272 
though I do not know what we can do now 
to correct our faulty condition, one hundred 
and forty years after the birth of our name- 
less nation. Would that our fathers had 
seized upon our beautiful nickname, “ Colum- 
bia,” for our own official designation, before 
our pugnacious southern neighbor Columbia 
had stolen it for herself! 
J. S. Moore 
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, 
CLEVELAND, OHIO 
To tur Epitor or Science: The name 
“ America” inspires millions of individuals 
and the logical necessity for a name which is 
more specific, as pointed out by one of your 
correspondents in Scmnce of July 5, will 
gain little acknowledgment and no popularity. 
Nevertheless the necessity remains and should 
be dealt with. The custom and sentiment of 
the masses is the deciding factor and any 
change can come only by a gradual transfor- 
mation. If the term America, like Europe, 
Africa and Asia applies to a continent, as it 
does, then American implies Canadian, Brazil- 
ian and Patagonian just as well. We have in 
our case the modifying factor of “ United 
States,” which, as the correspondent puts it: 
“is lacking an adjective.’ To supply this 
adjective another name is needed. Why not 
hit two marks in one stroke by printing upon 
our postage stamps: USoNA? Perhaps this 
name might gain popularity and would permit 
an adjective “ Usonian.” At the same time 
the most numerous representatives of the na- 
tion would sail under a more specific label: 
U. S. o. N. A. instead of U. S. POSTAGE. 
Incidentally I wonder how long the inac- 
curate use of U. S. A. will survive. It has 
often been pointed out that U. S. A. is the 
official abbreviation for “ United States Army ” 
and U. S. N. for the navy, while U. S. means 
the United States and U. S. N. A. the United 
States of North America. Perhaps an experi- 
ment with postage stamps, as suggested above, 
may educate the people to use Usona, or the 
correct U. 8S. 
Inco W. D. Hacku 
BERKELEY, CALIF. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou. XLVITI. No. 1237 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
City Milk Supply. By Horatio Newton 
Parker. New York, McGraw-Hill Book 
Company, Inc. Pp. 486. 
The author’s purpose is plainly set forth in 
the brief preface, namely to give much-needed 
information on the broad subject of milk pro- 
duction, transportation and control of purity. 
This purpose he has admirably accomplished. 
The book seems complete in itself. The sub- 
ject matter is divided into seven chapters, as 
follows: I. Milk; IT., Diseases Communicable 
in Milk; III, Dairy Cattle and the Dairy 
_ Farm; IV., Sanitary Milk Production; V., 
Transportation of Milk; VI., The Milk Con- 
tractor, and VII., Control of the Public Milk 
Supply. 
Printed in somewhat compact form, in good 
bold type and on good paper, the different top- 
ics are presented clearly, and in many parts 
with the first-hand information and under- 
standing of the various difficult problems which 
only one who has spent many years of study 
in this field is able to give. 
In the chapter on diseases communicable in 
milk the treatment of tuberculosis is particu- 
larly instructive. The tuberculin test, and the 
present-day controversy regarding its value 
and enforced application are discussed at some 
length and without bias. Septic sore throat 
likewise comes in for a good share of the 
writer’s attention. 
A comprehensive history of the score card 
system of rating dairies, and a full discussion 
of its merits and of its serious limitations will 
be found to be interesting and illuminating. 
The importance which the author attaches to 
the bacteriological examination of milk is 
most gratifying to those who have long lent 
their support to its complete adoption as a 
method of controlling sanitary milk produc- 
tion. A good account is given also of the 
origin and pernicious influence of the so-called 
“ slop dairy,” and of the long struggle that has 
been waged for improved feeding and housing 
conditions in the dairy barn. 
The author has been particularly success- 
ful in his treatment of the material in the 
chapter on the milk contractor. The peculiar 
