240 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. ! 



the exit ; while the less careful worker is likely 

 to attempt to light the gas prematurely. 



All possibility of an explosion is removed 

 by a very simple procedure, which is doubt- 

 less widely used, but which has not found its 

 way into the manuals. When the air has been 

 completely expelled, the hydrogen will burn 

 tranquilly in the test-tube. The test-tube, 

 containing the burning hydrogen, is, by a 

 quick movement, brought over the escaping 

 hydrogen. One or two trials will be sufficient 

 to ignite the jet. The towel may be dispensed 

 with. 



Neither originality nor novelty is claimed 

 for this suggestion. This note is written 

 merely with the hope that some one of the 

 numerous writers of manuals will revise the 

 directions for this particular exercise and dis- 

 card the time-honored towel. 



B. F. Lovelace 



Univebsity of Alabama, 

 May 25, 1911 



QUOTATIONS 



THE ADMrNISTEATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE 



With the testimony yesterday of Dr. Wiley 

 himseK, the Moss committee concluded its 

 hearings. President Taft will next be heard 

 from. But conditions have changed since At- 

 torney General Wickersham, after reading a 

 cooked-up ease, declared that Dr. Wiley and 

 his associates in guarding the foods and medi- 

 cines of the people merited " condign punish- 

 ment." Like thunderbolt the illuminating 

 publication that exposed the doings of the 

 McCabe cabal in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture must have seemed to Solicitor McCabe 

 and his fellow-conspirators just as they 

 thought their secret charges against the Chief 

 Chemist were accomplishing his ruin. The 

 public now knows that the Food and Drugs 

 Act has been officially disregarded; that scores 

 of important cases against alleged adultera- 

 tors and misbranders have been deliberately 

 held in abeyance; that department officials 

 did not hesitate to garble the terms of court 

 findings, and that an organized effort was be- 

 ing made, by the cutting down of salaries and 



" star chamber " proceedings, to drive honest 

 public servants out of the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry. It is not imprudent to predict that if, 

 in his decision. President Taft recommends 

 " condign punishment," the recommendation 

 will not be directed against Dr. Wiley and 

 Dr. Eusby. — The New York Times. 



It is not too much to say that Dr. Wiley, in 

 his first day's testimony before the House 

 committee, absolutely riddled the case against 

 him. The so-called documentary evidence 

 upon which Attorney-General Wickersham so 

 gravely passed, was no evidence at all. Its 

 chief piece was a letter to Dr. Wiley, but it 

 now appears that it was never sent to him nor 

 received by him. He had nothing whatever 

 to do with making the contract with Dr. 

 Eusby, for which offence his resignation was 

 demanded. The whole thing was to be " sub- 

 ject to the approval of the Department " — that 

 is, the Secretary — though these words were 

 omitted by the personnel board when it pub- 

 lished a copy of Dr. Eusby's letter. It is evi- 

 dent that the Attorney-General was grievously 

 misled; he ought to make haste to recall his 

 opinion and to apologize to Dr. Wiley. As 

 for the schemers against Dr. Wiley, the in- 

 vestigation has left them in a most unenviable 

 plight. Their stay in the public service ought 

 to be of the briefest. And the inquiry has, it 

 must also be said, shovm such an unhappy 

 state of affairs within the Department of 

 Agriculture, which appears to be honey- 

 combed with intrigue and faction, and badly 

 suffering for lack of firm, executive control, as 

 to indicate the need of its reorganization 

 from the top down. — The N. Y. Evening Post. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Mendelism. By E. C. Punnett. Third edi- 

 tion, entirely rewritten and much enlarged. 

 Pp. 192, 5 plates and 35 text-figures. New 

 York, The Macmillan Co. 1911. Price 

 $1.25. 



Punnett has shown that a scientific book 

 need not be dull. His new treatise on " Men- 

 delism " is a thorough exposition of a difficult 

 and technical subject, yet it is as entertaining 



