NOVEMBEE 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



689 



the Apiacas and Manes and got important 

 data. 



In connection with tHe twentieth anniver- 

 sary celebration of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, Miss Caroline Coventry Haynes pre- 

 sented to the Garden the collection of Hepat- 

 icsB formerly belonging to Dr. Marshall A. 

 Howe, from whom she purchased it in 1909. 

 This collection is especially rich in Californian 

 material and includes most of the specimens 

 described or cited by Dr. Howe in his me- 

 moir on " The Hepaticse and Anthocerotes of 

 California," published in 1899. The collec- 

 tion includes, besides, a considerable amount 

 of foreign material received in exchanges with 

 SchifFner, Levier, Heeg, and other European 

 students of the Hepaticae. The pockets of 

 specimens now turned over to the Garden 

 number 1,1Y4. The Ricciacese of this herba- 

 rium had already been deposited at the Gar- 

 den. Certain specimens belonging to groups 

 in which Miss Haynes is especially interested 

 are being retained by her for a time, making the 

 total number of pockets of specimens that are 

 eventually to come to the Garden about 1,851. 

 The New York Botanical Garden has received 

 also one thousand dollars from the executor of 

 the will of Jacob Langeloth, and this legacy 

 has, by order of the board of managers, been 

 credited to the principal of the Endowment 

 Fimd for Science and Education, increasing 

 this fund to $76,455. 



Among the resources of California of great 

 potential value and as yet only slightly devel' 

 oped are the mineral springs which abound in 

 many parts of the state. Streams of pure 

 water issue in large volume from the northern 

 lava fields, but some of the desert springs yield 

 strong brines. Some mountain regions yield 

 springs of ice-cold water in mid-summer, and 

 in the same vicinity are pools of vigorously 

 boiling water. Water so corrosive that cloth- 

 ing soon falls to pieces under its action is 

 common in some localities; in others issue 

 springs of hot, soft water excellent for laun- 

 dry use. Several of the more noted springs are 

 mere trickles of pleasant-tasting carbonated 

 water ; other and larger springs of more delici- 

 ous natural " soda water " are at present re- 



mote from roads and are known only to the 

 hunter and prospector. Many springs form 

 deposits of salt that are welcomed by cattle 

 and wild animals as " deer licks " ; others are a 

 menace to small life because of the purgative 

 salts they contain or of the great amount of 

 carbonic-acid gas they give off. The chemical 

 constituents produce notable coloring in manj' 

 waters, giving in some springs shades of yellow, 

 green or blue, and at one place a milky and an 

 inky -black stream issue side by side. In con- 

 nection with studies of other phases of the 

 water resources of California G. A. Waring, 

 of the United States Geological Survey, made 

 an examination of the springs, and the results 

 are embodied in Water-supply Paper 338. Of 

 the 600 springs described in this paper, more 

 than 100 are used to greater or less extent as 

 resorts, but only about one third of this num- 

 ber have been patronized primarily for the 

 curative value of their waters, the others being 

 noted chiefly as pleasure resorts. At a few, 

 however, equipment comparable with that of 

 the well-known European spas is in use and 

 advanced practise in therapeutic treatment is 

 employed. 



Rubber manufacture involves the use of 

 numerous poisonous substances, of which lead 

 salts, antimony pentasulphide, aniline oil, 

 carbon disulphide and carbon tetrachloride 

 are the most dangerous. The operations in- 

 volving exposure to these poisons, however, 

 employ but a small proportion of the large 

 number of workers. No women and very few 

 boys are engaged in such operations. A lesser 

 danger is found in the use of coal-tar benzol 

 and of various petroleum products, such as 

 naphtha, benzine, etc. A considerable number 

 of the workers, including women and boys, are 

 exposed to the fumes of these compounds. 

 These facts are brought out in an investiga- 

 tion by Dr. Alice Hamilton of the industrial 

 poisons used in the rubber industry, the results 

 of which have just been published as Bulletin 

 179 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the 

 Department of Labor. While it was impos- 

 sible to get complete data as to the frequency 

 of industrial poisoning in the rubber industry, 

 records were secured of no less than 66 cases 



