This observ. must dispose of the commonly accepted belief concerning the origin of bile pigm.; namely, that they can be formed only by the breaking down of red blood cells. Can one assume, that a carbohy. diet will cause the dissolution of a small army of red bl.cells, to explain the fact that the output of bile pigm. may be almost doubled in a sharp transition from a meat diet to a diet rich in carbohy.? C. W. HOOPER and G. H. WHIPPLE: Amer. Jour. of Physiol., 1916, xl, p. 349.

CONSCIENCE OF THE EXPERT. For two cent. there has been growing up in the exper. lab. an ideal of exactness and a reverence for tested fact. The standing of a univ. as a research inst'n is determined by its lab's. The buildings of a modern med. sch. consist almost entirely of lab's. Nowadays the first thing wise men do when they are face-to-face with a grave problem, relating, say, to food values, or ventilation, or juvenile delinquency, or whether animals reason, or the harmfulness of adulterants, is to equip a research lab. for working it out. We have realized that the old-fashioned reflection and discussion are but a poor method of finding truth. The spirit of the lab. is a sense of the all-importance of fact, a nervousness as to error, a willingness to take infinite pains in measuring and verifying. Formerly only chemists and engineers went out into their life-work with this spirit. But of late, lab's have so multiplied in the univ's, in the research bureaus of gov't, and in the big indust. concerns, that you will find this spirit in many groups of social servants, such as physicians, psychiatrists, criminologists, statisticians, sanitarians, charity agents, social workers, factory inspectors and probation officers. The lawyers and the preachers have scarcely caught it, but in the school of journalism, with "Accuracy 'Always" a wall motto and a daily prayer, the students are getting it. Whether the conditions of newspaper employment will permit them to act upon it remains to be seen. E. A. Ross: School and Society, 1916, iii, p. 522.

NEW INSTITUTES. Indus. Research Inst. The Univ. of Wash. has established a Bur. of Indus. Research similar to the Mellon Inst. of the Univ. of Pittsb. The plans for the Bur., which were developed by members of the fac. and business men of the northwest, met with the approval of the board of regents of the univ. at its last meeting, and Henry K. Benson, prof. of industrial chem., was appointed director. The Bur. will coordinate the research activities already undertaken by the univ., in order fully to utilize the resources of Washington. Contributions have already been assured to initiate the plan and the univ. will lend all its facilities for the furtherance of the work of the bureau.

Prophylactic Inst. Under this title an association has been formed in Paris whose object is to conduct a campaign for the gradual extinction of syphilis. Besides the direct treatment of patients, it will undertake scien. researches, and bring continuous action to bear on the admin. authorities. Among the members are Dr. Roux, Direc. Pasteur Inst., Dr. Ladouzy, Dean Paris Fac. of Med., M. Painlevé, Min. of Instr. and of Invent. affecting Nat'l Defence, and M. Brieux, author of Les Avaries. Mr. F. J. Gould has sent 250,000 f. to the Foundation Commit. of the new Inst.

CURRICULUM IN PUBLIC HEALTH. The Univ. of Cal. offers, besides the work usual to a med. sch., a "Curric. in Pub. Health," in which the grad. degree of "Grad. in Pub. Health" may be earned by those who specialize in med., chem., bacteriol., or san. engin., and who plan a career in prevent. med., san. science, and pub. hygiene.

WARNING REGARDING TREATMENT OF "HAY FEVER." The authors feel it incumbent upon them to warn the med. profession against "hay fever" vaccines which contain a mixture of a large number of pollen extr., such mixture being given both for spring and fall cases. No diagnostic means are employed to determine which pollen or pollens are operative in a given case. Under these conditions many a patient who is suffering from the spring variety of pollinosis, being already a fit subject for further sensitization, is placed in danger of becoming sensitized to those pollens which are active during the fall. It may also be stated that pollen extracts in large doses are extremely dangerous, and with the dosage not properly controlled by experienced workers in this particular field, a calamity from mishandling may cast a shadow upon a very valuable proposition. S. OPPENHEIMER and M. J. GOTTLIEB: Med. Rec., 1916, 1xxxix, p. 508.

VIRUSES, SERUMS, TOXINS AND ANALOGOUS PRODUCTS FOR USE

IN THE TREATMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS TO BE BETTER SUPER

VISED. A comprehensive bill to regulate commerce in, and importation of, viruses, serums, toxins, and analogous products, for use in the treatment of domes. animals has been introduced into Congr. by Repr. Steele of Iowa. If enacted in its present form, domes. animals will have better legal protection against danger from the class of remedies named than will human beings, unless in the meantime there should be similar legislation for the protection of the humans. The execution and enforcement of the law will be under direction of the Sec'y of Agric. Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1916, lxvi, p. 967.

The U. S. Supr. Court's decision, upholding the constitutionality of the Food-and-Drugs Act, brings to mind the fact that all biol. products, such as serums, vaccines, and similar therapeutic agents intended for veterinary use, can be manufac. only in establishments having a license from the Bur. of Animal Ind. This license is good for one yr. and is issued only to establishments, which, on inspection, are seen to be fit, from the san. point of view, for the manufac. of material for which a license is asked. The Pathol. Div. of the Bur. of Animal Ind. examines the various products to ascertain whether the claims made are correct; their decision is final. This is a recent law and was enacted at the urgent request of many stockmen, who suffered severely from the worthless preparations sold to them. Sometimes worthless antitoxic serums were sold by houses of great reputation. As an instance, the firm of sold a serum for the treatment of anthrax in horses, which was worthless. Not a word of protest from this firm was heard when the Bureau revoked the firm's license for making anthrax serum. The other products marketed by this firm are good.

PHARMACEUTICAL. New Sch. of Pharm. The Univ. of Ill. has purchased, for its Sch. of Pharm., a new site located at Wood and Flournoy St's, Chicago, immediately opposite the new Cook Co. Hosp., and affording a frontage of 201 ft. on Wood St. and 128 ft. on Flournoy St. The purchase includes two substantial brick b'ld's erected for the Chicago Homeopathic Med. Coll. and Hosp. some years ago. These b'ld's will be remodeled. It is expected that the Sch. will remove to its new quarters immediately after the close of the present academic yr. The new location is in the great med. center of Chicago and only a short distance from the med. and dent.

coll. of the univ., which will bring its three Chicago dep'ts into much closer relations.

The man who made quinin cheap. Sir Clement Markham died at the age of 85, from burns due to a fire caused by reading in bed by candlelight. He entered the navy in 1844, and served in the Franklin search expedition in the arctic regions. He was a great traveler and writer on geog. subjects. In 1852 he made his first visit to Peru, mainly to inquire into the remains of the Incas. When the gov't of India perceived the value of quinin in malaria, it determined to introduce the cinchona plant into that country from Peru. Markham was entrusted with the task, which he carried out most successfully, with the result that the price of quinin was reduced from many shillings to a few pence per ounce. The service thus rendered by him to humanity has been everywhere recognized. LONDON LETTER: Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1916, lxvi, p. 753.

II. WAR NOTES

Personalia. The Univ. of Tor. has granted Dr. V. E. Henderson, assoc. prof. pharm. and pharmacol., leave of absence on his appoint. as major in Can. overseas exped. force.

Dr. A. E. Taylor, Univ. of Penn., recently went to Ger. as an attaché of the Amer. Embas. at Berlin. He will study food conditions in Ger. His colleague, Dr. D. J. McCarty, will perform similar service in Gr. Br.

The decision of the Derby Educ. Commit., to dispense with the services of Dr. P. E. Bowles, as assis. lect. in chem. at the Tech. Coll., led Dr. A. J. Walker, head of the chem. dep't, to tender his resig., to take effect Mar. 31. In his letter to the commit. he ascribes his action to their "unfair and unjust treatment" of his colleague, the impossibility of carrying on the work single-handed, and a determination not to be associated with anything lacking in efficiency. He points out that Dr. Bowles was attested under Lord Derby's scheme after receiving the promise that, if called to active service, he would be paid his salary, less War Office allowance, and would have his appointment kept open. He also argues that any type of retrenchment calculated to diminish the output of chem. experts from the training establishments of the country is a fatal form of war economy.

University items. Of past and present students of the Univ. of Birm., 500 have joined the services. Of these, 10 percent have already lost their lives.

Of the 18,100 students in seven Ger. univ's during the present semester, 13,629 are absent in the army, i. e., about 75 percent.

Among the 11,000 members of Cambr. Univ. in the land, sea, and air services, 1,723 casualties have been reported; 627 have been killed and 892 wounded. The Victoria Cross has been awarded to 3 men, the D.S.O. to 52, and the Mil. Cross to 103. The services of 714 of the Univ. have been recognized.

The number of students in residence at Oxf. Univ., this term, is 550. This number compares with 1,087 in res. at this time last yr. and with 3,097 in 1914. A decree has been passed by convocation recording the thanks of the univ. to all officials, professors, readers, examiners, and others who by contributing voluntarily, since the beginning of the war, by renunciation of stipend or otherwise, to the funds of the univ., have come to its help in a time of severe financial stress. The sums received by the curators of the univ. chest from these sources amounted, in 1915, to £5,750.

The report of the mil. educ. commit. of London Univ., for 1915, has been presented to the Senate. It states that the number of members of the Univ. of London O.T.C. [officers' training corps], during the training year ended Sep. 30, was 2,209, of whom 1,068 proceeded to commissions during the year. Up to the end of 1915, 2,228 cadets or ex-cadets of the contingent had been granted commissions. Of these, 86 had fallen in the war, and the honors and distinctions gained were I V. C., 25 military crosses, 63 mentions in dispatches (4 mentioned twice), and I Medaille Militaire. In addition, 273 commissions had been granted to graduates and students (other than cadets or ex-cadets), and these officers had gained 4 mil. crosses and to mentions in dispatches.

Education, science, politics. THE STATE AND CHEM. INDUSTRY. State-aided chem. indus. runs like a vein of gold through the statecraft of Ger., and if ever we learn what Kultur means, we shall find that Ger. chem. indus. is its vital part. EDITORIAL: Nature, 1916, xcvi, p. 598.

A SACRIFICE TO A "WOODEN"

POLITICAL SYSTEM. The late