A letter from Dr. Gleason

Henry A. Gleason, one of America’s first ecologists, writes about the beginnings of the science in the United States and how his concepts developed in the setting of Clements’ and Cowles’ ideas of vegetation and succession and how he came up with his individualistic concept of the plant association.     

The minute books of the Linnean Club, from 1811 to 1955

Sometime during the early spring of 1970 I was asked to write an account of our old minute books and was given a large box containing many books and sundry papers. All the old books were there and in good condition, except the first–1811 to 1815. So I wrote a report lamenting the absence of this book, but afterwards it turned up. It had never been lost, but being rather different from all the others it was not recognized. I now think this was rather fortunate, for the first book which is the most interesting, deserves ampler treatment. My report is kept strictly on the books, and only very occasionally have I drawn on information from the Society's records, or from the introduction to the list of the Club compiled by H. W. Monckton in 1922, using the Society's records.     

Occupational Dermatoses in Ontario, 1955 to 1962

In Ontario in 1962, with a compensationeligible labour force of 1,814,000, 10 out of each 1000 workers received compensation for some occupational dermatosis, as defined here; 36 out of each 1000 workers received compensation for some cause. Contact dermatitides made up 5042 of 7448 cases of occupational disease for which compensation and/or medical aid was paid in 1955 and 1956. In eight years, 1955 to 1962 (inclusive), of a total of 534,557 “compensation only” cases, 7023 received payment for contact dermatitis. The average yearly cost of compensation of a worker with a contact dermatitis was estimated at $1113; the annual total cost, at $900,000. The average cost of an occupational dermatosis was $368; the annual total cost, $10 million. Occupational dermatoses account for almost one-third of all compensation costs. The cost of “medical aid only” is excluded from all of these estimates. In contact dermatitis, primary irritants (chemicals) are still the main causative agents. Skin sensitizers, the epoxy resins particularly, have become more prominent in recent years. There is no all-purpose barrier cream or protective clothing. Proper personal hygiene remains the most effective preventive agent in industry.