Apeil 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



529 



ductivity of the oil, the surface of the 

 paraffine may be exposed to the air indefi- 

 nitely without congealing; and, further- 

 more, since a film of warm oil adheres to 

 the outside of the vessel when the latter is 

 taken from the well, the paraffine remains 

 melted off the bath for a considerably 

 longer time than it does without this pro- 

 tection, thus making possible a much more 

 leisurely process of embedding. 



The advantage of immersing the vessel 

 in oil is especially conspicuous in embed- 

 ding free, minute objects, like small eggs, 

 which have been saturated with paraffine 

 while contained in glass vials and which 

 must be handled by means of a pipette. 



The oil which has been usually employed 

 in the bath has been olive oil. 



A Case of Dibothrocephalus latus Infection 

 Acquired in America {Minnesota): W. 

 S. NiCKERSON, University of Minnesota. 

 The author reports the first known in- 

 stance of locally acquired infection by the 

 broad human tapeworm. A Finnish child, 

 born in Minnesota, which had never fed 

 upon imported fish of any kind, passed a 

 specimen of Dibothrocephalus latus seven 

 feet in length. Since infection from this 

 worm can take place, so far as known, only 

 from eating fresh-water fish that are in- 

 fested with the larval form (plerocercoid), 

 it is practically certain that American 

 fishes have become the hosts of this para- 

 site. In endeavoring to account for this 

 condition the author suggests that the sew- 

 age from cities with a large foreign popula- 

 tion may be sufficient to furnish the re- 

 quired infection of the intermediate host. 

 Since at least ten European species of fish 

 serve in this capacity, it is not unreasonable 

 to conclude that there would be found in 

 this country some forms in which the larvse 

 of the worm would thrive. 



C. E. McClung, 



Secretary. 



TOW^ AND GOWN} 

 On an old French sun-dial is a motto to 

 this effect : All passes in time and time it- 

 self ; but eternity does not, nor love. This 

 last is the permanent thing, in which the 

 universe and human society are founded. 

 So these hundred and fifty years of our 

 university, just past, being as they were 

 but a moment in the morning of its life, 

 compel us to look not backward, but at the 

 present and the future. The Greek fool 

 who ran so far to get a start that he could 

 not jump when he reached the mark is per- 

 haps a symbol of some university men who 

 spend their lives in preparing to live; but 

 not of the university itself, which renews 

 its strength in action and endui-es forever, 

 if true to itself. Founded in faith and de- 

 voted to liberal learning, Columbia has suc- 

 cessively welcomed faculties of the learned 

 professions and faculties of natural and 

 applied science, fearless, persistent, aggres- 

 sive. The boughs rival the trunk; action 

 and reaction develop a wholesome struggle; 

 the air hereabouts is keen and sometimes 

 both tense and tumultuous. We have not 

 merely renewed our youth, we have trans- 

 formed ourselves and start afresh. 



Among the questions of our new morn- 

 ing is this: Have we a new conscience 

 and what about the moral sense of our 

 community? For example, certain trade- 

 marks have a high commercial value. 

 Such an one is the bachelor of arts. Its 

 chief renown, however, is intellectual and 

 social. The reason is that for ages it con- 

 noted a certain training. Those who held 

 it have been the heirs of human experience ; 

 they have understood the continuity of 

 thought, the organic nature of society and 

 its institutions, the value of order and pro- 

 portion, the charms of fancy and imagina- 

 tion, the interpretation of the past for use in 

 the present and future. From them comes 

 the birthright because among them were 



' Address at the opening exercises of Columbia 

 University, 1905. 



