906 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLT. No. 1068 



of Washington Industrial Commission'- says, 

 " These results seem to disprove the theory 

 that fatigue is the prominent cause of acci- 

 dents, because accidents are here shown to 

 happen at the hours when the workmen are 

 least fatigued." On the fatigue theory it 

 might naturally be expected that most acci- 

 dents would happen after 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

 The actual hour of the high point of curve of 

 accidents shows how important are the facts 

 and how necessary of proof the theories. 



After much discussion, the tendency to 

 speed up employment has been incriminated, 

 as the predisposing conditions for the occur- 

 rence of accidents. This desire comes over 

 the workman when he is not yet fatigued, but 

 has been employed for several hours. He 

 starts the morning's work " cold," and as he 

 warms to his work, the danger of mischance 

 because of haste becomes greater. Just when 

 the speeding up reaches a climax in the morn- 

 ing hours, most accidents happen. The same 

 thing is true in the afternoon. Workmen feel 

 sluggish after their lunch, but after an hour 

 of work warm up again, and by about 3 o'clock 

 they are doing their most rapid work, and are 

 at the same time more subject to accident. 



With regard to accidents among children, 

 however, there is no hour of maximum. Acci- 

 dents occur at all times, and they are com- 

 paratively much more frequent among chil- 

 dren than adults. The United States Bureau 

 of Labor reported that " there is clear evi- 

 dence of great liability to accident on the part 

 of children. Though employed in the less 

 hazardous work, their rates steadily exceed 

 those of the older co-workers, even when in 

 that group are included the occupations of 

 relatively high liability." This was said with 

 regard to the southern cotton mills, but the 

 same thing is true of practically all industries 

 in which children are employed. 



The results of these accidents come to the 

 physician. We are devoting much time to the 

 prevention of disease, and we should be ready 

 to give attention also to the prevention of 

 injury. Virchow used to say that the ideal 



1 Eeport of State of Washington Industrial Com- 

 mission for 1912, p. 178. 



function of the physician, besides that of re- 

 liever of human ills, is to be the attorney of 

 the poor for the prevention and relief of so- 

 cial ailments, and, above all, the prophylaxic 

 of their physical consequences, whether in 

 lowered health or in maiming injuries. — 

 Journal of the American Medical Associatiom,. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Ants of the Baltic Amber. By W. M. 



Wheeler. Schriften der Physikalisch- 



okonomischen Gesellschaft zu Konigsberg. 



LV. (1914.) Pp. 142. 



Among the very numerous writers who have 

 discussed the structure and habits of ants, few 

 have had anything to say about the early his- 

 tory of the group, as shown by the paleonto- 

 logical record. Large collections of fossil 

 ants have remained for many years in mu- 

 seums, unnoticed by students, who seem never 

 to have conceived that the record of the past 

 would throw any light on the present. As 

 long ago as 1868, Gustav Mayr published a 

 very important paper on the ants of Baltic 

 amber; in 1891 Emery gave an account of 

 fourteen species found in Sicilian amber, and 

 at different times other writers have described 

 fossil ants. Thus the total numbers of re- 

 corded species of fossil ants is well over 200, 

 but many of these are very imperfectly known, 

 and probably assigned to the wrong genera. 

 The materials collected and then neglected 

 have been very extensive, and in particular 

 those from Baltic amber and from the Floris- 

 sant shales in Colorado, numbering thousands 

 of specimens, have invited a complete revision 

 of paleomyrmecology. It is very fortunate 

 that the rich collections from these two locali- 

 ties have fallen into the hands of Dr. Wheeler, 

 who has undertaken the great task of setting 

 them in order. The first section of this work, 

 on the ants of Baltic amber, has now been 

 published. Dr. Wheeler had the loan of the 

 whole collection from the Geological Institute 

 at Konigsberg, as well as that of Professor E. 

 Klebs, together with some smaller lots, the 

 total number of specimens examined being 

 9,527. Of one species alone, Iridomyrmex 

 goepperti, he saw 4,539 individuals. Up to the 



