APRIL 11, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



357 



and is widely employed by phoneticians. The 

 work of Mr. A. G. Bell and the late Mr. H. 

 Sweet should also be referred to in this con- 

 nection. 



Of perhaps greater importance than a stand- 

 ard alphabet is the question of an interna- 

 tional langxiage. In this connection the " Aca- 

 demia pro Interlingua " has carried on a sci- 

 entific study of tlie question and perhaps the 

 majority of its members are in favor of adopt- 

 ing simplified Latin. Professor G. Peano, of 

 the Turin (Italy) University, is president of 

 the Academia which has been in existence 

 over twenty-five years. 



A. Fanti 



Bureau op Standards 



dr. moodie's opisthotonus 



To THE Editor of Science : Professor Mood- 

 ie's Study No. 3, Paleopathology, "Opistho- 

 tonus and Allied Phenomena among Fossil 

 Vertebrates,"^ aims to show that the bent back 

 head which one sees not commonly in well 

 preserved vertebrates is '' a manifestation of 

 spastic distress " of the creature, " suggesting 

 a strong neurotoxic condition," and leading 

 the author even to seek for the infecting bac- 

 teria which have given the shortly-to-be-fossil- 

 ized vertebrate a cramp in the neck. This 

 condition Dr. Moodie compares with opistho- 

 tonus in man as illustrated in Bell's painful 

 drawing. 



I wonder, nevertheless, whether it is neces- 

 sary to seek so far afield for the cause of this 

 head-bent-baek position in fossils. This posi- 

 tion, every one will admit, is an extremely 

 common one, in fact most backboned animals 

 show it when they are well preserved — while 

 opisthotonus is, so far as I know, an extremely 

 rare malady. It would trouble one to find re- 

 corded cases of it in reptiles or birds, amphibia 

 or fishds: even in mammals collectively the 

 percentage of deaths following opisthotonus 

 would evidently be microscopically small. 

 Then, too, when one of these rare eases died 

 in cramp would it be apt long to retain 

 that position while it floated down a stream 

 with muscles rotting, or while it dried out 



^Am. NaturaUst, LIT., pp. 369-394. 



of its soddenness on a bank of mud, or while 

 deliquescently putrid it became picked more 

 or less to pieces by all manner of sarcophagous 

 creatures? No it seems to me that what the 

 doctor calls " opisthotonus " is merely a phys- 

 ical phenomenon which causes the neck region 

 of a macerating vertebral column to bend 

 backward. For on tlie back of the colimin are 

 stouter ligaments which hold the bones to- 

 gether : hence when the backbone eventually 

 loosens up in the process of decomposition 

 the bodies of the vertebrse separate earlier 

 than the arches, thus producing the inbent 

 column. Of course there would be no great 

 degree of bendmg back in the chest region, 

 for here the cage of ribs would long keep 

 the back straight: nor in the lumbar region, 

 since here the neural arches are short and there 

 is therefore less leverage for their dorsal liga- 

 ments: nor again in the tail, for here the 

 ligaments are far more nearly balanced in all 

 sides of the column. 



Bashfohd Dean 

 Columbia University 



FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA 



To THE Editor of Science : At the last fac- 

 ulty meeting of the University of Arizona, 

 President E. B. von Kleinsmid outlined a plan 

 for summer-session work that was received 

 with enthusiasm by the faculty, and may be 

 of interest to many readers of Science. Since 

 the climate of Tucson is not suited to the 

 conventional campus summer-session, the uni- 

 versity plans to carry on vacation-work in the 

 field, in several parts of the state where the 

 climate is more bracing or where the work 

 would be of such a character as to make the 

 mid-summer heat a negligible consideration. 

 It is proposed that groups of students under 

 the direction and leadership of professors from 

 the University of Arizona, study : archeology 

 through actual excavation work in the north- 

 em part of the state, geology at the Grand 

 Canyon, biology at the Mt. Lemon camp, 

 mining engineering at the great copper mines, 

 etc. Such opportimities for first-hand obser- 

 vation and investigation in an interesting and 

 comparatively fresh field will doubtless appeal 



