May 22, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



835 



ratory or tents, cottages or hotel accommoda- 

 tions available on the Point. 



The new laboratory building which will 

 accommodate at least one hundred students 

 and investigators is already under construc- 

 tion under contract to be finished by June 15. 

 This building includes four large laboratory 

 rooms that will accommodate twenty to 

 twenty-five students each in general work, 

 two lecture rooms, four small laboratory rooms 

 for special classes and rooms for about twenty 

 research students or investigators, also private 

 rooms for instructors, store room, dark rooms 

 and other conveniences. 



The location is about a half mile from the 

 docks and buildings of the Pleasure Eesort 

 thus making it convenient to steamers • and 

 for mail, express, etc., but far enough away 

 so that the work will not be interfered with 

 by the patrons of the resort, nor will the virgin 

 conditions of forest, beach and dunes be lU<ely 

 to suffer change for generations to come. 



COMMITTEE ON THE PURITY OP 

 CHEMICALS. 

 At the last annual meeting of the American 

 Chemical Society, held in Washington in De- 

 cember, a committee, consisting of Professors 

 Baskerville, Dennis, Hillebrand, Talbot and 

 the president of the society as chairman, ex 

 officio, was appointed to investigate the ques- 

 tion of the purity of chemicals sold as pure 

 for use as reagents. It is held by many an- 

 alytical chemists that the quality of the re- 

 agents as furnished by dealers is far from 

 satisfactory, and below the grade sold some 

 years ago. It is also well known that the 

 designations ' 0. P.,' ' Chemically Pure ' and 

 ' Strictly Pure ' as employed by certain deal- 

 ers are practically meaningless. The com- 

 mittee wishes to discover the extent of the 

 evil complained of in order to be able to sug- 

 gest a remedy. Chemists who are interested 

 in the matter and who are acquainted with 

 facts bearing on the subject are invited to 

 communicate their infoiTQation to Professor 

 H. P. Talbot, Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, Boston. 



TYPHOID PETER AT PALO ALTO AND 

 STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 



The following are the facts in relation to 

 the outbreak of typhoid fever in Palo Alto. 



During the past winter, a dairy formerly 

 of good repute, lying about four miles from 

 Palo Alto, was leased to a Portuguese family. 

 In this family, in March, a death occurred 

 from typhoid fever. Two of the three houses 

 stand on the bank of a brook which bounds 

 the cattle yard. Prom this brook a wooden 

 channel carries water to a large wooden 

 trough within the yard. In this trough the 

 cans and pails of the dairy were washed. 



From the house, the excreta of the fever 

 patient seem to have been thrown, Latin- 

 fashion, on the ground, to be washed by the 

 rains into the brook, and thence into the 

 trough. 



One of the milkmen supplying the town of 

 Palo Alto bought milk from this Parreiro 

 dairy. About April 6 cases of fever appeared 

 in Palo Alto. The water supply of the tovm, 

 as well as that of the university, from deep 

 driven wells, was found above suspicion. This 

 dairy was examined, bacilli were found in its 

 milk, and on April 8 the milk route was 

 closed. In this period, however, many people 

 had taken the milk, and in the next three 

 weeks there were upwards of 150 cases in the 

 town, 80 of them being students of Stanford 

 University. 



On the university campus, a mile away, 

 about 850 of the 1,480 students of the uni- 

 versity live. Two fraternity houses on the 

 campus were served with milk from Par,- 

 reiro's. In one of these houses fourteen out 

 of twenty persons were attacked. In the other 

 four out of twenty. In the university dormi- 

 tories, and in the remaining fraternities there 

 have been a few cases, persons who had eaten 

 at a Palo Alto restaurant or had been guests 

 at some infected house. 



About 110 cases have developed among the 

 students of the university, and there have 

 been four deaths, all in Palo Alto. The source 

 of infection was promptly detected. The 

 period of incubation, about three weeks, is 

 now past; every care has been taken to pre- 



