618 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1432 



measurement. The term "thermocouple" may, 

 unmolested, pi-eserve its original applicatioii to 

 a single couple only. The term "multiple 

 thermel" seems rather better than "thermopile" 

 since it classes its object with other thermels 

 or thermoelectric thermometers, whereas "ther- 

 mopile" is more commonly associated with cur- 

 rent generators, or with the special thermom- 

 etry of radiation measurement. 



Walter P. White 

 Geophysical Laboeatort, 

 Carnegie Institution op "Washington, 



SOLAR ENERGY 



"Creative Chemistry," by Edwin E. Slosson, 

 M.S., Ph.D. (The Century Company), is a 

 most interesting account of .the astonishing 

 number of important practical uses, in industry 

 and war, of applied chemical science. For the 

 benefit, apparently, of readers who are not edu- 

 cated chemists, or physicists, it makes occa- 

 sional statements of pure science. One of 

 these has the effect to revive the inquiry 

 whether such statements ought not to refer to 

 the observations or experiments on which they 

 are based, unless readity available elsewhere. 

 It reads : "Solidified Sunshine. All life and all 

 that life accomplishes depend upon the supply 

 of solar energy stored in the food." This is, 

 in substance, but a repetition from prior pub- 

 licists, many of them distinguished. 



For example. Dr. Schuchert says: "Plants 

 convert the kinetic energy of sunlight into the 

 potential chemical energy of foodstuffs. Ani- 

 mals convert the potential chemical energy of 

 foodstuffs into the kinetic energy of locomo- 

 tion." And Dr. Soddy says : "Energy may 

 sleep indefinitely .... In the potential form 

 in coal, it has persisted for untold ages. Once 

 released, heat is the sole ultimate product." 



A quite extensive search has failed to find, 

 in any literature, the account of an observation 

 or experiment as leading to such conclusion. 

 An elementary item of chemical teaching is that 

 the sun's rays convert (approximately) 44 

 weight units of the comparatively inactive gas, 

 carbon dioxide, into 32 like units of the uni- 

 versally active gas, oxygen, and 12 like units 

 of carbon, ultimately a solid possessing no 



readily perceptible activity and incapable even 

 of combination without the application of ex- 

 ternal heat. It is not easy for a non-specialist 

 to believe, without evidence, that the energy of 

 the sun's rays which decomposed the 44 units 

 of the dioxide, adhered to the 12 units of car- 

 bon, and perhaps fell asleep there, while no 

 noticeable amount went into the activity of the 

 32 units of oxygen. 



Francis B. Daniels 



SCIENTIFIC WORK IN RUSSIA 



Scientific men may be interested in the 

 following letter that I have received from Dr. 

 Th. Fjeldstrup, of the Russian Museum at 

 Petrograd : 



The effect the arrival of this letter will have 

 produced on you is probably that of something 

 dropping into your hands out of space. 



It is of no use speculating on the possible ideas 

 you had as regards my fate, no more than on the 

 picture j'ou Americans have imagined to your- 

 selves of the state of Russia's home life to-day, 

 since they are based on scraps of news, often 

 defective, given in papers or obtained otherwise — 

 our two worlds have been separated too long and 

 too completely in their intellectual life to know 

 much of each other. 



Often and often did I feel tempted to recom- 

 mence correspondence with- you, but the prospect 

 of being read a year or so after having written, if 

 at all, cut short all attempts of the kind. I have 

 better hopes now add therefore I permit myself 

 to remind you of my existence and send you my 

 best greetings. 



After -an absence of almost full four years 

 (since end of February, 1918) I returned to 

 Petrograd two months ago. Throughout this long 

 period I have had various occupations, not always 

 agreeable to mj inclinations, but this was un- 

 avoidable, nor could one expect to be allowed to 

 choose. The scene lies beyond the Ural Mts. 



I do not intend to waste your time by giving a 

 detailed description of my doings in the run of 

 these years. I shall only dwell for a moment on 

 some facts that might interest you. 



The summer of 1920 I spent as a member of a 

 scientific research party sent out by the Univer- 

 sity of Tomsk in the region that you paid a short 

 visit to before joining me in Verehni-Udinsk, viz., 

 the Minusinsk region. The city of Minusinsk and 

 its museum I visited twice. The curator of the 

 museum is a new man since you saw it, but the 



