Unutilized sea foods were shown in variety. A fillet of shark meat, by virtue of its glistening whiteness and delicate texture, invited more general use. The periwinkle and sea mussel were shown in several preparations, and seaweeds were presented in the form of salads or vegetable dishes.

Many wild or primitive foods were exhibited in attractive guises. The acorn, for example, for many years a favorite food of the Indians of California, was shown in the various stages of preparation. The Indians are accustomed to beat and stir the acorn meal in a large ves、

Studies of importance were also of war bread; stale bread re-baked made on the constitution of aqueous by a novel process, and an exhibit solutions of acids and on perchloric of Chinese foods. acid and its compounds. Roscoe did notable service to science by making more available for general use the work of Bunsen and Kirchhoff on spectroscopy, and by the publication of texts and manuals of chemistry in form suitable for students and laymen. Roscoe's career in research practically came to an end with his election to Parliament in 1886, although to his death he was a scientific and educational leader. Thorpe describes Roscoe as a man of uniformly charming personality, always happy, serene of mind and most affectionately regarded by students and friends. A man of great energy himself, he was a skill-sel of water, permitting the acrid ful teacher, with a rare capacity to get the best out of his students. As a speaker he was simple and direct. Roscoe came from a family of legal, literary and artistic merit. His father, a judge in Liverpool, wrote a Digest " which was, for many years, a standard treatise. His grandfather, a member of Parliament, made a definite contribution to literature by his "Lives of Lorenzo de Medici and Leo X." He also made studies on botanical subjects. On Roscoe's mother's side were forbears of literary and artistic ability.

66

tannin to dissolve, after which the
fluid is poured off, the meal dried
and reground. The resulting acorn
flour may be converted into a pala-
table and nutritious food. Toto-
potzl, a more primitive relative of
the modern flaked breakfast food,
was revealed in eight, different
shades, the colors being determined
by the character of the brightly
hued corn from which it was made.
Explorers in Mexico and South
America who have long been ac-
quainted with this food declare the
recipe to be well worth considera-
tion. An instructive exhibit was
the section devoted to corn (maize)
and corn products. The present
scarcity of wheat and other grains
has brought corn into deserved
Chemical analysis, as
prominence.
well as common experience, has
shown Indian corn to be a very
nutritious food, being rich in fats
and nitrogenous matter and excel-
ling all other cereals in albumi-
noids. Mixed with rye or whole
wheat flour, corn may be made into
excellent although coarse bread, va-
rieties of which are extensively used
on the European front. As a
breakfast cereal, corn meal is, of

course, well known.
By depriving
corn of its gluten, starch and corn
starch are secured. Maize con-
tains more culinary oil than any
other cereal, ranging from 3.5 to 9.5
per cent. in the commercial grain.
By distilling and by other processes,
this oil is extracted for commercial
purposes. Sugar, in considerable
quantity, is also to be found in corn,
both in the grain and in the stalks,
especially of the "fodder corn," or
corn sown so closely that the ears
remain undeveloped. The stalks as
a consequence are richer in sugar
which is extracted and appears on
the market in the form of sugar,
syrup, and glucose. A number of
other by-products of corn have com-
mercial value, among those dis-
played by the museum being a sub-
stitute for rubber.

The nutritive values of other familiar foods as sold in bulk by the grocer or as served in course by the popular-priced restaurant were graphically displayed. Many varieties of dried and canned fruits, vegetables, meats and grains and such dishes as ham and eggs, corn beef and cabbage, etc., were included. Among the articles receiving special commendation were the dried prune, and pie, which is rich in nutritive value. A variety of pastry known as "Napoleon," received the highest rating of any food displayed. Other exhibits pointed to the saving to be obtained by purchasing food in bulk rather than in packages and to other economical practices.

The Public Information Committee of the museum announces that the exhibit will be open to the public for several weeks. Members of the Museum's Department of Public Health are present daily to furnish information in addition to that obtainable from the exhibits or from the comprehensive handbook.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

for

WE record with regret the death of Sir Alexander R. Binnie, the English engineer; of two French pathologists, Dr. Felix Le Dantec, professor of tropical pathology, and Dr. Louis Landouzy, known his work on tuberculosis; of M. Joseph Riban, the French Chemist; of Dr. H. F. E. Jungersen, professor of zoology at Copenhagen, and of Dr. Juan D. Ambrosetti, director of the Ethnographic Museum at Buenos Aires.

MISS RUTH HOLDEN, recently Alice Freeman Palmer fellow in botany at Wellesley College, has died in Moscow, Russia, from typhoid fever, contracted during her work as a member of the Red Cross relief work for Polish refugees.

A STATUE of Berthelot, the great chemist, has been unveiled in the gardens of the Collège de France. He did much of his work in the laboratories of the college.

DR. ARTHUR DEAN BEVAN, of Chicago, was elected president of the American Medical Association at the meeting held in New York City in June.

DR. E. W. MORLEY has been awarded the Willard Gibbs medal by the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society. In honor of Dr. J. J. Stevenson, emeritus professor of geology in New York University, the faculty club house will be known as Stevenson Hall.

AN Anglo-French Scientific Commission which includes Professor Ernest Rutherford, of the University of Manchester, and Professor Henri Abraham, of the University of Paris, is at present in this country to cooperate with American men of science in the development and use of radio-telegraphy.

THE SCIENTIFIC

MONTHLY

AUGUST, 1917

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSEUMS AND
THEIR RELATION TO EDUCATION

M

By HARLAN I. SMITH

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, OTTAWA, CANADA

ANY of our people have been like the little girl, who on glancing around a museum said, "Mother, Why! this is a dead circus." They do not appreciate the real use and value of a museum. We do not wonder at it when we see the dusty, uninteresting, poorly arranged collections in many museums where there are few, if any, labels and the whole tends to disgust, in fact to exemplify disorder rather than to be pleasing, helpful or educational. People think these are fair samples of museums and so such museums tend to prevent our people from knowing how useful a museum may be and from wanting any museum.

Museums are warehouses of specimens. The specimens are stored, exhibited, or both stored and exhibited. The storing of specimens saves them for future students, and sometimes from total loss. The totem poles, for instance, may be burned or neglected by the Indians with change in their beliefs and mode of life, unless stored in museums. Some museums have phonographic archives containing large numbers of records of songs of various native tribes that are becoming extinct. No one has a moral right to horde in his home a specimen which is a key to knowledge that would be lost were thieves to break in his house or fire destroy it. Such specimens should be stored where they are available to all.

Museums are something more than warehouses, however. They are certainly, if slowly, evolving from warehouse collections of specimens used only by scientists, or of mere curios for the public gaze, to peerage with research institutions, schools, and libraries. Museums employ the methods of such institutions and they in turn all use museum methods. Museums

VOL. V.-7.