SCIENCE 



Feidat, September 3, 1915 



CONTENTS 

 Seeent Studies on the Biological Effects of 

 Sadioactiviti/ : Dr. A. Eichaeds 287 



Are Secessive Characters due to Loss? Pro- 

 FESSOE S. J. Holmes 300 



Ernst Grimsehl 303 



fie Notes and News 304 



University and Educational News 307 



Discussion and Correspondence: — • 

 Another Season for Saving the Genus: De. 

 Haeold S. Colton. The End of Cory's 

 Shearwater: Gerald H. Thayee. Iron 

 Bacteria: E. C. Haedee. A Typical Case: 

 B. J. Spence 307 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Doncaster on the Determination of Sex: Pro- 

 fessor T. H. MoEGAN. Holland's The 

 Butterfly Guide: W. T. H 312 



Special Articles: — 

 A New Disease of Germinating Wheat; 

 Thielavia hasicola as a Boot Parasite of 

 Watermelons; Bacterial Disease of Sudan 

 Grass: De. P. J. O'Gaea. The Pendulum 

 Key and Its Use for Recording the Beats of 

 a Metronome : Frederick: W. Ellis 313 



The Society of American Bacteriologists : Dr. 

 A. Paekee Kitchens 316 



MSS. intended for paWication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to Professor J. MoKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 OB-Hudson. N. Y. 



BECENT STUDIES ON THE BIOLOGICAL 

 EFFECTS OF BADIOACTIVITY^ 



X-RATS were discovered in 1895 and the 

 first of the publications which placed 

 Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium, in 

 the position of foremost woman of science, 

 appeared in 1898. The application of these 

 results to biology, a matter of great impor- 

 tance, was brought about through accident. 

 A knowledge of the physical properties of 

 radio-active substances would lead one to 

 expect that the physiological action would 

 be acute, and that fact was accidentally 

 proven to be true. 



Beequerel carried a small tube of an impure 

 radium preparation in his vest pocket for six 

 hours. A few days later he observed a reddening 

 of the epidermis of the abdomen opposite the lo- 

 cation of the poel^et in which he had placed the 

 radium compound. It was not long before the in- 

 flammation became pronounced, and an ulcer de- 

 veloped which required several months for the 

 healing.2 



Giesel exposed the inner portion of his arm, for 

 two hours, to 0.27 gram of a radium preparation, 

 enclosed with a double celluloid capsule. After 

 two or three weeks the skin reddened, blisters 

 formed and the epidermis peeled just as with a 

 burn. The growth of hair was also destroyed and 

 did not come out anew, although a smooth white 

 skin reformed. 



Madame Curie had learned very early in 

 her studies that radiation affects tissues, for 

 she says in her thesis, "The action of 

 radium upon the skin can take place across 

 metal screens, but with weakened effect." 



Thus early began the application of a 



1 Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory 

 of the University of Texas, No. 125. 



2 Prom Baskerville, "Radium and Radioactive 

 Substances," Williams^ Brown and Earle, Phila- 

 delphia, 1905. 



