October 7, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



337 



to the eradication of yellow fever. A therstpeutic 

 serum is also available for treatment of yellow 

 fever. It has already been employed in 152 eases, 

 and persons treated before the third day of illness 

 have almost invariably recovered, the exceptions 

 being those cases in which the quantity of serum 

 used was too small to have any effect. By the 

 fourth day of illness the injuries to organs are so 

 great as to be irreparable in severe cases of yellow 

 fever. The usual mortality in yellow fever, 50 to 

 60 per eent.j has been reduced to 9 per cent, by the 

 use of the serum. The records of vaccination and 

 serum treatment presented here comprise the work 

 of a number of observers. The initial vaccination 

 experiments in Ecuador were carried out with the 

 cooperation of Dr. Pareja and the Direeciou de 

 Salubridad of Guayaquil; the statistics from Cen- 

 tral America cover the work of Lyster, Bailey, and 

 Vaughn; for the records of Mexican cases I am 

 indebted to the Consejo Superior de Salubridad 

 (Drs. Vasconcelos and Casasus), to the Junta de la 

 Sanidad de Yucatan (Dr. Hernandez), and to Dr. 

 Le Blanc; the work in Peru was done with the co- 

 operation and assistance of Dr. Kligler and the 

 Peruvian health authorities. 



Heredita/ry influences iearing on the resistance 

 to tuberculosis: Paul A. Lewis. Certain inbred 

 strains of guinea pigs, which have been maintained 

 for a number of years at the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry, Washington, D. C, have been tested by us 

 as to their resistance to tuberculosis. It is found 

 that these strains differ appreciably in the length of 

 life after a standard inoculation. The differences 

 between the strains are more considerable than dif- 

 ferences due to other factors, such as sex, age, 

 weight, etc. That the differences observed among 

 the strains have a hereditary basis is also empha- 

 sized by the influence on resistance observed in 

 crosses among these strains. 



Signs of sanity: Stewart Paton. Probably the 

 most important question in the world to-day is 

 whether man is capable of directing intelligently 

 the civilization he has created and organized. In- 

 ternational as well as industrial peace can only be 

 attained in proportion as we are capable of under- 

 standing and controlling human nature. Following 

 the outburst of insanity in 1914, which plunged the 

 world into war, no attempt has been made by 

 statesmen or diplomatists at the peace conference 

 to discriminate between the signs of sanity and in- 

 sanity. In order to understand the nature of sanity 

 one must use two methods of investigation: (1) 

 analytical, (2) synthetical. Man has jjaid a heavy 



price for neglecting the latter. He has studied 

 parts of the human machine, but has made little 

 effort to notice the behavior of the entire machine. 

 Judging sanity and insanity is a biological and 

 not a psychological problem; it is not a question 

 of body and mind, but of body-mind. The organi- 

 zation of the body -mind in sanity: (1) provides 

 channels for discharge of energy in action; (2) 

 assists individual to face squarely problems of 

 actual life and (3) rewards effort by definite sense 

 of achievement and feeling of adequacy. Bolshe- 

 vism, radicalism and the tendency to think in terms 

 of class distinction are defense reactions of inade- 

 quates afraid of facing their own personal prob- 

 lems. Success of individual, future of democracy 

 and the fate of our civilization depend upon the 

 recognition of these biological principles and the 

 cultivation of mental processes favorable for sane 

 thinking and acting. 



Grass rusts of the Andes (based on collections 

 by Mr. and Mrs. Holway) : J. C. Arthur. The 

 grass rusts form a peculiar group of minute para- 

 sites of great interest to the botanist on account of 

 their curious and varied forms and of equal in- 

 terest to the agriculturist and economist on account 

 of the injury they do to crops, especially cereals. 

 The Andean region embraces a strip rarely more 

 than a hundred miles in width of elevated plateaus 

 and high mountains extending along the whole 

 western border of South America through Colom- 

 bia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. The cereal 

 crops and forage grasses are of economic import- 

 ance throughout the region, but a study of the rusts 

 affecting them had made little progress until the 

 exploration undertaken by the Holways. Barely a 

 score of forms had previously been reported, but 

 the number is now more than double, and includes 

 some that are new to science. Much critical knowl- 

 edge has also been secured. 



The action of bases and salts on biocolloids and 

 cell-masses: D. T. MacDougau The strong metal- 

 lic bases, potassium, sodium and calcium are found 

 to exert a limiting effect in concentrations of O.OIM 

 on agar, when applied as hydroxides or chlorides, 

 but this action is reversed when solutions diluted to 

 O.OOIM" or O.OOOIM are used, in which concentration 

 they may occur in living matter. A similar acceler- 

 ating action for hydrochloric acid at 0.0001 normal 

 was found. Biocolloids of agar and gelatin© showed 

 specialized and accelerated hydration in similar 

 solutions. No connection could be established be- 

 tween the hydrogen ion concentration and swelling 

 as agar shows exaggerated swelling at Ph values 



