A series of experiments concerning the quarry industry is commencing at the Harvard School of Public Health under th esupervision of Professor Phillip Drinker.

The work is the result of a meeting of the National Research Council last spring, at which a report on a survey of the field of industrial medicine was made. The purpose of the report was to find the most pressing problem of the day concerning health in industry. It was discovered that the conditions in the granite cutting industry was in immediate need of attention. Accordingly a committee with Dr. D. L. Edsall, Dean of the Medical School, and Professor Drinker as heads formed.

The cause of the bad conditions according to the report of the survey is the great amount of dust created in cutting down the granite blocks. The workmen inhale the granite dust, and within a few years the quantity of this foreign material in the lungs is sufficient to cause a complication known as silicosis, which predisposes the afflicted individuals to tuberculosis.

Professor Drinker has had constructed in the basement of the School of Public Health building a model granite cutting shop, with all the typical cutting and surfacing machines. Various granite associations, much interested in the experiments, contributed must of the machines and are sending a granite cutter to work in the model shop under typical condition. As Professor Drinker's special field is ventilation, he expects to conduct most of his researches in this line, with the view of cleaning out the dust laden air in the shops before the workers have had time to breathe it.