April 19, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



385 



The campaign of the autivivisectiouists is waged, 

 now as always, with no other weapons than those of 

 calumny and falsehood. They deliberately and 

 persistently make the most abominable accusations 

 against men who have done and are doing an 

 enormous amount of successful work to mitigate 

 human suffering and to save human life. Inci- 

 dentally, these same workers are conferring like 

 advantages on innuniera))le domestic animals, but 

 let that pass. The immediate issue is that interfer- 

 ence with animal experimentation just now de- 

 creases the safety of the men in our army and 

 na^y, makes impossible, so far as the interference 

 is effective, the conquest of several terrible dis- 

 eases to which the fighters for liberty are still ex- 

 posed, and sets up the absurd claims of fanatic 

 dgenerates against the well-demonstrated truths of 

 medical science. 



And the Red Cross cautiously says that it does 

 not take sides for or against ' ' vivisection ' ' ! Such 

 caution is reprehensible — is utterly unworthy of 

 that great and beneficent organization. It should 

 take sides, standing for right and against wrong. 

 The immediate profit of doing auj-thing else or less 

 will be dearly bought in future loss of both money 

 and respect. Red Cross money, in the amount that 

 was proposed, could not possibly have been better 

 invested than in the establishment of a biological 

 laboratory near the scene of war for the study of 

 the maladies of soldiers which this sort of research 

 has not yet conquered. It was weak, and worse 

 than weak, for the Red Cross to heed the hysterical 

 shrieks and the monstrous charges of venality and 

 murder that came from a few people whom it 

 strains charity to call deluded or insane. 



THE JOINT INFORMATION BOARD ON MINER- 

 ALS AND DERIVATIVES 



For the purjxjse of systematizing the hand- 

 ling of official inquiries regarding minerals 

 and mineral products the Joint Information 

 Board on Minerals and Derivatives has been 

 formed. This body, which will serve as a clear- 

 ing house to secure the prompt preparation and 

 transmittal of data from a single authoritative 

 source without duplication effort, is composed 

 of representatives from the various govern- 

 ment bureaus, boards and departments inter- 

 ested. 



The war has caused an increased demand by 

 various officials for all available information 

 regarding raw materials essential to the gov- 

 ernment, and this demand has caused a notable 



increase in the work and the personnel of those 

 bureaus that had in the past been directly con- 

 cerned in mineral investigations. 



This joint board was created to coordinate 

 the activities of all concerned. Its purpose in 

 no wise curtails but supplements the existing 

 activities; its function is to make the equip- 

 ment and personnel of the various bodies con- 

 cerned better known and more readily avail- 

 able to the other organizations and to bring 

 about an even more effective operation. 



Mr. Pope Yeatman, of the War Industries 

 Board, Division of Raw Materials, is chair- 

 man of the Joint Information Board, and all 

 inquiries should be addressed to Edson S. 

 Bastin, Secretary Joint Information Board on 

 ilinerals and Derivatives, Room 5037, New In- 

 terior Building, Washington, D. C. 



Following are the government departments 

 and official organizations and names of repre- 

 sentatives on the board: 



War Department. — Bureau of Ordnance, Lieu- 

 tenant Colonel R. P. Lament, Sisth and B Streets 

 NW. 



Navy Department. — Bureau of Ordnance, Com- 

 mander R. S. Holmes, Lieutenant Commander N. 

 W. Pickering, New Interior Department Building. 



War Industries Board. — Division of Raw Mate- 

 rials, L. L. Summers, Pope Yeatman (chairman 

 Joint Information Board), Council of National De- 

 fense Building. Division of Statistics, F. G. 

 Tryon, H. R. Aldrich; Commercial Economy Board, 

 M. T. Copeland; Council of National Defense 

 Building. Bureau of Investigations and Research, 

 F. H. Maepherson, Council of National Defense 

 Building. 



Department of Agriculture. — Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, K. F. Kellerman; Bureau of Soils, Fred- 

 erick W. Brown ; Bureau of Animal Industry, R. M. 

 Chapin ; Bureau of Chemistry, W. W. Skinner ; 

 Federal Insecticide and Fungicide Board, John K. 

 Haywood. 



Department of Commerce. — Bureau of Foreign 

 and Domestic Commerce, C. D. Snow, assistant 

 chief; Bureau of Standards, Henry D. Hubbard. 



Treasury Department. — Bureau of the Mint, 

 I'rederick P. Dewey; Division of Customs, George 

 W. Ashworth; Office of Internal Revenue, A. B. 

 Adams. 



Interior Department. — Geological Survey, Adson 

 8. Bastin (secretary of Joint Information Board) ; 

 Frank J. Katz, New Interior Department Build- 



