements made by Calmette, and no voting 

 should be done on a matter of which only one 

 side had been presented. Finally a committee 

 was appointed to report after obtaining an 

 official copy of the resolutions that had been 

 adopted by the Academie. The Wochenschrift 

 of ISTovember 6, 1919, relates that this com- 

 mittee recently presented its report. It was 

 in the form of a resolution which was adopted 

 without a dissenting voice. The members of 

 the committee were Fuld, Kraus, Krause, 

 Morgenroth and Schwalbe, the latter the 

 editor of the Wochenschrift. The resolution 

 in translation reads: 



The Berlin Medical Society is not in a position to 

 pass judgment on the Manifesto of the Lille pro- 

 fessors and the Academie de Medicine and on the 

 published justification issued by the German au- 

 thorities, entitled "LiUe under German Eule and 

 the Criticism of the Foe." But the society does 

 not hesitate to declare openly that it condemns in 

 the most imqualified manner all inhuman actions, 

 wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever they may 

 be committed. This attitude corresponds to the 

 spirit of medicine always held high by the Ger- 

 man medical profession, that really international 

 spirit to which we are loyal and to which we as- 

 sume all other physicians are loyal wherever they 

 may be and to whatever nation they may belong. 



CONFERENCE ON WASTE OF NATURAL GAS 



A PUBLIC conference of governors, public 

 utility co mm issioners, state geologists, home 

 economic experts, natural gas companies, 

 ovmers and officials, and appliance manufac- 

 turers has been called by Secretary of the 

 Interior Lane to meet under the auspices of 

 the Bureau of Mines at the Interior Depart- 

 ment Building, Washington on January 15, 

 to discuss the waste of natural gas in this 

 country both by consumers and gas companies. 

 As a result of the work of the experts of the 

 bureau on this question, it is declared that 

 in using natural gas the consumers through 

 faulty appliances obtain an efficiency of about 

 13 per cent, from a gas cook stove, 25 per 

 cent, from a house-heating furnace, and 10' 

 per cent, from a hot-water heater, although in 

 good practise these efficiencies can be trebled. 

 Dr. Van H. Manning, director of the Bureau 

 of Mines, writes in regard to the purposes of 

 the conference: 



Domestic consumers waste more than 80 per 

 cent, of the gas received. The efficiency of most 

 cooking and heating appliances could be trebled. 

 By making natural gas worth saving the 2,400,000 

 domestic consxuners in the United States could get 

 the same cooking and heating service with one 

 third the gas; that is, make one foot of gas do the 

 work of three and greatly delay the day when the 

 present supplies will be exhausted and consumers 

 must go back to more expensive manufactured 

 gas. 



It is time for the public to take a new view- 

 point on the waste of natural gas. It is time for 

 the domestic consumer to realize that his duty is- 

 not done when he cries out against the flagrant 

 wastes occurring in the gas fields and demands of 

 his government that such wastes be abated; he 

 must realize that he himself is likewise at fault 

 and that it is time for him to set his own house in- 

 order. Furthermore, the domestic consumer must 

 realize that these wastes do not concern him alone,- 

 and consequently he has not the right, merely be- 

 cause he pays for the gas, to employ it in any 

 manner that pleases him, no matter how wasteful. 

 Natural gas is a natural resource in which every 

 inhabitant of this country has an equity. Those 

 who waste the gas do so at the expense of those- 

 who would use it efficiently. Natural gas is not 

 replaced by nature, and in comparison with the life- 



