22 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. Ko. 1201 



and eventually obtain credit for them when 

 they seek a civil degree in medicine. Three 

 schools of military medicine have been estab- 

 lished for their benefit in regions behind the 

 front, and have been duly provided with pro- 

 fessors, libraries and laboratories. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Eeaching a total of $515,436.09, federal 

 grants of money to seventeen states under the 

 Vocational Education Act were allotted at the 

 meeting of the Federal Board of Vocational 

 Education on December 21. Each of these 

 states has complied with the terms of the law 

 and has agreed to match every federal dollar 

 with money publicly raised by the state or local 

 community. The states are as follows: Ala- 

 bama, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Mich- 

 igan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ne- 

 braska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South 

 Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. 



Accusations of disloyalty against five mem- 

 bers of the faculty of the University of Dli- 

 nois were found on December 11 to be without 

 grounds, by a subcommittee in a report to the 

 board of trustees of the institution. 



Professor G. H. Scott, for fifteen years 

 professor of mathematics and astronomy in 

 Yankton College, Yankton, South Dakota, has 

 resigned to become principal of Benzonia 

 Academy, Benzonia, Michigan. 



Francis W. Kiekham, of the Brigham 

 Young University, has been chosen director 

 of vocational education for Utah, following 

 the laying of plans to bring the state under 

 provisions of the Smith-Hughes act. 



Dr. Wright A. G.^rdner, formerly associate 

 professor of botany and plant physiologist at 

 the Idaho University and Station, has been ap- 

 pointed plant physiologist and head of the de- 

 partment of botany at the Alabama College 

 and Station. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



A SUGGESTION FOR STAINING TECHNIQUE 



Where one has many slides of sections 

 passing through the various stages of de- 

 hydration and staining, a systematic method 



of labelling must be followed. Suggestions 

 have been made to do this by means of a dia- 

 mond point pencil or waterproof ink. 

 Neither of these methods have worked satis- 

 factorily for me — the first being too difficult 

 to perform rapidly even after a good point has 

 been procured and the marking being very 

 difficult to read when covered with a dark 

 stain. The second has these disadvantages 

 and in addition the marking is very liable to 

 rub off. 



Therefore I suggest the following method 

 which has worked satisfactorily for me while 

 staining hundreds of sections at a time. 

 Sniall aluminum clips with a numeral stamped 

 or stencilled on each were prepared. These 

 clips fasten on the edge of the slide when in 

 the staining jars and are not large enough to 

 prevent placing a cover on the jar. The data 

 may be written in whatever manner desired in 

 a notebook with the number or character to 

 correspond to that on the aluminum clip. 

 These clips are cheap, may easily be made and 

 very few reagents ever used in dehydrations or 

 staining attack the alimiinum. The same clip 

 may be used repeatedly. 



Paul Ashley West 



Toledo, Ohio 



a note on the preparation of skeletons 

 by bacterial digestion 



The method of preparing skeletons by bac- 

 terial digestion is of long standing and has 

 given excellent results. The present modi- 

 fication of the method was devised to obviate 

 two objections which are of considerable im- 

 portance when skeletons are prepared by stu- 

 dents as class work. First, the digestion mass 

 produces a foul odor and is disagreeable to 

 handle, and, second, the digestion process, 

 unless carefully controlled by frequent ex- 

 aminations is likely to result in displacement 

 and subsequent loss of the smaller parts of 

 the skeleton. 



These objections are to a large extent over- 

 come by embedding the roughly cleaned skele- 

 ton in a solid medium supporting bacterial 

 growth. Agar-agar is preferable to gelatin, 

 since it is not liquefied by the common bac- 

 terial enzymes. The method is as follows : 



