First Attempt to Teach Conservation of All Natural
Resources of a State.--A forward step in the vital matter of conserving our natural resources has been taken in the preparation of an educational handbook of the resources of Pennsylvania. This book, prepared for use in the Pennsylvania schools to carry out the Smithsonian Institution's purpose of the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," presents in novel and striking ways the present situation, causes of waste and how to stop it, and future problems in connection with the conservation of resources. The book will be placed in practically every school in Pennsylvania, and by including the resource material in the geography course, it will be possible to instill into the minds of the school children, the citizens of to-morrow, the necessity of understanding and conserving the resources provided by Nature. While the present handbook is limited to the State of Pennsylvania, there is a nation-wide lesson in it, and such material brought together and placed in the schools of every State would be of immeasurable benefit to the present and future economic condition of the country.
Pennsylvania's primary resource is coal. In this one State is produced 3I per cent. of the country's bituminous and all of the anthracite coal. The chief sources of waste are: Beehive coke-ovens, steam locomotives, which utilize only about 4 per cent. of the energy in coal; heating homes, in which the ordinary coal furnace delivers only about 2 5 per cent. of the heat energy and unburned coal is dumped into the ash cans. In zoo tests recently made, the average ash can was found to contain 5o per cent. of coal.
In connection with the fullest development of the State's resources there is described the superpower system as proposed by the U. S. Geological Survey. Briefly this system contemplates the standardization of the electrical characteristics of all existing and future electric power plants and transmission lines (in the superpower zone, between Boston and Washington) so as to permit of their interconnection with each other, and so that they will all feed into one huge system of transmission. The great benefits to be derived from this system would appear in the much greater amount of power made available and in a saving of fifty million tons of coal annually.
H.L. Chemistry as an Aid in the Detection of Crime.--The first treatise on toxicology or the science of poisons was written by Orfila and was punished during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Since that time, various chemical methods have been devised, and then utilized for the detection of crime. These methods are reviewed by HENRY LEFFMANN (AnL lout. Pharmacy, I922, xciv, 691-699 ).
The precipitin test is specific for the blood of man and certain manlike apes. Crystallographic methods serve for the identification of various compounds. Special procedures are used to detect the adulteration of foods and beverages. Physical and chemical tests reveal alterations in, and forgeries of, documents.