Januabt 1, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



29 



heat of the earth still plays an impoitant if 

 not controlling part in all terrestrial phe- 

 nomena. . . ." This idea is based on an 

 earlier communication" whose conclusions are 

 invalidated by his erroneous definition of tem- 

 perature and by his erroneous assumption that 

 a body placed in a stream of radiant energy 

 has its temperature raised by an amount pro- 

 portional to the quantity of radiant energy 

 falling upon it in a unit of time. 



It can readily be shown that the heat re- 

 ceived by conduction from the earth is in- 

 significant in comparison with that received 

 from the sun, as was long ago done by Lord 

 Kelvin. The quantity of heat reaching the 

 earth's surface per minute through each sq. 

 cm. equals the conductivity of the rock multi- 

 plied by the temperature gradient multiplied 

 by 60 seconds. If we take the conductivity of 

 rock at 0.005 and the temperature gradient at 

 0.00032° C. per cm. (which corresponds to 1° 

 0. per 31 m. or 1° F. per 50 feet) we find 

 9.6 X 10"" for the quantity of heat conducted 

 to the surface per sq. cm. each minute, and 

 since we can take the quantity received from 

 the sun for the same area in the same time as 

 0.2 calorie, we see that the earth's surface re- 

 ceives from the sun at least 2,000 times as 

 much heat as from its interior. The latter, 

 therefore, could not have a material effect on 

 the surface temperature or on atmospheric 

 phenomena. Harry Fielding Eeid 



Johns Hopkins University, 

 November 28, 1908 



ON misleading statements 

 Since misleading statements occur in the 

 publications of certain writers concerning my 

 participation in, and experimental contribu- 

 tions to the subject of blood-vessel anastomosis 

 and transplantations, in justice to myself 

 and in the interest of investigators in general, 

 it is incumbent upon me to perform the dis- 

 agreeable task of making a statement once for 

 all, that the facts may be made readily ac- 

 cessible. The task will be made easier if I 

 am permitted to quote rather freely. 



Carrel in a paper appearing in the Journal 

 of the American Medical Association, Novem- 

 ber 14, 1908, LI, p. 1664, says: 

 "Science, December 20, 1908, p. 877. 



The transplantation of devitalized arteries liaa 

 been attempted by Levin and Larkin in New York, 

 but in almost every case thrombosis occurred. 

 However, after the transplantation of a segment 

 of aorta fixed in formalin into the aorta of a dog, 

 excellent circulation was observed. Histologic 

 examination ten days after the transplantation 

 showed that the wall was composed of amorphous 

 tissue in which the elastic framework was seen 

 to be very well preserved. In another case of 

 Levin and Larkin, twenty days after the opera- 

 tion, the wall of the vessel was completely amor- 

 phous and surrounded by dense connective tissue. 

 A similar experiment has ieen performed in St. 

 Louis hy Guthrie, who obtained an excellent func- 

 tional result, but no histologic examination of the 

 vessel has yet been published. 



Levin and Larkin, in Proceedings of the 

 Society for Experimental Biology and Medi- 

 cine, 1907-8, v., p. 110, say: 



On January 23, 1908, we transplanted a seg- 

 ment of aorta from a dog hardened in 4 per cent, 

 formalin into the abdominal aorta of another 

 dog. Meanwhile Guthrie reported successful im- 

 plantation of formaldehyde segments into the 

 carotid of the dog. 



The facts regarding the transplantation of 

 formaldehyde-fixed segments are as follows: 

 In the American Journal of Physiology, Sep- 

 tember 2, 1907, XIX., 482-Y, in the paper 

 entitled, " Heterotransplantations of Blood 

 Vessels," I stated: 



In this connection it may be mentioned that a 

 segment of aorta from a eat preserved in formal- 

 dehyde for about a month, then washed in very 

 dilute ammonia water, partially dehydrated in 

 alcohol and impregnated with vaseline, when sim- 

 ilarly transplanted into a dog gave excellent tem- 

 porary results. On killing the animal with ether 

 and examining the segment, it was found to re- 

 semble the artery of the dog in a much greater 

 degree than before being transplanted, being more 

 pliant and having a flesh color, the latter due, no 

 doubt, largely to the presence of blood that got 

 into or between the coats from the outside. The 

 union of the intimas was excellent, and they both 

 had the characteristic glistening appearance. My 

 thanks are due Dr. Bartlett for assistance with 

 this operation. A series of operations are being 

 made with the view of determining the permanent 

 results of similarly prepared and transplanted 

 blood vessels. 



My records show that this experiment was 

 performed June 20, 1907. In Science, N. S., 



