SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS

New Text Received with Wide Acclaim

GENERAL ZOOLOGYBy TRAcY I. STORER

Professor of Zoology, University of California at Davis

McGraw-Hill Publications in the Zoological Sciences

798 pages, 6 x 9, 551 figures, 5 colored plates. $3.75This immediately successful text has won enthusiastic response from teachers everywhere, who haveacclaimed it as one of the most important contributions to the field of zoology that has appeared inrecent years.The following comments are representative:4"I have made a careful examination of this book andsincerely believe that it is the best textbook in generalzoology that I have ever seen. I have decided to use itas the text in my course in medical biology, beginningnext semester. "

Professor H. W. CuB&ANQueen's University

"I have explored its pages carefully and can say unhesi-tatingly that no zoology text of recent years has caughtmy eye to the extent that it has. It is a worthy addi-tion to the McGraw-Hill Publications in the ZoologicalSciences and I predict for it a very high place amongthe outstanding American textbooks in zoology."

Professor HALBERT M. HARRISIowa State College

"I have very carefully gone over this book and am verymuch impressed with the contents. ... The arrange-ment is splendid and the great number of concise tablesfor each group of animals is not excelled."

Professor C. R. JONESColorado State College

4"Professor Storer should be congratulated on his sue-cess in setting forth the principles underlying animalbiology, treating clearly modern phases of the subject,and yet including a comprehensive systematic surveyof the animal kingdom within the confines of a singlevolume. Among the specific features that will provevaluable to the student as well as the teacher are: (1)a sane allotment of space to the various fields in whichthe subject matter of a general course must be divided;(2) the logical sequence in which the subject matter isdiscussed; (3) the new text figures and clear diagramsincluded; (4) the ease with which reference can bemade to such figures, by chapter; (5) concise tables,summarizing various topics; (6) the printing of im-portant words and anatomical terms in bold, face italics;(7) an adequate index, and glossary; and (8) the ex-plicit colored figures."I am counting on adopting it for the work of thefuture. "

Professor B. P. YOUNGCornell University

"'It was a red-letter event when I received Storer 'sGeneral Zoology. Without hesitation I pronounce itby far the best of all the recent zoology texts. I amamazed at the amount of valuable text material that hasbeen crowded into its pages. What pleases me most ofall is not only the evidence of sound scholarship but ofthe author's ability to write well and in language thestudent can readily understand. . . . Storer 's GeneralZoology is my text of choice the coming year."

Professor EDMUND JAEGERRiverside Junior College

"It is a very fine book, in the production of which boththe author and publisher may well be proud of theirachievement. "

Professor HAROLD KIRBYUniversity of California

"I like the book and feel it is a real contribution towardbridging the gap between the principles and type course.The figures, the bibliographies, and the occasionalchange in size of type make it a very attractive text.It will serve the general student as a permanent workof reference long after his interest in it as a text hasceased."

Professor MELVILLE H. HATCHUniversity of Washington

"General Zoology seems to me to be the finest generalzoology text yet. The order of treatment of the vari-ous aspects of the subject is very effective, the methodof treatment excellent, and the illustrations are superb."

Professor THOMAS H. MORTONNiagara University

"I have examined it carefully and have passed it onto the other members of this Department for theiropinion. The consensus is that it is without doubt thebest text on general zoology that has been published.I hardly see how we can afford-not to adopt it, and weplan to do so in the fall term. I predict that this textwill become extremely popular. "

Professor ROSS E. HUTCHINSMississippi State College

Send for a copy on approval

McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC.-330 West 42nd Street, New York, N. Y.

APamr 30, 1943 9

Aldwych House, London, W.C.2

SCIENCE-SUPPLEMENT

SCIENCE NEWSScience Service, Washington, D. C.

SPIRAL NEBULAETHE arms of spiral nebulae, those gigantic pinwheels

of the universe, have been discovered to be trailing theircentral region by Dr. Edwin Hubble, of the Mt. WilsonObservatory. His investigation, reported in the Astro-physical Journal, is of importance in the study of theorigin and development of nebulae, the most familiar ofwhich is the Milky Way.

Spiral nebulae, comparable in size to our stellar sys-tem, are millions of light-years away. Billions of stars,luminous gaseous matter, and dark clouds obscuring por-tions of the brilliant center form this whirlpool of light.

Dr. Hubble slips the missing piece of the puzzle intoplace by developing a criterion for determining the direc-tion in which these whirling masses are inclined. We seethem as images projected against space and whether theyare tilted toward us or away would decide, in light oftheir spiral pattern, if the arms are trailing or leading.

It has been believed for some time that the dark lanesvisible only on the slightly tilted nebulae are the key, butdispute arose as to whether they marked the far or nearside. Working with the entire collection of Mt. Wilsonphotographs, including those made with the aid of thefamous 100-inch telescope, Dr. Hubble eventually- founda spiral nebula which showed both the dark lanes and thespiral pattern. The dark lines were silhouetted againstthe central or nuclear bulge, showing that the dark bandsunmistakably denote the nearer side. Other nebulaestudied support his assumption that the arms were trail-ing.From the slant of the spectral lines it is known that

all spiral nebulae are traveling in the same direction.Having once determined that direction, Dr. Hubble con-cluded that the arms of the nebulae are trailing in allspirals.

NEW COSMIC RAY THEORYCosMIc rays are due to protons which plunge into the

earth 's atmosphere from outer space, and the proton splitsinto ten mesotrons. This is the latest theory which Dr.W. F. G. Swann, director of the Bartol Research Founda-tion of the Franklin Institute, proposes in The PhysicalReview.

Dr. Swann has long contended, in company with manyother distinguished physicists, that the incoming particlesresponsible for the rays are protons. Others have con-tended that they were high-speed electrons. He now addsa further detail to the theory, that the proton splits intoten mesotrons. This theory, he believes, is the only onethat satisfactorily accounts for the variation of cosmicray intensity with the latitude and altitude.The proton is the positively charged particle found in

the central sun or nucleus of an atom. It has about theweight of the hydrogen atom, the nucleus of which is com-

posed of a single proton, around which revolves a singlenegatively charged electron. The electron has only1/1800 the weight of a proton.The mesotron is the elusive and exceedingly short-lived

middleweight particle, with a weight about 1/10 that of

the proton. Its life span is only one to two millionthsof a second. Consequently many are found high up inthe atmosphere, but much fewer lower down. Not manylive to reach the earth's surface. During its brief flight,the mesotron parts with most of its energy and degener-ates to an electron.

COLOR CHANGES IN ANIMALSWHEN a chameleon flashes from brown to green in a

few seconds, or an eel more sluggishly takes several hoursto shift from dark to pallid in skin hue, don't seek thecause for this difference in rates in the nerves of the oneanimal or the gland secretions of the other. ProfessorG. H. Parker, of Harvard University, spoke on this sub-ject before the Philadelphia meeting of the AmericanPhilosophical Society.

Quickness of color change in some animals, slowness inothers is determined primarily by the skin's pigment-containing cells themselves. This is contrary to thezoological doctrine most widely held at present, whichstates that the quick-changing animals do the trick bymeans of nerve impulses, while the ones that alter theircolors slowly depend on hormones or gland secretions.

This opinion, Dr. Parker said, was based on the exami-nation of only a few animals, and falls down when ascore or more species, a wide range of color-changingspeeds, are examined. As a matter of fact, the quick-changing chameleon depends on hormones, the slow-changing eel on nerves.

Slowness of response by color cells to either hormoneor nerve stimulus has an analogy in a similar slowness inmuscle cells. A snail's muscles simply can not moveotherwise than very deliberately, while a flea's musclesalways contract with a lightning-like snap.-FRANKTHONE.

ISLANDS IN THE PACIFICTRUK, in the mid-Pacific, is a doomed island. Unless

geologic processes now going on in the earth's crust be-neath that part of the ocean are stopped or reversed, itwill eventually be drowned. The only trouble is that thiswon 't happen in 1943 or 1944-geologic processes areslow.

That Truk is sinking, while other islands that are nowenemy strongholds are slowly rising, was pointed out inan address by Professor William Herbert Hobbs, of theUniversity of Michigan, before the meeting of the Ameri-can Philosophical Society. Professor Hobbs has seenTruk and the other Japanese-mandated islands since theypassed under the flag of the Rising Sun. He visitedthere in 1921, when Japan had just taken over and whenour relations with that country were on a much more cor-dial basis than they have been recently. He was shownmany courtesies by the officials in charge, who helped himin the geological studies he was making of the basic geol-ogy of the Pacific area.For geologists interested in the story of mountain-

building, most unique opportunities for study are offeredby the several curving island chains in the Pacific, from

VOL,. 97, No. 252210

the Bonins through the Philippines and Indies and far

on to the South Pacific archipelagoes and New Zealand.Elsewhere on the earth, whenever a mountain chain has

started to grow, it has immediately been attacked byerosion, which cuts it down even as it rises above the

general crustal level. These are-like strings of islands,however, are only the tips of mountain chains now form-ing as vast upthrust wrinkles from the ocean floor.Erosion therefore plays no part on their long, submergedflanks.

Only on the emersed tips which are the islands havethe waves and the weather any chance to do any carving;and this is even a help rather than a hindrance to thegeologist. For when an earthquake cycle has boosted theisland out of the water another few feet, the waves oblig-ingly carve a notch all around its shores, marking the newlevel. And if it should sink again, a coral reef forms,indicating the amount of submergence. The island thus

serves as a natural measuring-stick for the geologicalprogress of the submarine mountain system of which itis the apex.-FRANK THONE.

INVISIBLE FILM REPELLING WATERONE of the most difficult problems faced by radio engi-

neers has been water getting into the porcelain insulators.When that happens, they don't insulate any more, andthe set weakens-even stops working altogether. Usualpractice has been to treat the insulators with wax; butthat is rather impermanent.

Dr. Winton I. Patnode, research chemist of the GeneralElectric Company, has developed a new treatment forthese insulators that is said to be about nine times more

effective than waxing them, and with permanent resultsthat defy heat, chemical solvents like gasoline, naphthaand carbon tetrachloride, and long exposure to ordinaryweather. Objects treated with it simply won't let waterwet them. If moisture precipitates on them, it remainsrounded up as round droplets, and the wide dry spaces

between continue to defy the electricity to pass.

The process is quite simple, but as yet not at all wellunderstood. The objects to be made water-repellent are

simply placed in a closed cabinet, and the vapors of one

of a group of substances known chemically as the methylchlor silanes are flooded on them. An after-treatmentwith ammonia vapor is sometimes desirable, to neutralizecorrosive acids that may collect during the moisture-proofing.

Dr. Patnode has been unable to demonstrate the pres-

ence of a tangible film on his treated insulators, eitherwith chemical reagents or examination with a high-powermicroscope. Yet their behavior shows that they are wear-

ing "invisible raincoats."Numerous other uses are proposed for the new wet-

refusing films, most of which must remain undisclosed

for the present. One such use, however, promises to make

life in the laboratory a lot happier. Everybody has no-

ticed how water rises in a slight curve where the edgesof its surface come into contact with the tube or vessel

containing it. This curve, called the meniscus, makes it

hard to read guages, glass measuring flasks and other

laboratory vessels that require highest possible accuracy.

11

If the inside of the glass is given this water-repellingfilm, the meniscus does not form and the surface is per-

fectly flat, making readings far easier to take.

ITEMSOBSERVATIONS on the star-like nucleus of Comet Whip-

ple 2, which was recently visible near the Big Dipper, hasled to the discovery of a gaseous compound hitherto un-

identified in comets. It is the fragmentary molecule NH2produced when hydrogen or methane burns in the flamewith nitrous oxide. Although luminous bands of NH2have been previously observed in the spectra of othercomets, it was their extraordinary strength in CometWhipple 2 that led to their identification. The observa-tions were made by Dr. R. Minkowski, with the 60-inchreflecting telescope of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Theonly other bands in the comet's spectrum besides thoseof NH2 that could be identified with certainty were thoseof the carbon molecule, C2, which were first described bySwan in the spectrum of the candle flame in 1857. Thecarbon bands, however, have long been known in comets.Many other bands in Comet Whipple 2 were observedwhich could not be identified with known gaseous com-

pounds, which serves to emphasize the peculiar conditionsthat must prevail in the nuclei of comets.

A NEW comet has been discovered by Miss L. Oterma,astronomer of the Turku Observatory, Finland, who iscredited with discovering two comets last year. Thecomet was first seen on April 8 in the constellation ofVirgo, which is now easily visible in our evening sky. Itis of the fifteenth magnitude and therefore far too faintto be seen without telescopic aid. The new comet is near

the celestial equator and moving slowly westward. Har-vard Observatory received word of the discovery by way

of Denmark and Sweden. On April 8 at 5 P.M., EasternWar Time, the comet's right ascension was 12 hours, 19minutes, and its declination plus 1 degree, 12 minutes.As comets are named after their discoverer, this will beknown as the third Oterma comet.

A STUDY of the little group of stars known as thePleiades or Seven Sisters has revealed new facts aboutthe nature of the obscuring clouds of interstellar gasthroughout our galactic system. The study was carried

out by Dr. Walter S. Adams with the 100-inch reflectorof the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Nine stars of the

Pleiades were selected for observation because their hightemperature gave a background against which to detect

the dark interstellar clouds. Dr. Adams found that seven

of the nine stars show obscuration by both ionized cal-

cium and hydrocarbon gas; whereas two, Asterope and

Merope, show obscuration by ionized hydrocarbon only.This is the first case found in which lines of one inter-

stellar gas occur without the presence of ionized calcium.

Another interesting point is that neutral hydrocarbonwhich is prominent in many stars is completely missingfrom the Pleiades. Dr. Adams concludes that, " The fact

that such different interstellar lines are observed in neigh-boring stars of this small cluster indicates the diversityin the physical conditions of the interstellar clouds and

perhaps the limited dimensions which these clouds must

have. "

APRIL 30, 1943 SCIENCE-SUPPLEMENT

SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS VOL. 97, No. 2522

Tl Gdg &0G1aJAMES T. CULBERTSON

MEDICALPARASITOLOGY

Dr. Culbertson's concise but comprehen-sive resume of medical parasitology fills adefinite need, as a textbook for medicalstudents and a handbook for medicalpractitioners. It contains 21 full-pageplates and many figures and tables.

". . . especially interesting now that somany American doctors will be servingwith the Army in tropical regions wherethe parasites of malaria, sleeping sicknessand the like are prevalent."-ScienceNews Letter. $4.25

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"The style of writing and the generalmakeup of the book are conducive topleasant reading . . . an authoritativesource for reference."-Journal of theAmerican Medical Association. $3.50

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SCIENCE-ADVERTISEMENTS VOL. 97, NO. 252214