472 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1272 



This question of the practicability of using 

 the Kavangire is now under consideration by 

 Professor Earle and his co-workers in Porto 

 Eico, and at the same time further observa- 

 tions will be made upon the immunity of this 

 variety to the mottling disease. Unfortunately, 

 the available supply of plant cane of Kavan- 

 gire in Porto Eico is limited. It will take a 

 number of years to propagate enough of this 

 variety to make it available for general plant- 

 ing, lu the meantime its adaptability to the 

 Porto Eican climatic and labor conditions 

 will be determined. It appears to be a strong 

 ratooner and to have considerable resistance 

 to root disease, borer and stem rot.. If these 

 indications prove true Kavangire shoidd en- 

 able the grower to keep his j&elds in profitable 

 production longer without replanting than is 

 possible with the varieties now in general use. 

 This will reduce the cost of production, even 

 though the habit of growth and quality of the 

 cane should make it a somewhat more ex- 

 pensive variety to handle and to mill. 



0. O. TOWNSEND 



U. S. Department of Agricultuee 



THE USE OF POISON GAS 



To THE Editor of Science : In regard to the 

 article on " Poison Gases " by Major West, in 

 your issue of May 2, 1919, the statement on 

 p. 415 that at the Hague Conference of 1899 

 " the governments represented — and all the 

 warring powers of the present great conflict 

 were represented — ^pledged themselves not to 

 use any projectiles whose only object was to_ 

 give out suffocating or poisonous gases " is 

 not correct. Twenty-six nations voted on the 

 question, all but two being in the affirmative. 

 The dissenting two were Great Britain and 

 the United States. At the conference of 1907, 

 Great Britain gave way and signed, but the 

 United States refused. The reasons for the 

 action of the United States are set forth 

 clearly and, in my opinion, unanswerably by 

 Admiral Mahan, the leader of the U. S. dele- 

 gation, in a formal istatement that he made on 

 the occasion. 



Henry Leffmann 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



RENAISSANCE ANATOMY 



Among the interesting papers published in 

 " Studies in the History and Method of Sci- 

 ence," edited by Charles Singer, and printed 

 in Oxford by the Clarendon Press, 1917, 

 is an important contribution of fundamental 

 interest to students of the history of anatomy. 

 The entire series of essays has been previously 

 reviewed by Dr. Charles Dana^ and we may 

 confine our attention to Dr. Singer's " Study 

 in Early Eenaissance Anatomy," which oc- 

 cupies 84 pages of the book. 



This study is subdivided: 



I. Anaitomy in the Fouiteenth and Fifteenth 

 Centuries. 

 II. Bolognese "Works on Anatomy. 



III. Hieronymo Manfredi, Professor at Bologna, 



1463-93. 



IV. The Manuscript Anatomy of Manfredi. 



V. Translation of selected Passages from the 

 Anothomia, with Commentary. 

 (a) The Brain, Cranial Nerves, etc. 

 (6) The Eye. 

 (c) The Heart. 

 Italian Text of the Anothomia. 



There is little that is new in the first two 

 sections, although there is much interesting 

 material, accompanied by a wealth of biblio- 

 graphic details which will save the worker 

 in anatomical history much time and labor. 

 The discussion is interesting and instructive; 

 the illustrations, which are well reproduced, 

 having been chosen from the works of such 

 early writers as Henri de Mondeville (1314), 

 Bartholonisetis Anglicus (1482), Guy de Chau- 

 liac (1430?), Mondina (1493), Ketham (1495) 

 and many other writers. Many of these illus- 

 trations have been previously given by Locy,^ 

 Sudhofi,^ Choulanf and others. 



1 Annals of Medical History, I., no. 4, 1917 

 (issued February, 1919). 



2 ' ' Anatomical Illustrations before Vesalius, ' ' 

 Jour. Morphol, 1911, XXII., no. 4. 



3 ' ' Bin Beitrag zur Geschiohte der Anatomie im 

 Mittelalter, " Leipzig, 1908. 



< ' ' Geschichte der anatomischen Abbildungen, ' ' 

 Leipzig, 1852. 



