October 3, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



ill 



tion sail from the Thames ahout the middle of 

 August, 1914, in the steam yacht Polaris, a 

 ship especially built in Norway for ice naviga- 

 tion in accordance with designs approved by an 

 international committee of explorers, including 

 Charcot, de Gerlache and Nansen. The expe- 

 dition will, it is expected, be away for 20 

 months or more. 



Mr. Truman H. Aldrich, of Birmingham, 

 Ala., has presented to the Museum of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Alabama his entire concho- 

 logical collection, by estimate about 20,000 

 species from all parts of the world. In addi- 

 tion to his own extensive gatherings and ex- 

 changes during more than 50 years, Mr. Aid- 

 rich had purchased largely not only from 

 dealers but from such special workers as Gar- 

 rett and Doherty. He had bought outright 

 several important private collections, notably 

 the entire Mauritius gatherings of the late Col. 

 Nicholas Pike, the Jones Bermuda and Nova 

 Scotia Shells, and the Parker cabinet of about 

 5,500 listed species. The Aldrich collection is 

 particularly rich in Asiatic and Indian forms. 

 The series of operculate land shells could 

 hardly be matched in this country, and there 

 are many types of species described by Mr. 

 Aldrich and others. With the shells were 

 given 1,300 or more volumes of conchologieal 

 and other scientific works. Mr. Aldrich had 

 already given all his duplicates, probably 

 200,000 specimens, to the museum, and last 

 year he donated a very large and fine series of 

 Tertiary invertebrate fossils. The museum, 

 it may be noted, moved into its new building. 

 Smith Hall, less than four years ago. Though 

 the outcome of the Geological Survey and 

 bearing its name, it is by law an integral part 

 of the University of Alabama. Dr. Eugene 

 A. Smith, since 1873 at the head of the survey, 

 is also director of the museum. 



Dr. W. a. Sawyer, director of the hygienic 

 laboratory of the California State Board of 

 Health, and W. B. Herms, assistant professor 

 of parasitology in the University of Cali- 

 fornia, have contributed to the Journal of the 

 American Medical Association an article in 

 (1) In a series of seven experiments in which 



which they reach the following conclusions: 

 the conditions were varied, we were unable to 

 transmit poliomyelitis from monkey to monkey 

 through the agency of the stable-fly. (2) Fur- 

 ther experimentation may reveal conditions 

 under which the stable-fly can readily transfer 

 poliomyelitis, but the negative results of our 

 work and of the second set of experiments of 

 Anderson and Frost lead us to doubt that the 

 fly is the usual agent in spreading the disease 

 in nature. (3) On the basis of the evidence 

 now at hand we should continue to isolate 

 persons sick with poliomyelitis or convalescent, 

 and we should attempt to limit the formation 

 of human carriers and to detect and control 

 them. Screening of sick-rooms against the 

 stable-fly and other flying insects is a precau- 

 tion which should be added to those directed 

 against contact infection, but not substituted 

 for them. (4) The measures used in sup- 

 pressing the house-fly are not applicable to the 

 control of the stable-fly owing to its different 

 breeding habits and food-supply. Methods 

 should be devised for diminishing the num- 

 bers of stable-flies, as they are a great annoy- 

 ance to cattle and, in all probability, are ca- 

 pable of transferring and inoculating a num- 

 ber of the diseases of animals. 



The birth of ten calves in the buffalo herd 

 maintained by the government on the "Wichita 

 national forest and game refuge, near Lawton, 

 Oklahoma, has been reported by the game 

 warden in charge. The herd now contains a 

 total of 48 head of full-blooded buffalo, or, 

 more properly, bison, of which 2Y are males 

 and 21 females. All of the animals are in 

 good condition. In 1907 the American Bison 

 Society donated to the federal government a 

 nucleus herd of 15 animals which had been 

 bred and reared in the New York Zoological 

 Park. The animals were transported to the 

 Wichita national forest, which is also a game 

 refuge, and placed under the care of the For- 

 est Service. They readily adapted themselves 

 to their new habitat, but the area upon which 

 they were placed was within the zone affected 

 by the Texas fever tick and during the two 

 or three years following their transfer only the 

 constant care and watchfulness of the forest 



