be wounded. The two greatest factors in modern surgery are the results of chemical research, the discovery of anesthesia, and the discovery of antiseptics. During the Franco-Prussian War nine of every ten men who entered the hospitals in Paris died of infected wounds. "A pinprick is the open door to death," said the surgeon Velpeau. When Pasteur visited the surgical ward, the stench of suppurating wounds was so strong that he could not stay. The chemist has changed all this. The wounded man now enters the hospital reasonably sure that his wound will grow no worse, while only a few years ago the wounded who entered the hospital left all hope behind. I am not a mind reader, but I know that some of you are wondering what good all of this stuff is. You can see no value in a paper of this kind. T o my mind material of this kind has a very definite value. It challenges the imagination of your pupil. It compels his attention and encourages his interest and, finally, it makes him think, and this, after all, is the end and aim of education.
Believes Plant Specialists Should Solve Rubber Problem. Raising rubber trees so that they will give more of the milk t h a t becomes the auto tire of wmmerce is more important than synthesizing man-made rubber in the laboratory, says Dr. L. E. Weber. rubber technologist of Boston. "Under present practice the rubber tree yields about four pounds of rubber a year," Dr. Weber explained. "In the early days of the beet sugar industry the beet could only be made to yield two per cent of sugar. But the plant biologist got busy and cultivated i t until he got a type that yielded just nine times as much. I t may be fantastic t o imagine that rubber trees could be bred to yield 36 pounds of rubber a year, but even if the present amount were merely doubled it would be an accomplishment unparalleled in its effect on the rubber industrv of the world." While the making of synthetic rubber may be one of the most fascinating problems of the chemist todav, . i t is overshadowed in technical importance by the possibility of breeding better rubber trees, Dr. Weber believes.-Science Sm'cc Studies Life in Giant Cells. How does the living stuff in plant and animal cells make its choice between what it lets in and what it keeps out? This is the question attacked hy Dr. W. J . V. Osterhout of the Rockefeller Institute, New York City, who spoke before the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences a t Philadelphia recently, telling haw he has been aided in his researches by the use of a tropical sea.weed named Valonia. Each specimen of this plant is made up of a single cell from one t o six inches longgigantic size for cells which are usually so small that a microswpe must be employed t o see them individually. Because these cells are so large. Dr. Osterhout has been able tn inject various solutions into them and then measure how fast the various chemicals can pass through the layer of living substancz or protoplasm. Electrical charge3 seem t o have a great deal to do with the secret, he says, for in solutions where the chemicals have broken down into ions carrying . .electrical charges they are not permitted to pass by the protoplasm, whereas chemicals that have remained as whok molecules. with neutralized electrical charges, in certain cases penetrate the living layer withcut difficulty.-Science Senice ~
