PLANS have been perfected and the contracts let for converting the Billings estate on Washington Heights, New York City, into a war hospital. This property, comprising fifty-seven acres of land, was purchased about a year ago by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with the idea of eventually giving it to the city for a park. The plans for the war hospital call for the expenditure of $500,000 for remodeling the buildings already on the property and the erection of additional buildings necessary to the completion of a hospital system.

THE new museum of Santa Fe, New Mexico, according to the American Museum Journal, has been dedicated with ceremonies extending from November 24 to 28. The building is patterned after the old Mission Church on the Rock of Acoma, in a style of architecture said to be one hundred and fifty years older than the California missions. A feature of the dedication was an exhibition of paintings by well-known members of the Santa Fé and Taos artist groups, including Robert Henri, E. J. Couse, J. H. Sharp, Walter Ufer and others, on subjects inspired by Indian, Spanish and frontier lore, and consisted of addresses, concerts, Indian dances and excursions to Indian pueblos and ancient cliff dwellings. The American Museum was represented by Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of the department of anthropology, who gave an address on "The Opportunities of the New Museum," and by Mr. N. C. Nelson, who spoke on Recent Archeological Discoveries in the Southwest."

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL
NEWS

FIVE members of the present University of North Carolina faculty have been appointed by the trustees Kenan professors, under the provision in the bequest of Mrs. Robert W. Bingham (Mary Lily Kenan) made public last August. They were chosen by vote of the faculty because of distinguished service rendered in the field of scholarship and university affairs. They are Professor Francis P. Venable, of the department of chemistry; Professor H. V. P. Wilson, of the department of

zoology; Professor Edwin Greenlaw, of the English department; Professor William Cain, of the mathematics department, and Professor W. deB. MacNider, of the school of medicine. The Bingham bequest was made for the purpose of strengthening the faculty of the university, an annual sum of $75,000 being proided for the purpose of augmenting aid received from the state.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY plans a large diagnostic clinic for the people who do not wish to accept charity and who are unable to pay for the services of a number of experts whose special advice or examinations may be needed in order to make a diagnosis. The financial arrangement provides that every clinical worker will be paid for his work and every patient charged a fee commensurate with his income.

THE University of Maryland, by a recent ruling of the faculty, beginning the next October term, will accept women students in the medical department. This ruling admits women to every department of the university, as they have been accepted in the dental, pharmacy and law departments for some time.

As Padua has recently been the objective of Austrian air raiders, the rectorate and academic council of the university have been by official decree transferred temporarily to Pisa. The same decree authorized the minister of education to allow professors of Padua to lecture in other universities and superior institutions.

AT the Massachusetts Institute of Technology William F. Jones has been appointed instructor in geology, Royal E. Grant, instructor in physics, C. H. G. Gray, assistant in electrical engineering and Dr. F. H. Thorp, lecturer in industrial chemistry.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE CYCADEOID WOOD STRUCTURE

In a recent communication in the Annals of Botany describing certain Cycadeoid rootlets Dr. Marie C. Stopes remarked the presence of scalariform structures. These are in agreement, of course, with the main body of secondary wood, which in the Cycadeoids is uni

formly scalariform instead of pitted as in the Cycads. Dr. Stopes then takes issue with the opinion expressed in the well-known text-book of Scott to the effect that [in Cycadeoids] the histological details of both wood and bast agree precisely with the corresponding structures in a recent cycad.

It is even stated that no plants agree with the Cycadeoids. In the case of long-known structures represented by such profuse material as the groups referred to, botanists should be able to agree more closely as to the facts.

The point involved is that while these groups agree in their general structures and present many points of histologic contact, neither is without singularities of its own. Chamberlain makes essentially the same statement as Dr. Scott. And I see no final reason for disagreement. The old cryptogamic wood is in the Cycads as completely lost as in the later Cordaiteans, but next the pith both the existing and fossil Cycads are in very essential agreement; and in both the passage from scalariform to pitted wood is the same. Perhaps the two groups might be considered divergent histologically were it not for the fact that Stangeria like the Cycadeoids is an essentially scalariform type and thus forms a connecting link on the one hand; while on the other, Cycadeoidea micromyela has pitted wood near the cambium layer.

The differences observed are therefore not so great as they at first sight appear. And such differences are found moreover in existing dicotyls. Thus in Trochodendron, which has pronounced growth rings, the spring wood presents the same scalariform type as the wood of the Cycadeoids; while in the related Drimys with rather suppressed growth rings the main body of wood is as strikingly pitted as in Cycads or Araucaria. The explanation is obvious when the seedling of Drimys is studied. There is the same transition from the scalariform to the pitted wood as in the existing and fossil Cycads. It may be remarked incidentally that were the stems of Trochodendron and Drimys, as well as other Magnoliaceae, divested of their radial storage tissue the agreement with both the Cycads and Cycadeoids

It is easy,

would be a striking one indeed. however, to look upon this storage tissue as a comparatively modern structure. There is a definite suggestion that medullar reduction and profuse branching are in some way correlated with the development of thick-walled storage tissue by dicotyls. It is not necessary to enter further upon this topic at this time; but it is evident that the facts fully sustain Scott's simple form of statement as to the agreement histologically of the Cycad and Cycadeoid woods as based partly on the study of Solms and myself.

YALE UNIVERSITY

G. R. WIELAND

THE RELATION BETWEEN AGE AND AREA IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS

IN a discussion of the "Age and Area" hypothesis of Professor Willis, by E. W. Sinnott, in SCIENCE for November 9, 1917, the author very justly sets out with the contention that "other factors than age share in the area occupied by a species." Factors inherent in the plant itself, he tells us, such as hardiness, adaptability, growth habit and the like, play a very important part in determining distribution.

66

As a notable illustration in support of this statement, I would call attention to the rapid dispersion of a comparatively recent immigrant, the Japan honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica) which now occupies a wider area in our southeastern states than the longleaf pine, and others of our oldest inhabitants." My first recollection of this plant goes back to that now almost prehistoric time, vaguely recorded in the popular mind as "before the (civil) war," when it was known only as a garden plant. It continued in favor as an ornamental vine for piazzas and pergolas for a decade or so later, until it began to " run wild" at such a rate that it fell into disrepute for ornamental purposes, and is now the most aggressive and indomitable enemy with which our native plant population has to contend. Unlike the common herbaceous weeds of cultivation, it does not confine itself to roadsides and waste places, but invades the most secluded haunts of the wild flowers, strangling

or smothering under its rank foliage every green thing that stands in its way. It is no uncommon thing to see whole acres of haw thickets and other shrubby growth enveloped in its deadly meshes, and destined to slow extermination by this ruthless invader. Among its victims I have seen a remarkably fine specimen of "tree haw" (Crataegus viridis) 4 dm. in diameter, 12 m., more or less, in height, and about the same in spread of crown, reduced to little more than a mere leafless skeleton under the throttling grasp of its oppressor. So closely was it enveloped in the meshes of the woody twiner, that I had to cut my way through them with a hatchet in order to take the measurements given above.

While it prefers a rich, moist soil, as most plants do when they have the choice, this aggressive intruder can accommodate itself to almost any conditions, trailing like an humble creeper along the barren slopes of arid hillsides, rambling over wire fences along the borders of dusty roads, from the cool slopes on the plateau of Lookout Mountain, to the deepest ravines in the valley, and onward, over the granite hills of the Piedmont region, it has made itself at home. I could supplement this case with some equally striking instances of the rapid distribution of herbaceous plants, but it seems to me that the example of a shrubby species which, in spite of the fact that these are, in general, much less efficient travelers than herbs, has been able to naturalize itself, within the memory of people now living, over an area extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the estuary of the Hudson, and for a thousand miles up the great Appalachian Valley, may be taken as sufficient evidence that other factors than time influence the distribution of species over a given E. F. ANDREWS

area.

ROME, GA.

ORIGIN ANd develOPMENT OF THE PHOTOGENIC ORGANS OF PHOTURIS PENSYLVANICA

THERE are at present three conflicting views regarding the origin of the photogenic organs in insects. One view is that they are modified hypodermal cells, another that they

are formed from both ectoderm and mesoderm, and lastly, that they are mesodermal, being derived from fat cells. Of these three views that of the fat-cell origin has been the most generally accepted. Moreover, recently two important papers have appeared which apparently definitely settle the question in favor of the theory of fat cell origin. The first of these was by Vogel ('12), who worked on the embryology of Lanopyris noctiluca, the other by Williams ('16), based on a study of the embryology of our native species Photuris pensylvanica.

Unaware of Williams's work, I had undertaken, at the suggestion of Dr. W. A. Riley, a study of the embryonic development of the photogenic organs of Photuris pensylvanica.

During the summer of 1916, the eggs of this species required, on an average, 26 days to complete their development.

These eggs cut in sagittal sections 3 microns thick, showed in the fourteen-day embryos that the hypodermis on the ventrolateral portion of each side of the eighth abdominal segment, in its anterior region, was definitely thickened, due to proliferation and enlargement of its cells.

In the fifteen-day embryos the organ appeared as a distinct nodule which projected from the inner surface, though at this stage there was no evidence of any separation from the hypodermis. Further, it was found that there was no evidence of any relation between the fat cells and those of the nodule, in this, or the fourteen-day embryos.

In the sixteen- to seventeen-day embryos the organ is completely separated from the hypodermis, except at its two ends, where it remains attached. From Vogel and Williams's descriptions of the earliest condition of the light organ that they observed, one would be led to believe that it was the study of this stage of development, on which they based their conclusions regarding its origin. At this time the fat cells lie in rather close proximity to those of the light organ and somewhat resemble them.

In embryos nineteen to twenty days old, there occurs a differentiation of the cells of

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Casting-Counter and the CountingBoard. A Chapter in the History of Numismatics and Early Arithmetic. By FRANCIS PIERREPONT BARNARD. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press. 1916. 357 pp. + LXIII. plates. Price £3 3s.

When we consider the rôle played by the abacus in the history of calculation, first as the primitive and probably prehistoric dust board and finally in the form of the elaborate reckoning machines of the present day, we can see that the history of mechanical computation is closely tied up with the history of the race. It is true that for long periods we

have no reference to such a device as the abacus, but for equally long periods we have no reference to many of the common customs of life and to the everyday implements used in the home. It is probable that one would have to search long in the written records of the early periods to find any reference to such homely words as button or shoestring, or to such common actions as the combing of the hair, the milking of a cow or a goat, the cooking of a piece of beef, or the making of a

sandal or a shoe, and yet all these words and actions have been commonplaces for thousands of years. The recording of the use of common devices is generally inversely proportional to the frequency of their use, and this is probably one reason why the abacus, in one form or another, is not more frequently mentioned in the chronicles of various peoples.

There were three standard forms of the abacus in ancient times, the dust board, which was the forerunner of the wax tablet as the latter was of the slate; the board on which counters or small disks were moved about, these counters appearing in Rome as pebbles or marbles (calculi); and the bead abacus, the counters running in grooves or on wires, a form still found in schools in our country and familiar as the Chinese suanpan, the Japanese soroban, and the Russian tschotü or the Armenian choreb.

Of these various forms, the most interesting for the general reader of the Western World is the board on which calculi were moved, since these counters are so often mentioned in our literature. Adelhard of Bath (c.1120) speaks of such a table, saying that "quidem mensam pithogoream ob magistri sui reuerentiam. sed postī tamē abacum dixerunt," having probably in mind a passage from Boethius: "Pythagorici vero mensam Pytha

...

goream nominabant a posteribus apellabatur abacus." We find the name of abacisti given to those who were skilled in computation with the counters, and even the verb "to abacus" is occasionally found, as in a certain manuscript of the eleventh century-" Hoc si abacizando probaveris." In later times the references to counters become very numerous. So we have in English such expressions as 'Sitte doun and take countures rounde," "A nest of cowntouris," "The kitchin clarke .. jangling his counters," "A counter caster,” "Any that can but cast with Counters," and "I shall reken it syxe tymes by aulgorisme or you can caste it ones by counters." From the use of the word as representing a disk we also find it employed to represent the person, as in the expression, "Ther is no countere nor clerke con hem recken alle," and also to repre

sent the table, as in the expression "Thogh Argus (that is, al-Khowarizmi) the noble covnter Sete to rekene in hys counter." The story is connected with Fitz-Neal's " Dialogus de Scaccario" of 1178 and the court of the exchequer, with backgammon, and with divers other ramifications. The counter went by various names, such as Rechenpfennig, Zahlpfennig, and Raitpfennig in Germany; projectiles and abaculi as well as calculi in Latin; jetons, gectz, getoirs, giets, and the like in France; Leggelt and Werpgeld in Holland; and jettons and Venetian money as well as counters in England.

It is the field of counters that Professor Barnard has made his own in the monumental and sumptuous work under review. For many years he has been collecting specimens of counters of the various European countries. He has examined upwards of 40,000 specimens and has in his own cabinet some 7,000, most of those described being in this collection. With great care he has selected typical specimens, the choice being determined by their historical importance, artistic merit and general value. Fifty-nine Early English jettons are described, nineteen Italian, three hundred seventy-two French, ninety Low Country, one hundred twenty-two German, and four Portuguese. Each specimen is illustrated photographically and each is described with all the care of a trained numismatist. Nothing could be more satisfactory to the collector or the student, and it would be difficult to suggest a single particular in which the descriptive material could be improved.

To the historian of mathematics one of the items of greatest value is the set of photographs of reckoning tables at Basle and Nürnberg, of reckoning cloths at Munich, of illustrations from manuscripts and early printed books, and of Dutch jetton cylinders, together with a description of each. There is also a valuable list of one hundred fiftynine extracts from English inventories with references to counting boards, thus showing that these devices were common from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century at least.

Perhaps the most important part of the work from the standpoint of the historian is that on "the methods of casting with jettons" (pages 254-319). Here Professor Barnard has given a very satisfactory summary of the more important European works on the subject, such as those by Recorde, Awdeley, Reisch, Cusanus, Siliceus, Köbel, de Moya, and Trenchant. There should also be mentioned as of great value to students the bibliography of upwards of six hundred titles.

Taken as a whole the work may be safely characterized in superlatives. Such an elaborate treatise on any special field of the history of mathematics has never before appeared, nor are we likely soon to see another. The infinite pains taken by the author in his research, the munificence shown in the publication itself, and the fact that a mass of technical material is presented in a style that makes every page readable, all combine to render the work unique in its way. No library of reference can afford to be without the book, and students of the history of mathematics should add it to their personal libraries as soon as they can arrange to do so. It will be the classic upon the subject for generations to come.

DAVID EUGENE SMITH

The Nature of Solution. By HARRY C. JONES. New York, D. Van Nostrand Co. 1917. 23 x 15 cm.; pp. xxiv +380.

The present work is not a text-book, but a general discussion of some of the more important properties of solutions, true and colloidal. It is therefore written in a non-mathematical, indeed, largely in a semi-popular style. It is hoped that this work may interest students of the various branches of science to go on into the real physical