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A. F. Hcss and E Sherman, Proc. Soc. ExpL Bid. Med., 22, 169 (1925). '@A.F. Hess, M. Weinstock, and E. Sherman, 3. Biol. C h m . , 67, 413 (1926). l1 C.E. Bills, Ibid., 64, 1; 66,451 (1925); 67, 753 (1926). "A. F. Hess, M. Weinstock, and E. Sherman, 3. Am. Med. Assoc., 88,24 (1927). "E. B. Hart, H. Steenbock, C. A. Elvehjem, H. Scott, and G. C. Humphrey, 3. Biol. C h . ,67, 371 (1926).
Corn Borer Follows Scent Trail to Plant. "Follow your nose" seems to be the maxim observed by the corn borer moth when she seeks appropriate food plants on which t o deposit her eggs. This dangerous crop pest, which threatens to do for corn what the weevil has done for cotton, has been the subject of study by numerous scientists during the past summer, and a report, as yet unpublished, indicates that the night-flying insect finds her way through the dark to her destination because the victimplant secretes an odorous substance attractive to her. The group of workers who found this indication of the lure of the corn for the corn borer st& that they made distillates from the leaves and stalks of corn which they found heavily infested, as weU as from plants comparatively free from the pests, and then tried this material on captive moths. They found in general that the insects were strongly attracted to the distillates from the infested plants, especially those made from the younger leaves, and that they did not respond so readily to the distillates from the barer-free stalks. The distillates are clear and colorless liquids and, even to the comparatively dull nostrils of human beings, have a noticeable scent. This must strike the keen odorsense of the insects as powerfully as the waving of a red nag does the human eye. These experiments are part of a research program aiming to breed a variety of corn that will be resistant t o the attacks of the corn borer.-Science Service "Death Whisper" Waves Produced by Crystals. The effects of the new "death whisper" investigated by Prof. R. W. Wood, of the Johns Hopkins University, and A. I,. Laomis, in the latter's private laboratory a t Tuxedo Park, N. Y., were described before the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by Dr. Frank Thone of Science Service, Washington, D. C. The "death whisper," Dr. Thone stated, is simply a nickname for vibrations similar to those of ordinary sound, hut produced so rapidly that the human ear cannot hear them, just as the human eye m o t see ultra-violet light or X-rays. They are generated by means of electrically excited quartz crystals in a bath of oil. When a vessel of water containing a small fish or tadpole or other aquatic animal, or some kinds of water plants, is set on top of the vibrating crystal the waves are shot through the glass into the water, and there thev kiU the animal or plant. and frequently . . . hreak down its structure so completely that it simply disappears. While the waves cannot leave theliquid. Dr. Thone explained, thev will pass through solids and will penetrate human flesh and bone, causing pain a t high intensities, but giving rise to no sensation hut a feeling of warmth a t low ones. At the lower intensities, however, they are stiU destructive to the red cells of the blood, and a manse was once kept exposed to them until i t had a bad case of artificial anemia without showing the least sign of discomfort. The discovery of the possible uses of these inaudible sound waves was made by Prof. Wood during the War, as a result of a chance observation in the laboratory of Prof. P. Langevin a t the great naval arsenal a t Toulon, where the French scientist was experimenting with them in an endeavor to perfect an apparatus for the detection of submarines.-Science Service
