Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-24
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION WORK
Nv Frederic J. Haskin

but rather the expansion of the white
race. He finds that there are now
more Europeans living outside OF
Europe than there were living in
Europe at the time Columbus discov-
cred America, and that two-thirds of
these live In the United States. He
further points out that the number of
Europeans by blood has quadrupled in
the past $50 years, while other racial
stocks which have not been vivified by
the touch of Europe have dwindled in
numbers and power. Ambassador
Bryce said years ago that Europe ends
at the Mississippi: DR.. Wilcox goes
further and says 1t will soon end at
the Golden Gate,
The divisions engaged in collecting
historical data concerning mining, So
GEOLOGY, agriculture and forestry, man
ufacturing. transportation, ETC., are
turning out some most interesting
work. The collection of data from the
archives of the national government,
from those of Spain, of England, of
Mexico and of other nations has added
a wealth of detail to the available his
torical matter, yet these Investigations
have just begun. This work has been
under the department of historical re-
search. It's next activity will be to
gather data from German sources.
The department of marine biology at
Dry Tortugas, Florida, Is making con-
siderable progress toward learning the
secrets of ocean life. Davenport Hook
|, er has discovered that newly Matched
loggerhead turtles are strongly attract
ed by the color blue. They will crawl
quickly toward piece of blue glass or
paper, but they have no preconceived
idea of the appearance of the ocean.
crawling away from the sea IL 1t Is
seen through glass of other color than
hlna pnnplnda1 that fhaU 70 nj
tracted to the ocean solely through the
color of its waters. Neither the sound
nor the smell of the ocean attracts
them. A great number of other investi-
cations have been carried on by this
department, most of them too techni-
cal for description here, but each inn
portant to the final success of the
whole work.
The Mount Wilson observatory, Cali
fornia, has a grant of $85,000 and is en-
gagged in a series of remarkable inves-
legations of the sun and its movements.
In addition to much other data which
has been gathered, the conclusion has
been reached that the sun spots contain
strong magnetic fields. and that by
spectrographic observations the areas
lengths and polarities of these fields
can be measured, thus permitting a
magnetic survey of the entire half of
the sun turned toward the earth.
1IcT6 has UeGu pIo35IcSS
reported by the nutrition laboratory.
With the cost of living soaring to the
skies, humanity win welcome an intro
duction to those things which will make
1t lower. For instance 1t takes beef to
the value of nearly dollar to yield az
much nutrition when made into beef
tea as is represented in three quarts of
milk, costing a quarter. 1t is. with
such problems that the nutrition labor
atory has to deal, and it may yet lead
to a HOUSEHOLD economy almost revolu-
tionary In its nature, teaching man the
true science of nutrition.
half century and more ago Hum
boldt was dreaming of time when a
general magnetic survey of the world
should be made. 1t was thought by
him that to make 1t complete the sur
vey should be repeated four times every
century, and that the progressive gov
ernments of the globe ought to make 1t
matter of international effort. But
his plan never succeeded until the Car
negie institution came along to take up
| the work. Carried on with the charac-
| teristic thoroughness of things done by
| the institution, this work promises to
be fruitful of many important results
to the world of navigation. Hereafter
| the ironless and steelless yacht Car
negie will sail the seas constantly in an
effort to complete the work mapped out
by Humboldt more than a generation
ago.
In addition to all its regular work the
institution continues to help independ-
ent investigators whose work promises
to promote the general purpose for
which the institution was founded.
Over thirty independent investigators
were added to its lists last year, in adj
dition to the number already at work.
Since the organization of the institu-
ton in 1902 about thousand individu-
ais have been engaged in work under
its auspices, and there are some 500 peo-
pie now so engaged. Ten different de-
partments, each with a full staff, are
now completely organized. Six 1abora-
tories, for as many different fields of
| investigation, situated in widely sep
arated localities. have been constructed
and equipped. Work has been UNDER
| taken in almost every branch of human
research, from archaeology and astron-
omy to thermodynamics and zoology.
and the geographical range of the work
has covered thirty countries.
More than $50 volumes of collected
data, covering we'll on to 10000 printed
pages, have been published or are in
press. In addition to this there were
about thousand short papers pub
| lished dealing with some phase OF. 9TH
err of the work. During the present ifs
cal year the institution is working UNI
der an appropriation of $635,000. Spread
ing It's activities over practically the
whole world the Carnegie institution is
doing a work the full scope and posi-
bility of which cannot be calculated by
the present generation.
Copyright. 1909, by Frederic j. Haskin.)
| MISUNDERSTANDING Indian lands