Apeil 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



611. 



reason to believe that values adopted novf vrill 

 be satisfactory for a generation at least with- 

 out change. The European delegates have 

 brought with them, from their own labora- 

 tories, a quantity of apparatus and chemicals 

 in order that they may reproduce work done 

 in their own laboratories at' the Bureau of 

 Standards, as accurately as possible. Stand- 

 ard cells will be set up by the representatives 

 of each of the four institutions, and accu- 

 rately compared and tested. In the same way 

 different forms of silver voltameters will be 

 operated in series with one another, and the 

 quantity of silver deposited in each determined 

 with very great accuracy. The Bureau of 

 Standards has provided every facility for 

 carrying on this work expeditiously and with 

 the highest precision. 



The three European delegates arrived from 

 Europe recently, and proceeded to Washing- 

 ton after a short stay in New York, in time 

 to begin their work at the appointed time, 

 April 1. It is not known how long the work 

 will continue, but it is hoped to complete it 

 in two months. 



Edward B. Eosa 



FEDERAL EXPENDITURES FOR TEE CON- 

 SERVATION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH 

 Certain contributors to American Health 

 (the official organ of the American Health 

 League, published by the Committee of One 

 Hundred) have expressed the opinion, that 

 while the care and health of animals is a mat- 

 ter of extreme importance to the federal gov- 

 ernment, the health of human beings, on the 

 other hand, is a matter of indifference. At 

 least, this is what one would infer from the 

 following quotations taken from American 

 Health : 



John Pease Norton, Ph.D., American Health, 

 March, 1908, page 12: 

 We look with horror on the black plague of the 

 middle ages. The black waste was but a passing 

 cloud compared with the white waste visitation. 

 Of the people living to-day over eight millions 

 will die of tuberculosis, and the federal govern- 

 ment does not raise a hand to help them. 



THE DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTUEE PROTECTS 

 ANIMALS 



The Department of Agriculture spends seven 

 million dollars on plant health and animal health 

 every year, but, with the exception of the splendid 

 work done by Doctors Wiley, Atwater and Bene- 

 dict, Congress does not directly appropriate one 

 cent for promoting the physical well-being of 

 babies. Thousands have been expended in stamp- 

 ing out cholera among swine, but not one dollar 

 was ever voted for eradicating pneumonia among 

 human beings. 



Mrs. Gibson Arnoldi, Bulletin of the Committee 

 of One Hundred on National Health, Sep- 

 tember, 1909, page 8: 



The national government of the United States 

 spends $7,000,000 on plant and animal health 

 every year, and hundreds of thousands fighting 

 beetles and potato bugs, but not one cent to aid 

 the six million babies that will die under two 

 years of age during the next census period while 

 mothers sit by and watch in utter helplessness. 

 This number could probably be decreased by as 

 much as one half. Why is nothing done? . . . 

 Bulletin No. 33 of the Committee of One Hundred 

 on National Health, October 1909: 



At a meeting held in Denver in August an inter- 

 esting paper on meat inspection was read by Miss 

 Lakey, chairman of the food committee of the 

 National Consvmiers' League. Resolutions were 

 adopted recommending that states and cities 

 should provide more sanitary slaughter houses. 

 Miss Lakey showed that the federal inspection is 

 inadequate. 



To those who are more familiar with the 

 health work now being carried on by the fed- 

 eral government here at Washington and in 

 its branch laboratories, these statements, 

 while correct as to certain details, are objec- 

 tionable because of their implications. The 

 above quotation from Bulletin 33, for ex- 

 ample, was so placed as to carry (to the writer 

 at least) the impression that the federal in- 

 spection was being criticized, not alone as to 

 the quantity of meat inspected, but also as to 

 the quality of the inspection. The writer has 

 been corrected by one who attended the Den- 

 ver meeting of the Association of State and 

 National Food and Dairy Departments, and 

 informed that the federal meat inspection 

 service was held up by Miss Lakey as a good 



