MARCH 7, 1941 SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS 9

TWO OUTSTANDING BIOLOGY TEXTS

FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOLOGY-By ARTHUR W. HAUPT, University of California at Los Angeles. McGraw-Hill Publica-tions in the Zoological Sciences. Third edition. 443 pages, 6 x 9. $3.00

Like previous editions of this standard text, the present revision deals with the basic principlescommon to all living things, with emphasis on those aspects of biology which seem to be of greatestvalue in contributing to a liberal education. While the plan of the book has not been materiallyaltered, greater stress has been placed on the animal side of biology. New material has been addedto many chapters, especially those dealing with protoplasm and the cell, unicellular organisms,lower animal groups, and the vertebrates. Other topics have been greatly expanded and many new

illustrations have been added.

"This is the third edition of a textbook which gained many friends for its clear exposition, interesting presentation,and rigid restriction of material to the most essential and basic facts. The newest revision will win new friends andkeep the old ones.' '-The Biologist

"In its first two editions, this book proved itself to be well suited for one-semester orientation courses in the biologicalsciences. . . . The subject matter is well selected and readably presented. The value of this book is attested by itssuccessful classroom record. '-Bios

Laboratory Directions for General BiologyThird edition. 65 pages, 6 x 9. $1.00

ANIMAL BIOLOGYBy the late ROBERT H. WOLCOTT. Revised by members of the Zoology Department, Univer-sity of Nebraska. McGraw-Hill Publications in the Zoological Sciences. Second edition.621 pages, 6 x 9. $3.50

Teachers were enthusiastic about the first edition of this successful text; they like the second edi-tion even better, commenting particularly on the retention of the logical, systematic organizationof material, the new sections on the parasites, the revision of the treatment of Annelid worms, andthe wealth of new illustrations. As before, teachers find that Animal Biology fits exceptionally wellinto their courses, without stressing too heavily either the "types" or the "principles" approach.

"Professor Wolcott's splendid text has been revised by the staff of the Department of Zoology of the University ofNebraska. . . . The revised edition is an improvement of a very teachable text. '"-Bios

Send for copies on approval

McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC.330 West 42nd Street, New York, N. Y. Aldwych House, London, W.C.2

MAR.CH 7, 1941 SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS 9

SCIENCE-SUPPLEMENT VOL. 93, No. 2410

SCIENCE NEWSScience Service, Washington, D. C.

MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS SPEEDS MASSPRODUCTION

MATHEMATICS ean aid America's defense production inmany ways, it was stated at the Symposium on AppliedMathematics, held by the American Mathematical Societyat Columbia University on February 21. The speedingof mass production by showing the most efficient way ofproducing parts of a specified tolerance and determina-tion of the most efficient design of airplane wings were

cited among other instances.Dr. Walter A. Shewhart, of the Bell Telephone Labora-

tories, discussing "Mathematical Statistics in MassProduction," said that "a basic engineering problem inmass production is to devise an operation of using raw

and fabricated materials which, if carried out, will givesome particular thing wanted. The specified toleranceranges for the quality characteristics of the thing wantedare the engineer 's target. He devises a production opera-

tion and predicts that it will hit the target if carried out;but, since he does not have certain or perfect knowledgeof facts and physical laws, he can not be sure that a givenoperation will hit its target. In fact, the best that hecan hope to do is to know the probability of hitting thetarget. Here then is a fundamental way in which prob-ability enters into everything that an engineer does."Furthermore, if the thing produced fails to meet tol-erance requirements, the engineer is penalized in one way

or another. For example, if the quality of any piece-partfails to meet its tolerance requirements, a loss is incurredthrough rejection or modification of the defective part.If the time-to-blow of a protective fuse fails to meet itstolerance range, loss of property and even loss of life mayresult. If the time-to-blow of a fuse in a shell fails tomeet its tolerance range the shell may even burst withinthe gun and kill members of the gun crew, and, in any

case, will fail to fulfil its function of destruction withinthe ranks of the enemy."By using statistical control, he explained, it is possible

to provide "a technique for modifying and coordinatingthe three fundamental steps in the process of mass pro-

duction, namely, specification, manufacturing and inspec-tion, so that the maximum number of pieces of producthaving a quality within specified tolerance limits can beturned out at given cost. It does this by showing howto minimize the cost of inspection and the cost of rejec-tion. Statistical theory plus mass production provides a

means of maximizing our physical comforts in time ofpeace and our strategic factors in time of war."

RADIUM-LIKE CARBON MADE FROMNITROGEN

MODERN alchemy, which turns one element into another,has now made from nitrogen a form of carbon whichpromises to have important uses in medicine and othersciences, announce two researchers at the University ofCalifornia.

This kind, or isotope, of carbon is of mass 14, some-

what heavier than normal carbon, principally composed

of the isotope of mass 12. Unlike ordinary carbon, thenew kind, C-14, gives off beta rays, one kind of radiationemitted by radium. It consists of atomic fragmentscalled electrons. C-14 does not, however, give off gamma

rays, which resemble x-rays, and are responsible for themedical effects of radium.In a report to The..Physical Review, Dr. Samuel Ruben

and M. D. Kamen, of the University of California, revealtheir success in preparing appreciable quantities of 0-14with the cyclotron, or "atom smasher,' of the university.For six months two five-gallon carboys of a concen-

trated solution of ammonium nitrate, in which no carbonis present, were exposed to a constant rain of neutronsfrom the atom-smasher. Some nitrogen atoms, whichhave the same mass as C-14, were converted into the car-

bon isotope. These were extracted in the form of variouscarbon compounds. Their radioactivity was tested bymeans of a Geiger counter, which detects the beta rays.

The samples showed considerable activity, far more thanany of the materials used originally, before the bombard-ment with neutrons.

It is expected that C-14 will prove important as a

tracer element, in medical and botanical research, and itmay be prepared commercially in large quantities forsuch use. Carbon is the most wide-spread element inliving organisms. Ordinarily it is not possible to dis-tinguish one carbon atom from another, but radioactivityforms a tag for identification. If C-14 atoms are intro-duced at one part of a living organism, they can be locatedelsewhere by their effect on a Geiger counter. Anotheradvantage of C-14 is that it has a long life. Continuallygiving off energy, radioactive elements are gradually usedup. C-14 disintegrates so slowly that after 1,000 years

there will still be at least half of the original quantityremaining.

Dr. Ruben and Mr. Kamen point out that in some waysthe long life of C-14 is unfortunate, since it requires a

long time to prepare it. They point out, however, thatthere are methods for concentrating it from the otherisotopes. In addition, they suggest, end products of a

reaction in which it is used can be collected, the C-14reconcentrated, and used over again.

P-RADIATION

CLOUDS of bullets which are continually shot from thesun make it possible for radio waves to travel long dis-tances by night as well as by day.

Recent studies by the staff of the Department of Ter-restrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Wash-ington have revealed new facts about these material par-ticles which cause the aurora borealis and are mainlystudied by their effect on the magnetic condition of theearth.

These particles travel across the 92,900,000 milesseparating sun and earth much more slowly than thevisible and invisible light waves, which make the trip inabout eight minutes. That is why they produce an effectat night.

10

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Invisible ultra-violet waves, similar to light, strikeatoms in the uppermost parts of our atmosphere, ionizethem by knocking electrons from them. This makes anelectrical ceiling that prevents radio waves from escapinginto space, reflecting them downwards instead, perhapsmany times, and thus sending them around the curvedglobe.

This effect is only in the daytime hemisphere-thatwhich faces the sun, yet the radio ceiling persists intothe night. But the particles being slower, even the nighttime part of the earth is constantly running into them,and the effect, in ionizing the upper atmosphere, is similarto that of the light waves.The bombardment is described, in a statement issued

by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, as "comingin clouds of particles, of various sizes from mere wisps todiameters many times the earth's radius, which form amore or less continuous stream, perhaps of the structureof a string of pearls and in shape like the arms of a spiralnebula. "

This ''P-radiation," as the stream of bullets is called,is presumed to come from hypothetical "M-regions" ofgreat activity on the sun's surface.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHSAERIAL photographs, taken and printed in the air within

seven minutes after exposure, are among the latest accom-plishments of technicians of the U. S. Army Air Corps atWright Field.By making the pictures so. rapidly, then dropping them

to the ground in a metal container to which a streamer isattached to make it easy to find, information gained onflights over enemy territory can be quickly delivered toheadquarters. Hitherto, the general practice has been forthe plane to land with the undeveloped films, which werethen finished.

According to H. F. Stiffer, Wright Field mechanicalengineer, who describes the new system in an Air Corpspublication, the advantage of such a system has long beenrealized, but earlier attempts were held back, chieflythrough lack of interest, and also because of the dangerto airplane structure and controls caused by corrosionfrom the photographic chemicals.In 1939, he says, the photographic laboratory at Wright

Field experimented with a quick-work unit that madepictures on reversal-type paper instead of film. In thedeveloping process, a positive print could be obtainedwithout the intermediate stage of a negative.

Disadvantage of the method was that the paper is muchslower than aerial film, so exposures could only be madeunder fairly good lighting conditions. In addition, itsprocessing requires close regulation of the temperature ofthe solutions. This made necessary tanks with automati-cally controlled cooling and heating units.

High-speed film is now used, with processing solutionsthat work satisfactorily in temperatures as warm as 80degrees Fahrenheit. The film holder is made of materialsthat are not affected by the solutions, which are containedin five half-gallon tanks, each with a trap door lid thatkeeps light out and prevents splashing.

After a piece of the film has been exposed and the dark

slide of the holder is closed, the holder is removed fromthe camera and inserted in the first tank, which containsthe developer solution. The dark slide is then withdrawn.After one minute in this tank, the dark slide is againclosed and the holder transferred to the second tank, andso on until the processing is complete. The wet negativeis removed from the holder and placed on the printer.

In printing, a thin piece of clear film over the negativekeeps the paper dry. It is then placed in a dry filmholder. This is then put through the five tanks, just likethe original film. The final result is the finished printwhich is dropped to the ground, still wet, in the metalcontainer. While the present equipment is still in theexperimental stage, satisfactory prints have been pro-duced with it while in flight in seven minutes from thetime of exposure of the films. Tests indicate that a satis-factory solution to the quick-work program is withinsight, and it is expected that standardization and pro-curement for a service test will be accomplished in thenear future.

TOXOPLASMATHE deaths of two adults and one six-year-old boy

from infection with Toxoplasma, and a non-fatal casein another little boy, are reported in the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association. The ailment may or maynot be rare. How often it occurs is one of the unknownsin the problem.The two little boys had "atypical encephalitis," ac-

cording to Dr. Albert B. Sabin, of the Children 's HospitalResearch Foundation and the University of CincinnatiCollege of Medicine. Encephalitis means "sleeping sick-ness " to most laymen, but they did not have typicalsleeping sickness. Convulsions, fever, disorientation andan increased number of a certain kind of white blood cellsin the spinal fluid were the chief features of the disease.

In the adults, the ailment might have been mistakenfor Rocky Mountain spotted fever or endemic typhusfever, according to the report of these cases by Dr. Henry,Pinkerton and Dr. Richard G. Henderson, of the St. LouisUniversity School of Medicine. Rash, fever and lunginvolvement were the outstanding features in these cases.

Toxoplasma, the "germ" that caused these quite dif-ferent ailments, was first discovered in 1908 in the gondi,a North African rodent. Since then it has been foundin many animals, such as guinea pigs, rabbits, ratsand mice, and has been reported as causing disease inman. Hitherto, it has been doubted that Toxoplasmacould or did cause sickness in man because the evidencein the earlier reports, with one exception, was incon-clusive. Now, however, the proof is more definite. BothDr. Sabin and Dr. Pinkerton and Dr. Henderson reportlaboratory tests, including transmission of the disease toguinea pigs by inoculation with blood or spinal fluid fromthe patients, which are pretty convincing evidence that theToxoplasma caused the illnesses.How the patients got the disease is part of the mystery

that remains to be solved. In the cases of the two adults,there was a suggestion that ticks, such as transmit RockyMountain spotted fever, might be responsible. A cat inthe home of one of the little boys became sick and had

VOL. 93y No. 2410P12

MARCH 7, 1941 SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS 13

__Important MOSBY COLLEGE TEXTS

Equally adaptable for classroom or reference use, thesetexts which discuss these basic sciences can be of practi-cal value to the student or practitioner seeking depend-able information.

ESSENTIALS of ZOOLOGYThe author brings into this book the essential fundamentals which every zoology stu-dent should have, regardless of the length of the course he happens to take. Someemphasis is placed on the economic aspect, on the human relation, and on the princi-ples involved. The arrangement of the chapters is in an order which seems logical,however they are written in such a way that the teacher may change their order withno difficulty. Since this is true, the teacher has some option in the possibility of strik-ing a workable combination of "types" and "principles" material as well as balancein laboratory-lecture program.

By George Edwin Potter. 532 pages, 204 illustrations. Price, $3.75

TEXTBOOK of PHYSIOLOGYThis new seventh edition brings with it a closer approach to perfection through theaddition of Dr. W. W. Tuttle as its co-author. Because of Dr. Tuttle's having taughtPhysiology both in the undergraduate school and in the school of medicine, he natu-rally is familiar with the balance needed for an undergraduate book in Physiology.This balance is implanted into this new edition. Both authors have worked in bring-ing this material up to date so that it now offers the latest thoughts and developments.The book is comprehensive in its coverage; clear and understandable in its style; andpractical in its descriptions and applications.

By W. D. Zoethout and W. W. Tuttle. 743 pages, 302 illustrations. Price, $4.50

FUNDAMENTALS of BIOLOGYThis book offers the teacher many worthwhile advantages. It is large enough that itcan serve both as a class-room text and at the same time contains a good deal of ref-erence reading for the course in general biology. It has survey chapters on animalsand plants in which a large group of organisms is given so that individual instructorscan select those which in their opinions best illustrate. Emphasis has been placed onthe application of biology in the field of health, wealth and conservation. Humanbiology, therefore, has been well emphasized.

By William- C. Beaver. 2nd Ed. 889 pages, 301 illustrations, 14 color plates.Price, $4.00

The C. V. MOSBY COMPANY

MACE 7, 1941 SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS 13

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI3525 PINE BOULEVARD

14 SCIENCE-SI

convulsions about the time the child got sick. This wassuggestive, but the cat had been disposed of, so no testscould be made to determine whether it also was infectedwith Toxoplasma. Mosquitoes had been troublesomearound this home, but no ticks had been seen. Some casesof Toxoplasma infection have been reported in infantsand it was thought these babies got the sickness from theirmothers, although the mothers themselves did not haveit. Because the two adults who died of toxoplasmosishad lung involvements, it is pointed out that the ailmentmight be transmitted directly from person to person.The disease is probably relatively rare, although there

is as yet no indication how frequent such infection is.Owing, however, to its similarity to recently reported casesof atypical pneumonia of unknown cause it is not at pres-ent justifiable to assume that it is a rare disease.

Treatment so far has been directed to relief of symp-toms, but Dr. Sabin 's report indicates that the newersulfa drugs may prove effective. He gave sulfanilamideto one of the little boys, but without success. Later testswith mice showed that sulfapyridine and sulfathiazolehave a curative effect on the infection in mice, but thatsulfanilamide " only delays death but can not prevent it. "

BLOOD IN PHARMACEUTICAL STANDARDSBOTTLES and flasks of vital red fluid stored in hospitals

for emergency lifesaving may in the future bear labelsreading: BLOOD U. S. P. The three letters are initialsfor the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, and whenthey are on the label of a bottle the contents of thatbottle must, by law, come up to the standards describedfor the substance in the Pharmacopoeia.Whole blood, blood serum and blood plasma for trans-

fusion are recommended for inclusion in the twelfth re-

vision of the Pharmacopoeia, according to Dr. E. Fuller-ton Cook, chairman of the revision committee of the U. S.Pharmacopoeia. The Pharmacopoeia is revised every ten

years, with occasional interim revisions to keep up withthe rapid development of scientific knowledge.

Quinine, according to Dr. Cook's announcement, maycome out of the next Pharmacopoeia. Physicians now-a-

days seldom prescribe quinine for treatment of malaria.Instead, they prescribe various salts of quinine such as

quinine sulfate. These will remain in the Pharmacopoeia.Antipneumococcus serum, immune serum for scarlet

fever, and immune serum for measles are recommendedfor the U. S. P. XII. So is tetanus toxoid. Amongother articles recommended for inclusion are radium, nico-tinic acid amide, halibut liver oil, vitamin A and D inoil, riboflavin (one of the B vitamins), and cortin, an

adrenal gland extract used in treatment of Addison'sdisease. Extract of rice polishings, standardized for vita-min B1 potency for use in the Philippines, is also recom-

mended for inclusion.Among recommended deletions- of- articles now in the

Pharmacopoeia are such standbys as asafetida, canthari-des, capsicum, pepsin, iodoform, powder of ipecac andopium, creosote and one reminiscent of the world war

surgery, modified Dakin 's solution.-JANE STAFFORD.

ITEMSBY shooting high energy atomic bullets, or neutrons,

UTPPLEMENT VOL. 93, No. 2410

at them, University of California physicists have suc-ceeded in breaking the nuclei of both uranium and thoriumatoms into equal parts, it was announced recently. Im-portance of this is that the form of uranium used isof mass 235, the kind that, it is hoped, will make possiblepracticable atomic power with such a splitting or fissionprocess. In previous experiments, by using slow-speedneutrons, uranium was divided very unevenly, into alight element and a heavy one. However, Dr. EmilioSegre, of the Radiation Laboratory, and Dr. Glenn Sea-borg, instructor in chemistry, used high-speed neutrons,with energies of 16 million electron volts, or more thanthree times that used earlier. These neutrons are pro-duced by bombarding atoms in the cyclotron or "atom-smasher." In the splitting process, energies of 100million or more volts are produced. Difficulty of sepa-rating uranium of mass 235 from the ordinary kind, whichcontains it in rather small amounts, has so far preventedactual tests of uranium power.

THE star Sirius, changing in color from red to lightgreen, was the startling sight observed recently from aship in the tropical Pacific Ocean, west of the GalapagosIslands. In a report to the Hydrographic Office of theU. S. Navy, the observer, whose name and ship are notrevealed, says that he was taking a sight on the star,when he noticed the color changes. Then he lookedthrough binoculars, "'and it was found that nearly allthe colors of the spectrum were included in its changes."Sirius was then just rising in the east. As it climbedhigher the colors faded. Such an effect is an exaggeratedform of the familiar twinkling. As the star 's lightpasses through regions of the air of different tempera-tures it is bent one way, then another. When the tem-perature differences are unusually great, the air acts as aprism, and spreads the beam out into an actual spectrum.Because of the movement of the air and also, in this case,of the ship, the observer sees changing parts of thisspectrum, and hence the changes of color.

DEADLY to apple worms, harmless to bees, is a newvirtue found in the new poison-spray material, phenothia-zine, now being tested by the U. S. Department of Agri-culture. The discovery is subject of a joint report byL. M. Bertholf, of the Bureau of Entomology and PlantQuarantine, and J. E. Pilson, of Western Maryland Col-lege. One of the great problems involved in control ofthe worst of apple enemies, the codling moth (whoselarvae are the "worms" found in apples), is the deadli-ness to bees of the arsenical sprays commonly used. Inthese tests, bees were given heavy doses of phenothiazinewithout any apparent ill effects. In contrast, minutedoses of calcium arsenate proved deadly, and lead aresnatewas also an active bee poison in the doses bees are likelyto get in gathering pollen from sprayed orchards. Pheno-thiazine is not yet recommended for general use in or-chard spraying, because thus far it has not produced uni-form results on the codling moth larvae. It is hoped thatfurther experiments will make it more completely de-pendable.

MARCH 7, 1941 15SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS

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