74 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1412 



the evidence for their case, the more certainly 

 does it lead away from the action they pressed 

 on the government. Although protection may 

 be dubious as a general principle, there are 

 certain industries of little intrinsic economic 

 importance, and yet vital to the national safety, 

 because of the dependence of larger industries 

 upon them. Are there any avocations more 

 certainly "keys" to national prosperity than 

 scientific research and the training of scien- 

 tific workers? In these matters we must 

 depend neither on Germany nor on any foreign 

 country. If dependence exist at present, the 

 administration of the acts should be tightened, 

 not relaxed, until we become self-supporting. 

 But the ease is probably over-stated. Before 

 the war scientific workers here and in the 

 United States had got in the habit of using 

 such chemicals as bacteriological stains and 

 such forms of optical glass as microscopic 

 lenses from one or two German makers, not 

 because these were better than all others, but 

 because they were standardized and all work- 

 ers using them could easily compare their 

 results. Convenience, not necessity, had led 

 to a German monopoly. American bacteriolo- 

 gists are endeavoring to meet the state of 

 affairs by agreeing on a reliable standard 

 brand of each kind of stain and discouraging 

 the use of variants. Similar action might be 

 taken in this country not only with regard to 

 stains, but to many other kinds of chemicals 

 and of apparatus used in research. But we 

 note with concern as further witness of the 

 aloofness of the state from science, that the 

 interpellations on this scientific question were 

 addressed to the minister of transport, who 

 undertook, apparently to the satisfaction of 

 every one, to refer it to the president of the 

 Board of Education. Is there not a Royal 

 Society, at one time the natural adviser of the 

 government on scientific matters? — The Lon- 

 don Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Studies on some Flagellates. E. Penaed. 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1921, Part 1, 

 Oct. 12. Idem, Etudes sur les Infusoires 

 d'eau douce; Geneva, "1922" [1921]. 



The inadequacy of- our knowledge of local 

 protozoan faunas is emphasized by two recent 

 papers by the veteran Swiss protozoologist, 

 Penard, in which he describes, chiefly from two 

 limited regions in the envii'ons of Geneva, 7 

 new riagellates and 148 new species of Ciliates, 

 including 8 new genera. Central Europe has 

 been more intensively studied faunistically than 

 any other portion of the world, yet six years 

 observation by one student has brought to light 

 155 new forms in groups which are the especial 

 delight of the microscopist and which have 

 been by no means neglected by the proto- 

 zoologist. Faunistic data furnish material 

 essential to the study of many far-reaching 

 problems in ecology, in distribution, in geology, 

 and especially in paleogeography. Yet it is 

 evident, from such papers as Penard's, that our 

 faunistic data for all regions are only frag- 

 mentary. 



Many of Penard's papers, like those of 

 Leidy, show an intimate and friendly compan- 

 ionship with these microscopic forms, being 

 full of data as to behavior, structure and func- 

 tion being described together, conveying to the 

 reader a vivid impression of the lives of these 

 organisms and showing an interest on the part 

 of the observer which is contagious. May it 

 not be that laboratory zoology is to-day dis- 

 proportionately emphasized in comparison with 

 out of door studies? A broad knowledge of 

 field natural history, combining taxonomic, 

 faunistic and ecological studies and studies of 

 behavior under natural environmental condi- 

 tions, is essential to any adequate attack upon 

 many problems, among which are some of the 

 most interesting in the whole field of zoology. 

 This is a type of work to which it is easy to 

 introduce young students and it is one to 

 which a fair proportion of them could well 

 afford to devote their lives, for evidently our 

 knowledge in this field is most inadequate. 

 The field, while easy to enter, calls for the 

 finest qualities of skill, accuracy, persistence 

 and judgment. It commands a natural interest 

 and it gives data of wide bearing. 



Maynabd M. Metcalp 

 The Orchard Laboratory 

 Oberlin, Ohio 



