Febbuaby 1, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



119 



vision of economic zoology. Professor A. G. 

 Euggles was, at the same time, appointed sta- 

 tion entomologist, which position carries with 

 it the office of state entomologist. At the De- 

 cember meeting of the board Professor F. L. 

 Washburn, who has held the position of state 

 entomologist in Minnesota for nearly sixteen 

 years, asked and obtained permission to be re- 

 lieved of that position and its attendant police 

 duties, and the action of the board on the 

 eighteenth was necessary to fill the vacancy 

 thus caused. 



Mr. D. C. Duncan, assistant professor of 

 physics at Purdue University, has resigned his 

 position to accept appointment in a similar ca- 

 pacity at the Pennsylvania State College. 



E. G. "Woodward, formerly head of the dairy 

 department at the University of Nevada, has 

 been made head of the dairy division. State 

 College of Washington. 



I. D. Ch.^rlton, professor of agricultural 

 engineering at the State College of Washing- 

 ton, has resigned to accept a similar position 

 at the University of Minnesota. 



Dr. Wilson Gee, professor of biology in 

 Emory University, has resigned to become as- 

 sistant director of agricultural extension work 

 in South Carolina. His successor is Dr. R. C. 

 Rhodes, formerly assistant professor of biology 

 in the University of Mississippi. 



Professor F. de Quervain has been ap- 

 iwinted to the chair of surgery in the Univer- 

 sity of Berne in succession to the late Pro- 

 fessor Kocher. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



VITAMINES AND NUTRITION 



In this national food crisis when people are 

 scrutinizing the make-up of their diet for 

 patriotic, economic and physiologic reasons the 

 proper selection of food materials looms up as 

 a problem of no mean proportions. Especially 

 is this true with those who, having attempted 

 to keep abreast of the most recent develop- 

 ments in nutrition, have had their faith in 

 former practises shaken by a smattering of 

 knowledge of the importance of vitamines in 

 the dietary. Truly, from the standpoint of 



the investigator, an appreciation of the role of 

 vitamines has made and will make much 

 progress in nutrition possible and in every way 

 more complete, but from the standpoint of the 

 people as a whole it is questionable if the 

 possibility of a lack of vitamines in the diet is 

 of more serious import than that of the lack 

 of suitable proteins or mineral constituents. 



"Vitamines as a class are now acceptably 

 divided into a fat soluble and a water soluble 

 type. Both are absolutely essential in a com- 

 plete diet and both vary considerably in their 

 occurrence. Individually many foods are de- 

 ficient in one or both of them, but safety has 

 undoubtedly been assured to the consumer by 

 his desire for variety. It is scarcely to be 

 doubted that in the American diet there is 

 probably no danger of a lack of sufficiency of 

 the water soluble vitamine, but with the fat 

 soluble type the case is not so clear. Up to 

 the present, studies on its occurrence are 

 limited to a few seeds and leaves, and fats of 

 plant and animal origin. While butter fat is 

 richer in this dietary essential than butter 

 substitutes, it is stiU too early to predict if in 

 the aggr^ate this special property of butter 

 fat warrants its taking a superior place in the 

 mixed diet. The fat soluble vitamine has re- 

 cently been found in this laboratory to occiir 

 in liberal amounts in edible roots as compared 

 with our cereal grains, but it has also been 

 found to be quite easily destroyed — apparently 

 by oxidation. The chemical stability of the 

 dietary essential and its occurrence in various 

 foods is now being studied in this laboratory 

 to determine if there is any probability of a 

 varied diet of raw and prepared foods being 

 deficient in this constituent. 



H. Steenbock 



Labobatoey op Agbicultubal Chemistby, 



TjNrVEESITY OF "WISCONSIN 



A FLOOD IN THE VALLEY OF THE ORISKANY 

 CREEK, NEW YORK 



Ox Monday, June 11, 1917, there occurred 

 in central New York a flood which was re- 

 markable in respect to the damage done in a 

 very limited area, and the control of the wat- 

 ers by physiographic conditions. 



