APKIL 9, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



371 



pressive in spite of a steady north wind and 

 unusual, close-sticking swarms of flies were 

 bothersome. On the Gulf coast the hurricane 

 tide began to rise about noon on the 13th and 

 the sea became very choppy. During the late 

 afternoon a dark line widening into a band in 

 the eastern sky was to be seen slowly rising. 

 The story of 284 lives lost and $20,000,000 

 property damage at Corpus Christi and vicin- 

 ity, as reported soon after the storm does not 

 need to be repeated here. The extremely high 

 tide, " 15 feet," covered the low ground and 

 allowed the great waves to demolish 900 houses, 

 and numerous substantial commercial estab- 

 lishments. 



A map shows that the heaviest rainfall, Sep- 

 tember 14-17, in Texas was 12 inches, and in 

 New Mexico, nearly 10 inches. More seems to 

 have fallen in the mountains of northern Mex- 

 ico, for a great flood rise suddenly on the Eio 

 Grande, at Eagle Pass the rise being 27.2 feet 

 in the 24 hours ending at 7 a.m., the I7th. For 

 about 100 miles above the mouth of the river it 

 is said to have widened to 40 or 50 miles. In 

 connection with the hurricane at least two 

 tornadoes occurred — one at Goulds, Florida, 

 and the other near Hobbs, in southeastern 

 New Mexico. 



Mr. E. H. Weightman made a study of the 

 wind conditions over the United States, Cen- 

 tral America and the West Indies preceding 

 and during the hurricane, using cloud obsei^ 

 vations, pilot balloon and kite data for the 

 winds aloft. There was a deep (6 km. or 

 more) circulation of easterly or northeasterly 

 winds throughout the southern states as the 

 center of the cyclone approached and passed 

 several hundred miles to the south.^" 



Charles F. Brooks 



Washington, D. C. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



TECHNIQUE OF OPERATING ON CHICK 

 EMBRYOS 



During the past five years, a number of 

 workers in the department of anatomy at the 



10 Monthly Weather Bev., October, 1919, Vol. 47, 

 pp. 717-720, 11 figs. 



University of Missouri have studied problems 

 which involved operations on chick embryos. 

 Since, for many of these studies, it was 

 necessary that the chicks should continue to 

 live and develop to a late stage of embryonic 

 life or to the time of hatching, it was most 

 desirable to develop a satisfactory technique. 

 This has apparently been accomplished and 

 it therefore seems worth while to record these 

 methods briefly for the benefit of other work- 

 ers in experimental embryology. 



Operations are carried out under the binoc- 

 ular microscope, enclosed in a warm box, 

 heated by electric light bulbs. Light is 

 furnished by a desk arc light. A flask con- 

 taining dilute copper sulphate serves to con- 

 centrate, cool, and properly color the light. 



The egg is taken from the incubator and 

 candled. By this means the location of the 

 embryo and the extent of the air chamber 

 may be seen and these are marked with pencil 

 on the egg shell. The egg is then placed in a 

 dish containing water, warmed to 38°-40° C, 

 and deep enough so that the air chamber is 

 completely immersed. The egg may be held 

 in place in the water by tucking gauze around 

 it. Mr. E. C. Albritton has devised a simple 

 and ingenious wire frame for this purpose 

 which fits over the edge of the dish, with an 

 inner suspended portion into which the ^g 

 fits, the egg being held in the desired position 

 by rubber bands. He also devised a simple 

 steam-heating apparatus for keeping the water 

 warm which obviated the necessity of using 

 a warm box. 



The portion of the egg containing the em- 

 bryo, which is exposed to the air, is swabbed 

 with alcohol and allowed to dry. A small 

 opening is then made in the egg shell by 

 means of a needle or sharp pointed knifa 

 The shell fragments are picked away with 

 forceps, care being taken not to tear the shell 

 membrane beneath. An opening 7 mm. in 

 diameter is sufficiently large for most opera- 

 tions. A drop or two of sterile Ringer's solu- 

 tion is then dropped in the opening, after 

 which the shell membrane may be stripped off 

 with ease. 



