660 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1434 



expand it inevitably will. It is said that oppor- 

 tunity knocks but once at tlie door, but this is 

 the opportunity of receivers, not of givers. 

 To the latter there is no limit. If this building 

 had been built and equipped five years ago, 

 we might not have had to share with our great 

 scientific rival on the continent the discovery 

 of many capital facts concerning the X-ray, 

 for it was only the lack of equipment which 

 kept the brilliant group of physicists who, 

 under the leadership of Professor Duane, have 

 made so many important advances in the the- 

 oretical study of X-rays, from covering many 

 of the practical phases developed instead by 

 our continental colleagues. The verification of 

 the quantum relationship between the fre- 

 quency of the X-ray and the voltage applied 

 to the tube, as demonstrated by Duane, Hull 

 and Webster, is a shining achievement which 

 might easily satisfy any university for a long 

 period of time. The work of Tyzzer on animal 

 tumors especially laid the foundation for much 

 recent research, while the demonstration by 

 Bovie of the relationship between certain light 

 rays and the coagulation of protein and the 

 killing of cells is also a most important con- 

 tribution to the newer aspects of biophysics. 

 Whether the problem of cancer — that last great 

 and as yet unanswered question in medicine — 

 will be solved here, no one can say. But I am 

 sure that the attack will be a brave one and 

 that the results will be characterized by the 

 same scientific caution and freedom from at- 

 tempt at dramatic effect that have marked the 

 work of the Harvard Cancer Commission in 

 the past. We all look to this laboratory as the 

 source of the highest type of scientific investi- 

 gation combined with an unusual amount of 

 common sense on the human side, due obviously 

 to the influence of the director, Dr. Greenough. 

 There is no reason to think that with the pass- 

 ing of time there will be any change in this 

 high standard. 



Let us all hope then that this building and 

 its equipment and staff represent merely a 

 beginning from which research will go forward 

 on a broader and broader scale, until at some 

 future time we may have a better insight than 

 at present into what has hitherto successfully 

 evaded human inquiry — the nature of life and 



growth. When that goal is achieved the solu- 

 tion of the cancer problem will be in sight. 

 Francis Carter Wood 

 Institute of Cancer Eeseakch, 

 Columbia Univeksitt 



THE EFFECT OF THE NATURE OF 

 THE DIET ON THE DIGESTI- 

 BILITY OF BUTTER 



It is estimated that in the United States 

 about 18 pounds of dairy butter are consumed 

 per capita yearly and of this amount the 

 larger portion is used for table purposes. 

 This indicates quite conclusively that in spite 

 of the increasing variety of fats available for 

 table and culinary purposes, dairy butter still 

 remains one of the most popular and widely 

 used edible fats. Formerly it was very gen- 

 erally believed that the principal if not the 

 entire food value of butter was due to the 

 energy which it supplied to the diet. The 

 recent discovery that dairy butter contains a 

 relatively large amount of vitamin A, which 

 has been shown to be essential for an adequate 

 diet, has served to further increase the popu- 

 larity of this extensively used fat. 



The very general use of butter for food pur- 

 poses is no doubt responsible for the early and 

 continued attention that has been given to a 

 study of its nutritive value by physiological 

 chemists and nutrition experts. Many diges- 

 tion experiments have lieen carried on both in 

 this country and in Europe to determine its 

 digestibility, but since the experimental pro- 

 cedures of the different investigators were not 

 uniform the results obtained do not permit of 

 direct comparison. The lack of uniformity in 

 experimental conditions is perhaps most notice- 

 able in the wide variation of the nature of the 

 basal ration used by the difilerent investigators. 

 However, this variation in the nature of the 

 foods comprising the experimental diets per- 

 mits to some extent a comparison of the eifect 



Note: Since dairy butter is a common con- 

 stituent of nearly all diets the following resume 

 of digestion experiments, conducted by the au- 

 tior while employed as nutrition expert at the 

 U. S. Dept. of Agri., is given to supply informa- 

 tion concerning the effect of other food materials 

 on the digestibility of butter. 



