Januaby 1, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



25 



was organized by Dr. L. W. Hackett of the 

 conmiission, and according to the Canal 

 Record, October 28, out of the first thousand 

 men, women and children reporting at the La 

 Ohorrera laboratory more than YOO were found 

 to be harboring hookworm. An effort is being 

 made to induce every inhabitant of this village 

 of 4,000 to submit to examination for hook- 

 worm, and circulars in simple language have 

 been distributed and house-to-house visits and 

 investigations have been made. Treatment is 

 free, but not compulsory, although the work is 

 carried on at the request and with the co- 

 operation of the Panama government, and 

 pressure may be brought to bear to make the 

 campaign a thorough one. The establishment 

 of laboratories in Panama is in pursuance of 

 the plan of the International Health Commis- 

 sion for a world-wide campaign of health work 

 in countries requesting the cooperation of the 

 commission. Panama was one of the first 

 countries to invite assistance. Great Britain 

 has already solicited cooperation in behalf of 

 her tropical possessions and a French and 

 Dutch colonial service and an oriental service 

 are also under consideration. 



" In 20 years the reindeer industry has 

 made the Eskimos of Alaska civilized and 

 thrifty men," says the United States Bureau 

 of Education in a bulletin just issued. The 

 reindeer industry began in Alaska in 1892 

 when the Bureau of Education imported from 

 Siberia 171 reindeer. The object of the im- 

 portation, according to the bulletin, was to 

 furnish a source of supply for food and cloth- 

 ing to the Eskimos in the vicinity of Bering 

 Strait. This importation was continued until 

 1902, and a total of 1,280 reindeer were 

 brought from Siberia. There are now 4Y,266 

 reindeer distributed among 62 herds, and 30,- 

 532 of these are owned by the natives. This 

 industry has given to the Alaskan Eskimos 

 not only food and clothing, but a means of 

 transportation superior to dog teams. Instead 

 of being nomadic hunters eking out a pre- 

 carious existence on the vast untimbered lands 

 of the Arctic coast region " the Eskimos," ac- 

 cording to the Bureau's bulletin " Now have 

 assured support and opportunity to acquire 



wealth by the sale of meat and skins to the 

 white men." The reindeer industry is care- 

 fully guarded. " No native is permitted to 

 sell or otherwise dispose of a female reindeer 

 to any person other than a native of Alaska." 

 This is done, the bulletin states, " lest white 

 men deprive the natives of their reindeer and 

 destroy this great native industry which the 

 Bureau of Education has in the last 20 years 

 built up and fostered." The reindeer service 

 is an integral part of the educational system 

 of the Bureau of Education for northern and 

 western Alaska. The district superintendents 

 of schools are also superintendents of the rein- 

 deer service. Promising and ambitious young 

 natives are selected by superintendents as ap- 

 prentices in the reindeer service, receiving 6, 

 8 or 10 reindeer at the close of the first, sec- 

 ond and third years, respectively, and 10 more 

 at the close of the fourth year. Upon the 

 satisfactory termination of his apprentice- 

 ship, the native becomes a herder and assumes 

 entire charge of a herd. 



UNIVEESITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Mr. G. S. Tuill, a graduate of Aberdeen 

 University, has made a gift of £4,000 to the 

 university, the interest upon this amount to 

 be applied in furthering the study of chemis- 

 try. 



Mrs. a. Hosmer, of Oakland, has presented 

 to the University of California several thou- 

 sand molluscan shells, selected from the mu- 

 seum of the late Henry Hemphill, who 

 assembled the most notable museum of Pacific 

 coast molluscan shells ever collected. 



Dr. George Herbert Evans, of San Fran- 

 cisco, has been appointed assistant clinical 

 professor of medicine in the University of 

 California Medical School. 



Mr. T. V. Barker, fellow of Brasenose Col- 

 lege, Oxford, has been appointed university 

 lecturer in chemical crystallography, and Mr. 

 A. G. Gibson, Christ Church, university lec- 

 turer in morbid anatomy. 



The chair of medicine and clinical medi- 

 cine in the University of Edinburgh has be- 

 come vacant through the retirement of Pro- 

 fessor John Wyllie. 



