December 1, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



759 



45 years of age. Before it was made compul- 

 sory, 17,000 officers and enlisted men had been 

 vaccinated voluntarily. During the recent 

 mobilization of troops in Texas, when the men 

 were in camp for more than two months, 

 under war conditions, only one case of ty- 

 phoid resulted, that of a teamster who had 

 not been vaccinated. This was in striking 

 contrast to the Spanish-American war when 

 within a period of three and one half months 

 there were 20,Y38 cases with 1,580 deaths. 



UNIVESSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 Largely through the efforts of Mrs. E. H. 

 Harriman, a fund of $40,000 a year for five 

 years has been provided to maintain an experi- 

 mental school for the study and administration 

 of public business. The school will be started 

 in New York, but the scope is intended to be 

 national. Mrs. Harriman personally consulted 

 a number of business men, journalists, educa- 

 tors and public officials as to the need of pro- 

 viding such a training school, and their favor- 

 able replies resulted in her offer of a contribu- 

 tion to make possible a five years' test of such a 

 school. Her own contribution was $40,000 for 

 the first year and $10,000 for the succeeding 

 years. Messrs. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew 

 Carnegie, J. P. Morgan and others gave enough 

 to provide for a total annual income of $40,000. 

 The work will be carried on by the directors of 

 the Bureau of Municipal Research. 



The statute allowing honor students in math- 

 ematics and natural science to dispense with 

 Greek in responsions passed the Oxford con- 

 gregation on November 7 by a vote of 33 to 11. 

 It will now be submitted to convocation, the 

 ultimate legislative authority of the university. 



Dr. Edmund B. Huey, who has for some time 

 been making examinations of defective chil- 

 dren and of aphasic patients at the Johns Hop- 

 kins Hospital, has been appointed lecturer on 

 mental development in the Johns Hopkins 

 University and assistant in psychiatry in the 

 Phipps Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

 From January to June, 1912, Dr. Huey will 

 give, at the university, a series of weekly public 



lectures and clinics on the subject of backward 

 and feeble-minded children, and on related 

 phases of clinical psychology. 



Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith has been ap- 

 pointed instructor in physics in the College of 

 the City of New York. 



Dr. Alexander F. Chamberlain, hitherto 

 assistant professor, has been promoted to a full 

 professorship in anthropology at Clark Uni- 

 versity. 



Professor R. I. Smith, of the North Caro- 

 lina College of Agriculture, has accepted a posi- 

 tion with the Porto Rico College of Agricul- 

 ture, taking up extension work in agricultural 

 education. His address after January 1, 1912, 

 will be Mayaguez, Porto Rico. 



DISCUSSION AND COSSESPONDENCE 



THE USE OF SODIUM BENZOATE AS A PRESERVATIVE 

 OF FOOD 



To THE Editor of Science: It seems proper 

 that the following quotation of the Prussian 

 Scientific Deputation of Medical Affairs 

 should be published in addition to that copied 

 by Science from an article in the Journal of 

 the American Medical Association, that the 

 American public shall not be misled : 



In order to decide the question concerning the 

 use of benzole acid and its salts as a preservative 

 of food, one must consider the result of the pro- 

 longed administration of these substances in small 

 doses. Such experiments were carried out on 

 twelve young men in the chemical laboratory of 

 the Agricultural Department in Washington under 

 the direction of Wiley. The persons experimented 

 on received, in increasing quantities, between 0.5 

 to 2.5 grams of benzoic acid or benzoate in cap- 

 sules during four periods of five days each. The 

 majority of the persons experimented on experi- 

 enced digestive and metabolic disturbances, gastric 

 pain, vomiting and reduction in body weight, 

 which decided Wiley to declare that the use of 

 benzoate salts should not be allowed in the pres- 

 ervation of food. Since, however, doubts arose 

 regarding the technic of these experiments and 

 since the injury to the health of the individuals 

 could not with certainty be attributed to the use 

 of benzoate of soda, an American commission ap- 



