September 23, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



275 



fields of native cane adjacent to, and sur- 

 rounding, the field of Formosan cane. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. W. H. Weston,^ the morph- 

 ology of Sclerospora philippinensis is very 

 nearly identical to that of 8. sacchari. How- 

 ever, he states: 



In the Philippines, in regions heavily infected 

 with the maize mildew, sugar cane fields com- 

 prising many varieties grown under widely vary- 

 ing conditions and situated adjacent to the badly 

 infected maize, and even containing some maize 

 plants growing among and in contact with the 

 young cane, have been under frequent observation 

 during all stages of their development for over 

 a year, and yet no ease of infection with the downy 

 mildew of maize has ever been seen. 



He was, moreover, unable to cross-inoculate 

 S. philippinensis from corn to sugar cane. The 

 evidence is therefore strongly suggestive of 

 the importation of the sugar-cane downy mil- 

 dew, Sclerospora sacchari T. Miyaki, from 

 Formosa. 



The only literature on this disease which 

 we have available here is the above-mentioned 

 publication by Dr. Weston on the Philip- 

 pine corn mildew, which incidentally discus- 

 ses the cane mildew. 



Measures have been taken to plow up the 

 affected field, burn the affected stubble, and 

 fallow the land. Steps to trace seed cane that 

 emanated from the field are also under way, 

 and it is possible that the disease may be 

 entirely eradicated in the Philippines. The 

 present brief note is presented as of possible 

 interest to agronomists and plant quarantine 

 oflicials of western countries. The importation 

 of this disease and the recent experience in 

 the Philippines with the introduction of Fiji 

 disease of cane are two excellent examples of 

 the need for rigid enforcement of plant 

 quarantine regulations. 



H. Atherton Lee, 

 Makiano G. Medalla 



Plant Disease Laboratories, 

 Bureau op Science and 

 Bureau of Agriculture, 

 Manila 



1 Weston, W. H., ' ' Philippine downy mildew of 

 maize, ' ' Jour. Agr. Bes., XIV., No. 3, p. 97. 



ENGLISH pronunciation FOR THE METRIC 

 SYSTEM 



To THE Editor of Science: May I add a 

 word of approval to what Dr. Frost has said 

 in re (Science, May 13, 1921) "English Pro- 

 nunciation for the Metric System " and sug- 

 gest that the word ki'lo-me'ter should be pro- 

 nounced with the accent upon the first and 

 third syllables. In some quarters it is pro- 

 nounced kilo'm-eter, contrary to the more 

 general usage. This pronunciation, however, 

 follows the custom in the case of thermo'meter, 

 which is a much older word. 



Thaddeus L. Bolton 



The Temple University, 

 Philadelphia 



GREGOR MENDEL AND THE SUPPORT OF SCI- 

 ENTIFIC WORK AT BRUNN 



To THE Editor op Science: Under date of 

 December 29, 1920, I received a letter from 

 Dr. Hugo litis of Briinn, Czechoslovakia, of 

 which the following paragraphs are extracts: 



The venerable old " Naturf orschende Verein" 

 of Briinn runs the risk of stopping scientific work 

 for want of money. For the same reason our uni- 

 versity extension work is cut short. In this con- 

 dition of utter distress I apply to your kindness 

 and ask you to help us. Wealthy friends of Men- 

 delism could perhaps be induced to grant us the 

 means to continue our scientific and popular edu- 

 cation-work. If it would be possible to get an 

 assistance of one thousand dollars for each of the 

 two institutions, the " Naturf orschende Verein," 

 where Mendelism took its origin, and ' ' University 

 Extension of Briinn, ' ' where work has just begun, 

 would be saved for the next two or three years. 



When, we published the Mendel-festival-volume, 

 science and art flourished, and we tried by our 

 work to prove worthy of Gregor Mendel. Now 

 we have become so poor that we can not buy any 

 scientific literature, nor can we have scientific 

 treatises printed. We have made up our minds to 

 sell our most precious treasure, the original 

 manuscript of Gregor Mendel's most renowned 

 work, "Versuche fiber Pflanzeuhybriden, " and 

 I ask you to lend us your kind assistance in 

 this matter too. Perhaps it could be sold by aue- 



