344 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 872 



lagra has left London for the continent. It 

 is composed of Dr. Louis Sambon, lecturer, 

 London School of Tropical Medicine and 

 parasitologist to the Wellcome Physiological 

 Eesearch Laboratories, and Dr. Albert T. 

 Chalmers, lecturer on pathology and animal 

 parasitology, Ceylon Medical College. These 

 two members of the commission will be joined 

 en route by Professor Haase, of Memphis, 

 U. S. A., Dr. Cole, of Atlanta, TJ. S. A., and 

 Dr. Martinez, of Yucatan, Mexico. The com- 

 mission will proceed to the study of the epi- 

 demiology and etiology of pellagra in Hun- 

 gary, the Austrian Tyrol, Spain, and the 

 south of France. The governments of Aus- 

 tria-Hungary and of Spain have shown inter- 

 est in the work and have granted every facility 

 for prosecution of the study. Mr. H. S. Well- 

 come has defrayed the expenses of the present 

 field commission. The work in Italy in the 

 spring of 1910, by Dr. Louis Sambon, has 

 gained many converts to the belief that pel- 

 lagra is not due to eating damaged maize, but 

 to a parasitic disease conveyed by the bite of 

 a fly. 



In constructing the huge topographic and 

 geologic maps of the United States every de- 

 tail of the work is done by the survey, from 

 the work of the topographers who make tiie 

 maps in the field down through the various 

 stages of drafting, lettering, editing, engrav- 

 ing and lithographic printing in many col- 

 ored inks. There is practically no compilation 

 about the survey maps; they are based on sur- 

 veys made on the ground, and the office work 

 consists simply in putting them into form for 

 issuance to the public. They depict most 

 faithfully the characteristics of the areas sur- 

 veyed. Every year with the coming of the 

 open field season numerous survey parties 

 hurry away from the Washington ofiice to the 

 four quarters of the United States as well as 

 to Alaska, and the result of their season's 

 work is the topographic and geologic mapping 

 of tens of thousands of square miles of all 

 sorts of country ranging from the most for- 

 bidding swamps and morasses to the loftiest 

 of the glacier-covered mountains of the Eock- 

 ies and the high Sierra, and including the 



most valuable mineral deposits of the nation. 

 While these parties are thus traversing un- 

 trodden fields, the survey's engraving and 

 printing plant throughout the summer, as in 

 fact through all the year, is turning out hun- 

 dreds of thousands of copies of the results of 

 the previous year's field work. In a single 

 midsummer month this year the survey plant 

 printed 102,404 topographic maps, 5,345 geo- 

 logic folios, each containing many maps, and 

 111,170 copies of other geologic maps, charts, 

 etc. Besides its own maps a great number of 

 maps are also printed by the survey engrav- 

 ing division for other branches and depart- 

 ments of the government. Stephen J. Kiibel, 

 chief engraver, has run this extensive engrav- 

 ing and printing plant under the director of 

 the Geological Survey for the past 22 years. 

 Years ago he instituted an almost exact cost- 

 keeping system which has enabled him to 

 enter into close competitive bidding on some 

 of the government contract work and to run 

 the engraving plant on thoroughly up-to-date 

 business lines. Most of the maps are printed 

 in colors and for the total number of 218,919 

 maps and charts printed during the month 

 mentioned the number of separate printings 

 or impressions was 1,287,609. The geologic 

 map of North America, which is now being 

 printed in four sheets, shows 42 different color 

 and pattern distinctions. Each sheet requires 

 20 separate printings, and the 13,700 copies of 

 the southwest sheet of this map printed during 

 the month necessitated 274,000 printings. The 

 total edition of 13,700 copies of the complete 

 map has required 1,096,000 printings. 



In the course of his speech in the British 

 parliament on the Indian Budget, the under 

 secretary for India said : " The most urgent 

 need is the education of the masses in the 

 principles of hygiene. There is a limitless 

 field, indeed, for private enterprise here. Tol- 

 erable though archaic habits and practises may 

 be in the open country, when transferred to 

 the crowded town they become unsupportable. 

 If there were less ignorance and less per- 

 versity, plague would never find in the country 

 the lodgment that it has. It is an established 

 fact that persons living under proper sanitary 



