250 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1394 



bring the practical solution of our question. 



The institutes of our university have funds 

 that would be sufficient if the value of the 

 dollar were of 5 lei, as it was before the war, 

 and not 90-100 lei as it is now. The credits 

 assigned to our laboratories, even augmented, 

 can not meet at the same time the general 

 rise in price of scientific materials and the 

 disadvantageous exchange of our money. 



The solution of this great difficulty might 

 be found, I think, in the organization of a 

 credit with a fixed term of payment iu 3 or 

 4 years. Such credits were organized dur- 

 ing the war for the supply of engines of 

 destruction; why should it be impossible to 

 organize them in a time of peace in order to 

 facilitate scientific cooperation and for the 

 benefits of science? 



I think that this organization might be 

 created. Under the auspices of an American 

 scientific association a number of booksellers 

 and instrument makers might be grouped, 

 forming a society which would divide among 

 them the orders of our institutions central- 

 ized by the chancellor of the university. 



The total sum forming the price of the 

 objects, guaranteed by the university, would 

 be divided into two fractions: one part pay- 

 able immediately and another credited for 3 

 or 4 years, with a fixed annual interest. Our 

 universities are state institutions and offer 

 every guaranty of solvency. 



I beg again the friends of science and of 

 international cooperation to be willing to ex- 

 amine the question also from this point of 

 view and seek the solution of the organiz- 

 ation of this credit. Our university is ready 

 to make every sacrifice in its power in order 

 to secure practically and permanently the 

 cooperation of American science. 



E. G. Eacovitza 



Institute of Speologt, 



TjNrVEESITT OF ClUJ, 

 ROTJMANIA 



AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE FOR 

 FOREIGN COUNTRIES 



In Science, Volume 53, page 335, April 8, 

 1921, Professor Eacovitza, of the University 



of Cluj, Roumania, points out that his uni- 

 versity is practically barred from access to the 

 American scientific literature and scientific 

 instruments by the present state of foreign 

 exchange. He points out that Science, which 

 before the war cost thirty-five Eoumanian 

 lei, now costs five hundred and ninety-five lei. 



The Biological Club of the University of 

 Minnesota believe that such a situation should 

 not exist and that American scientific litera- 

 ture should be widely disseminated in Europe. 

 Obviously, however, the University of Cluj 

 can not purchase many American journals 

 at such a rate of exchange. Accordingly the 

 secretary of the Biological Club was author- 

 ized to write Professor Eacovitza and ask him 

 for a list of journals which he would prefer 

 to have in their library. In a letter under 

 date of July 16, he submits the following 

 list in order of his preference: (1) The 

 American Naturalist, (2) Ecology, (3) Ge- 

 netics, (4) Journal of General Physiology 

 (Loeb), (5) Journal of Morphology, and (6) 

 Journal of Experimental Zoology. 



The Biological Club is accordingly asking 

 the publishers of The American Naturalist 

 to send that journal to the library of the 

 Institutul De Speologie, Universitatea Din 

 Cluj, and bill the subscription price to the 

 Club until further orders. 



We are publishing this note in Science in 

 the hope that similar scientific organizations 

 will take like action. In case such action is 

 taken by any organization it is suggested that 

 it might be advisable in order to avoid send- 

 ing duplicate journals to their library that a 

 central clearing house of some sort should be 

 established. If this seems best the under- 

 signed would be glad to serve in this way. 

 H. D. Barker, 

 Secretary of the Biological Cluh 



THE TRUTH ABOUT VIVISECTION 



To THE Editor of Science : In the Wo^nans 

 Home Companion for July, 1921, is the best 

 paper on this subject I have ever seen called 

 " The Truth about Vivisection " by Mr. 

 Ernest Harold Baynes. Mr. Baynes first read 



