SCIENCE 



Friday, December 1, 1916 



CONTENTS 

 The Cost of Coal: Dr. Geo. Otis Smith, C. B. 

 Lesher 763 



Josiah Royce 772 



The Scientific Exhibit of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences 774 



The New York Meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science . . . 775 



Scientific Notes and News 780 



University and Educational News 784 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Synchronism in the Rhythmic Activities of 

 Animals : Dr. Wallace Craig. Is Cucumber 

 Mosaic Carried by Seed: J. A. McClintock. 

 The Culture of Pre-Columbian America: 

 Professor T. Wingate Todd. Mosquitoes 

 and Man Again: Dr. C. S. Ludlow. The 

 Song of Fowler's Toad: E. E. Dunn .... 784 



Scientific Books:- — 



Petrunkevitch on the Morphology of Inver- 

 tebrate Types: Winterton C. Curtis .... 790 



Captain White's Recent Exploratory Work in 

 Australia: Dr. B. W. Shufeldt 793 



Special Articles: — 



The Ovulation Period in Rats : Professor J. 

 A. Long and Jessie E. Quisno. Ovulation 

 in Mice: Professor J. A. Long and H. P. 

 Smith. Agar Agar for Bacteriological Use : 

 Professor H. A. Noyes 795 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.. intended for 

 reriew should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrisnn- 

 On-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE COST OF COALi 



The price of coal is a matter of vital con- 

 cern to the average citizen. No less im- 

 portant, however, is the question what our 

 coal actually costs to produce and the in- 

 terest in this subject is typical of the pop- 

 ular interest in the large productive enter- 

 prises of the country. As citizens we recog- 

 nize the consumer's dependence upon the 

 producer and are taking advanced ground 

 as to their relative rights. In few indus- 

 tries does this dependence seem more vital 

 or the consumer's equity appear larger 

 than in that of producing and selling coal. 

 The per capita annual expenditure for the 

 useful metals is roughly equivalent to that 

 for coal, but few citizens purchase pig iron 

 or bar copper, whereas of the urban popu- 

 lation only the dwellers in apartments, 

 boarding-houses and hotels are spared the 

 necessity of buying coal. The consumption 

 of coal in the United States for heating and 

 cooking is between 1 and 1£ tons per capita. 

 A careful estimate for 1915 is 1.1 tons, 

 which happens to be identical with the 

 figure determined for similar consumption 

 in Great Britain in 1898. This non-indus- 

 trial consumption is greatest in cities and 

 in this city of Chicago in 1912 it was 

 nearly 2 tons. Of course every citizen in- 

 directly pays for his share of the total con- 

 sumption, which last year amounted to 4.6 

 tons per capita. 



Again it may be that because to a larger 



degree the cost of metals is charged to 



capital outlay rather than to the operating 



expense of life, we appreciate less keenly 



the unit price of these materials that are 



lEead before the American Mining Congress, 

 Chicago, November 14. 



