July 30^ 1915] 



SCIENCE 



147 



changes, such as may conceivably take place 

 in shed and coagulated blood. 



I come now to a newer application of the 

 method of vividiffusion, one to which I al- 

 luded a few moments ago, namely its pos- 

 sible employment to abstract from the cir- 

 culating blood certain hormones or products 

 of internal secretion in amounts that will 

 sufSee for pharmacological study, if not for 

 chemical analysis. This application is still 

 in its very beginning, many diiSculties yet 

 remain to be surmounted, and I speak of 

 it here only because it leads me quite nat- 

 urally to a field of study which is of the 

 greatest importance, a field which at pres- 

 ent is ripe for the methods of the chemical 

 explorer. I refer to the exploration of the 

 organs of internal secretion, especially to 

 the study by chemical methods of their 

 specific products. In attempting this, a 

 vividiffusion apparatus of the proper sort 

 is attached to the veins of a particular 

 organ, as the thyroid gland, and the diffu- 

 sate thus obtained is studied by pharmaco- 

 logical and chemical methods. This dif- 

 fusate must also be compared in respect to 

 its pharmacological properties, at least, with 

 both the arterial and the venous blood of 

 the gland under investigation. But what- 

 ever may be the outcome of such studies, I 

 hope to make it evident to you in what I 

 am about to say that we are here dealing 

 with matters of the greatest importance to 

 biology and medicine. 



John J. Abel 



The Johns Hopkins Medical School 

 (To be continued) 



ISE SECENT ACTIVITY OF KILAUEA AND 

 MAUN A LOA, E AW All 



The volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Lea 

 were both active during the past winter, fur- 

 nishing the rather unusual spectacle of lava 

 lakes within 22 miles of each other, but at a 

 difference in altitude of practically 10,000 

 feet. The activity of Mauna Loa, as observed 

 from Kilauea, lasted forty-eight days, from 



November 25, 1914, until January 11, 1915. 

 At Kilauea, the first permanent open pool of 

 magma was formed on October 3, 1914, and 

 this pool increased in size and rose until a 

 maximum height of 363 feet below the rim of 

 the crater Halemaumau was reached on Jan- 

 uary 4, 1915. Since that time the lake has 

 been slowly subsiding, with temporary rises and 

 pauses. The activity of both volcanoes will be 

 treated in some detail.'- 



The lava lake in Halemaumau, the crater of 

 Kilauea, was visible from the autumn of 1907, 

 which was six months after the cessation of 

 activity on Mauna Loa, until the last of April,. 

 1913. The maximum height reached during 

 this long interval was 60 feet below the rim of 

 the crater on January 1, 1912. During the au- 

 tumn of 1912 the level of the lake was low, 

 followed by a rise from November, 1912, until 

 January, 1913. During January the lake 

 sank; in February it was at about the same 

 level as in the beginning of March, 1915; in 

 March it sank almost out of sight after a brief 

 rise on March 10; in April the lake was very 

 low and very small, and finally went out. 



During the summer of 1913, Halemaumau 

 was an immense flat funnel of slide rock with 

 the base at a depth of over 600 feet. The bot- 

 tom of the pit was seldom seen on account of 

 the dense fumes. Just before the time of the 

 summer solstice, which reached a culmination 

 on June 22, blowing noises were heard and a 

 faint glow seen in the pit, indicating a slight 

 rise of the lava. In the middle of July, the 

 blowing noises recommenced and visible fire 

 returned on July 23. An inner ring of fum- 

 ing cones and a glowing chimney near the site 

 of Old Faithful were seen. Once more the 

 signs of activity ceased : the blowing noises did 

 not recommence until the first of September, 

 and a glowing cone near Old Faithful became 

 visible September 24. The glow and the noises 



1 Weekly bulletins concerning the activity of the 

 volcanoes, written by Professor T. A. Jaggar, Jr., 

 and Mr. H. O. Wood, of the Hawaiian Volcano Ob- 

 servatory, are published by the Volcano Eeseareh 

 Association. From these bulletins the data for the 

 present paper, previous to the arrival of the writer 

 at the volcano, are obtained. To Mr. H. O. Wood, 

 and to Mr. Arthur Hannon, the writer is indebted 

 for criticism. 



