718 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 409. 



at Geneva that an unusual and serious trouble 

 with harvested aijples has appeared in vsfestern 

 New York. It is confined entirely to scabby- 

 apples. A white or pinlsish mildew appears 

 upon the scab spots and transforms them into 

 brown, sunken, bitter, rotten spots. On very 

 scabby apples these rotten spots soon coalesce 

 and ruin the fruit. The damage done is enor- 

 mous. In Niagara, Orleans, Monroe and 

 Wayne counties thousands of barrels of apples 

 have been ruined. The varieties most affected 

 are Greening and Fall Pippin. Upon inves- 

 tigation it was foimd that the white mildew 

 on the scab spots is the cause of the rot, and 

 that it is a distinct fungus having no connec- 

 tion with the scab fungus. The scab itself 

 will not rot a fruit, but it breaks the skin 

 wherever it grows and thereby makes an open- 

 ing for this other fungus to get into the apple 

 and rot it. Traces of the rot are sometimes 

 found upon apples while still on the trees, but 

 the greatest damage is done during the sweat- 

 ing process, either in piles on the ground or 

 in barrels. Apples barreled immediately after 

 picking and placed at once in cold storage 

 seem to escape the trouble, but it is liable to 

 appear later when the fruit is placed upon 

 the market. A preventive of the rot is much 

 to be desired, but at present none is known. 

 Investigations in this line are now in progress 

 at the station. The whole trouble can be 

 traced back to a lack of thorough spraying. 

 Had the apples been kept free from scab by 

 spraying, the white rot fungus could do them 

 no harm in storage. However, the past season 

 has been exceptionally favorable for scab and 

 spraying has been less effective than usual. 



The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 

 announces that the next award of the Alva- 

 renga prize, being the income for one year of 

 the bequest of the late Seiior Alvarenga, and 

 amounting to about $180, will be made on July 

 14, 1903. Essays intended for competition 

 may be upon any subject in medicine, but 

 can not have been published, and must be re- 

 ceived by the secretary of the college on or 

 before May 1, 1903. 



It is said that the commission appointed by 

 the New York Legislature to report on the 



plans for establishing a state electrical labora- 

 tory at Schenectady, consisting of State Engi- 

 neer Bond, A. C. Buck, of Niagara Falls, and 

 G. P. Steinmetz, of Schenectady, will report 

 favorably on the plan. 



The Electrical World states that it is pro- 

 posed to use electric light signals at night and 

 flags by day to warn the fruit growers of the 

 Santa Clara Valley as to the approaching 

 weather conditions. Professor A. G. McAdie, 

 of the Weather Bureau, at San Francisco, has 

 suggested that during the months of February, 

 March and April the orchardists be warned 

 by colored lights of the approach of frosts, 

 which would enable them to smudge by burn- 

 ing oil, etc. During September, October and 

 November the approach of showers could be 

 indicated. An electric tower, 220 feet in 

 height, located in San Jose, Calif., can be seen 

 over the greater part of the county. 



The volume containing the physical papers 

 of the late Professor Henry A. Rowland, the 

 preparation of which for publication we have 

 already announced, is now nearly ready for 

 distribution to its subscribers. It has been 

 edited under the direction of a committee, 

 consisting of President Remsen, Professor 

 Welch and Professor Ames, who have made 

 every effort to present to the world, in a suit- 

 able form, this memorial of their colleague. 

 In this book, which contains about 750 pages, 

 royal octavo, are collected not alone Professor 

 Rowland's strictly scientific papers and his 

 public addresses, but also a detailed description 

 of his ruling engine, with plates and photo- 

 graphs. The memorial address of Professor 

 Mendenhall serves as a biographical sketch, 

 which is accompanied by a portrait of Pro- 

 fessor Rowland. The subjects treated in these 

 papers cover a wide range. In heat there is 

 the great memoir on the mechanical equiva- 

 lent of heat, with several shorter articles on 

 thermometers. In electricity and magnetism 

 there are the fundamental researches on mag- 

 netization, on the magnetic effect of electrical 

 convection, on the value of the ohm, on the 

 theory and use of alternating currents, etc. In 

 light there are the renowned discovery and 

 theory of the concave grating and the long 

 series of investigations made in the field of 



