VOL.7,
No. 3 SYhtPOSIUM-"SELECTING
CHEMIST-ELECT"
541
professor. That is not honest. That intellectual honesty is sometimes a difficult thing to discover but i t is worth seeking. In some cases it is possible to teach an individual to comprehend its full significance. Perhaps the experience of a friend of mine will clinch this point. Upon being scheduled to teach qualitative and quantitative analysis one year, he found that he had to learn it all over again. As a student he had taken courses in both subjects, but his method of study had been this. When an unknown was assigned, if i t was brown crystals, the reagent shelves were immediately searched until a labeled bottle containing similar brown crystals was discovered. That is intellectual dishonesty. If a student is taught from the beginning to be dishonest, he will be of very little future value. Other qualities such as alertness and determination to accomplish the task a t hand are to be considered in selecting men for any particular jobs, but I put intellectual honesty before all others.
Ozone Blanket Keeps Upper Atmosphere W m . Just as one may sleep warmly out of doors undcr a quilt, or shiver undcr a sheet, so the upper atmosphere, what scientists call the stratosphere, is kept warm over arctic latitudes by a thicker layer of ozone. This was the explanation for a curious fact that has puzzlcd scientists, given recently before the American Meteorological Society by Dr. W. J. Humphreys of the U. S. Weather Bureau. The stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere above the highest clouds, and, unlike the lower layers, does not become colder with height. Temperature ohsewatious have been made of this layer by means of small balloons, equipped with recording thermometers. "They revcal the curious fact," said Dr. Humphreys, "that the stratosphere is coldest over equatorial regions and bccames gradually warmer with increase of latitude, the extreme dilierence being around 35 degrces Fahrenheit-coldest over the warmest earth and warmest over t h e coldest earth." Though a full explanation has not yet been madc, Dr. Humphreys thinks that i t is due to the ozone. Observations have shown t h a t there is lcss ozone over equatorial than over arctic regions, a fact t h a t is itself yet unexplained. But the ozone absorbs radiation from the earth, and reradiates part of i t hack again. Therefore, where there is more ozone, more heat is sent back, and so the upper atmosphere there is warmestScieme Service Wood Alcohol Blindness Needs Further Study. The story of the blindness t h a t comes from wood alcohol has not yct been completely told. A furthcr study of this problem miaht well be made by the newly dedicated Wilmer Ophthalmolo~icalInstitute a t Baltimore, Dr. George E. DeSchweinitz, of the University of Pennsylvania, suggested in his address a t thc dedication exercises. Physicians now generally helieve t h a t it is not the wood alcohol but somc impurity in it, possibly fuscl oil, which is nearly always found in commercial wood alcohol, t h a t rauses the blindnrss. Thr I,ad liquor prwalrut in recent years often contains wood alcohol and hns been tllc rausr of much wood alcohol poisoning and 1,liudness. IIowever, wood alcohol may also bc inhaled or i t may bc absorbed through the skin. This is an important hazard in certain industrial operations.-Science Seruicr
