NovEeMBER 15, 1918] 
advantage of having such books printed in 
English would be much greater than that of 
haying them printed in German _ because 
the number of English speaking people is much 
greater than the number of those who speak 
German as a native language. The regions of 
the world in the control of the English-speak- 
ing peoples are very extensive, and well situ- 
ated to sustain a large population, so that the 
disparity between the number of English- 
speaking people and the number of German- 
speaking people is bound to increase rapidly. 
With the stimulus that this war has given to 
scientific and engineering work, with the em- 
phasis that it has laid on the necessity for a 
country to be thoroughly developed in science 
and engineering, the chances are that the Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples will give greater relative 
attention in the future than in the past to sci- 
ence and engineering. It may therefore be in- 
ferred as probable that the number of English- 
speaking people using reviews and handbooks 
will be considerably greater than the number 
of German-speaking people. Moreover, Eng- 
lish is not a difficult language for a foreigner 
to learn to read. 
In an Executive Order issued by President 
Wilson on May 11, 1918, the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences was requested to perpetuate 
the National Research Council, the duties of 
which should be as follows: 
1. In general, to stimulate research in the 
mathematical, physical and biological sciences, 
and in the application of these sciences to 
engineering, agriculture, medicine and other 
useful arts, with the object of increasing 
knowledge, of strengthening the national de- 
fense, and of contributing in other ways to the 
publie welfare. 
2. To survey the larger possibilities of sci- 
ence, to formulate comprehensive projects of 
research, and to develop effective means of 
utilizing the scientific and technical resources 
of the country for dealing with these projects. 
3. To promote cooperation in research, at 
home and abroad, in order to secure concentra- 
tion of effort, minimize duplication, and stimu- 
late progress; but in all cooperative underta- 
kings to give encouragement to individual 
SCIENCE 
493 
initiative, as fundamentally important to the 
advancement of science. 
6. To gather and collate scientific and tech- 
nical information at home and abroad, in ¢co- 
operation with governmental and other agen- 
cies and to render such information available 
to duly accredited persons. 
It seems to me as though the National Re- 
search Council could not adequately fulfil the 
duties assigned to it by the President of the 
United States as enumerated above without 
undertaking the organization of the publica- 
tion of yearly reviews of the progress in sci- 
ence and engineering and of occasional com- 
pendiums of knowledge already acquired and 
digested. How otherwise can the council 
better stimulate research, better afford a sur- 
vey of the larger possibilities of science, better 
promote cooperation in research, or more ef- 
fectively gather and collect scientifie and tech- 
nical information? Moreover, by so doing the 
council would displace the insidious control of 
Germany which has been developed into a 
propaganda not at all flattering to our scien- 
tific value, and actually dangerous to the na- 
tional defense. 
Epwin Biwett Witson 
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., 
October 23, 1918 
NEMATODES ON MARKETABLE FISHES 
Tue attention of the writer was called to the 
problem of attacks of nematodes on market- 
able fishes while on a visit to Norway during 
the year 1917. The visit was extended to the 
northern part of Norway, where the writer 
came in direct contact with fishermen and had 
the opportunity to study the problem at close 
range. The villagers in northern Norway are 
dependent upon fish to a large extent as a diet. 
When the writer was there, he frequently 
heard it remarked when purchase of fish for 
a meal was to be made: “Don’t get one with 
‘kveisa” Get fat ones.” “Kveisa” is the 
common name given by the people to round 
worms found on the liver and stomach in 
fishes. 
