480 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 928 



chloral hydrate and methyl violet of great 

 value. 



Methyl Violet — Acetic-chloral Hydrate. — 

 To an almost saturated solution of chloral 

 hydrate in distilled water add 10 per cent, 

 volume of glacial acetic acid and enough dry 

 methyl violet to make the liquid a bright 

 violet color. This stains nuclei very quickly, 

 and does not stain slimes so as to hinder ob- 

 servation. 



The balsam used in mounting is oven-dried 

 and then dissolved in pure cedar oil. 



F. L. Pickett 



Botanical Laboratory, 



Indiana University, 



August 10, 1912 



PERSONAL registration OF FAMILY MEMORANDA: 



A PLEA FOR THE MAKING AND PRESERVING 



OF HOMELY ANNALS 



Human efficiency is recognized to be the 

 most desirable asset. Every one admits the 

 expediency of attaining and perfecting indi- 

 vidual capabilities. 



Latent capabilities, inherent energies, are of 

 use only when rendered available. To render 

 them available and serviceable, are demanded 

 full opportunities plus expert help in de- 

 velopment and elaboration. 



Conservation of inherent potentialities in 

 all lines of natural resources has become an 

 avowed principle in American industrial 

 energizing. The first step in systematic 

 procedures is to collect significant facts. Till 

 data become numerous enough, sufficiently 

 uniform and precise, no safe inferences and 

 reliable conclusions can be formed. To 

 achieve ultimate truth is only possible through 

 intelligent, persistent and world-wide coopera- 

 tion. Such methods for laying the founda- 

 tions of practical certitude are being applied 

 to most lines of endeavor and economic prog- 

 ress. 



The one conspicuous exception is the study 

 of human efficiency. Here methods are so 

 lacking in system, so disproportionate, as to 

 disappoint reasonable expectations. 



Bureaus of animal industry are proceeding 

 with excellent system and thoroughness. 



Their methods already serve as models; their 

 findings form the basis for important econ- 

 omies. 



Especially defective are the means em- 

 ployed for preserving significant facts bearing 

 on the life history, physical, psychologic, do- 

 mestic and other factors of personal advance- 

 ment in human beings. 



This conclusion was reached while initiating 

 a research the data for which were found un- 

 attainable. Conference with leading workers 

 in economics, psychology, anthropology, clin- 

 ical medicine and other promising sources of 

 information confirmed a growing disappoint- 

 ment. 



Here, then, we are halted at the threshold 

 in a quest for fundamental facts essential to 

 enlightenment. Deplorable neglect is discov- 

 ered in the one department of research from 

 which results of the gravest importance 

 should evolve. 



Wholly inadequate are the registrations of 

 birth, marriage, death, and especially of the 

 accompanying circumstances. Even such bare 

 outlines of human history as are attempted 

 by municipalities are admittedly partial, in- 

 exact, far from complete. The churches make 

 some effort to preserve a few facts with little 

 difference in result. 



Carelessness in this particular is nearly as 

 pronounced among the well-to-do and presum- 

 ably intelligent as among the very poor and 

 shiftless. Upon inquiry among the more lib- 

 erally endowed, it will be found that few per- 

 sons take the trouble to make and preserve 

 any sort of systematic registration of incidents 

 and circumstances of personal history. Ex- 

 perts in genealogy are put to all sorts of shifts 

 to secure information. 



Archaic as it seems, the family bible is still 

 compelled to serve more or less inexpediently 

 for the purpose; also legal instruments, such 

 as wills, deeds, property transfers, personal 

 and other epistles, and the like disconnected 

 and accidental avenues of evidence. 



The whole forms a pitiable, heterogeneous, 

 but the only available source of information 

 in what may prove to be a vitally important 

 direction. 



