46 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1254 



how largely due to other causes. White women 

 in Hawaii represent a highly selected class — 

 the wives and families of capitalistic and 

 professional classes. Many white women in 

 Hawaii have enjoyed excellent health, have 

 raised large families of stalwart children, and 

 have lived to ripe old age. 



On the whole, there is little evidence of 

 tropical " enervation " or lassitude among 

 the white population of the Hawaiian Islands. 

 In high moral, intellectual and physical life, 

 tone and labors, this population compares most 

 favorably with similar groups in any northern 

 climate. In spiritual leadership, in literary 

 and artistic productivity, in scientific and 

 technical research, in financial and business 

 organization and development, in agricultural 

 exploitation, in sport and athletics — in fact, 

 in every notable manifestation of the human 

 mind and body, the white man in Hawaii has 

 achieved remarkable success. He shows no 

 signs of deterioration; on the contrary, in his 

 efforts toward higher civic life, and toward the 

 establishment of a jmrmanent white middle 

 class on the land, he shows that he is ever 

 progressing to higher and higher levels. 



Vaughan MacCaughey 

 College of Hawah 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Stoichiometry. By Sydney Young, D.Sc, 

 F.E.S. New York, Longmans, Green & Co. 

 1918. Pp. xii4-363. "With 93 figures in 

 the text. Second Edition. Price $3.75 net. 

 It is unfortunate, indeed, that general texts 

 are not more often written by those who have 

 done much research in the particular lines 

 covered by the book — for the advantages of 

 such authorship are plainly apparent in 

 " Stoichiometry." Certainly no name of re- 

 cent time has become more intimately asso- 

 ciated with the precise determination of the 

 physical constants of the gaseous and liquid 

 states of aggregation than that of Young ; and 

 assuredly no one can speak with more author- 

 ity than he of a subject which includes them; 

 or treat with a clearer vision the things de- 

 pendent upon them. 



In this edition, the new experimental work, 

 done since the original appearance of the book, 

 has been ably summarized and included. In 

 other respects, all that was said in praise of 

 the fii'st edition may be repeated even more 

 emphatically in the case of the second. The 

 inclusion of complete lists or references is one 

 thing which renders the work especially val- 

 uable to the reader, for it thus serves as a 

 point of departure for one wishing to make a 

 more exhaustive study of any one of its com- 

 ponent portions. 



Like the same author's " Fractional Dis- 

 tillation," this is distinctly one of those books 

 which should have a prominent place in every 

 chemist's worhing library. 



J. Ln'iNGSTON E. Morgan 



Columbia Univeesitt 



THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE NA- 

 TIONAL ACADEMY OF 

 SCIENCES 



The eighth number of Volume 4 of the 

 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences contains the following articles: 



Hereditary Tendency to Form Nerve Tumors: 

 C. B. Davenpart, Station for Experimental 

 Evolution, Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton. The disease is not communicable. It 

 affects blood relatives, both sexes nearly 

 equally, and occurs without a break in the 

 generations, about 50 per cent, of the individ- 

 uals being affected. Apparently, therefore, the 

 heredity factor in neurofibromatosis is dom- 

 inant. 



Arithmetical Theory of Certain Hurwitzian 

 Continued Fractions: D. N. Lehmer, Depart- 

 ment of Mathematics, University of Cali- 

 fornia. Investigations on the successive values 

 of the numerators and denominators of con- 

 vergeuts. 



On Closed Curves Described hy a Spherical 

 Pendulum: Arnold Emeh, Department of 

 Mathematics, University of Illinois. Some 

 geometric properties of these curves are de- 

 veloped. 



The Taxonomic Position of the Genus 

 Actinomyces: Charles Drechsler, Cryptogamic 



