196 
This complete acceptance of my views is both 
gratifying and surprising, since neither Ban- 
eroft nor Clowes ever said or demonstrated 
anything of the kind until after the appear- 
ance of my various papers‘ and of the book 
which they review. Never before the time of 
these reviews has either used the terms “ hydro- 
philic” or “lipophilic” in any of his papers 
on emulsification. Indeed, when I presented 
the importance of colloid solvates (Bancroft’s 
“gelatinous films”) for the understanding of 
the stabilization of oil-in-water and water-in- 
oil types of emulsions, at the 1916 Urbana 
meeting of the American Chemical Society, 
both gentlemen attacked my views® as impos- 
sible. At that time they were following Pick- 
ering’s belief that the stability of an emulsion 
depends upon the production of an “ interfa- 
cial film” between the two liquids which, in 
Baneroft and Clowes’s mind, when bent one 
way, yielded an oil-in-water type of emulsion, 
and, when bent the other, a water-in-oil type. 
Bancroft says further: 
In so far as an emulsion of oil in water is sta- 
bilized by a hydrophilic colloid, there is nothing 
new about this. 
Here Bancroft disparages as not new the 
very idea which he had previously declared im- 
possible. Of course the fact that emulsifying 
agents emulsify has been known since mother 
first made mayonnaise. What mother did not 
know was why her methods worked. So far as 
I am aware neither she, nor Clowes, nor Ban- 
croft knew that the hydrophilic properties of 
colloids were an important element in the mat- 
ter until I pointed this out. 
Clowes concludes as follows: 
While the writer of this review would not charge 
Dr. Fischer with any deliberate intention to mis- 
lead, the obvious haste with which this somewhat 
pretentious work has been constructed suggests 
an attempt to skim the cream of a new idea in a 
promising field of research. 
4 Martin H. Fischer and Marian O. Hooker, Sct- 
ENCE, 48, 468, March, 1916; Kolloid Zeitschr., 18, 
100, 1916; 18, 242, 1916. 
5 See ‘‘Fats and Fatty Degeneration,’’ p. 29, for 
an account of this. 
SCIENCE 
LN. S. Vou, XLVIII. No. 1234 
The statement in the first clause withdraws 
the whole charge of the critic and is incon- 
sistent with his earlier paragraphs. His suc- 
ceeding inference is unjustified and absurd. 
Im any case scientific research presents too 
bounteous a table for those who sit at it to 
haggle over the cream. 
I conclude these quotations with an opinion 
by Bancroft which reveals his personal animus 
and embraces not only my volume on fats, but 
all my books: 
The author’s books are all interesting reading, 
and this one is no exception; but they should be 
considered as advertising matter in the guise of 
scientific fiction. 
Thus, from his original contention at the 
meeting of the American Chemical Society 
that my views are untrue, Bancroft has come 
to contend that they are not new; and then, 
insecure upon this ground, he turns from dis- 
cussing scientific issues and discusses me. 
With this brief presentation I rest my case. 
Decision is, fortunately, not confided to ex 
parte attorneys; it is the portion of disinter- 
ested third parties, of science and of time. 
Martin H. FiscHer 
EICHBERG LABORATORY OF PHYSIOLOGY, 
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 
QUOTATIONS 
A MEDICAL ENTENTE WITH AMERICA 
We published last week an account of the 
very cordial reception accorded to British . 
medicine in the persons of Sir James Macken- 
zie, Sir Arbuthnot Lane and Colonel Bruce by 
the American medical profession during the 
recent annual conference at Chicago. That 
event marks an important stage in the develop- 
ment of understanding and sympathy between 
the two countries, not only because the doctor 
wields in every community a large if undefined 
influence, but also because it is well that in 
the great war against disease which is now in 
its opening stages the two peoples should stand 
side by side, mutually supporting one another. 
American medicine has much to give, and we 
know that the same can be said of our own 
profession. The time is opportune for the 
