66 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1412 



is something that money cannot buy. The 

 financial reward is seldom thought of. Never- 

 theless it is coming to be an important ac- 

 companiment. 



The universities and colleges are being 

 heavily drawn upon by commerce and indus- 

 try for trained thinkers and investigators. 

 Great private foundations must go to the uni- 

 versities for trained men. Governmental 

 agencies, state and national, can not find enough 

 trained students to meet their needs. The ex- 

 periment stations and the national Department 

 of Agriculture are constantly in need of more 

 and better trained personnel. While salaries 

 offered by government and state agencies are 

 usually not as large as those paid in the in- 

 dustrial world there are other compensations. 

 There is a strong and increasing demand for 

 men trained in the various branches of agri- 

 cultural science. Work of this kind in foreign 

 fields is very attractive to many. The state 

 universities and agricultural colleges are awake 

 to the new needs. They are organizing their 

 research with the cooperation and backing of 

 the national and state governments, with a view 

 to encouraging the promising investigator and 

 student and to maintaining the vivifying at- 

 mosphere that the research spirit and accom- 

 plishment gives to the university. Thorough 

 preparation not too specialized in the first 

 two or three years is essential to future suc- 

 cess. The basic sciences, mathematics, physics, 

 chemistry, and biology, together with a know- 

 ledge of modern languages must be stressed 

 with the specialized work in the selected field. 

 In the graduate schools the development in 

 the next few years will doubtless be along the 

 line of developing special research facilities 

 in particular fields. It should be possible to 

 find there the men, the books, the laboratories, 

 and the equipment necessary for the most 

 effective investigation in the particular fields 

 stressed. This would bring about a greater 

 interchange of students which would be good 

 for the university as well as the student. There 

 never has been a time when the need for agri- 

 cultural research of the first order was as 

 necessary as it is today. The growing recog- 

 nition of this need and appreciation for the 

 service that may be rendered promises well 

 for the future. The call for prepared and de- 



voted workers should be heeded by the best 

 young men and women of our colleges. 



A. r. Woods 



Univkesitt of Maryland 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



INVESTIGATION OF CARBON MONOXIDE 



POISONING 



In order to make accurate observations for 

 determining and treating carbon monoxide 

 poisoning among those employed in mines, 

 metallurgical plants, and tunnels, a number of 

 investigations are being conducted at the Pitts- 

 burgh Experiment Station of the United States 

 Bureau of Mines. 



Methods of collecting and preserving blood 

 from persons affected or overcome by carbon 

 monoxide have been investigated and developed. 

 Blood samples were collected in various parts 

 of the United States, forwarded to Pittsbirrgh, 

 and there examined. A preliminary report 

 has been submitted. 



The following methods of analysis of blood 

 in the presence of carbon monoxide have been 

 studied by Bureau of Mines investigators: 

 Haldane's picrocarmin method, tannic acid 

 method, spectrophotometric method, and the 

 Van Slyke gasometric method. The Haldane 

 picrocarmin method proved to be the least 

 desirable, being very inaccurate with low con- 

 centrations; the tannic acid method was ac- 

 curate but tedious; the spectrophotometric 

 method was accurate and rapid, but required 

 expensive apparatus; the Van Slyke method 

 was the most dependable, but it required a 

 comparatively large sample, 2 to 4 c. c, for 

 each determination. A report on these meth- 

 ods of analysis has been submitted. 



A study of the feasibility of using in first- 

 aid work a mixture of carbon dioxide and 

 oxygen, first recomm ided by Dr. Yandell 

 Henderson, for resuscitation of persons over- 

 come by carbon monoxide was conducted on 

 both dogs and men. Results indicated that 

 in its present state of development the method 

 is not feasible for use by first-aid men. 



In the conduct of the above investigations a 

 superior method for the selection of analysts 

 for color work in chemistry was developed, 



