476 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 667 



Nature of Bence Jones's Protein: Reuben 



Ottenberg and William J. Gies. 



Bence Jones's protein and crude elastose not 

 only have several proteose properties in com- 

 mon, but unlike the ordinary proteoses, each 

 is precipitated from its aqueous solution when 

 the latter is gently warmed. Bence Jones's 

 protein occurs in the urine of patients suffer- 

 ing from sarcoma of bone marrow or from 

 osteomalacia. Bone contains considerable 

 elastin-like material (osseoalbumoid) . The 

 possibility that Bence Jones's protein may be 

 a derivative of osseoalbumoid, and the great 

 desirability of making our knowledge of this 

 elusive protein more definite, led the authors 

 to undertake a study of a preliminary phase 

 of the work that will be necessary to deter- 

 mine the points at issue. 



They sought first to ascertain whether crude 

 elastose, when injected subcutaneously or in- 

 traperitoneally, is eliminated in the urine and 

 whether it can be detected there by the heat- 

 precipitation test. When thus introduced in 

 dogs, crude elastose, obtained by peptolysis of 

 ligament elastin prepared by Richards and 

 Gies^s method, not only promptly appears in 

 the urine, but may be identified in it by the 

 heat-precipitation test. This observation 

 makes it clear that if elastose is formed in 

 bone or in any other tissue by any patho- 

 logical process, the elastose thus produced may 

 pass into the urine without material altera- 

 tion of the characteristic property referred to. 



Before proceeding further in this connec- 

 tion, the authors intend to prepare osseoal- 

 bumoid (bone elastin?) in sufiicient quantity 

 to permit of a determination of the nature of 

 its proteoses and their fate when injected into 

 animals. William J. Gies, 



Secretary 



THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



A STATED meeting of the society was held 

 on Friday, October 4. The following papers 

 were read: 



Dk. Edqae F. Smith : " New Results in Elec- 

 trolysis." 



Professor Simon Newcomb: "A Study of 

 Correlations among Terrestrial Temperatures, as 



indicating Fluctuations in the Sun's Thermal 

 Radiation." 



R. H. Mathews, L.S. : " Language of the Burd- 

 hawal Tribe in Gippsland, Victoria." 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SMELTER SMOKE 



In an article recently published in the 

 Journal of the American Chemical Society- 

 (July, 190T) on gases vs. solids, an investiga- 

 tion of the injurious ingredients of smelter 

 smoke, by Professor W. Clarence Ebaugh, the 

 results of the investigation are contrary to- 

 previous experiments along this line as well as 

 to the experience of the writer, and it appears 

 to him that the conclusions are based on mis- 

 leading and inadequate data. 



The writer is very much averse to criticizing 

 the work of a brother scientist, but since the 

 results of this work, if uncontradicted, will 

 undoubtedly be used in many cases between- 

 smelters and injured parties, it would only 

 seem proper to point out the fallacy of the 

 arguments. Not to be misunderstood in the- 

 beginning, the writer wishes to explain that he 

 is firmly of the opinion that the solid emana- 

 tions which arise from a smelter (including 

 perhaps, soluble copper, arsenic and lead corq- 

 pounds) are injurious to vegetation in so far- 

 as they reach it, but that such emanations 

 reach as far as sulphur dioxide or have so in- 

 jurious an action appears to be decidedly- 

 doubtful and has certainly not been proven in 

 the paper published by Professor Ebaugh. 



On page 953, of his article, Professor- 

 Ebaugh says : 



In the first place, the injury (in the Salt Lake 

 Valley) does not occur simultaneously over a 

 large area; on the contrary, it seems to be re- 

 stricted in its range. Secondly, it is rarely found* 

 that a number of crops grown successively in a- 

 given locality show the effect of smelter smoke, 

 etc. 



The above assertions are, of course, only the- 

 personal opinion of Professor Ebaugh but in 

 the main they are diametrically opposed to the 

 experience of the writer who has examined 

 smelter injury at Redding, Cal., Ducktown, 

 Tenn., and at Anaconda, Mont. In every case 

 examined by the writer the injury did occur- 



