338 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1188 



about 5 per cent., and those of other meat from 

 3 to 4 per cent. Bacon and fish showed some 

 decline in price as compared with a month ago. 



In connection with work in food conserva- 

 tion the railway freight claim agents in Texas 

 are opening the way for cooperation with other 

 agencies interested in food production. On 

 Saturday, August 4, representatives of three 

 of the important railways in Texas met in 

 conference with Dr. J. J. Taubenhaus, of the 

 Texas Experiment Station, and Dr. F. H. 

 Blodgett, of the Agricultural Extension Serv- 

 ice, to discuss methods by which losses in 

 transit may be reduced in shipments of per- 

 ishable farm products. The matter was dis- 

 cussed both from the point of view of the 

 claim agent in reducing the financial expendi- 

 ture in settling damage claims on the part of 

 the shippers and others, and from the point of 

 view of food conservation, since the damaged 

 products, for which claims may be filed and 

 paid, draw from the food supply of the coun- 

 try with no benefits to any one since even dam- 

 age claims only partially represent the true 

 value of the products concerned. Plans were 

 outlined for the investigation of the unknown 

 factors involved by the pathologist of the Ex- 

 periment Station, and for the cooperation be- 

 tween the Extension Service and the railway 

 agricultural agencies to disseminate informa- 

 tion in regard to the different modes of hand- 

 ling produce to eliminate losses through shift- 

 ing of cargo and other causes which are already 

 well understood but not always carefully prac- 

 tised. 



It is stated in the Boston Medical and Sur- 

 gical Journal that the thirty-two new hospitals 

 which are being built by the medical corps of 

 the army for the care of the National Guard 

 and National Army camps will cost about $14,- 

 500,000. The aim of the medical department 

 is to have hospital provision for 5 per cent, of 

 the enlisted force by fall, and then extend it to 

 10 per cent. Abroad, facilities for 20 per cent, 

 of the American expeditionary forces will be 

 available. Provision will be made at the can- 

 tonments in this country for 3 per cent, of the 

 troops in each camp. Each hospital with the 

 space reserved for extensions will require sixty 



acres. The buildings will be 24 feet wide, the 

 length varying to meet the needs. A ward 

 about 157 feet long will accommodate 32 beds. 

 A cantonment hospital on a basis of 1,000 beds 

 will include about 70 buildings, if each ward 

 is considered as a building. Adequate labora- 

 tory facilities will also be provided, and plans 

 are being made to appoint permanently to the 

 staffs of the hospitals, men especially trained to 

 do laboratory work in order that careful tests 

 may be made of each and every soldier for 

 tuberculosis, intestinal infections, and all 

 other infectious diseases. 



In Kansas a deep well struck rock salt at 690 

 feet below the surface and penetrated 600 feet 

 of rock salt in beds from 5 to 60 feet thick, ac- 

 cording to the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey. A large area in this state is underlain by 

 salt, which is mined by many shafts and ob- 

 tained by pumping brine. Drilling for oil in 

 Texas and Louisiana has revealed the presence 

 of tremendously thick deposits of rock salt at 

 a depth of a few hundred feet. Thicknesses of 

 2,000 feet are common, and one drill hole 

 passed through more than 3,000 feet of rock 

 salt. Most of the salt made in Utah is pro- 

 duced by evaporating the waters of Great Salt 

 Lake, and in California by evaporating sea 

 water. These sources are inexhaustible, and 

 the limit of production by solar evaporation 

 will therefore never be reached. 



The Electrical World states that for several 

 years past from fifteen to thirty engineering 

 teachers have spent part of the summer vaca- 

 tion at the East Pittsburgh works of the West- 

 inghouse Electric and Manufacturing Com- 

 pany in getting acquainted not only with the 

 apparatus manufactured by this company, but 

 also with its engineering designers, commer- 

 cial engineers and works executives. This 

 year there were twenty-four men from seven- 

 teen different states and from Canada and 

 Japan, representing twenty-three different 

 engineering schools. Most of their time is 

 spent on actual work, either on assembly or 

 test floor or in the engineering offices, but part 

 of the time is given up to a series of meetings, 

 which include inspection and discussion of ap- 

 paratus being manufactured, talks on engi- 



