166 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1022 



ity, law, medicine and education) 5Y7 men 

 and 669 women, a total of 1,246; and exclu- 

 ding duplications, the registration for the en- 

 tire university amounts to 1,696 men and 

 1,598 women — a grand total of 3,294. 



Dr. a. I. EiNGEE, instructor in physiological 

 chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, 

 has been elected assistant professor in physio- 

 logical chemistry in the University of Penn- 

 sylvania School of Medicine. 



De. Eugen von Hippel, of Halle, has been 

 called to the chair of ophthalmology at Got- 

 tingen, in succession to his father, Dr. Arthur 

 von Hippel, who retires at the close of the 

 present semester. 



Dr. Pranz Keibel, of Freiburg, has been 

 called to the chair of anatomy at Strassburg, 

 as the successor of Professor G. A. Schwalbe. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESFONDENCE 

 TIN disease and polae exploeation 



It will be recalled that the Scott and 

 Amundsen Antarctic expeditions were greatly 

 handicapped by losing their petrol. Amund- 

 sen stated in one of his lectures in America 

 that their petrol tins required frequent re- 

 soldering. According to the diary left by Gap- 

 tain Scott this " mysterious loss of petrol " was 

 one of the chief contributory factors in their 

 failure to return to safety. 



In Scott's diary'^ of the return journey 

 under date of February 24, 1912, he states : 



Found store ia order except shortage oil — shall 

 have to be very saving with fuel — . . . . Wish 

 we had more fuel. 



Again on February 26 he states : 



The fuel shortage still an anxiety. . . . Fuel 

 is woefully short. 



On March 2 : 



We marched to the (Middle Barrier) depot fairly 

 easily yesterday afternoon, and since that have suf- 

 fered three distinct blows which have placed us in 

 a bad position. First, we found a shortage of oil; 

 with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to 

 the next depot on this surface (71 miles away). 



1 ' ' Scott 's Last Expedition, ' ' Scott, Huxley 

 and Markham, p. 398. 



March 4: 



We can expect little from man now except the 

 possibility of extra food at the next depot. It will 

 be real bad if we get there and find the same 

 shortage of oO. 



On March 7 : 



If there is a shortage of oil again we can have 

 little hope. 



In his message to the public Scott says : 

 We should have got through in spite of the 

 weather but for the sickening of a second com- 

 panion. Captain Gates, and a shortage of fuel in 

 our depots for which I can not account. . . . 



In Note 26 of the Appendix, the authors, 

 Huxley and Markham, state: 



At this, the barrier stage of the return journey, 

 the southern party were in want of more oil than 

 they found at the depots. Owing partly to the 

 severe conditions, but still more to the delays im-. 

 posed by their sick comrades, they reached the 

 full limit of time allowed for between depots. 

 The cold was unexpected, and at the same time 

 the actual amount of oil found at the depots was 

 less than they had counted on. ... 



As to the cause of the shortage, the tins of oil 

 at the depot had been exposed to extreme condi- 

 tions of heat and cold. The oil was specially vola- 

 tile, and in the warmth of the sun (for the tins 

 were regularly set in an accessible place on the 

 top of the cairns) tended to become vapor and 

 escape through the stoppers even without damage 

 to the tins. This process was much accelerated 

 by the reason that the leather washers about the 

 stoppers had perished in the great cold. Dr. At- 

 kinson gives two striking examples of this. 



1. Eight one-gallon tins in a wooden case, in- 

 tended for a depot at Cape Crozier, had been put 

 out in September, 1911. They were snowed up; 

 and when examined in December, 1912, showed 

 three tins full, three empty, one a third full, and 

 one two thirds full. 



2. When the search party reached One Ton 

 Camp in November, 1912, they found that some of 

 the food, stacked in a canvas ' ' tank ' ' at the foot 

 of the cairn, was quite oily from the spontaneous 

 leakage of the tins seven feet above it on the top 

 of the cairn. 



The tias at the depots awaiting the southern 

 party had of course been opened and the due 

 amount to be taken measured out by the support- 

 ing parties on their way back. However carefully 



