CORDIALITY OF AMERICAN AND GREEK RELATIONS
Our visit to Greece marked the termination of our tour through the Near East countries. I n Greece as elsewhere the visitor is impressed with the cordial attitude toward Americans and the friendly spirit of cooperation not only in education but in the fields of culture and social welfare. One of the finest examples of these harmonious relations was the donation by the Greek scholar and bibliophile, Dr. Joannes Gennadios (formerly Greek Minister to England), of his extensive library of 30,000 books upon Greek history, culture, science, and art to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. The collection is housed in a beautiful temple, called the Gennadeion, a t the foot of Mount Lycabettus near the American School. Many pleasant hours were spent in examining the books of this library which is under the direction of Dr. G. C. Scoggin. The vestibule of the building, which was erected by the Camegie Corporation, bears a tablet with the following inscription, indicative of the spirit which actuated the donor of the library when he made his bequest: "Given to the American School of Classical Studies to hold aloft ihe licht of truth and freedom and to pard the friendship of Hellas and Hesperin forever."
Every Third Person "Tastehlin3" to p-Ethoxgphenylthiourea, an Intensely Bitter Chemical. "Tavteblindnees" is the only term that can be found to describe the reaction of a fortunate forty per cent of folk who cannot taste 9-ethoxyphenylthiourea. For the other sixty per cent find it intensely bitter-bitter as gall, hitter as quinine, bitter enough t o mate thzm go round stic!king out their tongues and making wry faces for an hour. This curious difference in prrception has been discovered by Dr. Arthur L. Fox. of the laboratories of E. I , du Pont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington. He has tried this very complex organic compound on everybody who would volunteer to taite it, and has found that approximately three-fifths of his "victims" declare it intensely bitter, while the rest say that it "has no more taste than sand." When two persons, one "tasteblind" and the other not, t r y i t a t the same time a lively argument is likely to ensue. Dr. Fox tells of a debate he started in his favorite chow mcin restaurant by giving two of the waiters a taste. One "got it" and the other didn't; and the things they said to each othcr in Chincse as they went hack toward the kitchen made even thc long Greek name of the chemical sound tame. Then they came back for another taste t o get the matter really scttled-and started thc argument all over again. P-Ethouyphenyithiourea is an innocent-looking white stuff, usually available in coarsely powdered form. I t is a d o e chemical relative to another compound, known to the trade as "dulcin," which is several hundred times as sweet as sugar. T o make dulcin, one atom of sulfur is dislodged from the molecule of p-ethoxyphenylthiourea and an atom of oxygen substituted for it. Dr. Fox has found that this curious "tasteblindness" is displayed by the same persons t o other compounds as well, all of them of the thiourea group. But so far as known, dulcin tastes exceedingly sweet to everybody.-Science Service
