stefansson-wrangel-09-40-008-001a

March 12, 1920]

SCIENCE

273

will be disposed to watch with sympathetic
interest the movement for a federation of
scientific and technical workers; but until
their plans are more fully known it will be
premature to say that medicine should have
any direct concern.—British Medical Journal.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS

The Productivity of Invertebrate Fish Food
on the Bottom of Oneida Lake, with Special
Reference to Mollusks. By Frank Collins
Baker. Technical Publication No. 9, New
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse
University, Syracuse, N. Y. 1918. Pp.
233, Figs. 44.

This valuable contribution to the general
subject of limnology is based upon a numer-
ical study of the bottom fauna of a portion of
Oneida Lake, New York, which was made
during the month of July, 1916. Lower South
Bay and two smaller areas, all at the south-
western corner of the lake, were covered in
the survey; they constitute an area of 1,164
acres, or a little less than two square miles
out of a total lake surface of about 80 square
miles. The maximum depth of the water in
the area under consideration is about 19 feet
as compared with a maximum of 55 feet for
the entire lake.

In the area covered by this survey the
greatest development of plant and animal life
was found in the zone extending from the
shoreline out to the six-foot contour line.
Numerically, about 88 per cent, of the in-
vertebrate animals were obtained in this area.
The second zone lay between the six-foot and
the twelve-foot contour lines and the popula-
tion of this belt was very much smaller than
in the first zone. A still further decline in
the density of the population was noted be-
tween the twelve-foot and the eighteen-foot
contour lines, which constituted the third
zone.

Various types of bottom were found in the
area studied, ranging from boulders to clay
and mud. Of those represented, the sand
bottom was richest in animal life while the
boulder bottom was poorest.

A classification of the animals on the basis

of their feeding habits showed that herbiv-
orous and detritus feeders greatly predomi-
nated over the carnivorous forms; the latter,
in fact, constituted only 0.29 per cent, of the
total population. Of the various groups of
animals represented, the mollusks yielded a
much larger number of individuals than any
other group; they even exceeded in numbers
all of the associated animals combined.

Chancey Juday

Madison, Wisconsin

SPECIAL ARTICLES

THE ANTISCORBUTIC PROPERTY OF DEHY-
DRATED MEAT

The present conception of a perfect diet de-
mands that the intake contain adequate pro-
teins, sufficient fats, carbohydrates, inorganic
salts, bulk, and the three vitamines designated
as water-soluble B, fat-soluble A, and anti-
scorbutic. For some time we have used to pro-
duce experimental scurvy in guinea-pigs a
combination which meets all of these require-
ments except that of the antiscorbutic vita-
mine. A mixture of soy bean flour, whole milkIsn't milk antiscobutic if fresh?,
dried yeast, paper pulp, sodium chloride and
calcium lactate is dried down into a cake.1
This is fed as the basal ration supplemented
with a definite amount of the product whose
antiscorbutic potency it is desired to deter-
mine. By this procedure we have demon-
strated that dried cabbage,1 dehydrated toma-
toes2 and desiccated orange juice3 retain how long?
of their original content of antiscrobutic
vitamine.

The indications are that each foodstuff ought
to be studied individually. Meat being one of
the most staple articles1 of our dietaries it has
therefore seemed highly important to deter-
mine if it retains any antiscorbutic potency
after drying.

Stefansson4 states that “ the strongest anti-

1 Givens, M. H., and Cohen, B., J. Biol. Chem.,
1918, 36, 127.

2 Givens, M. H., and McClugage, H. B., J. Biol.
Chem., 1918, 37, 253.

3 Givens, M. H., and McClugage, H. B., Am. J.
Bis. CHI, 1919, 18, 30.

4 Stefansson, V., J. A. M. A., 1918, 71, 1715.

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